Evocations of London

John Virtue (born 1947) is the sixth National Gallery Associate Artist. A great deal of fuss is being made of the exhibition which marks his two-year period in residence in a basement studio. On display are the 11 new paintings he has made, several of them vast, and the show spills out from the Sunley Room into the adjacent corridors and galleries. The accompanying catalogue is a very plush affair, published in hardback (special exhibition price £12.95) and containing essays by the historian Simon Schama, Paul Moorhouse of the Tate and Colin Wiggins of the National Gallery. The current issue of Modern Painters magazine carries a laudatory article about Virtue by the National’s director, Charles Saumarez Smith. There have been colour-supplement features on Virtue’s work and he has been interviewed on radio. The publicity machine is in full flight, and extremely flattering things are being said. Interestingly enough, nowhere in catalogue or press material can I find a list of the previous incumbents of this prestigious position. Is such information not considered of general interest?

What a difference of mood 25 years ago when the first artist-in-residence, Maggi Hambling (born 1945), was appointed. There was such anxiety that the presence of a living artist actually working in this sacred hoard of Old Masters might provoke a riot that the powers that then were scarcely allowed Hambling to hold an exhibition of the work she did there, let alone publish a catalogue of it. Tenure was three months extended to six (it later became a year, before reaching the generous two-year allocation now available), and at the end of this period Hambling was only permitted ‘Drawings and Paintings on View’ rather than a proper exhibition. Nevertheless, the experience was deeply valuable and enriched her work.