{"id":42,"date":"2015-05-13T13:54:03","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T12:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heals.uat.redboxcloud.com\/blog\/?p=42"},"modified":"2022-02-11T17:12:07","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T17:12:07","slug":"the-mansard-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heals.com\/blog\/the-mansard-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mansard Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"London<\/a><\/p>\n

Ambrose Heal had a keen interest in fine art and his involvement with painting and drawing paralleled his development as a designer, manufacturer and retailer. That\u2019s why it’s hardly surprising, given his interest in the relationship between art, design and commerce, he should set up a gallery at Heal’s to show the most innovative art of the period.<\/p>\n

Design Industries Association<\/em><\/p>\n

A good friend of Ambrose Heal, Frank Pick (1878-1941) was not only the managing director of the London Underground during the 1920s but also a passionate advocate of design. In 1915, he and Ambrose decided to found the Design and Industries Association (DIA), of which they were active members, to promote links between designers, manufacturers and retailers.<\/p>\n

Taking this commitment further, in 1917 Ambrose opened the Mansard Gallery within Heal\u2019s Tottenham Court Road store<\/span><\/a> with Pick providing Underground poster artwork for the first exhibition \u2018Poster Pictures\u2019. Many of those same graphic artists whose work was featured were commissioned to design posters for Heal\u2019s newest space, including Pick’s star designer Edward McKnight Kauffer who produced artwork for each of the London Group\u2019s shows (one of the oldest artist led organisations in the world).<\/p>\n

\"Mansard<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bloomsbury Set<\/em><\/p>\n

The fourth floor gallery was a well-known spot frequented by Bloomsbury group luminaries such as Virginia Woolf and Wyndham Lewis. Such was his connection to the Mansard that in 1920 Lewis used the venue to host his \u2018Group X\u2019 show, bringing together a number painters and sculptors from the British Vorticist movement.<\/p>\n

Celebrated figures such as Claud Lovat Fraser, who played an important role in graphic design and theatre set design in the early 20th century, also held exhibitions of their work at the Mansard Gallery and designed the company’s seminal posters, while its catalogues contained essays by influential art critics.<\/p>\n

\"Mandsard<\/a><\/p>\n

Exhibition of French Art<\/em><\/p>\n

The gallery’s most influential event took place in 1919, when noted critic and poet Sacheverell Sitwell organised the Exhibition of Modern French Art. This ground-breaking show, which introduced Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Amedeo Modigliani to the British public, was widely praised by modernist critics such as Roger Fry who, upon seeing the show, commented \u2018what innumerable different visions, one can enjoy in this gallery!\u2019<\/p>\n

Others were less impressed by the new style of painting on show, with one reviewer for the Times describing the works as ‘ghastly’.\u00a0Literary giant Evelyn Waugh was also not enamoured by Heal\u2019s penchant for daring modern forms, later referring to such pieces in his 1939 short story Work Suspended<\/em> as \u2018those vague assemblages of picnic litter which used to cover the walls of the Mansard Gallery in the early twenties\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"exhibition<\/a><\/p>\n

Modern Tendencies<\/em><\/p>\n

As the decade progressed, the Mansard Gallery increasingly served to showcase the latest developments in interior design with some of the new styles of furniture proving more controversial than the artworks. From 1928, the \u2018Modern Tendencies\u2019 series of exhibitions continued to shock commentators by bringing tubular style furniture<\/a> <\/span>to the high-street and thus introducing Britain\u2019s homeowners to the \u2018moderne\u2019 and Art Deco styles that were sweeping across the continent.<\/p>\n

Unlike the art shows, these events tended to consist of fully-formed rooms in which the furnishings were carefully arranged to demonstrate how they could be laid out in the home. Complete with displays from the renowned florist Constance Spry, this novel approach to display was in no small part thanks to Heal\u2019s resident interior designer, and mistress of Ambrose Heal, Prudence Maufe who later became head of the Mansard Gallery.<\/p>\n

\"Modern<\/a><\/p>\n

Hosting shows by notable British artists<\/em><\/p>\n

Interspersed with exhibitions of contemporary furniture, fabrics and industrial design \u2013 the Mansard Gallery played a valuable role in creating the cultural landscape we enjoy today.<\/p>\n

Heal\u2019s are officially reopening the doors to the historic Mansard Gallery on Tuesday 15th February. The exhibition space will see a series of artists take residencies within Heal\u2019s flagship Tottenham Court Road store on the 1st floor, offering a commercial platform for both established and emerging designers to sell their works to the public. For more information, please visit https:\/\/www.heals.com\/collections\/the-mansard-gallery.html<\/a><\/p>\n


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