The Picker House and Collection: A Late 1960s Home for Art and Design by Dr Jonathan Black (Kingston University, UK)
Picker House is a late 1960s modernist home specifically designed to accommodate an international collection of modern and contemporary painting and sculpture. Situated on the outskirts of London, in Kingston upon Thames, the remarkable Picker House is a rare surviving example of a spacious and progressive late modern house and garden that remains unaltered. Designed by the British modernist architect Kenneth Wood in 1965, for the businessman Stanley H. Picker (1913-1982), it still retains its period interior decor, contemporary furnishings acquired through the then recently established Terence Conran Group. It also preserves the distinctive and significant art collection of its owner - including works by Chagall, Frink, Hepworth, Lowry, Rodin and many more - which was an integral part of its conception. Based on previously unpublished material and photographs, this heavily illustrated publication brings together leading researchers in their respective fields who examine in depth every aspect of this unique place.