Camilla Gray

Camilla M. Gray, also known as Camilla Gray-Prokofieva, (17 May 1936 – 17 December 1971) was a British art historian whose book, The Great Experiment: Russian Art 1863–1922, broke new ground in promoting this branch of modernism. Gray organised several exhibitions in London on the relevant artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Mikhail Larionov, and Natalia Goncharova. She married Oleg Prokofiev, son of the composer Sergei Prokofiev.

Early life Camilla Gray was born in Hampstead, London, in 1936, the daughter of Basil Gray, keeper of Oriental art at the British Museum, and the scholar of art and lettering Nicolete Gray. She had two sisters, Cecilia and Sophy and two brothers, Edmund and Marius. The family lived at the museum. She was the granddaughter of the poet Laurence Binyon. She received her basic education at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Hammersmith, London, and remained a committed Catholic throughout her life. According to Abbott Gleason's father, Basil Gray did not approve of higher education for girls and so she did not attend university, instead, being very determined, she had gone to live in Cambridge for several years and attended the lectures at the university there and got to know the professors. She was already studying Russian modernism but did not visit the country until 1955 when she went as a ballet student. She also trained as a Russian interpreter. The Great Experiment: Russian Art 1863–1922 was published in a large format by Thames & Hudson in 1962 and broke new ground in explaining Russian avant-garde art outside Russia. It was dedicated to Gray's mother "to whom this book owes its inspiration and realization". In the introduction to the first edition, Gray commented on the difficulties she had encountered in compiling the work, needing to combine information from newspaper articles, unpublished memoirs, exhibition catalogues and the often contradictory recollections of living artists. It was criticised by some reviewers for the seemingly arbitrary cut-off of 1922, for a certain amount of generalisation and excessive detail in other parts, and has to some extent been superseded by later more nuanced works that make a greater distinction between the individual Constructivists. However, there was also general praise for the achievement of what was clearly a very difficult task that nobody else had been able to tackle in an area that was previously largely unknown to Western scholars. She wrote the introduction to the catalogue by which time she was describing herself as Camilla Gray-Prokofieva.

Personal life In November 1969, Gray married Oleg Prokofiev, son of the composer Sergei Prokofiev, whom she had met in Russia in 1960. The couple had a daughter, Anastasia, born in 1970. while pregnant with their second child. A requiem mass was held for her at Westminster Cathedral in January 1972.

Ancestry

Selected publications Kasimir Malevich, 1878–1935: An exhibition of paintings, drawings, and studies organised in association with the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, October–November 1959. Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1959. "The Russian Contribution to Modern Painting", The Burlington Magazine, May 1960. A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings and Designs for the Theatre – Larionov and Goncharova. Arts Council, London, 1961. The Great Experiment: Russian Art 1863–1922. Thames & Hudson, London, 1962. "Introduction" in Art in Revolution: Soviet Art and Design since 1917 Hayward Gallery London 26 February to 18 April 1971. Arts Council, London, 1971. The Russian Experiment in Art: 1863–1922, 'World of Art' series. Thames & Hudson, London, 1986. (New edition of The Great Experiment, revised and expanded by Marian Burleigh-Motley)