[ Antonie ]
(b Haarlem, Feb 18, 1892; d Crowborough, E. Sussex, Jan 23, 1979).
Dutch bookseller, dealer and publisher, active in England . He worked in the book trade in Holland and then in London, where in 1916 he became manager of a foreign-language bookshop at 78 Charing Cross Road. After buying the business in 1923 he developed it into a specialist art bookshop, unique in London until the late 1930s. Zwemmer concentrated on European publications and was the sole British distributor of such magazines as Cahiers d’art, XXe siècle, Minotaure, Labyrinthe, Verve and, later, L’Oeil. He also stocked modern English literature. The bookshop, which was soon financially successful, was a focus for the London art world in the 1920s and 1930s, and Zwemmer became a friend and patron of such artists as Henry Moore, Wyndham Lewis, Jacob Epstein and Graham Sutherland. Through his regular visits to Paris he also came into contact with Picasso, Miró, Dalí and Paul Eluard. In 1929 Zwemmer opened the Zwemmer Gallery at 26 Litchfield Street, round the corner from his bookshop; it operated until ...
