Nicholas Treadwell Gallery

Art dealer Nicholas Treadwell was born in Lewisham, south London in 1937. In 1963 he started his eponymous gallery with the aid of a double-decker bus and two furniture removal vans touring the UK with his gallery stock. After, he showed his artists in buildings in London, Bradford and finally Austria. In 1968 he opened his first gallery at 36 Chiltern Street, in the West End of London, living in one of the basement rooms. Always controversial, in 1975 Treadwell asked 29 artists to portray Queen Elizabeth II. The results showed her holding hands with Henry VIII, rowing a boat and drinking beer. In 1980 he opened a gallery in Kent having undertaken a mammoth 2 year restoration programme of a 52 roomed mansion. In January 2000, the Treadwell Gallery moved to Die Station, a set of buildings fronting a river near to the Bohemian Woods in Upper Austria. Always the itinerant, in 2005 Treadwell relocated again this time to the courthouse and prison buildings in the Mühlviertel village of Aigen, near the borders of Germany and the Czech Republic.

Treadwell has promoted the Superhumanism art movement, which is defined as an art of urban living, depicted in a vivid and accessible way. At times, his shows have evoked strong reactions for their provocative content. His clients have included Beatle Paul McCartney, Jon Entwhistle of the rock band The Who and film director Malcolm Forbes.