Hanover Gallery

From 9 October to 11 December 2026, Ordovas presents the first exhibition dedicated to celebrating Erica Brausen (1908–1992), a trailblazing gallerist of the post-war era, and founder of the legendary Hanover Gallery in Mayfair, London.

The first gallerist to establish the reputation of Francis Bacon, who said she had the best eye in the art world, Brausen built the Hanover Gallery into a pivotal force in the development of contemporary art in post-war London, championing both British and international artists including Lucian Freud, Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, Alberto Giacometti, Germaine Richier and Niki de Saint Phalle, among many others.

A native German who moved to Paris in the 1930s, becoming part of its thriving art scene, she fled to London in 1937, on the eve of World War II; in the decades that followed, she fundamentally transformed and invigorated the city’s cultural landscape, using her connections to bring major international artists to a British audience. As a gay migrant woman of German origin, she was naturally drawn to presenting the work of émigré, queer and female artists.

Hanover Gallery at Ordovas features loans from both major institutions and private collections, and includes important works handled by the gallerist alongside contextual and archive material. The upstairs gallery is dedicated to depictions of the human figure by Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti and Germaine Richier, while the downstairs space is devoted to presenting a wider cross-section of post-war artists Brausen featured. The exhibition is curated in collaboration with Jane Alison, formerly the Head of Visual Arts at Barbican and curator of their 2022 exhibition Postwar Modern: New Art in Britain 1945–1965, who has also authored an essay for the fully illustrated catalogue.