‘One of the most distinguished and perfect of the smaller selections of twentieth-century art on permanent display anywhere in the world’ – Patrick Heron

‘Beautifully illustrated … gives the reader a generous and comprehensive overview of the works in the collection, fascinating for those both familiar and unfamiliar with Orkney and the Pier Arts Centre Collection’ – Scottish Art News

The Pier Arts Centre reflects the development of British Modernism throughout its formation and maturity. The collection now numbers over 150 works.

The centre was opened in Orkney in 1979 to provide a home for a remarkable collection of British paintings and sculpture gathered together by author, peace activist and philanthropist Margaret Gardiner (1904–2005).

Margaret Gardiner’s interest in art was deeply influenced by her long friendship with the artist Barbara Hepworth. 
She came into contact with many of the principal figures in twentieth-century British art, including Hepworth’s second husband, Ben Nicholson. Throughout the 1930s and ’40s she was a key supporter and patron of the artists who sought sanctuary in St Ives in Cornwall.

Following the Second World War she encouraged a new generation of artists, including Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton, Peter Lanyon, Margaret Mellis and John Wells, who had been drawn to St Ives by its growing reputation as a centre of innovation.

An Unfolding Gift: The Pier Arts Centre collection is introduced by Nicholas Serota and Mel Gooding and illuminated by Margaret Gardiner’s own account of the Centre’s origins, together with short texts by Patrick Heron and Alan Bowness. All the works are illustrated, supplemented by artists’ profiles and commentaries by Margaret Gardiner on particular works.

The result is a fitting tribute to the outward-looking and philanthropic spirit of a woman who influenced the shape of British twentieth-century art.

Sir Nicholas Serota is the Director of Tate.
Mel Gooding is an art critic, writer and exhibition curator. He is the author of many books on contemporary art and artists.

Also of interest
Roger Hilton: The Figured Language of Thought
John Hoyland by Mel Gooding
herman de vries by Mel Gooding
William Scott
Five Centuries of British Painting World of Art series