London is the best city for art! (Time Out Survey)

London has been declared to be the best city in the world for art galleries - according to Time Out’s latest guide to the planet’s top places for culture.

This conclusion arises out of a survey of more than 24,000 people around the world about culture in their cities.

An impressive 81.1 percent of surveyed Londoners said that the city does art galleries better than it does anything else. London was a clear gold medal winner in the category, scoring much higher than Paris (which came second with 67.9 percent) and New York (third with 67.7 percent).

Of course, one of the main reasons for this is that so many are free to access - which is a very significant bonus for both residents and visitors alike.

In addition, 88.4 percent of London’s residents backed London’s museum venues. That put us third, only behind Paris and Madrid. 

Below is a summary of Time's Out View - based on its survey - of:

• the top 50 art galleries in London
• the top 25 museums in London.
  

I really out to get back to doing my twice a year overview of what's on where at the major art galleries....

The Top 50 Art Galleries in London

This is the Time Out Guide to The 50 best art galleries in London

Frankly, I don't think they're in any order of "best". 

• Rather this is a collection of what they think are the best. 
• I guarantee that the majority of Time Out Readers will not have heard of the majority of them - which makes it a very odd list in that sense.
• It also excludes rather a lot of very active art galleries which are well worth a visit - mainly because they forgot to say.....

There is a VERY STRONG Contemporary Art bias

Hence they EXCLUDE:

• any of the long running and very respectable art galleries (eg Cork Street and associated area) which a lot of artists would give their eye teeth to get into
• anything to do with art societies - which is sad, because it basically indicates that anything associated with an art society is of no interest. Which is very far from the truth.

As such I'll tell you which I think are the best!

Plus all the ones I have never visited

They are listed in a very odd order - so I have reordered into my particular order of preference

The Sainsbury Wing is now effectively the main entrance to the National Gallery
- and all temporary exhibitions

The ArtReview Power List 100 in the last 20 years (2005, 2015, 2025)

It's always worthwhile to keep an eye on what's changing in the upper echelons of the art genre/business - what's changing and what's not.  

The turn of the year is a good time to reflect on how things are changing....

ArtReview's Power 100 is an annual ranking of the most powerful people in Art and is always worth a look.  

• The core concept of the list revolves around the mechanisms and impact of influence in the art world.
• A lot of what changes tends to filter down over time - so it's a bit like looking into the future. 

Changes in the ArtReview Power 100:
who was at the top in the last 20 years 
(see FULL TABLE below)

This post looks at 

• who are the Power 100 in 2025 
• how the list has changed RADICALLY in the last 20 years. 

and gives me an opportunity to give my very analytical brain a work out - and to look at the trends over time.

The Power 100 is ArtReview’s annual portrait of power in the artworld. It is an attempt to describe the individuals and groups that have shaped what art has been seen and how it has been seen over the past 12 months (broadly speaking, the calendar year). And yes, that is an indication that ArtReview views the artworld as, essentially, a social structure: a network of relationships that are triggered by the actions of individuals. 

They define this further

The criteria for inclusion are:

• that each person of the Power 100 has had an active influence on the art being made and shown now;
• that influence has to be active

Of course, it really all depends on WHO you ask..... 

The Top 10 in the Power 100 2025

Woke art in London is going broke

This isn't as much a blog post by me, as me alerting you to an interesting article in The Evening Standard on 30th January. It's a very interesting article which I think will resonate with a lot of people - and it's a RECOMMENDED READ from me.

How the capital's art world went broke on woke alerted me to a few things I didn't know before

The author JJ Charlesworth is an art critic, art magazine editor and writer with twenty-five years of experience in contemporary art, publishing and education. Since 2006 he has worked on the editorial staff of the London-based international art magazine ArtReview, where he is one of the editors. He says he has also lectured and taught extensively, tutoring at London’s Royal College of Art, the Royal Academy Schools and Central St Martins College

Below I summarise

• key points from what he has to say
• commentary from me - marked up as "ME"

So what does he have to say?

Here's some key points:

Major financial challenges 

• major art institutions in London face major financial challenges
• the Tate and the Royal Academy of Arts have announced serious deficits (£11million and £2 million respectively)

Changing agendas do not bring in punters

Over the past few years art galleries have been pursuing programming agendas that don’t always resonate with audiences.

• culture wars (decolonisation / identity politics / Just Stop Oil etc etc) are not attractive to many exhibition visitors
• whereas major art galleries can host sell-out exhibitions for major "old favourite" artists from the past (e.g. Monet at the Courtauld; Van Gogh at the National Gallery in 2024)

ME: I think he's got a very important point.

He quotes numbers of visitors for institutions compared to pre-pandemic levels and suggests which ones are struggling 

Fire Risks for Fine Art in Los Angeles

I've seen no mention of risk to fine art in the context of the horrendous fires in Los Angeles, California - so decided to see what I could find.

It seems to me there are four main risks

• The Art Galleries housing fine art (eg Getty Museum; Los Angeles Museum of Art)
• The Security Archives holding art bought as an investment
• The Archives of individual artists with homes in the area - such as David Hockney
• The homes of very rich people who buy art - I mourn the loss of the art...

This is a resume of what I can find out so far.

Art Galleries - appear OK

I remember back in 2019, during the last really bad wildfires near Los Angeles, being extremely impressed with the precautions that the Getty Museum had taken in relation to risks from potential natural disasters.

This time the Getty seems to be in the clear again - and this is part of the reason why How LA's Getty Center built a fire-proof fortress for priceless art

I plugged in "Art Galleries in Los Angeles, CA" into Google Maps to see how close the major art galleries were to the six fires.

Fires are marked by a flickering fire motif
North: Hurst Fire
Central: Sunset Fire
West: Pacific Palisades Fire
East: Eaton Fire

It looks as if most of the main galleries (eg Los Angeles County Museum of Art) are all in built up areas which are more unlikely to wildfire - although who can tell given the extreme high winds carrying fiery embers all over the city

West of Pacific Palisades the fire seems to be burning its way along Malibu down to the coast.

News reports indicate the following

Why visit the William Morris Gallery?

The William Morris Gallery is located in Walthamstow and:

• holds an archive of material related to the William Morris, the English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement.
• currently has an exhibition which relates how the art of the Islamic World influenced Morris's design thinking

I highly recommend a visit. We visited William Morris & Art from the Islamic World last Friday.  Both the exhibition and the archive of material about his life and work of various kinds which the Gallery houses are well worth a visit.  

The exhibition continues until 9 March 2025.

I've uploaded some photographs I took to my Facebook Page where they are proving to be very popular. They show a mix of Islamic art and Morris's designs inspired by Islamic art. I've included narratives for each photo identifying what you are looking at.

You can also find some of the things I saw below.

Granada - designed by William Morris

Silk velvet brocade with silk thread

William Morris Gallery

Granada features pomegranates and almond shaped buds, connected by ogives (pointed arches) and branches, imagery that also appears in Ottoman textiles.

view of the exhibition

NEW Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries at the Imperial War Museum

Last Friday, I visited the Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) for the first time. They are the galleries in the UK’s to explore how artists, photographers and filmmakers bear witness to and tell the story of war and conflict.

The Imperial War Museum is not typically a place I think of when wanting to see art - but recent developments suggest it should definitely be part of the education of any self-respecting artist of fan of art history who wants to understand better how war has been recorded from a visual perspective.

Not least because the Galleries include some iconic artwork as well as important films and photography.

The reason I was at the IWM last Friday was because I'd been invited by the Museum's Digital Producer/Director to some filming she was doing with Gareth Reid in relation to various of the outstanding paintings in the IWM's art collection.

Gareth Reid being filmed while sketching and making notes
about "Gassed" by John Singer Sargent

Some of you may remember Gareth Reid as the winner of the 2017 series of Portrait Artist of the Year and more recently Portrait Artist of the Decade (Review: Portrait Artist of the Decade as featured in Portrait Artist of the Decade Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery - last few days). For me he will always Gareth Reid who I first met at the National Portrait Gallery back in 2008 when he was responsible for what I still think of as one of the best BP Travel Award Exhibitions in the history of the award (see BP Travel Award: Gareth Reid and the Finnish winter bathers).

He and I were both very impressed with the Galleries and their content. Read on to find out more.

The Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries

The Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries are located at the Imperial War Museum in London. They opened last November on Remembrance Sunday. 

The Galleries are free to enter, making more of IWM’s world-class collection available and accessible to all.

Entrance to the Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries

This is the first time in IWM’s history that a permanent gallery space has been created to display the three collections together - visual art, film and photography.

The Courtauld Gallery Collection Online

One of the aspects of The Courtauld's recent renewal / refurbishment was a huge digitisation project relating to its collection of various types of artworks, images and artefacts.

You can now see the complete collection online - in a HUGE amount of detail/magnification. It provides an amazing insight for anybody anywhere in the world into both mark-making and processes by famous artists - whether by 

• brush using oil, watercolour or other media 
• or stick of charcoal, pastel of graphite

View The Courtauld Gallery Collection Online 

The Courtauld Gallery’s collection, which comprises over 33,000 objects ranging from the Middle Ages to the 21st century and includes paintings, drawings, ceramics and sculptures, among others, is available to explore in its entirety online for free for the first time thanks to a new digital platform.

This features:

• 618 Paintings
• 5,462 Drawings 
• 26,627 Prints
• 60 Sculptures

Plus ceramics, silverware, enamels, ivories, books, metalware, silverware, furniture, textiles, glassware, woodwork and frames.

Some of the categories of images online

You can also download images - so long as you stick to the rules. Basically it's a Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Unported) licence - meaning you must provide attribution and not use if commercially.

The Courtauld makes images of its collection and other content on this website available for non-commercial and educational purposes under a Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Unported). For more information on the selected Creative Commons licence, please visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en_GB.

You are welcome to use images and content identified as Courtauld copyright for non-commercial purposes in research, private study or study within an educational establishment (such as a school, college or university), for criticism and review. The source of the image or content must be provided and its copyright status acknowledged. Images of the Courtauld collection should be credited with Photo © The Courtauld. Other Courtauld licenced content must be credited with © The Courtauld.

View The Courtauld Gallery Photograph Collection Online

The Courtauld’s photographic collections are of major international significance for the study and research of art, architecture, provenance and collecting, as well as enjoyment and appreciation of art in the classroom and at home

 

Review: Audubon's Birds of America at Compton Varney

Last week I was very pleased to preview the new exhibition of John James Audubon’s ‘Birds of America’ at Compton Verney for two reasons:

• I've always wanted to see "Birds of America" 'for real' as opposed to images online - to see if it is as impressive as it's always appeared to me to be
• I'd never visited Compton Verney before mainly because of the queries about 'so exactly how do I get there?'

The overall exhibition is a critical examination of both the man and his artwork and its historical context.

My conclusion upfront is that this is the sort of exhibition that you might only get to see once in your lifetime. 

It's also a truly monumental book in more ways than one! Not only do you get to see the original hand coloured engravings but you also learn about the man. 

The presentation of both the artwork and associated information and relevant material - letters, books, manuscripts, photography, projections and films - is of a very high quality and my congratulations to those who conceived and created this exhibition.

This is a very impressive exhibition

So be sure to visit if birds and/or the art of natural history interests you. "The art of making money from a big project" is a subsidiary but also very interesting part of the exhibition.

This is therefore.....

A review of the exhibition - focusing on the different aspects I became aware of while visiting and viewing the exhibition

What is 'Birds of America'?

• The book
• The birds
• The artwork
• The exhibition

Who is John James Audubon?

• The man - who is John James Audubon
• The artist as businessman

PLUS the answer to the travel logistics issue!

and an extra exhibition about birds by Quentin Blake

But first.....

What is "Birds of America"? 

I'm going to focus on the first four themes in this section.

The Book

There are only 120 complete copies of "Birds of America" in existence. It is a landmark and truly monumental publication which is now very valuable. Most copies are in national collections or institutions and the rest are owned by very rich people. 

Private copies sell for millions of dollars. Below is the result of the sale of Lord Hesketh's copy in 2010. (Also see Audubon's Birds of America: The world's most expensive book | BBC)

A first-edition print of The Birds of America by ornithologist John James Audubon, was auctioned at Sotheby’s auction house in London, England on December 6, 2010, and sold for a record £7,321,250 ($13.8 million) price tag.

This exhibition is based on an incomplete copy owned by the National Museums Scotland. It's incomplete because the Museum unfortunately let the subscription lapse!

A complete copy includes 435 hand-coloured engravings based on the original watercolour paintings created by John James Audubon.

The Birds

Audubon aimed to paint every bird in America. Whether he achieved this or not depends on what is known about all the birds in America in the early 1800s when he was researching and painting.

At the time he managed to paint and produce engraved and hand-coloured prints for 435 different birds. There may have been more but his original watercolours have disappeared as have all but some 70 odd of the engraving plates.

What we do know is that some of the birds he painted are now extinct.

The Exhibition

Just Stop Oil now threatening to slash artworks

The ignorant idiots who've been assaulting artwork around Europe are now reportedly threatening to start slashing paintings - despite the fact the oil in the paintings is nothing to do with the oil they are protesting about.

• Just Stop Oil considers slashing famous artworks as it threatens to 'escalate' protests | Sky News
• Just Stop Oil could slash famous paintings like Suffragettes, says spokesman | Evening Standard

Alex De Koning, a spokesman for Just Stop Oil, said it was "insane" that "more people are outraged" about the activists targeting artwork than the devastating floods in Pakistan, which displaced millions of people.

The 24-year-old - who describes himself as a climate scientist - told Sky News that the protest group may follow in the footsteps of suffragettes who "violently slashed paintings in order to get their messages across".

In 1914, Mary Richardson attacked Diego Velazquez's painting The Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver in a protest against the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst.

Later that year, suffragette Anne Hunt entered the National Portrait Gallery and hacked away at a painting of Thomas Carlyle, one of the gallery's trustees. (Sky News)

The most ludicrous excuse is that they're going to act "like the Suffragettes"

Clearly these ignoramuses have never studied history. As my other half pointed out this morning the spokesman 

• neither understands how suffrage was actually achieved 
• nor how to get people on their side.

The FACTS are:

• the movement for women's suffrage started in 1872
• it became a militant campaign in 1906

However over the course of 42 years absolutely nothing was achieved in terms of change in suffrage prior to World War I.

Women got the vote after the First World War only AFTER women had thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the war effort.

• the outbreak of the First World War saw all political activity suspended - including the suffrage movement
• After the War, Lloyd George wanted to recognise the efforts of those who had contributed to the War Effort and in 1918 Lloyd George's Coalition Government passed the Representation of the People Act 1918, enfranchising 
• all men over 21, 
• as well as all women over the age of 30 who met minimum property qualifications.
In 1928 the Conservative government passed the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 equalizing the franchise to all persons, male and female, over the age of 21.

My other half said he did not understand why those protesting did not grasp that aggressive, combative and damaging protests rarely if ever achieve anything. Nor do they achieve public support if they constantly annoy the public at large.

In contrast peaceful non-aggressive protests can be much more successful.

So, he asked, why do the protestors not act voluntarily to do something of positive and public benefit to the community at large - while wearing clothing indicating they are "#Just Stop Oil" Protestors.

I think he's making a great point.

In the meantime I notice that 

• protestors are acquiring criminal records and sentences of 6 months in prison.
• the security at major art galleries and museums has been significantly toughened up since their "attack" efforts started.

National Gallery in Trafalgar Square this month (November 2022)

REFERENCE

• Just Stop Oil is both destructive and IGNORANT!
• Why throw tomato soup at a Van Gogh painting?

Why throw tomato soup at a Van Gogh painting?

Last Friday, two "activists" for Just Stop Oil threw a tin of tomato soup over the very famous painting of Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh which was hanging in the National Gallery.

Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland of Just Stop Oil at the National Gallery

© 2022 Just Stop Oil

Just Stop Oil supporters throw soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers to demand no new oil and gas.

Two supporters of Just Stop Oil have thrown soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, as actions in the capital roll into the 14th day. They are demanding that the UK government halts all new oil and gas projects. [1]

The two women walked into the room in the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, in which the ‘Sunflowers’ is hung and at 11am threw the contents of two tins of Heinz Tomato soup over the painting which has an estimated value of $84.2 million. [2] Just Stop Oil Press Release

What's different about the new forms of extreme activism?

Art Exhibitions in Major / National London Art Galleries | Autumn / Winter 2022

I started this post intending to do a listing of art exhibitions in London this Autumn / Winter 2022 - across all the major / notable art galleries which are not wholly commercial.

I've moved on to the notion that a more manageable way of listing exhibitions might be to do three separate posts covering

1. Major / National Art Galleries & Museums - essentially those who are recipients on major grant in aid from the  Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS);
2. Significant Art Galleries & Museums - these are typically smaller art galleries and museums (but they're not small!) which have either notable permanent collections and/or put on notable exhibitions;
3. Specialist Art Galleries & Museums - those which tend to be focused on a specific subject or genre

I'll reference each of the other two posts in every post about Art Exhibitions in London Art Galleries in Autumn / Winter 2022

So first we have the "big boys"!

• The British Museum
• National Gallery
• Tate Britain
• Tate Modern
• Victoria & Albert Museum

Links are to the exhibition page on the website of the art museum or gallery.

MAJOR / NATIONAL ART GALLERIES & MUSEUMS

British Museum

Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG

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(Opens in new window)

Hieroglyphs: unlocking ancient Egypt - 13 October 2022 – 19 February 2023 

About how the meaning was unlocked following the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Hieroglyphs were not just beautiful symbols, they represented a living, spoken language. From romantic poetry and international treaties, to shopping lists and tax returns, the hieroglyphic inscriptions and ancient handwriting in this exhibition reveal stories that are fantastically varied.

 

Hieroglyphs - pictures which make language

Two million prints online for all 6 September 2022 - 23 January 2023

The display celebrates the milestone of a 30 year project to digitise all the prints and drawings collection in the British Museum collection.

In April 2021, the last of the two million prints was described and measured, and its production date and the names of the printmakers, designers and publishers added to the database. Now, for the first time, the British Museum's Department of Prints and Drawings’ astonishing collection of 500,000 records is available to a global audience on the British Museum's Collection online.

Art on paper since 1960, the Hamish Parker collection 22 September 2022 – 25 March 2023

From Lucian Freud to Kiki Smith, life drawing to minimalism and etching to collage, this exhibition spans an intriguing range of styles and techniques used in art on paper from 1960 to today.

Shattered glass of Beirut | FRee | 25 Aug 2022 - 23 Oct 2022

This display follows the story of eight ancient glass vessels, from their destruction in the 2020 Beirut explosion to their restoration.

National Gallery

Discombobulated by the National Gallery

I visited the National Gallery in London yesterday to view the Winslow Homer - Force of Nature Exhibition - and I'll be doing a review of this later - probably as a series of smaller posts as there's a lot to comment on and it's open until 8 January 2023.

Afterwards, I walked around the rest of the Gallery - and felt completely and utterly discombobulated! I think it's probably my first visit for over a year and quite possibly longer due to the combination of the pandemic, then avoiding big interior spaces with lots of people pre-surgery, then the getting ready for surgery and the recovery period. Consequently I've no idea how long it's been like this. I think it's probably relatively recent as I came across this article from the Art Newspaper.

Moving Michelangelo and hauling Holbein: renovation headache for London's National Gallery. A bicentenary renovation project makes the London museum play a tricky game of musical chairs with its collection

Anyway - a lot has changed! 

Very oddly, very little of what has changed is explained well on the website - so if you like me haven't visited for a while you might well feel equally discombobulated!

I got more information about what's happening from The Art Newspaper article than the website - which is odd to say the least when you can't project manage updating the website at the same time as making huge changes to the content on display and its layout!

Below is what I found in the Gallery........

The Gallery with the Constables and the Turners and the lovely leather sofas
- one of the few parts of the National Gallery which is relatively unchanged

• huge sections which are simply not accessible due to restructuring / renovations / getting ready for NG200 in 2024 (which I'd not heard of before). That's as in:

• Virtually ALL of the Sainsbury Wing is out of action (Rooms 52-59 and 62-66 + the Basement Gallery
• plus Rooms 1-8 in the Wilkins Building - which is where exhibitions which would have been in the Sainsbury Wing are now being held - as in the new Lucian Freud exhibition
• plus a lot more rooms on the second floor of the main building - which makes walking around in a circle really difficult - you have to backtrack a lot.
• I looked at the floor plans afterwards - which have no clear / prominent legend/key and are consequently are nearly incomprehensible
• you can download the floor plan as at September 2022 which does not explain that grey means inaccessible and makes no distinction between gallery spaces which are closed and spaces given over to other functions of the Gallery which have never been accessible.
• bottom line - it's very difficult to get your head around even if you're used to the layout of the gallery!

In the next few months, the picture galleries in the Sainsbury Wing will close to prepare for building works as part of NG200. Find out more about individual room closures on the Level 2 floorplan page.

Later this month London’s National Gallery is due to announce plans for its 2024 bicentenary celebrations and an associated building project. But although the much-needed upgrading of its Sainsbury Wing entrance will be welcomed, it poses logistical challenges for the gallery—and it will have a considerable temporary impact on where paintings are displayed. The Art Newspaper (13 June 2022)

• the explanations within the Gallery of how to move around/through are either absent or confusing. They might make sense to museum staff but I know the Gallery well and I was struggling. I was simply lost muc of the time as to which part of the building I was in - as I've always navigated by art on the walls previously!
• large parts of the collection have been rehung in different galleries
• partly to accommodate the need to get the early art out of the Sainsbury Wing
• partly to accommodate the exhibitions which would usually be in the gallery at the bottom of the Sainsbury Wing have had to come into the main Wilkins Building.
• Dutch Floral Still Lifes - which I visit every time I got to the Gallery - are absolutely nowhere to be seen.
• relatively few paintings seem to be in the same place 
• the 'story of art' in some galleries is really, really weird! It almost looks like "what can fit where" exercise at times.
• smaller spaces = much more crowded I'd advise going during hours when the huge number of tours are not 'working'

It was a real relief when I got to galleries which looked almost the same as they always do. The Canaletto's and Guardis are in the same place as are the Constables and Turners.

On the plus side I saw more artwork that was new to me than ever seen on previous visits! Some of which is very, very good.

Plus some hanging juxtapositions which improved the viewing - such as the Vermeer Virginals below

A Young Woman standing at a Virginal (c.1670)
A Young Woman seated at a Virginal (c.1670)
by Johannes Vermeer

What upset me is that this current change is obviously going to last at least until the end of 2024 i.e. at least two more years - and may well change again during that time.

So where's the art - and is it on view?

Just Stop Oil is both destructive and IGNORANT!

For many years, I used to visit the BP Portrait Awards Night at the National Portrait Gallery to photograph the winning artists. In doing so, I used to have walk past the demonstrators against BP's sponsorship of this important portrait competition.  I said "Excuse me" and they kindly moved to let me pass. Respect on both sides.

I understood where they were coming from. It made sense - even if I disagreed with them - as explained in a series of posts about sponsorship of art (see end of this post)

However words very nearly fail me when it comes to some of the utter stupidities of the Just Stop Oil's initiatives in relation to art galleries and famous oil paintings - but not quite.  Hence this post!

The demonstrations

Graffiti sprayed onto walls of art galleries and glueing themselves to paintings
is standard practice for these demonstrators

To date there have been various demonstrations around the UK involving destruction of property and demonstrators gluing themselves to very old artwork and archival frames as follows

• June 29th - Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum - 
• July 1st - Manchester Art Gallery
• July 4th - National Gallery
• July 5th - Royal Academy

Not so one of my followers who very neatly summed it up when he pointed out 

It's the wrong sort of oil!

or another who commented

Ian Dugdale
Just think about all the petro-chemical solvent that will be needed to remove all the graffiti. Wouldn’t be needed without their actions.

So let's highlight 

• it's the wrong sort of oil
• the wrong places are being attacked for no good reason

The one on the left apparently enjoys foreign holidays involving lots of flights

The wrong sort of oil

Some of the protestors are art students.

You'd think they'd know that oil paint has nothing whatsoever to do with petroleum!

The oil used in oil paint is very often linseed oil.

Linseed oil is:

• pressed from flax seeds - which have been grown for centuries if not millenium without adverse effects
• biodegradeable
• non toxic

Other oils used as a viscous medium for oil paint include walnut oil and poppy oil.

They all sound very green to me - and precisely the antithesis of what these very silly  infantile protestors are complaining about.

The wrong places i.e. no oil sponsorship

NONE OF THE GALLERIES DESECRATED TO DATE ARE SPONSORED BY OIL COMPANIES

Indeed BP has very nearly stopped backing the arts per se.

On the page on its website dealing with sponsorship of the arts in the UK it highlights the following

In 2016, in support of our strategy, we announced a further five-year investment of £7.5 million from 2018 for a range of projects at the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Opera House

So basically, not one of the art galleries targeted have been in receipt of oil money - and one of them is closed at the moment!

There are no grounds whatsoever for attacking these places.

On 14th June I walked home from an art exhibition along Horse Guards
- only to find that some very expensive machinery involved in 
cleaning red paint thrown on the Treasury Building by Just Stop Oil demonstrators

Indeed I also find the waste of public money involved in cleaning off the paint thrown at the Treasury to be abominable, given others (from Gandhi to Greenham Common to Dame Deborah James) have demonstrated extremely well how effective other forms of PEACEFUL campaigning can be. 

Destructive protests just serve to alienate very many people.

The rules of effective protests are

1. First do no harm
2. Get your facts right
3. Don't annoy the wrong people 

So far as I'm concerned they're getting it very badly wrong on EVERY SINGLE LEVEL! 

While I support environmentalism, in no way do I support people who behave in such an ignorant and destructive way to no good end. 

Many think - and I agree - that they need to grow up and stop behaving like young people with a bad attack of the teenage tantrums.

REFERENCE: BP sponsorship

I've written about BP's sponsorship of the Arts and the various views taken about it on a number of occasions:

• Tate must release details of BP sponsorship (December 2014)
• Tate's BP funding figures revealed - less than expected (January 2015)
• BP Sponsorship of the Arts - latest developments (July 2016)
• Should artists use prize money to protest against the sponsor of an art competition? (2017)

My view is clear - as stated back in 2015.

I'll state my case up front. I really am not in the least bit bothered by BP's sponsorship of art galleries and museums. I'm far more concerned about:

• fossil fuel companies behaving in a social responsible manner
• those trying to repair their reputation paying a fair price to society for the privilege of being associated with a prestigious art gallery or museum which only exists due to generous state support. 

Of course I'd rather that energy sources came from renewable sources. However until somebody makes energy consumption from non-fossil fuel a cost effective and efficient proposition for most of the companies and families in the UK (and elsewhere) I don't see much alternative to the continued use of fossil fuels.

That in turn means oil companies will be looking for ways of sanitising their image - and offers a wonderful opportunity for sponsorship - so long as this is at the right price.

Nearly the end of the Sackler name on art buildings?

This is an update on how the Sackler name is being stripped from very many public institutions, art galleries and museums.

Two more art galleries have quietly removed the name - without announcement 

• the Guggenheim in New York and 
• the National Gallery in London

Photo: Wikimedia Commons courtesy Jean-Christophe BENOIST

I've written before about how the Sackler name on buildings which house art has become total anathema to very many people - both artists and art fans. For an explanation as to why if you're totally unaware of the furore over and fallout from the Opioid Crisis - see

• The Continuing Saga of Sackler Embarrassment for Art Galleries and Museums (2020)
• NEW Ethical slant on 2019 Power 100 "The most influential people in art" (December 2019
• The Politics of Sponsorship - a new reality for art galleries and museums (February 2019)

The removal of the Sackler Name

You and I used to see the Sackler name everywhere. It verged on ubiquitous if the arts were involved.

Then artists started to get involved in highlighting why it was wrong.  See An astounding list of artists helped persuade the Met to remove the Sackler name | New Yorker

Very slowly - starting with the Louvre back in 2019 - the name has come down from various instutions of the art world

One cannot help but think that lawyers have been poring over the legal bequest documentation and should by now have now come up with clauses about "doing nothing to bring the name of the institution into disrepute" i.e. if you're naughty, all bets are off and the name comes down - and we don't have to give the money back!

There again..... I wonder how many institutions are combing through their bequest records to identify how much they've received from the now disgraced Russian oligarchs?

Art Galleries and Museums removing the Sackler Name

For the most part, those which had received significant funding leading to the naming of spaces waited until the legal situation was clear. Ties started to be cut in 2020 after the family company Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to criminal charges connected to marketing of addictive painkiller OxyContin.

Purdue Pharma reached an $8bn settlement and pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2020 over its marketing of the painkiller, which played a key role in the emergence of the opioid epidemic. The Sackler family won immunity from further litigation in September this year and have given up control of the company.

Museums Association

Here are the places that no longer boast a space or a building using the name "Sackler".

National Galleries of Scotland Art Quiz

For those who like to exercise their art recognition/knowledge braincells, I very much recommend the National Galleries of Scotland Friday Art Quiz - which occurs monthly.

National Galleries of Scotland Friday Art Quiz

It's a 10 question quiz based on artworks in the National Galleries of Scotland - which I've never visited. 

You'll enjoy it with you have a fairly decent knowledge of art history, a good memory and can recognise artists work and the era in which an artwork was created.

I got two wrong with the quiz published today. I didn't get the sculpture or an obscure painting right! However getting 8 out of 10 means they rate me as "good". 

I'm officially "good"!

I'll be trying to do better next time. The next one is on Friday 27 May 2022.

It's publicised on their Facebook Page which is 

The Burrell Collection reopens today

The Burrell Collection in Glasgow reopens to the public at 10am on Tuesday 29 March. The home of the Collection has been undergoing a major refurbishment and the museum closed on 23 October 2016.

This is about the refurbishment, the collection and upcoming events to celebrate the reopening.

I visited the Burrell Collection way back in 1987 as part of the UK Field Trip for my MBA Degree at the London Business School. We were visiting Glasgow as an example of a city which was busy reinventing itself and creating a new image for the future. 

First impressions were stunning. Its location in a grassy glade surrounded by woodland within the Pollok Country Park - and the extent of the glass which revealed the collection to visitors before they even got inside were stunning. I was very impressed to see ancient glass and architectural elements embedded into the very contemporary building.

I remember looking at the collection from outside and then looking out at the trees from inside.

I also remember it was a very confusing museum to love around - something which is addressed by the refurbishment.

About the Burrell Collection

The Burrell Collection is a museum in Glasgow, Scotland, managed by Glasgow Museums. It houses the internationally significant art collection of Sir William Burrell and Constance, Lady Burrell. 

The Collection comprises:

• one man's collection of more than 9,000 objects spanning six millennia 
• it includes
• an important collection of medieval art including exquisite stained glass and intricate tapestries, oak furniture, medieval weapons and armour,
•  Islamic art, 
• artefacts from ancient civilisations 
• an impressive collection of Chinese pottery and porcelain produced over a 5,000-year period, making it one of the most significant collections of Chinese Art in Europe; 
• Impressionist works by Degas and Cézanne, 
• modern sculpture

The Red Ballet Skirts (c.1900) by Edgar Hilaire Germain Degas (pastel)

The museum which houses The Burrell Collection in Pollok Country Park opened in 1983 by HM The Queen. The building was constructed following a design competition and created a very striking and innovative design. Some of the stained glass is embedded into the design of the building

Unfortunately, the contemporary glazing leaked and the building also needed major refurbishment to comply with contemporary requirements for access and sustainability.

The refurbishment

Changes at Flickr - and compliance with Online Safety changes

I know a lot of artists have stored their images online on Flickr in the past - often using a free account. 

HOWEVER for all those with a free account, you need to know a few things about what's changing - summarised below.

Flickr forever: Creating the safest, most inclusive photography community on the planet.
MARCH 17, 2022

Three days ago, Flickr announced on its blog that there are going to be changes.  

You can read more about this - in detail - in Flickr forever: Creating the safest, most inclusive photography community on the planet. (17th March 2022)

The changes 

Flickr forever: click here to learn how free accounts are changing for the long-term growth and health of our community.

The overall emphasis is on 

• restricting content which can be held privately and 
• encouraging people to subscribe to Pro accounts.

The changes announced this week are:

Non-public photo limits - for those with FREE accounts

we’re limiting free accounts to 50 non-public photos (e.g. photos marked as private, friends, family, or friends and family. Read more about privacy settings on Flickr here).

In other words, if you've never paid for your Flickr account, you now risk losing ALL but 50 (FIFTY) of the images you've uploaded which are not public for all.

If you want a safe place to store your photos which you do NOT want to be public, you will need to upgrade to a PRO membership - where you get unlimited storage for a monthly, annual or biannual sum. 

Guess what - the most expensive is monthly and the best value is buy two years at a time.

As they point out this announcement about deleting images may sound familiar

In 2018 we announced that free accounts containing over 1,000 photos and/or videos would have content actively deleted. In the years since, we haven’t deleted a single photo that was over the limit. Not ONE.

What they're saying now is that you can upload lots and lots of images - but all but 50 must be public. Otherwise they will be deleted.

So don't say you weren't warned!

Restricted and Moderate Content

POLL: What was the best place to sell your art in 2021

I'm going to revive my monthly opinion polls in 2022. On the whole, I think they provided some very useful feedback for both professional and amateur artists and those who aspire to do more with their art - particularly in relation to the business side of art activities.

Most polls have continued in terms of 

• either charts of the results on this blog (see below) 
• or ongoing live polls on my Art Business Info. for Artists website

I'm starting the year - an the monthly polls - by reviving polling about the best place to sell art. I've run this a number of times and had interesting results each time.  

MOST PROFIT: What was the best place to sell art in 2021?

My first topic is PROFIT

• WHICH place/option - which generates sales of your art - also generates the most profit?
• the "most profit" might be due to e.g.
• LOTS of sales - even if the profit margin between income and expenses is low
• VERY LOW EXPENSES - so that all sales max out your profit
• HIGH VALUE SALES - which make you a lot of money - even if expenses are high

You can find the Poll below

Below the Poll I explain what platform I've used to generate it and anything else you might want to know

POLLS PLATFORM

My previous platform (CrowdSignal) no longer works for me, so I'm switching to Google Forms. I've just spent a lot of this afternoon learning how to use them for Polls of this sort - but may not have got it right! Do let me know if you run into any problems.

Don't worry, I've set the poll up so that no personal data (like emails) is asked for or collected. 

With any luck we should get a result which indicates the three most popular options for generating PROFIT in 2021 (i.e. income you generated for an option less the expenses associated with that particular option)

I'll also be putting this Poll on my website Art Business Info so that it can continue to collect data on the most profitable places 

You can also find the poll on this page too How to Sell Your Art

Previous Polls

Below you'll also find links to the poll results in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012

• 2014 - Most Revenue or Best Profit? What was the Best Place to sell Art in 2013?
• 2014 - POLL: Selling Art in 2014 - Is the best place for generating cash the same as the best place for making a profit?
• 2012 - 2012 Poll Results: What's the best place to sell art? (Part 1) - this reveals 4 places where (1) the most money & (2) the most profit were made from selling art in 2011/12.
• 2012 - What's the best place to sell art? Trends in selling art 2008-2012: (1) direct from the studio; (2) via third party galleries ad art societies.
• 2012 - The Best Place to Sell Art - (Part 2 More Trends Trends in selling art 2008-2012: via temporary venues and online websites.
• 2011 - What's the MAIN way you have sold art in the last 12 months? (Poll results)
• 2010 - What's the MAIN way you have sold art in the last 12 months? (Poll Results)
• 2010 - What's the best place to sell art? Trends in selling art 2008-2012: (1) direct from the studio; (2) via third party galleries ad art societies.
• 2009: MAM Poll (August) results: the MAIN way you've sold art in the last 12 months
• 2008: What's the MAIN way you sell your art? - The Results.