Monika Kinley

Monika Kinley (24 August 1925 – 9 March 2014) was a British art dealer, collector and curator, particularly noted for her championing of the work and integrity of outsider artists.

Paula Wolf was already ill and died soon after their arrival. August Wolf was interned in an enemy aliens' camp, and Monika found herself, at the beginning of the World War II, on a train to Whitby, where she stayed at a boarding school run by Anglican nuns. she eventually arrived in London. She met and fell in love with a Polish RAF pilot, and had a child, Peter, but the airman was killed in action. She then worked for the potter Dame Lucie Rie, who was also a refugee from Vienna.

In 1977, Kinley met Victor Musgrave, the poet, art dealer and curator who claimed to be the first London art dealer not to wear a tie, After meeting Victor, outsider art became the principal focus of Monika's dealing, curating and collecting. Together they put on exhibitions, raised funding and started their own collection.

In 2011, Kinley curated A Life in Art for the Plymouth Arts Centre. Her last exhibition was Artists Make Faces at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery in 2013. In total she curated over 30 exhibitions of outsider art, both in the UK and overseas.

In the 2013 New Year Honours, Kinley was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the visual arts.

Legacy The Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection of about 800 works was given by the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Trust to the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, facilitated by the Contemporary Art Society. Previously it was on loan for ten years at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Dublin. The collection includes items by Henry Darger, Madge Gill and Albert Louden.

Publications Monika's Story – A personal history of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection. Musgrave Kinley Outsider Trust, 2005.