Mervyn Horton


Mervyn Emrys Rosser Horton was an Australian art editor, art collector and philanthropist.

Early life

Mervyn Horton was born and grew up in Sydney, attending Newington College and the University of Sydney where he studied medicine but after a year changed to law before dropping out.

Working life

He was a Director of the Katoomba Collieries before joining Ure Smith Publishers and becoming Director of the company and founding Editor of Art and Australia. In 1956 he opened La Galleria Espresso, a coffee bar in Rowe Street, Sydney.

Community involvement

He served as Secretary of the Society of Artists, an Executive Member of the Arts Council of Australia, a Board Member of the National Trust of Australia, a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and an Australian Commissioner for the XIIIth Bienal Internacional de São Paulo.

Honours

In 1982 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division.

Legacy

On his death he left substantial bequests to the National Trust and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The doyen of the Sydney art world for thirty years as a writer, collector, patron and philanthropist, the Mervyn Horton Bequest has to 2006 purchased over $8 million of contemporary art for the Art Gallery of New South Wales. His papers are held by the National Library of Australia. It was a condition of Horton's bequest to the Art Gallery of New South Wales that it display annually a painting of himself by Australian artist, Bryan Westwood. The gallery has not observed this condition.

Publications