Coming just after the announcement of Parafin closing, Marlborough has announced its closing as well -The Board of Trustees of Marlborough Gallery, the enterprise that helped define the international landscape of post-war art by establishing itself on two continents and showcasing dozens of the contemporary era’s most influential artists, today announced that it is bringing the institution’s 78-year history to its culmination, winding down operations at the galleries in New York City, London, Madrid, and Barcelona.
As of early June 2024, Marlborough will no longer present exhibitions or represent artists and estates in the primary art market. The Marlborough inventory, assembled over decades by the gallery’s leaders through personal relationships nurtured with dozens of major artists, will be dispersed over the coming months and years. A portion of the proceeds from these sales will be donated to not-for-profit cultural institutions that support contemporary artists.
Franz Plutschow, a member of the Board of Trustees and a close, long-time associate of the gallery’s founders, said,
“After long and careful consideration, we made the decision that now is the time to sunset our nearly 80-year-old firm. We are profoundly grateful to all the artists who have been at the heart of Marlborough Gallery and integral to its storied legacy. We are indebted to our expert and dedicated employees, including those who will continue to work with us as we now wind down the business. As we do so, we are mindful that the extraordinary breadth and depth of our inventory testifies to the relationships formed over the decades with some of the most important artists of the modern era.”
Marlborough was founded in London in 1946 by Frank Lloyd, a Jewish immigrant who had fled his native Austria in 1938 and served in the British Army during the war, in partnership with Harry Fischer, an expatriate Austrian rare books dealer whom Lloyd had met in the military. They were joined by David Somerset, who later became Duke of Beaufort. At first, Marlborough dealt in French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and modern works but under Lloyd’s leadership soon moved decisively into representing contemporary artists. Lloyd developed lasting relationships with many of the U.K.’s most important post-war artists, including Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, Lucian Freud, Ben Nicholson, Frank Auerbach, R.B. Kitaj, Barbara Hepworth, Eduardo Paolozzi, Paula Rego, and Graham Sutherland. Marlborough London also presented groundbreaking exhibitions in the 1950s and early 60s of German Expressionism and represented European artists including Oskar Kokoschka, Jacques Lipchitz, and Kurt Schwitters.
In 1963, Marlborough expanded by opening a gallery in New York City, becoming a trailblazer of the international gallery model that dominates the art world today. Marlborough New York became known immediately for its representation of the Abstract Expressionists, showing the works of Richard Diebenkorn, Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, David Smith, Clyfford Still, and more, and representing estates including those of William Baziotes, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Ad Reinhardt.
In the coming years, Marlborough would continue to lead the market, representing artists including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Richard Avedon, Alice Aycock, Claudio Bravo, Arnaldo Pomodoro, and Rufino Tamayo. International expansion also continued. In the 1970s, an era when the sun never set on the gallery, Marlborough maintained spaces in Rome, Zurich, Toronto, Montreal, and Tokyo. In the 1980s, Marlborough established its current gallery in Madrid, later extended to Barcelona in 2014, and became a prominent representative of Spanish and South American artists, including Fernando Botero, Antonio Lopez-Garcia, Juan Genovés, Manolo Valdés, and many more. A gallery was also established in Monaco in 2000. Through Marlborough Graphics, specializing in prints and photography, the gallery played a pioneering role in serving a wider market of discerning art lovers who were seeking to collect at a more affordable level.
In addition to selling the thousands of artworks in the Marlborough inventory, ranging from outstanding works on paper and photographs to major canvases by more than 50 artists, the gallery will sell its premises in prime locations in the United States, United Kingdom, and Spain.
Additional information about the winding down of the galleries, the disposition of the inventory, and the philanthropic program will be announced in the coming months.
