Andrew Parkinson
Margaret Gardiner was already well into her eighties when I first met her at the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness.
The centre had been open for more than a decade and had proved to be the perfect home for her collection of works by Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Naum Gabo, Margaret Mellis and other innovators of modern art in the 20th century.
The works that Margaret gathered in her house in Hampstead, from the early 1930s onwards, were a reflection of the friendships she had developed with the many writers, artists and architects that found sanctuary (albeit temporarily) in this leafy district of London.
Margaret had (as the poet and painter Adrian Stokes was to put it) “a genius for friendship” and she was soon to assemble a formidable circle of friends including the critic Herbert Read, Henry Moore and the Russian architect Berthold Lubetkin.
It was the kinship that Margaret felt with Barbara Hepworth, however, that helped develop a deep understanding of the generative power of art.
Slowly at first, a few judicious acquisitions led to an assembly of treasures that reflect the moment when modernism jumped the English Channel and took root in Britain.
The power of Margaret’s generous gift continues to reveal itself as the collection grows and sparks new connections. Margaret visited Stromness annually well into her nineties and was happy to see the Pier evolve and enter the 21st century in good health.
A Scatter of Memories touchingly relates many of the encounters that marked a long and remarkable life.
Andrew Parkinson is the curator at the Pier Arts Centre, Orkney
Margaret Gardiner was already well into her eighties when I first met her at the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness.
The centre had been open for more than a decade and had proved to be the perfect home for her collection of works by Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Naum Gabo, Margaret Mellis and other innovators of modern art in the 20th century.
The works that Margaret gathered in her house in Hampstead, from the early 1930s onwards, were a reflection of the friendships she had developed with the many writers, artists and architects that found sanctuary (albeit temporarily) in this leafy district of London.
Margaret had (as the poet and painter Adrian Stokes was to put it) “a genius for friendship” and she was soon to assemble a formidable circle of friends including the critic Herbert Read, Henry Moore and the Russian architect Berthold Lubetkin.
It was the kinship that Margaret felt with Barbara Hepworth, however, that helped develop a deep understanding of the generative power of art.
Slowly at first, a few judicious acquisitions led to an assembly of treasures that reflect the moment when modernism jumped the English Channel and took root in Britain.
The power of Margaret’s generous gift continues to reveal itself as the collection grows and sparks new connections. Margaret visited Stromness annually well into her nineties and was happy to see the Pier evolve and enter the 21st century in good health.
A Scatter of Memories touchingly relates many of the encounters that marked a long and remarkable life.
Andrew Parkinson is the curator at the Pier Arts Centre, Orkney
