London Gallery

The gallery was established in 1937 and was located in London’s Cork Street. With the Belgian poet E. L. T. Mesens, editor of the London Bulletin, as director, assisted by Roland Penrose and Humphrey Jennings, the gallery became a centre for Surrealism in England. It exhibited work by the leading European Surrealists including Max Ernst, Kurt Schwitters, and Yves Tanguy, although an exhibition entitled Living Art in England, mounted in January 1939, included non-Surrealist work by artists such as Mondrian and Kokoschka. The gallery was closed during World War II, re-opening in 1946. It survived until the early 1950's.

Mesens also edited the gallery's publication, the London Bulletin, an important documentary source for the period. It ran for 20 just issues from 1938-40. Mesens made an all-embracing use of the printed word to produce confusing or entertaining uncertainty and suggested thoughts and ideas typical of Dadaism. Mesens also staged major solo exhibitions at the Gallery featuring the work of Max Ernst in 1938 and Man Ray in 1939, while iconic artists like Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia and Kurt Schwitters were shown in group exhibitions and also featured in the London Bulletin.