ABSTRACT

As demonstrated in Chapter 3, Club members and associates of the Club had very wide interests in collecting, from traditional art objects to archaeological things, but even with that in mind, there are some subject areas that would seem to be far outside the Club members’ interests. Among these were areas of art production that were geographically far from England, such as the Americas, and areas that were conceptually quite new, such as what was called ‘primitive art’ for much of the twentieth century. Both of these subject areas, however, were related to Club members’ other professional interests, indicating that Club members wished to exhibit not only collected items that reflected the Club’s traditional areas of interest but also those that related to professional activities beyond the Club that were also associated with acquiring things. Two Club exhibitions mounted in the first part of the twentieth century clearly demonstrate this inclination and provide another perspective on the exhibitionary and collecting work of the Club.