Cosmopolis: The Impact of Refugee Art Dealers in London

About

Following the rise of Nazism and chaos of global warfare in the 1930s–40s, over 50 art dealers, largely but not exclusively Jewish, were driven out of Continental Europe to seek refuge in Britain. Settling in London, they fostered new ties within the existing British art world and joined an ever-growing artistic émigré network. Founding galleries that welcomed international art trends, their presence had a transformative effect on the insular British art scene of the 1930s. Over three decades they played a major, but still under acknowledged, role in transforming London into a world art capital to rival New York and Paris. This was celebrated in 1964 in an exhibition at the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester called Cosmopolis: The School of London, that claimed London as the heir to interwar Paris on the basis of an art world made diverse and vibrant by immigration, and which inspired the present exhibition’s title.