David Mirvish Gallery
| Established | September 1963 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1978 |
| Location | 596 Markham Street, Toronto, Ontario |
| Type | contemporary art gallery |
| Owner | David Mirvish |
David Mirvish Gallery was a contemporary, commercial art gallery run by David Mirvish from 1963 to 1978, within the Markham Street art community on Mirvish Village in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Artists at the gallery are best known for Color Field and Post-painterly Abstraction works. Mirvish assembled the Mirvish Collection, consisting of mostly contemporary artwork including artists he represented, lending it out to museums around the United States and Europe after the gallery's closure. In 2012, Mirvish announced plans to open a gallery to display these works, at planned condominium project Mirvish+Gehry Toronto.
David Mirvish's father, Ed Mirvish, was proprietor of Honest Ed's, a landmark discount retailer established in Toronto in 1948. In 1952, he purchased a house on Markham Street to expand backwards, using original tactics to thwart the area's residential zoning. In 1959, the ward's alderman was displeased by traffic jams near the store, and persuaded City Council to adopt a 1960 report urging the store to build a parking lot. The neighbourhood, which had originally supported the construction of a parking lot, now opposed rezoning to allow it under a new alderman. Mirvish could put a lot behind the Victorian houses, but could not tear them down.
Around the same time, David's mother Anne Mirvish spent five months studying sculpture at The New School in Greenwich Village, a result of the urging of artist Paul Burlin. As a youth, she painted and took art lessons, and her family were active in their appreciation of music. Upon marriage to Ed, those interests were largely displaced to help with the business. While Anne was away in New York City, David, who had just graduated from high school, told his father that he wanted to run an art gallery. Since Anne had wanted David to attend university, a decision was postponed until her return; after overcoming some initial shock, she endorsed his plan. Anne Mirvish intended to get a studio in the Gerrard Street Village, an artist's neighbourhood. Just then, the community was displaced for a new parking lot for the Toronto General Hospital.
...
Wikipedia