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LIFESTYLE

footsteps,’ he says. After a brief spell at Sotheby’s, he quit the
industry altogether. ‘I didn’t go to a single exhibition or look at a
piece of art for three years.’ Instead, he took a job as a music con-
sultant: ‘I was making soundtracks for various flashy hotels in the
States. It was pure rebellion.’ However, the purchase of ‘a seriously
good’ Grayson Perry, Print for a Politician, marked his return to the
industry some 10 years ago. ‘I’ve been buying and selling ever since.’
He is quick to point out, however, that he hasn’t permanently turned
his back on music and is rarely seen without a guitar in hand.
Today, Robin’s remit is simple: ‘Whether it’s a French Symbolist
portrait or a piece of Venini Scarpa glass, I only deal in good
things.’ On his stand at PAD you might see an early Walter Sickert
hanging above an Anthony Caro sculpture or next to a Bridget
Riley work on paper. ‘I mix and match according to my taste.’ But
when Robin started dealing, his criteria was arguably more rigid:
he focused solely on twentieth-century British art: ‘At the time, it
was a misunderstood and somewhat unknown area.’ While Freud
and Bacon were the poster boys for the period, ‘there were a lot of
artists who had been forgotten and were ripe for a reevaluation’. In
the Forties, with the rise of abstract Expressionism, artists like
Peter Lanyon and Lynn Chadwick, who had once been bought
internationally, were being overlooked. ‘I suddenly felt quite pat-
riotic about it all. I realised that in my own small way I was part of
this resurgence of modern British art,’ he explains. Things have now
changed and it is increasingly difficult to buy the greatest pieces

ANTICLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Robin with Rose Uniacke, another PAD
exhibitor, in her Pimlico showroom. A ‘Plaster Cone’ pendant light and cast
Jesmonite stool (centre right) are among the offerings in Rose’s showroom.
Josh Lilley in his gallery with Robin and artist Nick Goss, looking at a painting
by Nick that Robin has bought. Robin with Martin Levy, of H Blairman & Sons,
in his Mount Street showroom, which sells antiques and fine works of art

94 NOVEMBER 2015 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK