Maternity

Eric Estorick, who founded the Grosvenor Gallery in London in the early 1960s, is famously connected with the Italian Futurist movement and, indeed, works from his private collection now form the renowned Estorick Collection in Canonbury, London, which is widely considered to be the finest collection of such works outside Italy.

Perhaps less well known today is his deep-seated interest in Russian art and the significant role he played in the 1960s in raising awareness of both Russian Avant-Garde and Nonconformist art. Although he was born in New York and moved to London after World War II, Estorick's family roots nevertheless lay in Russia and it was perhaps this connection which led him to make no less than 14 visits to the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1964 with the aim of building bridges between East and West.

The fruit of these trips was a series of exhibitions of Russian art at the Grosvenor Gallery beginning in 1962 with Two Decades of Experiment in Russian Art, 1902-22 which was followed in June 1964 by Aspects of Contemporary Soviet Art. A small Neizvestny show took place between 11 May and 5 June 1965 and a solo exhibition of works by Oscar Rabin appeared at the gallery from 10 June to 3 July 1965 (fig. 1). This represented the first major solo show by a Soviet artist to take place in the West since 1922. The present lots by Rabin and Neizvestny did not appear in these shows but were selected by Estorick directly from the artists' studios at this time.