Robert Fraser (art dealer)

Early life and education

Robert Fraser was born on 13 August 1937, the son of the banker Sir Lionel Fraser, who had started as a newspaper delivery boy. Lionel Fraser's father was butler to Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of the Selfridges department store chain.

Fraser was educated at Eton, and spent several years in Africa in the 1950s as an officer in the King's African Rifles.

Career

After a period spent working in galleries in the United States, he returned to England and with the help of his father (a wealthy financier who had also been a trustee of the Tate Gallery), in 1962 he established the Robert Fraser Gallery at 69 Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, London. The gallery interior was designed by Cedric Price.

The Robert Fraser Gallery became a focal point for modern art in Britain, and through his exhibitions he helped to launch and promote the work of many important new British and American artists including Peter Blake, Bridget Riley, Jann Haworth, Richard Hamilton, Gilbert and George, Harold Cohen, Eduardo Paolozzi, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine and Ed Ruscha. Fraser also sold work by René Magritte, Jean Dubuffet, Balthus and Hans Bellmer.

"Swinging Sixties"

In 1966 the Robert Fraser Gallery was prosecuted for staging an exhibition of works by Jim Dine that was described as indecent (but not obscene). The works were removed from the gallery by Scotland Yard and Fraser was charged under a 19th-century law that applied to street beggars. Fraser was fined 20 guineas and legal costs.

Fraser became well known as a trendsetter during the Sixties – Paul McCartney has described him as "one of the most influential people of the London Sixties scene". His London flat and his gallery were the foci of a "jet-set" salon of top pop stars, artists, writers and other celebrities, including members of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, photographer Michael Cooper, designer Christopher Gibbs, Marianne Faithfull, Dennis Hopper (who introduced Fraser to satirist Terry Southern), William Burroughs and Kenneth Anger. Because of this, he was given the nickname "Groovy Bob" by the writer Terry Southern. He is also thought to be an inspiration for the character "Dr. Robert" in the song of the same name on The Beatles album Revolver.

His flat at 23 Mount Street, on the third floor above Scott's restaurant, was described by Barry Miles as one of the "coolest sixties pads in London".

Fraser sponsored the 1966 exhibition by Yoko Ono at the Indica Gallery ran by Barry Miles and John Dunbar, where she first met John Lennon.

Fraser art-directed the cover for The Beatles' 1967 LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band – he dissuaded the group from using the original design, a psychedelic artwork created by the design collective The Fool, instead suggesting the pop artist, Peter Blake, who created the famous collage cover design.

Fraser also gave McCartney a small painting of an apple by René Magritte which is believed to have been the inspiration for the name and logo of the Beatles' record company, Apple Records. It was also through Fraser that Richard Hamilton was selected to design the poster for the White Album. His gallery also hosted "You Are Here", Lennon's own foray into avant garde art during 1968.

He was a close friend of the Rolling Stones and was present at the infamous 1967 party at Keith Richards' country house, 'Redlands', which was raided by police, leading to the subsequent arrests and trials of Mick Jagger, Richards, and Fraser on drug possession charges. The event is commemorated by the famous 1968 Richard Hamilton work Swingeing London 67, a collage of contemporary press clippings about the case, and the seminal portrait of Richards and Fraser handcuffed together also entitled Swingeing London. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/sep/13/richard-hamilton-artist-dies.

Fraser always insisted that neither Jagger or Richards actually had any drugs with them and that everything found by the police actually belonged to him. During the bust he persuaded the officers that his 20 heroin pills were actually for an upset stomach and offered them only 1 for testing. The subsequent press headlines and rumours of a Mars bar being involved were completely false.

Although Jagger and Richards were acquitted on appeal, Fraser pleaded guilty on charges of possession of heroin and was sentenced to six months hard labour. After his release Fraser's interest in the gallery declined as his heroin addiction grew worse, and he closed the business in 1969.

1970s and 1980s

Fraser left the UK and spent several years in India during the 1970s. He returned to London in the early 1980s and opened a second gallery in 1983 with a show of paintings by the stained glass and architectural artist Brian Clarke, but by this time he was suffering from chronic drug and alcohol problems and the gallery never replicated the success of its predecessor, although Fraser was again influential in promoting the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.

It soon transpired that Fraser was also suffering from AIDS, making him one of the first 'celebrity' victims of the disease in the UK.

In 1985 he sold his Cork Street gallery to Victoria Miro, who subsequently created the successful Victoria Miro Gallery. Fraser seemed disillusioned and told her at the time "You'll never make a contemporary art gallery work in this country."

Fraser was cared for by the Terence Higgins Trust during his final illness and is said to have been the first person with AIDS in Britain who was able to die at home. He died in January 1986.