Gimpel Fils is a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

art gallery previously located at 30 Davies Street in

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

just off

Grosvenor Square Grosvenor Square ( ) is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of Westminster, Greater London. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from the duke's surname "Grosvenor". It was deve ...

and has since moved. The gallery was founded by Charles and Peter Gimpel, sons of the celebrated Parisian art dealer,

René Gimpel René Albert Gimpel (4 October 1881–3 January 1945) was a French art dealer of Alsatian Jewish descent who died in 1945 in Neuengamme concentration camp, near Hamburg, Germany. Art dealer and collector Friend and patron of living artists ...

, author of the '' Diary of an Art Dealer''.Gimpel Fils: About
Gimpel Fils. Retrieved 2016-2-25.Kostyrko, Diana J., 'René Gimpel's ''Diary of an Art Dealer'' ', ''The Burlington Magazine'', Sept. 2015, no. 1350, vol. 157, pp. 615-619. Throughout its history it has maintained a commitment to contemporary British and International art."Artslant: Gimpel Fils"
, Artslant.com. Retrieved 2012-10-17.

History

Gimpel Fils was founded in November 1946. The first exhibition, ''Five Centuries of French Painting'', was based on the small part of René Gimpel's collection that had been sent to London before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The bulk of his stock was lost in Paris."Obituary: Peter Gimpel"

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

, 18 June 2005. Retrieved 2010-10-17. During the 1950s and 60s Gimpel Fils was highly influential in its association with the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

. It supported modern British artists, including those of the

St Ives School The St Ives School refers to a group of artists living and working in the Cornish town of St Ives.School of Paris The School of Paris (, ) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance of Paris as a centre o ...

. Gimpel Fils represented many of the major artists of the time, including

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadin ...

and

Ben Nicholson Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscapes, and still-life. He was one of the leading promoters of abstract art in England. Backg ...

. Nicholson moved to Gimpel Fils from the

Lefevre Gallery The Lefevre Gallery (or The Lefevre Galleries) was an art gallery in London, England, operated by Alex. Reid & Lefevre Ltd. The gallery was opened at 1a, King Street, St James's, in 1926, when rival art dealers Alexander Reid and Ernest Lefe ...

and stayed until the early 1960s. In supporting the next generation of artists emerging in this period it gave first exhibitions to

Lynn Chadwick Lynn Russell Chadwick, (24 November 1914 – 25 April 2003) was an English sculptor and artist. Much of his work is semi-abstract sculpture in bronze or steel. His work is in the collections of MoMA in New York, the Tate in London and th ...

Anthony Caro Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' and industrial objects. He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with ...

, Hubert Dalwood,

Peter Lanyon George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a British painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the ag ...

and

Alan Davie James Alan Davie (28 September 1920 – 5 April 2014) was a Scottish painter and musician. Biography Davie was born in Grangemouth, Scotland in 1920, the son of Elizabeth (née Turnbull) and James William Davie, an art teacher and painter who ...

, while also being associated with a number of other British artists, including

Louis le Brocquy __NOTOC__ Louis le Brocquy '' HRHA'' (; 10 November 1916 – 25 April 2012) was an Irish painter born in Dublin to Albert and Sybil le Brocquy. Louis' sister is the sculptor Melanie Le Brocquy. His work received many accolades in a caree ...

Ivon Hitchens Ivon Hitchens (born London, 3 March 1893 – 29 August 1979) was an English painter who started exhibiting during the 1920s. He became part of the 'London Group' of artists and exhibited with them during the 1930s. His house was bombed in 1940 d ...

Gillian Ayres Gillian Ayres (3 February 1930 – 11 April 2018) was an English painter. She is best known for abstract painting and printmaking using vibrant colours, which earned her a Turner Prize nomination. Early life and education Gillian Ayres was bo ...

Bernard Meadows Bernard Meadows (19 February 1915 – 12 January 2005) was a British modernist sculptor. Meadows was Henry Moore's first assistant; then part of the Geometry of Fear school, a loose-knit group of British sculptors whose prominence was establis ...

Kenneth Armitage William Kenneth Armitage (18 July 1916 – 22 January 2002) was a British sculptor known for his semi-abstract bronzes. Life Armitage was born in Leeds on July 18, 1916, the youngest of three children studied at the Leeds College of Art and t ...

and Robert Adams. From France Gimpel Fils represented the likes of

Marie Laurencin Marie Laurencin (31 October 1883 – 8 June 1956) was a French painter and printmaker. She became an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde as a member of the Cubists associated with the Section d'Or. Biography Laurencin was born in Par ...

Pierre Soulages Pierre Jean Louis Germain Soulages (; ; 24 December 1919 – 25 October 2022) was a French painter, printmaker, and sculptor. In 2014, President François Hollande of France described him as "the world's greatest living artist." His works are he ...

Nicolas de Staël Nicolas de Staël (; January 5, 1914 – March 16, 1955) was a French painter of Russian origin known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly abstract landscape painting. He also worked with collage, illustration and textiles. Early li ...

Serge Poliakoff Serge Poliakoff (January 8, 1900 – October 12, 1969) was a Russian-born French modernist painter belonging to the 'New' École de Paris ( Tachisme). Biography Serge Poliakoff was born in Moscow in 1900, the thirteenth of fourteen children. H ...

Fahrelnissa Zeid Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid (, ''Fakhr un-nisa'' or ''Fahr-El-Nissa'', born Fahrünissa Şakir (Kabaağaçlı); 6 December 1901 – 5 September 1991) was a Turkish artist best known for her large-scale abstract paintings with kaleidoscopic patterns ...

, and

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein wa ...

, as well as working with American artists such as

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

Alexander Calder Alexander "Sandy" Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobile (sculpture), mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, hi ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

Sam Francis Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Early life Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California,

and

Larry Rivers Larry Rivers (born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg; August 17, 1923 – August 14, 2002) was an American painter, musician, filmmaker, and occasional actor. Considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art, he was on ...

, who had his first London exhibition at the gallery in 1962.Obituary: Peter Gimpel,

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

, 2 July 2005
Link to InfoTrac National Newspapers Database (requires login).
Retrieved 2012-10-17. An obituary of Peter Gimpel in

newspaper suggested that: "Despite the rise of Marlborough Fine Art and stiff competition from the likes of the Redfern, Waddington and Hanover galleries, Gimpel Fils was for a time unrivaled in the range and quality of its artists." The gallery continues to promote the work of that generation of artists, supporting the work of senior British painters such as

and

Albert Irvin Albert Henry Thomas Irvin (21 August 1922 – 26 March 2015) was an English expressionist abstract artist. Life and career Irvin was born in Bermondsey, London on 21 August 1922. He was evacuated from there during World War II, to study at t ...

, while also presenting retrospectives of 20th-century modern art. The contemporary programme has widened the range of work shown by the gallery and has developed to include artists such as

Corinne Day Corinne Day (19 February 1962 – 27 August 2010) was a British fashion photographer, Documentary photography, documentary photographer and fashion model. Early life Corinne Day grew up in Ickenham with her younger brother and her grandparents ...

Andres Serrano Andres Serrano (born August 15, 1950) is an American photographer and artist. His work, often considered transgressive art, includes photos of corpses and uses feces and bodily fluids. His '' Piss Christ'' (1987) is an amber-tinged photograph of ...

, Callum Morton and

Hannah Maybank Hannah Maybank (born in Stafford 1974) is a British artist best known for the ripped and distressed surfaces of her three-dimensional paintings in acrylic. She graduated from an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London, in 1999, foll ...

. Gimpel Fils was initially based, briefly, at 86 Duke Street, London, before moving to 50

South Molton Street South Molton Street is a street in Mayfair, London, that runs from Oxford Street to Brook Street. Bond Street tube station, Bond Street Underground station is at the north end of the street. The street was built in the mid-18th century as part ...

, where the artist Louis Le Brocquy laid a mosaic in the entrance. It relocated to its present premises at 30 Davies Street in 1972. The gallery was refurbished in 2000. The refurbishment was inaugurated with an installation by Richard Wilson. The Gimpel family retained a strong interest in the running of the gallery. The current co-director is René Gimpel, son of Charles and a fourth generation of the Gimpel family to become an art dealer.

References

External links

Gimpel Fils website
* ttp://www.sorchadallas.com/exhibitions/721 ''Alex Frost: 60th Anniversary Show, Gimpel Fils, London,'' 28 July – 2 September 2006 {{Coord, 51.5117, -0.1477, type:landmark_region:GB-WSM, display=title 1946 establishments in England Art galleries in London Buildings and structures in the City of Westminster Contemporary art galleries in London Art museums and galleries established in 1946 Tourist attractions in the City of Westminster