British Art Fair | By Gay Hutson

This piece originally appeared as a guest article in the Society of London Art Dealers newsletter.

I am honoured to share my memories of 40 years running art fairs, much the longest being the British Art Fair which started in 1988. There were three directors including me, and a great Advisory Committee chaired by Jeremy Maas. The fair’s strength was Victorian and early 20th century; it was an instant success and soon had a long waiting list. One group, headed by Willie Desmond, wanted the fair to move more into the 20th century so a second fair -The 20th Century British Art Fair was born - with the same three directors but with a different committee. In those days, most of the exhibitors had galleries in the West End and insisted that the fair had to be held centrally, so it was staged at the Cumberland Hotel in Marble Arch.

The fair was founded on the premise that Modern British art (apart from Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Ben Nicholson) was undervalued and needed a flagship. We had the support of around fifty dealers, including Austin/Desmond, Patrick Bourne, Jonathan Clark, Messums, Duncan Miller, Stephen Paisnel, Whitford Fine Art.It went well with particular interest in the Scottish Colourists. My abiding memory of the Cumberland was that the basement exhibition space was below the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Oxford Street and one morning oil seeped through the ceiling onto Whitford Fine Art’s stand!

Once established, in 1991 the fair moved to the Royal College of Art, recognised as the spiritual home of British art boasting a whole host of internationally recognised alumni including Henry Moore, David Hockney, Barbara Hepworth, John Piper, Peter Blake, Frank Auerbach, Patrick Caulfield, and Tracey Emin being among the more famous.

In those days, it was tough: in the recession of the early 90’s with interest rates at 17%, the fair struggled and in 1993 there were only twenty-five dealers. There was also a change in the structure of the fair, Heather McConnell one of the original directors died, and the other, Ivan Winstone left the art world so Bunny (Angela) Wynn, the organising secretary, became my business partner. 

Bunny and Gay beside a montage on the fair’s 21st anniversary which showed all the openers 

With the help of Peter Nahum, we relaunched the fair and by the mid 90’s things were looking up, but few could have foreseen the meteoric rise of interest in art, and we rose with it. This was fuelled by the advent of the YBA movement and the success of Tate Modern. As a result, modern and contemporary art attracted a far broader audience. One of our most successful fairs was ironically a week after the Lehman’s default in September 2008. That year 5 pictures over £100,000 were sold and a large work by Terry Frost sold for around £500,000. In 2018 this figure was matched by a sale of a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. 

OPENERS

Each year the fair was opened by a ‘friend of British art.’ Memorable ones include George Melly, Jerry Hall, Sir Nicholas Serota, Janet Street-Porter, Desmond Morris, Michael Parkinson, Jilly Cooper, Jon Snow, Jeremy Paxman (a favourite of Bunny and me who came back on successive years) and A.N. Wilson. We never paid a fee but always gave a gift. 

THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

In 2000 the fair changed its name to 20/21 British Art Fair. When plans were announced to revamp the Royal College, we moved to the Commonwealth Institute in 2003 and 2004, and when that was put up for sale, we moved back to the Royal College. Whilst being a great venue, it was not without problems. Fire alarms were a challenge, usually set off by some brilliant young engineering student so we had to evacuate the building, once at the very point of opening which did not amuse Lord Snowdon who was Provost at the time.

In 2016 there was a bombshell when we were told that the exhibition galleries at the College would no longer be available. As everyone knows, there is a shortage of suitable venues in central London so there was no fair that year but in 2017 we decided to go to the Mall Galleries where we managed to squeeze in 40 dealers, and it turned out well. After that we were approached by Johnny and Robert Sandelson whose parents had exhibited at our first few fairs. As Bunny’s husband was in poor health and she was over 80, we decided to sell. The two brothers changed the name to British Art Fair and took it to Saatchi Gallery where it looked superb. Following Covid Will Ramsay of Affordable Art Fair fame bought it and there have been three stagings under his ownership with me as Fair Director. It is, without doubt, in very safe hands. As we go further into the 21st century, the fair is also moving forward with new initiatives each year.

FINALLY

Bunny and I were always aware that showing at a fair is a big investment for dealers, so we did our best to make everything as smooth and enjoyable as possible. One of the unique characteristics of the British Art Fair has been the way in which it mixes larger market leaders with smaller aspiring galleries – all exploring the rich seam of neglected talent alongside better known artists. Over the years, the fair has help raise the profile of Modern British art and it has consistently enjoyed the support of leading dealers in this field many of whom are members of SLAD with whom we have always had a close relationship