Angela Flowers pictured at the Lisle Street gallery in 1970 [© Adrian Flowers Archive]

IT was not always clear Angela Flowers, née Holland, would go on to become a pioneering gallerist and grande dame of the Mayfair art scene.

Born in 1932, she had been introduced to art collecting by her parents. But as a young woman her heart was in music.

She went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and arrived on London’s art scene relatively late in her career.

Ms Flowers, who has died aged 90, launched her eponymous gallery in 1970 in an attic room provided rent-free by the Artists International Association (AIA), a co-operative of artists based in Soho’s Lisle Street.

The rapid commercial success of the gallery reportedly came as a surprise to everyone involved.

From the very beginning, Ms Flowers sought out talented young British artists, believing their work was under-represented in commercial galleries.

Some of the first artists to have shows in the space included Derek Hirst, Jeff Nuttall, Penelope Slinger, Ian Breakwell, Jeanne Masoero and Nancy Fouts.

After the AIA disbanded in 1971, Ms Flowers moved her gallery to Portland Mews, and then Tottenham Mews in 1979.

Even as her acclaim grew, she continued to offer a platform for young artists.

Her annual “Artist of the Day” series, which still runs today, saw established artists select work by promising young artists as part of a one-day exhibition that served as a springboard for emerging talent.

She also ran thematic exhibitions that displayed work by well-known artists alongside emerging names, exploring topics such as The Thatcher Years and Contemporary Portraits.

The gallery expanded, first into east London and then across the world, to Los Angeles, and New York.

The Hong Kong space opened in 2020, coinciding with the 50-year anniversary of the gallery.

She also ran a seasonal programme with summer exhibitions from her home in West Cork, Ireland.

The Mayfair gallery, which is still in Cork Street today, opened in the early 2000s.

Ms Flowers represented more than 50 artists and staged more than 900 exhibitions during her time at the helm of the galleries, and played an instrumental role in launching the early careers of artists including Sir Anish Kapoor, Sir Anthony Caro and Sir Antony Gormley, and was good friends with the painter and sculptor Maggie Hambling.

She had two husbands over the course of her life, both of whom she proposed to on leap years.

She married the late portrait photographer Adrian Flowers in 1952, with whom she had four children.

She lived with her second husband, the writer and business journalist Robert Heller, for many years before they married in 2003.

Together they had a daughter, Rachel Heller, who was born with Down’s Syndrome and went on to become a successful artist in her own right.

Angela Flowers died on August 11. She is survived by her five children, 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.