Paul’s Gallery of the Week: Grosvenor Gallery

Grosvenor Gallery, 35 Bury Street, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6AY
www.grosvenorgallery.com  Instagram: @grosvenorgallery

Historically Grosvenor Gallery – which deals principally in South Asian art – is connected to the Estorick Collection – which concentrates on Italy. How so? It was founded in 1960 by the American sociologist and writer Eric Estorick (1913-1993). By then he and his wife, Sarah Dessau, had already developed the major collection of Italian art that forms the basis for the collection on show in Islington (see my ‘Gallery of the Week’ for 1 Feb 2023). Grosvenor Gallery was a significant exhibitor of the major European artists during Estorick’s lifetime, including those from the Eastern bloc. Only in 2006 did it collaborate with Vadehra Art Gallery in New Delhi, initially under the name Grosvenor Vadehra, to promote international art in India and Indian art in the UK.

The gallery is now owned by Conor Macklin and Charles Moore, though visitors are more likely to encounter another partner – Kajoli Khanna – or the gallery manager, Sanaya Havaldar. The artists they are most likely to find shown are Francis Newton Souza and Rashid Araeen: moreover, foot-weary visitors can sit on one of the latter’s constructions. Other artists I like are Bhupen Khakhar, Wardha Shabbir and Mohammad Ali Talpur.  Yet the Asian emphasis is neither narrow nor absolute: David Hockney’s ceramic cats were exhibited last year. Olivia Fraser, a Briton living in India, has shown frequently, and the current exhibition is of London-based Zarah Hussein – both make – in very different ways – innovative use of Islamic-influenced patterning. 

London’s gallery scene is varied, from small artist-run spaces to major institutions and everything in between. Each week, art writer and curator Paul Carey-Kent gives a personal view of a space worth visiting.

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