Gallery Zwemmer

Established by Anton Zwemmer (1892–1979), the Zwemmer Gallery was as an extension of the dealer’s bookstore and publishing business based in London. When the gallery first opened in 1929 at 26 Litchfield Street, it was one of a handful of venues in London that promoted the international avant-garde. As such, it quickly gained a following among artists, collectors, and scholars who were interested in modern art.

Born in Holland, Zwemmer was a book dealer, publisher, art dealer, and collector. He moved to London in 1914, where he remained for the rest of his life. Around 1922 he purchased a bookstore on Charing Cross Road from his employer, Richard Jäschke, and modified its profile to specialize in art and modern literature. One of the few London locations where art publications were available, the bookstore became an important meeting place for the city’s avant-garde circles. It also acted as the British distributor of many foreign mainstream, avant-garde, and academic art publications, including Cahiers d’art, Minotaure (and its successor Labyrinthe), Verve, XXe siècle, and Burlington Magazine. Beginning in 1925, Zwemmer began publishing original titles on art and architecture, including artists’ books and the award-wining series Studies in Architecture. He also co-published works in collaboration with European and American partners, among them the Swiss publisher Albert Skira, Paris-based Tériade (Stratis Eleftheriades), Gualtiero di San Lazarro (Editions des Chroniques du Jour), German publishing house Ernst Wasmuth, and American publisher Erhard Wehye.

The gallery was initially intended as a display area for high-quality color art reproductions that were sold in the bookshop; however, that purpose was soon abandoned when Zwemmer began showing original work by British and international artists. Not associated with any particular movement or artistic trend, the dealer promoted a wide spectrum of modernist art, including work by Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, and Pablo Picasso.

Exhibitions of work by Picasso were held in 1936 and 1937. The first featured 57 paintings and works on paper covering the artist’s entire oeuvre, including examples of Analytic and Synthetic Cubism, and the second paired Picasso’s work with that of Georgio de Chirico. The gallery also staged several Surrealist exhibitions, including one for Joan Miró and the first one-man show for Salvador Dali in Great Britain.

Zwemmer also exhibited and sold Cubist works by Juan Gris—including The Sunblind (1914; Tate Modern, London) and Cup, Glasses, and Bottle (Le Journal) (1914; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection)—Fernand Léger, and Picasso, some of which came from prominent collectors such as René Gaffé and Dr. Heinrich Gottlieb Reber.

In the 1940s, Zwemmer made joint purchases with other London dealers, namely Lefevre Gallery and Marlborough Fine Arts. Zwemmer’s clients included many prominent British and American modern art collectors, among them Kenneth Clark, Douglas Cooper, Albert Gallatin, Roland Penrose, Sir Michael Sadler, and Peter Watson. The gallery closed for the duration of World War II, and when it reopened in 1947, its focus shifted from the international avant-garde to emerging British artists, among them Alistair Grant and Peter Coker. During that time, Zwemmer’s sons, John and Desmond, joined their father in running the family business, which was rebranded A. Zwemmer Ltd. in 1949. Beginning in the 1960s, the company partnered with Oxford University Press and Lund Humphries Publishing. Zwemmer’s gallery closed its doors in 1968. In September 1983 the publishing company moved to 24 Litchfield Street, and two years later the firm was sold to the publisher Philip Wilson (Philip Wilson Publishers Limited).