Madge Gill’s Rare 1930s Textile Makes Auction Debut as Interest Surges After Venice Biennale
A little-known corner of British outsider art just stepped into the auction spotlight: a rare 1930s textile work by English artist Madge Gill (British, 1882–1961) has appeared at auction for the first time.
Gill is celebrated for densely worked, visionary ink drawings made on calico and postcard paper, often packed with faces and interlaced patterns. She attributed the uncanny precision of these compositions to “Myrninerest,” a spiritual presence she described as an unseen collaborator guiding her hand.
Textiles, however, are a different matter. Only a small number of Gill’s textile works are known to survive, making them exceptionally scarce within her already idiosyncratic oeuvre. Examples are held by institutions including the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, England, and theCollection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland. The newly offered 1930s piece marks the first time a Gill textile has come to auction.
Christie’s traced the work’s ownership through the artist’s family before it was acquired in Essex by Leslie Berger around 1961. It later descended to the current consignor, according to the auction house’s catalogue.
The timing is notable. Gill’s market has been gaining momentum, helped by her inclusion in the 2024 Venice Biennale’s main exhibition, “Foreigners Everywhere,” where her work was seen by a far broader international audience than the specialist circles that long championed her. A detail of Gill’s “Crucifixion of the Soul” (1934) was photographed on view at the Biennale, underscoring the renewed institutional attention around her practice.
Recent auction results suggest that attention is translating into higher prices, though the market remains uneven. The Artnet Price Database lists 147 auction results for Gill. Fewer than a dozen of those sales have exceeded $10,000, and many works have traded for only a few hundred dollars. One of the lowest recorded prices is $275 for an ink drawing on postcard paper sold in Philadelphia in 2024.
At the top end, however, the ceiling has moved. Gill’s latest auction record is reported to be 54 percent higher than her previous high of $78,120, set by “Untitled (Venus Amid Heaven),” an ink-on-cloth work filled with faces that sold at Christie’s in March 2024.
The debut of a 1930s textile adds a new layer to that story: not simply rising demand, but the emergence of material that almost never reaches the market. For collectors and institutions watching Gill’s trajectory, the sale is a reminder that rarity, provenance, and museum visibility can converge quickly, reshaping how an artist’s work is valued and understood.
