Godfrey Pilkington (8 November 1918 – 8 July 2007) was a British
art dealer
An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art.
An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationsh ...
, director and co-founder of the
Piccadilly Gallery
The Piccadilly Gallery was a London-based art gallery that operated from 1953 until 2007.
The gallery was founded in 1953 as the Pilkington Gallery by art dealer Godfrey Pilkington and his wife, Eve. Christabel Briggs joined as a partner in 19 ...
.
Pilkington is remembered for his work at the Piccadilly Gallery and in the community of St. Helen's from where his family operated
Pilkington Glass
Pilkington is a glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, England. It includes several legal entities in the UK, and is a subsidiary of Japanese company Nippon Sheet Glass (NSG). It was formerly an independent company ...
from 1826 to 2006. Together with his wife Eve and Christabel Briggs, Pilkington enjoyed over half a century of trade with the Piccadilly, avoiding the prevailing commercialism and the fashion for abstract art. He championed the works of neglected figurative artists, Art Nouveau and 19th- and 20th-century Symbolism.
In December 2006 the Rainford Gallery in
St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens () is a town in Merseyside, England, with a population of 117,308. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens which had a population of 183,200 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 Census.
The town i ...
was renamed the Godfrey Pilkington art gallery after the gallerist.
Pilkington and his wife closed the Piccadilly Gallery on Dover Street on 31 May 2007.
References
1918 births
2007 deaths
Art dealers from London
People from St Helens, Merseyside
20th-century English businesspeople
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