Stanley Picker

Born in New York in 1913, Stanley Picker arrived in England, after studying Harvard University, to take over his father’s cosmetics business. The beauty brands developed by the company - amongst them, Gala, Miners, Mary Quant and Outdoor Girl – each epitomised their era and created a wealth that permitted Stanley Picker to indulge his greatest love, the arts. His impeccable late-modernist house was designed in 1968 for him to live in Kingston upon Thames amongst his growing collection of art and design objects. In 1977 his enthusiasm for the arts grew deeper still, when he established the Stanley Picker Trust to support the education and careers of young arts practitioners. He died in 1982 leaving, in the Trust, an enduring legacy of support that ensures his passion for the arts lives on to this day. The Stanley Picker Gallery [http://www.stanleypickergallery.org] was established in 1997, providing Kingston University with its first purpose-built space for the creation and public presentation of contemporary art and design practice.