Monika Kinley

(1925–2014)

Collector and curator, Monika Kinley, died aged 88 on March 9, 2014. In 1977, she met art dealer Victor Musgrave, an early campaigner for outsider art who, in 1979, with Roger Cardinal, curated the seminal "Outsiders" exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery. Although heavily slammed by London’s conservative critics, the exhibition caused a sensation and led to Musgrave’s formation of the Outsider Archive, a collection which he hoped would eventually lead to a specialist museum being founded in Britain. Following Musgrave's death in 1984, Kinley took on his work, committing herself to expanding and finding a home for the collection.

Monika Kinley with Victor Musgrave

Kinley was part of the "first wave" of international enthusiasts following the opening of Dubuffet’s collection in Lausanne and, for some years, she was one of the few figures in Britain championing outsider art and played an influential role. She curated important exhibitions such as "In Another World" (Arts Council, 1987) and "Inner Worlds Outside" (Whitechapel, 2000), both of which toured. The collection was loaned to the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin for a number of years and eventually 800 works found a home at the University of Manchester's Whitworth Art Gallery.