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Mervyn Emrys Rosser Horton (1917-1983) was 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.
Mervyn Horton was born and grew up in Sydney, attending Newington College, Stanmore and the University of Sydney where he studied engineering. He was a Director of the Katoomba Collieries before joining Ure Smith Publishers and becoming Director of the company and founding Editor of Art Australia. His publications include Present Day Art in Australia (1969) and Australian Painters of the '70s (1975). In 1956 he opened Galleria Expresso, a coffee bar in Rowe Street, Sydney. He served as Secretary of the Society of Artists, an Executive Member of the Arts Council of Australia (NSW), a Board Member of the National Trust of Australia (NSW), a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and an Australian Commissioner for the XIIIth Bienal Internacional de São Paulo. In 1982 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division. He died in 1983 and left substantial bequests to the National Trust and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
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