Flowers Gallery has announced the death of gallery founder Angela Flowers at the age of 90.

Angela was a staunch supporter of contemporary art and artists, who pioneered an original and distinctive path through the British art scene for more than five decades.

The first Flowers gallery opened in 1970, on Lisle Street in London, above the Artists International Association (AIA), a cooperative of artists who offered the space rent-free in exchange for commission. Derek Hirst, Jeff Nuttall, Penelope Slinger, Ian Breakwell, Jeanne Masoero and Nancy Fouts were among the first artists shown in the space, and she also presented the first solo exhibition by Tom Phillips in the initial year. She also included Postcard Show, for which Angela commissioned original works of art to be made into postcards by artists including Joseph Beuys, David Hockney, Richard Hamilton and Peter Blake.

The following year the gallery moved to Portland Mews in Soho, and then to Tottenham Mews in 1978, where it remained for ten years. In 1988 the gallery added an east end venue, Flowers East in Hackney, which was at the time the largest commercial gallery space in London.

By 1989 her son Matthew Flowers, who had worked at the gallery since 1975, became Managing Director.