Biography
Anthony d'Offay (b. 1940) opened his first gallery in tiny rooms off Piccadilly, London in 1965, aged 25. Four years later launched his new gallery (d'Offay Couper Gallery) near Bond Street with pioneering shows devoted to the neglected brilliance of Wyndham Lewis - Abstract Art in England 1913-1915 (1969) and Stanley Spencer. Caroline Cuthbert worked with d'Offay for 11 years in the early days and Sadie Coles was director of his modern gallery. Initially the gallery organised mostly historical exhibitions of early 20th century British art but in the late 1970s, they started to show contemporary art and in 1980 a new exhibition space for contemporary art opened on the first floor at 23 Dering Street, W1. The gallery was run by Anthony d'Offay with Anne Seymour, formerly a curator at Tate and his second wife, and Marie-Louise Laband who masterminded every aspect of the gallery including the exhibition programme. They represented Gerhard Richter, Howard Hodgkin, Gilbert & George and Richard Long as well as showing Carl Andre and Andy Warhol. Together they inaugurated a programme of international contemporary art, starting with an exhibition by Joseph Beuys. Beuys' large installation from that show Stripes from the House of the Shaman was sold to the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. The last exhibition at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery was for Bill Viola in 2001.
