Four Decades with the Mercury Gallery
Lyon & Turnbull are pleased to present an exhibition of works in London and Glasgow by the respected and beloved Scottish artist Dame Elizabeth Blackadder (1931-2021).
These works originate from the collection of Gillian Raffles – the pioneering female gallerist who established the Mercury Gallery – one of London’s most significant and enduring gallery spaces of the 20th century. The Mercury Gallery championed emerging and overlooked figurative artists, helping to establish the art world positions of figures including Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Alfred Wallis.
Elizabeth Blackadder was to be Raffles’ most enduring professional relationship with Mercury Gallery holding as many as 14 solo shows of the artist’s work, approximately every two years from 1965 through to 1998.
Though a stalwart of the Edinburgh art scene, Lyon & Turnbull are delighted to return Blackadder’s work to the walls of a London gallery space once more. Some of the works shown will be available for sale across forthcoming auctions in our calendar. The exhibition will represent all aspects of her long career, from early still lives through to the sensitive botanic watercolours for which she is best known, as well as examples of her masterful printmaking.
It will also represent the work of her husband John Houston, a successful and much-loved artist in his own right, and will explore the impact travel had on their work, most notably their passion for Japan.
No appointment is required.
Illustrated: DAME ELIZABETH BLACKADDER O.B.E., R.A., R.S.A., R.S.W., R.G.I., D.Litt (SCOTTISH 1931-2021) | CATS ON SHORELINE, 1990
