Collecting the Contemporary – The Allan Milner Collection (1910-1984)

Posted on 07.10.2024

The Manx Museum has been collecting art for the people of the Isle of Man for over 100 years. Over this time art has changed dramatically. The invention of photography meant artists no longer wanted or needed to capture the world figuratively, which led to an explosion of new artistic movements. Formal landscapes paintings and portraiture fell out of fashion as artists sought to push the boundaries of creative expression. Since the 1960s Manx National Heritage has been collecting more contemporary pieces for the National Art Collection. Sometimes contemporary art can be more challenging to interpret. Such art invites us to interpret the meaning for ourselves. Offering an intensely personal experience.

In preparation for the rehang of the Art Gallery at the Manx Museum in late 2023, we researched some of the more contemporary art pieces in the collections. This led us to focus on a large body of previously unseen artworks by pioneering British artist, Allan Milner. Milner was a leading 20th century abstract painter who came to live on the Isle of Man in 1950. He was known for his use of bold colours, shapes, and lines which he used to create ambiguous scenes, striving to express his thoughts and feelings through paint.

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Milner studied at the Leeds Art College and the Royal College of Art in London, where he was able to hone his impressive skills in colour and composition. His abstract style was cutting-edge in the early 1930s, and his work was celebrated across several established galleries in his early career. At intervals, the Tate and the National Gallery accepted samples of his work. After serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, Milner moved to the Isle of Man. His family had come to the Island for a holiday when he was a boy, and he hadn’t wanted to go home. This time, he stayed for life.

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Milner’s style of art was considered rather avant-garde on the Isle of Man, which at the time was used to the more traditional works of William Hoggatt and John Hobson Nicholson. Both artists exhibited alongside Milner in the Mannin Art Group’s annual exhibitions. In 1951 and 1952 he exhibited his work alongside his stepdaughter, Ann Fordham, who had also developed an abstract style. The Ramsey Courier newspaper reflected:

“No doubt there will be much argument about the theories on which Mr Allan Milner’s abstract work is based…the most prejudiced of conservatives must grant him the courage of his convictions and a very high degree of originality and technical attainment. No one can fail to be impressed by his draughtsmanship and the sense of colour, form and composition which all his work displays.”

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A full biography can be found here.

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There are 70 paintings by Allan Milner in the National Collection, which were donated to Manx National Heritage in the 2010s. The works were all unframed and had never been photographed or seen in public before, so the rehang of the art gallery seemed an ideal moment to share them with the wider world. Four works were chosen to be exhibited in the Art Gallery, and the remainder have now been digitised and are available to discover on imuseum.im.

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Since we began sharing more information about Allan Milner, we have been contacted by a number of galleries, art historians and museums who are very excited to discover that this extensive collection exists and is being cared for by Manx National Heritage. It is thought to be the largest collection of Milner’s art in the world.

Katie King
Curator: Art & Social History
October 2024