In 1950 the Committee of the Contemporary Art Society arranged an exhibition called The Private Collector, which contained nothing but works lent by members of the Society.
This exhibition was gathered from the walls of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the Patron and of some of the Committee of the Contemporary Art Society.
EC Gregory, a collector, wrote in the exhibition's catalogue: 'I find difficulty in giving any clear-cut reason why I collect pictures and sculpture. I have no particular policy. I seem to form quite sudden, emotional likings, and they enlarge and enrich my experience of life. But the final test is to live with a picture or a piece of sculpture and see if it stays the course; those that haven’t stood this test are not in this collection, nor are the ones I bought because I thought I ought to. The collection here is not quite representative, as some are on loan and others have been exhibited so recently that it was redundant to show them again.
I like contemporary art, too, because I have a great desire to live among artists of today and their work; remember, they may be the old masters of tomorrow. Indeed, in one or two cases already, the laurel wreaths are around their heads.
I have included books and reproductions; some of these I have had a part in, and these I show with diffidence, but they do illustrate my conviction that business and art can be combined. That is my excuse'.
