Thesis: The Spectacular Advance of Marlborough Fine Art: The Invention of the Modern Art Market in Post-War Mayfair and Manhattan, 1946-1971
Supervisor: Professor Sarah Wilson
Advisor: Dr Tom Stammers
Following its closure in 2024, this research focuses on the first detailed, nuanced and contextual history of the meteoric rise of Marlborough Fine Art, set in post-war London and New York. The gallery was founded in Old Bond Street in 1946 by Austrian Jewish émigrés Frank LLoyd and Harry Fischer, joined in 1950 by British aristocrat David Somerset, the heir to the Duk of Beaufort. The art dealer behind many of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, the gallery represented both the ‘School of London’ – Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud – and New York City’s Abstract Expressionists – Philip Guston, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. At the start of the 1970’s, the ‘Rothko scandal’ in New York severely damaged its reputation, stalled its ascendancy and eclipsed its former achievements. This approach re-evaluates the legacy of the Marlborough as the blueprint for the current mega-galleries, before its triumphs were obscured by the revelations from the court proceedings in New York. The research examines how the gallery achieved such unprecedented commercial success with its ground-breaking introduction of a global corporate business model to art dealing. It includes privileged and exclusive access to the Marlborough Archive, much of it not previously seen by art historians, and illustrations from the time, many of which have not been published before.
Education
2024-present: PhD researcher, Courtauld Institute of Art
2022-2023: MA History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art – Special Option: Collecting and Curating the Modern: European Art 1863-1930
1994-1995: Diploma in Law, The College of Law, London
1993-1994: Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, The College of Law, London
1990-1993: BA Hons, History, University College London
