Jack Vettriano. Art & the Establishment
Bernard Victor
I think some of the supporters of this news group, particularly Mani
Deli might find it very interesting, and surprisingly supportive I
think of De Li's views. Perhaps someone else to add to the
contemporary painters he likes.
"He's our favourite artist. So why do the galleries hate him so much?
Painter whose work tops sales charts lashes out at snobbish elite
David Smith, arts and media correspondent
Sunday January 11, 2004
The Observer
He is Britain's most popular artist, outselling Dali, Monet and Van
Gogh. A month ago, he rubbed shoulders with David Beckham at
Buckingham Palace as both collected OBEs.
Yet while even the Queen has embraced the phenomenon of Jack
Vettriano, the art establishment stands accused of blackballing him
and 'running scared' of public opinion.
Vettriano's images of beaches, butlers and lovers have come to adorn
everything from posters and cards to mugs and umbrellas, but the
nation's major galleries have never displayed a single example of the
real thing.
Anyone wishing to see an original Vettriano must travel to Scotland's
Kirkcaldy Art Gallery, which has two. Last night the artist, a former
mining engineer from Fife, launched a withering attack on the cultural
elite that leaves him out in the cold.
In a rare interview, Vettriano said: 'The art world is not a lot to do
with art; it's to do with money and power and position. Annually the
national galleries are given a budget of taxpayers' money and they
should spend it on behalf of the people of Great Britain, but I feel
they don't.
"If they've decided you fit what they like, you'll be in; if they've
made up their minds otherwise, you never will be. I appear to be in
the latter category. If they were truly buying for the people of Great
Britain then they would buy my work, that is as clear as day. But they
don't.
'I have days when I couldn't care less, and other days when I wonder
why the gulf exists. There's a snob association: when something's too
popular it's regarded as a bit trashy. But I would rather my paintings
sold to ordinary people, rather than being stacked in a store house at
the National Gallery.'
Vettriano, 52, has sold more than three million poster reproductions
around the world and earns an estimated £500,000 a year from the
royalties. The works themselves disappear from public view into the
hands of private collectors, with buyers including Hollywood star Jack
Nicholson, composer Sir Tim Rice and British actor Robbie Coltrane.
The highest price to date was for a painting called Embracing, which
fetched £98,000 at auction in Edinburgh last month.
Admitting he was not a fan of the type of works that win the Turner
Prize each year, the self-taught painter, known for his erotically
charged figurative scenes, added: 'I personally like to see
craftsmanship, I like to look at paintings where somebody has worked
very hard to learn how to do it and you can feel the pain. I'm not
dismissive about contemporary art because we all have our own
priorities. There is room for everybody.'
Supporters of Vettriano claim that as a traditional artist he is the
victim of snobbery which favours 'cutting edge' contemporary art such
as Damien Hirst's shark in formaldehyde, Tracey Emin's unmade bed and
Grayson Perry's pots. As Vettriano's popularity continues to grow,
reflected in his OBE, pressure is growing on the galleries.
Bob Bee, who has directed and produced Jack Vettriano: The People's
Painter for Melvyn Bragg's The South Bank Show, to be broadcast on
ITV1 on 21 March, said: 'We wanted to ask Sir Nicholas Serota,
director of the Tate, the criteria by which acquisitions are selected
and whether he would consider buying a Vettriano. We were told he was
busy curating his next exhibition.
'We wanted to ask Sir Timothy Clifford, director of the National
Galleries of Scotland, why none of the Scottish galleries will show
Scot land and the UK's favourite painter. We were told he was
travelling in India and couldn't comment.
'If they'd come back and said we don't think he's a good enough
artist, that would be fine, but there's a reluctance to address the
issue on any level.'
Sir Terence Conran, who commissioned Vettriano to paint a series of
oils now hanging in his Bluebird restaurant complex in London, joined
the criticism: 'They turn their backs on him because his work has been
reproduced on posters, which I think is incredibly elitist and
snobbish. In Scotland the art establishment has sneered at him because
he is self-taught.
'He's not a Young British Artist, he's doing something different, but
just as the American artist Edward Hopper is revered, I hope some of
that could rub off on Vettriano.'
Tom Hewlett, the artist's dealer for the past decade, said: 'It's
never very convincing if you're not prepared to stand there and
justify your stance on something. It's more convincing if you're
willing to explain your reasons.
'But I'm not surprised because I think experience has told people like
Timothy Clifford that the more they try to slag off Vettriano and his
work the more the reaction grows stronger in the opposite direction.
'I can see why Nicholas Serota hasn't got anything to say because he
has his own agenda. But if there was a Jack Vettriano show at the
Tate, I can only think it would be very well attended, and by a lot of
people who don't normally visit the Tate, which would surely be a good
thing.'
Hewlett, owner of the Portland Gallery in London, which will exhibit
Vettriano's latest works in June, said: 'Art which is accessible to
the masses is often regarded as not worthy of inclusion when the
people choosing for galleries prefer old masters or cutting-edge
contemporary. Should a public gallery give the public what they want
or what the directors want to give them?
'There are two art worlds: the popular one which anyone can
understand, and the academic one controlled by relatively few people.
The latter has a very different approach and tries to be sensational
for the sake of it.
'People understand less an unmade bed or a pickled pig's head. There
are no emperor's new clothes around Vettriano's paintings. We get 20
to 30 emails a day from literally every corner of the world inquiring
about his work.'
Simon Matthews, chief executive of Easyart.com, the online shop, said:
'He is a phenomenon. For posters he is our bestselling artist by far
in the past year, beating the Dalis, the Monets and the Warhols.
'In the past three months he sold 27 per cent more than Dali in second
place. His work isn't cutting- edge, it's nice and comfortable and
slightly saucy, a reminder of times gone by and just what the English
like.'
But Professor Duncan Macmillan of Edinburgh University, who in his
definitive history of Scottish painting afforded Vettriano one
paragraph, insisted: 'The analogy in fiction would be Jilly Cooper,
Mills & Boon or Harry Potter - should J. K. Rowling win the Booker
Prize because she's read by a lot of people? It's interesting as a
phenomenon: he's obviously struck a popular note, but it cannot be
translated directly into enduring quality.'
A spokesman for the Tate said: 'Tate collects British art of national
importance, and can't purchase works by every British artist. The
curators judge which artists and works are of national importance and
we don't discuss artists not included in the collection.'
Richard Calvocoressi, the director of the Scottish National Gallery of
Modern Art, said via email: 'We recognise that Jack Vettriano is
popular with the public but so are numerous artists not represented in
our collections.'
Useful link
http://www.vettriano.us/artist-gallery-asp/artist-Jack_Vettriano/artist_gallery_Jack_Vettriano.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1120728,00.html
I hope you all find this interesting.
G*rd*n
> I have copied this article from the link given below.
>
> I think some of the supporters of this news group, particularly Mani
> Deli might find it very interesting, and surprisingly supportive I
> think of De Li's views. Perhaps someone else to add to the
> contemporary painters he likes.
>
> "He's our favourite artist. So why do the galleries hate him so much?
>
> Painter whose work tops sales charts lashes out at snobbish elite
>
> David Smith, arts and media correspondent
> Sunday January 11, 2004
> The Observer
> He is Britain's most popular artist, outselling Dali, Monet and Van
> Gogh. A month ago, he rubbed shoulders with David Beckham at
> Buckingham Palace as both collected OBEs.
>
> Yet while even the Queen has embraced the phenomenon of Jack
> Vettriano, the art establishment stands accused of blackballing him
> and 'running scared' of public opinion. ...
I've seen Vettriano's work reproduced in various places --
magazines and posters -- and I believe I saw an original in
a gallery here in New York City. Of course our galleries go
in for a lot of tourist-oriented froth, so maybe that isn't
saying much. However, he hasn't exactly been out of
Establishment favor:
It was fourteen years before Vettriano felt ready to show
any of his work in public. In 1989 he offered two works to
the Royal Scottish Academy's annual exhibition; both were
accepted and sold on the first day. The following year, an
equally enthusiastic reaction greeted the three paintings,
which he entered for the prestigious Summer Exhibition at
London's Royal Academy.
In the last nine years interest in, and desire for his work,
has grown rapidly. There have been sellout solo exhibitions
in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. In
November 1999, Vettriano's work was shown for the first time
in New York, when twenty paintings were displayed at The
International 20th Century Arts Fair at The Armory. Fifty
collectors from the UK flew out for the opening night of the
Fair and all twenty paintings were sold out within an hour
of the opening.
(http://www.vettriano-art.com/)
I don't see the problem here; I suppose the British scene
may be different. Given Vettriano's success, he could buy
his own gallery and seemingly do quite well.
--
(<><>) /*/
}"{ G*rd*n }"{ g...@panix.com }"{
{ http://www.etaoin.com | latest new material 1/19/03 <-adv't
Pan T. Waste
says...
>He is Britain's most popular artist, outselling Dali, Monet and Van
>Gogh.
When does this guy sleep?
Talk about a prolific artist!
DNALJM
I've seen his work in hotel rooms and the lavatories of finer
resturants. I thought that it was done by a commerical artist paid to make
images for such venues. I think it's a bit too sentimental for my tastes, too
cutey. If I were to buy a poster I would rather get a Bouguereau. He is such
a good painter that even his sentimental subjects have gravity. His young
girls have riveting stares which make you think that there is a lot going on
behind them. Sort of a joke on the viewer. This painter looks like he is
working for a greeting card company, trying to churn out paintings at the
expense of quality.
Jane