{{Short description|British gallerist (1932–2023)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Use British English|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Angela Flowers | image = Angela Flowers (picture taken by herself, Angela is holding the trigger).jpg | caption = Angela Flowers (self-portrait; she is holding the trigger) in 2012 | birth_name = Angela Mary Holland | birth_date = {{Birth date|1932|12|19|df=y}} | birth_place = Croydon, England | death_date = {{death date and age|2023|08|11|1932|12|19|df=y}} | occupation = Gallerist | spouses = {{ubl|{{Marriage|Adrian Flowers|1952|1972|end=divorced}}| {{Marriage|Robert Heller|2003|2012|end=died}}}} | children = 5, including Matthew | website = {{URL|flowersgallery.com}} }}
'''Angela Mary Flowers''' ({{née|'''Holland'''}}; 19 December 1932 – 11 August 2023) was a British gallerist<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web |author=Guardian Staff |date=3 April 1999 |title=Angela Flowers: Playing to the gallery |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/apr/03/books.guardianreview3 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> who founded Flowers Gallery, a commercial art gallery that today operates in London, New York City, and Hong Kong. A director of the gallery, she was based between Ramsgate in Kent and Cork in Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Flowers Gallery |url=https://www.flowersgallery.com/ |publisher=Flowers Gallery}}</ref>
== Education and career == Born on 19 December 1932<ref name="Artlyst obit"/> in Croydon, Angela Holland was the elder of two daughters of Geoffrey and Olive Holland. Her great grandfather founded ''The Croydon Advertiser''. During World War II, her father worked as a fireman on the River Thames, then in military intelligence and her mother worked in a munitions factory in Herefordshire. During this time, Angela was sent to a boarding school founded by war artist Eric Kennington. She then went to Westonbirt School in Kent, followed by Wychwood School in Oxford and a diploma at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.<ref name="GuObit"/> She later worked as an au pair in Paris.<ref name="auto1"/>
In 1952, aged 19, she met fashion and portrait photographer Adrian Flowers, marrying him seven weeks later. In an interview she recalled, "I met Adrian in the January and proposed to him in the February because it was leap year ... and we got married a few weeks later."<ref name="auto1"/> She studied drama and music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London,<ref name="auto1"/> performed some music and acting work - she played a Dagenham Girl Piper in the first Benny Hill film,<ref name="GuObit" /> ''Who Done It?'' (1956) - and also worked in advertising.<ref name="FT-07Feb2020">{{cite news |last1=Jobey |first1=Liz |title=Angela Flowers on 50 years at the heart of British art |url=https://www.ft.com/content/feb9dd8a-47a6-11ea-aee2-9ddbdc86190d |access-date=10 February 2021 |work=Financial Times |date=7 February 2020}}</ref>
Her arts career began following a family holiday in St Ives, where they met many of the resident artists. Her husband began taking pictures of the artworks and artists for catalogues and together they began collecting art, with a particular focus on emerging British artists.<ref name="auto1"/>
===Flowers Gallery=== Flowers Gallery opened in central London in 1970 in an attic of the Artists' International Association in Lisle Street.<ref name="FT-07Feb2020"/> The gallery had two principles, Flowers said: "I would only show living artists; and nothing pre-1952."<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name="GuObit" /> The gallery's first show featured Patrick Hughes, whom Flowers continued to represent for 48 years; printmaker Tom Phillips had his first solo show at Flowers, also in 1970.<ref name="FT-07Feb2020"/> The following year, in 1971, the gallery hosted a first solo show by Fionnuala Boyd and Leslie Evans, and in 1973, it hosted ''Opening'', a show by feminist Penny Slinger dealing with food and eroticism.<ref name="FT-07Feb2020"/>
After the AIA disbanded in 1971, the gallery had moved to Portland Mews; in 1979, it moved to Tottenham Mews.<ref name="GuObit">{{cite news |last1=Darwent |first1=Charles |title=Angela Flowers obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/aug/14/angela-flowers-obituary |access-date=14 August 2023 |work=Guardian |date=14 August 2023}}</ref> In 1988, Flowers moved the gallery to an industrial building in the Hackney district of east London, later returning to central London by opening a second gallery in Cork Street.<ref name="FT-07Feb2020"/> In 2002, the east London gallery moved to Shoreditch.<ref name="FT-07Feb2020"/>
Flowers expanded internationally in 1997, opening a U.S. gallery in Los Angeles, then moving it to New York in 2003.<ref name="FT-07Feb2020"/> Located initially in Madison Avenue, it moved to West 20th street in Chelsea in 2009.<ref name="Artlyst"/>
From December 2012 to February 2013, the Shoreditch gallery hosted an exhibition, ''Angela Flowers at 80'', marking her 80th birthday.<ref name="Artlyst">{{cite news |title=Angela Flowers London Gallerist At 80 A Career Celebration |url=https://www.artlyst.com/news/angela-flowers-london-gallerist-at-80-a-career-celebration/ |access-date=25 June 2021 |work=Artlyst |date=23 December 2012}}</ref><ref name="Casaglia">{{cite news |last1=Casaglia |first1=Matilde |title=Angela Flowers at 80 |url=https://www.positive-magazine.com/angela-flowers-at-80/ |access-date=25 June 2021 |work=Positive Magazine |date=7 January 2013}}</ref> By 2016, Flowers East had a staff of 24 and a turnover of more than £6m.<ref name="GuObit" />
==Personal life== Angela and Adrian Flowers had four children. Matthew Flowers, her second son, worked on and off for the gallery from 1970 until 1983 when he moved to the business full time. He became its managing director in 1989.<ref name="auto1"/> Flowers's youngest son, Daniel married sculptor Nicola Hicks, a long-time gallery client.<ref name="GuObit" />
In 1970, Angela Flowers met the writer and business journalist Robert Heller. Already an art collector, he helped manage the gallery. She and Adrian Flowers divorced in 1972,<ref name="auto1"/> and she and Heller stayed together. In 1999, she said "We've been together 29 years now and I'm still hoping to get married. Perhaps I'll ask him next year, which is a leap year."<ref name="auto1"/> They married in 2003 and he died in 2012,<ref name="auto1"/> having earlier developed Parkinson's disease;<ref name="GuObit" /> in 2009, they had moved from Highgate in north London to Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.<ref name="GuObit" />
Angela and Robert had a daughter, Rachel Heller, born on 15 September 1973 with Down's syndrome.<ref name="Neustatter">{{cite news |last1=Neustatter |first1=Angela |title=A wonderful daughter |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/sep/10/art.familyandrelationships |access-date=25 June 2021 |work=Guardian |date=10 September 2003}}</ref> Rachel became an artist<ref name="RDS">{{cite web |title=RACHEL HELLER Alumni, 2003 |url=https://www.royaldrawingschool.org/artists/drawing-year-alumni/rachel-heller/ |website=Royal Drawing School |access-date=25 June 2021}}</ref> but was represented by another gallery.<ref name="GuObit" />
===Death=== Flowers died on 11 August 2023, at age 90.<ref name="Artlyst obit">{{cite web|url=https://artlyst.com/news/angela-flowers-leading-british-art-gallerist-dies-aged-90/|title=Angela Flowers Leading British Art Gallerist Dies Aged 90|work=Artlyst|date=12 August 2023|access-date=12 August 2023}}</ref><ref name=Telegraph>{{cite news |title=Angela Flowers, founder director of the Flowers Gallery, exhibiting contemporary art – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/08/13/angela-flowers-gallery-contemporary-art-obituary/ |access-date=13 August 2023 |work=The Telegraph |date=13 August 2023}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Flowers, Angela}} Category:1932 births Category:2023 deaths Category:English art dealers Category:People from Croydon Category:People educated at Westonbirt School Category:Alumni of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art Category:People educated at Wychwood School