{"id":290486,"date":"2025-10-09T23:37:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/290486\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T23:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:37:18","slug":"james-mayors-gallery-is-100-years-old-and-its-still-changing-the-mold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/290486\/","title":{"rendered":"James Mayor\u2019s Gallery Is 100 Years Old\u2014and It\u2019s Still Changing the Mold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art Market<\/p>\n

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Exterior view of The Mayor Gallery, London, 1973. Photo by Lee Miller. Courtesy of The Mayor Gallery and Lee Miller Archives.<\/p>\n

In 1973, James Mayor mounted a presentation of Andy Warhol<\/a>\u2019s infamous \u201cMao<\/a>\u201d works in the U.K. for the first time. The Pop art<\/a> legend was still gaining wide recognition across the pond, and \u201cthe English weren\u2019t quite into it,\u201d according to the gallerist. It was Mayor\u2019s first exhibition at the helm of his father\u2019s gallery, and this prescience would come to define his trailblazing career. In 2015, an auction record for a \u201cMao\u201d portrait was set for $47.5 million. <\/p>\n

This year, The Mayor Gallery<\/a>, founded by James\u2019s father, Fred, commemorates its centenary, a milestone that very few commercial galleries have reached. Artists like Paul Klee<\/a> and Alexander Calder<\/a> had their U.K. debuts at the gallery, and it was a major player in showing some of the biggest art movements of the 20th century, from Abstract Expressionism<\/a> to Pop art, Group Zero<\/a>, and Conceptual art<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Portrait of Fred Mayor with his dogs Munch and Silky, 1932. Courtesy of The Mayor Gallery. <\/p>\n

Portrait of James Mayor, 1974. Courtesy of The Mayor Gallery. <\/p>\n

A dealer who\u2019s never lost his taste for discovery, Mayor is currently mounting a show<\/a> of works by the late Slovakian Conceptualist J\u00falius Koller<\/a>. Populated by pieces from across the artist\u2019s subversive and variegated career, which draws on Fluxus<\/a> and Nouveau R\u00e9alisme<\/a>, the show is humorous, political, and a touch obscure. In other words, it\u2019s of The Mayor Gallery itself: a place where discovery, passion, and open-mindedness are defining features. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have a Catholic taste: I only show what I believe in,\u201d Mayor quipped. And he thinks what he believes in can change how people see the world. \u201cIf, by the time I die, I\u2019ve changed 10 people\u2019s outlook on life from what I\u2019ve shown, then I\u2019ve achieved something.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Portrait of James Mayor. Courtesy of The Mayor Gallery. <\/p>\n

Portrait of Purdey. Courtesy of The Mayor Gallery. <\/p>\n

Mayor met Artsy at his gallery on Bury Street. He wore a resplendent tailored suit and one of his many vibrant ties, this one depicting a frog. \u201cI\u2019ve got over 600 ties, and I haven\u2019t bought one in years\u2014they find me,\u201d he joked. Also joining was Purdey, his impressively calm whippet curled up on the sofa beside him. <\/p>\n

Surrounding us was a glittering array of Surrealist<\/a> works by artists including Salvador Dal\u00ed<\/a>, Emmy Bridgwater<\/a>, Pablo Picasso<\/a>, and Wifredo Lam<\/a>, evidence of Mayor\u2019s personal connection to some of the movement\u2019s canonical names. <\/p>\n

Early years in the art world <\/p>\n

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Installation view of Roy Lichtenstein at The Mayor Gallery, 1977. Courtesy of The Mayor Gallery. <\/p>\n

Mayor spent his formative years in 1960s London, a time he called \u201cextraordinary.\u201d In the art world, several now-storied names were well on the way to making their mark. Kasmin<\/a> was showing David Hockney<\/a> and Kenneth Noland<\/a> on New Bond Street, \u201cGroovy\u201d Bob Fraser<\/a>\u2019s gallery was hosting parties for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and Marlborough was well on its way to becoming the world\u2019s first mega-gallery. Lisson Gallery<\/a> and Annely Juda<\/a> would open towards the end of the decade, but by that time, Mayor had moved to New York. He first worked at Perls Gallery, and then he joined Sotheby\u2019s (then called Park-Bernet), where he would go on to set up its post-war and contemporary department, now one of its largest categories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were basically 10 galleries selling contemporary art,\u201d Mayor explained of the nascent New York art world at the time, a socially fluid milieu where you could run into several of the scene\u2019s leading figures in the same bar. Mayor soon found himself rubbing shoulders with artists such as Cy Twombly<\/a> and James Rosenquist<\/a>, and dealers like Leo Castelli<\/a>, whom he called the \u201cking\u201d of the scene. <\/p>\n

It was with Warhol\u2014arguably New York\u2019s most famous artist at the time\u2014whom Mayor chose to start with when he returned to London. Mayor himself has no shortage of stories about Warhol, an artist that he views as \u201cabout as misunderstood as Duchamp.\u201d \u201c[We\u2019d be at a party] and he\u2019d be sitting in the corner, and say, \u2018come over here\u2026Who are all these freaks?,\u2019\u201d he recalled of a typical Warhol interaction. Mayor wrote Warhol\u2019s obituary for Vogue, and they traveled together to Kuwait under the invitation of the National Council of Arts, Culture, and Letters. \u201cHe came to that instead of going to [James] Carter\u2019s inauguration,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

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Andy Warhol and James Mayor in Kuwait. Courtesy of The Mayor Gallery. 1977. Courtesy of The Mayor Gallery. <\/p>\n

The dealer quickly realized that other names he knew from his time in New York were practically unknown in London. \u201cI was able to show artists that people really hadn\u2019t been exposed to,\u201d he recalled, pointing to figures such as Roy Lichtenstein<\/a>, Agnes Martin<\/a>, Eva Hesse<\/a>, John Chamberlain<\/a>, and Twombly. \u201cMy philosophy is always to look for artists who have been at the forefront of taste changes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mayor\u2019s gallery philosophy<\/p>\n

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Installation view of \u201cJ\u00falius Koller: Antihappening\u201d at The Mayor Gallery, 2025. Courtesy of The Mayor Gallery. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s that philosophy that has kept Mayor at the top of his game throughout his career. \u201cIn [art] dealing, you\u2019re basically selling your confidence,\u201d Mayor said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to believe in what you sell, and you\u2019ve got to believe in what you collect.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in that joy of discovery, what Mayor calls the \u201cpassion and love\u201d in seeking out art, that resonates, which is where we end up at the present moment. Mayor is \u201cdesperately worried\u201d about the direction of the art market. \u201cIf people only buy with money in mind, this is what happens,\u201d he noted of the current market slowdown. \u201cThe thing is, if you remove passion, you remove life,\u201d Mayor added. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get back to passion, love, and have fun.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"J\u00falius\"J\u00falius<\/p>\n

Collecting art should be a \u201cvoyage of discovery,\u201d and he advises those interested in buying it to start by visiting museums. \u201cLearn, look, and then see a gallery that you think you could have an affinity with,\u201d he added. Above all, it should be enjoyable. \u201cThe clients who I know that are developing their taste have terrific fun,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a hunt.\u201d <\/p>\n

His advice when it comes to making a purchase? \u201cNever buy something you don\u2019t understand,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you buy something because it\u2019s a \u2018bargain,\u2019 there\u2019s [probably] a reason why it\u2019s a bargain. Trust your own judgment and not what you\u2019re told.\u201d <\/p>\n

AK<\/p>\n

\"AK\"<\/p>\n

Arun Kakar<\/p>\n

Arun Kakar is Artsy\u2019s senior art market editor focused on explaining and unpacking the commercial art world. Before he joined Artsy in late 2022, he held staff positions at titles including the New Statesman, Spear\u2019s Magazine, and Management Today, among others. He holds a BA in philosophy from the University of York and lives in Central London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art Market Exterior view of The Mayor Gallery, London, 1973. Photo by Lee Miller. Courtesy of The Mayor…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":290487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,1033,171,109873,148969,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-290486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-gallery-scene-spotlights","13":"tag-the-mayor-gallery","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115346843105524595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}