Olympians demand artwork removal
"Offensive" portraits should be removed say Australian swimmers
This edition also features: British Museum | Jonathan Yeo | Manchester Museum | Leonora Carrington
Happy Friday
Size isn’t everything. Stop sniggering.
A big blockbuster is obviously exciting and (usually) unforgettable. Hell, even if you don’t enjoy it, the sheer scale of hundreds of objects under one roof will definitely leave an impression.
But sometimes it’s the smaller shows that will stay with you. I say this as this week I saw the small but perfectly formed Frank Auerbach. The Charcoal Heads exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery.
Two rooms, 17 drawings, and six paintings. One knockout exhibition. The black-and-white images are haunting, and clearly masterpieces. I recommend you go before it shuts on 27 May.
I haven’t seen it yet, but another show I know is defying its small size is The Last Caravaggio at the National Gallery. It’s a one-artwork blockbuster with one bonus painting. That’s pretty much it. But there are crowd barriers snaking all around the entrance to the show such are the crowds it’s pulling in.
And of course, commercial galleries are experts on putting on shows on a more compact scale. One of my favourites is Gagosian’s Davies Street gallery. It’s tiny. But it had one of my very favourite exhibitions of 2022 there.
So let’s hear it for the small show (the good ones at least). I’d love to hear if you have a favourite tiny exhibition you’ve seen? Let me know in the comments below or hit reply in this email to tell me.
Now onto the news!
— maxwell
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Need To Know
British Museum finds more treasures
A further 268 objects that were missing as part of the British Museum’s inside job scandal have been recovered. It’s now been confirmed that almost half of the items thought stolen from the collection over many decades — a total of 626 of roughly 1,500 — have now been found and returned to the museum in London.
George Osborne, Chair of the British Museum, said “Few expected to see this day, and even I had my doubts." He said detective work from staff resulted in the latest recoveries “and a further 100 have been identified.”
“Through clever detective work and a network of well-wishers we’ve achieved a remarkable result.”
According to the BBC, due to the lack of cataloguing and records, the museum has had trouble proving which of the recovered items came from its collections, so for now, it is receiving these objects back as donations.
The museum has previously said it would spend approximately £10 million to document its entire collection and make it available online within five years. (Read more)
Gold medal pressure on gallery
An extraordinary attempt to pressure the National Gallery of Australia to remove two unflattering portraits of the country’s richest women is being led by professional swimming stars and an Olympic champion.
Rio 2016 100m Freestyle gold medalist Kyle Chalmers is leading a campaign to have two paintings of billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart taken off the gallery’s walls because she “deserves to be praised and looked upon…a lot better than what the portraits have made her out to be.” Rinehart has given almost $40 million (£21m) since 2012 to fund the Australian swim team and its athletes.
Swimming Queensland boss, Kevin Hasemann, said that Chalmers approached the body on behalf of a group of about 20 swimmers who argued the portraits were unfair. So Hasemann too has written to the gallery. The portraits are of “deep concern to us because they are offensive” he wrote. Rinehart herself has demanded the works be taken down too.
The Canberra gallery has rejected the removal requests and said it welcomed public debate on exhibitions. (Read more)
Critics see red on King’s portrait
Art critics have broadly panned the first official portrait of HM The King which was unveiled this week.
You’ll likely have already seen Jonathan Yeo’s life portrait of King Charles as its VERY RED background has made the work go viral. Commissioned on behalf of the Drapers’ Company in 2020 and unveiled at Buckingham Palace this week, it’s made global headlines for a lack of love from art experts.
The Sunday Times’ art critic said it was “another display of awful royal taste. The red is weird and inelegant.” Jonathan Jones in the Guardian called it “a masterpiece of shallowness.” The Washington Post’s critic Sebastian Smee slammed it as “confused, obsequious, oversized and unaccountably frightening.” CNN’s Jake Tapper introduced the painting on live TV by saying it shows the King “apparently after he massacred a small village.”
But art dealer and co-presenter of Fake or Fortune? Philip Mould hailed the painting as “the most progressive royal portrait done from life in a very long time”. Although he did help broker the commission and is displaying the work in his London gallery for a month. (Read more)
News from the UK
Royal revelation 📷 | A previously unseen 1964 photograph of Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, Princess Alexandra and The Duchess of Kent holding their newborn babies has gone on public display for the first time. It’s a star item from a new exhibition of 100 years of royal photographs at the newly renamed King’s Gallery. Other highlights include the earliest surviving photographic print of a Royal produced in colour, and unreleased wartime images by Cecil Beaton. (Read more)
Rare showing 🎨 | The first ever exhibition devoted to the landscape sketches made by Frederic, Lord Leighton will be held this autumn at Leighton House in London. 50 of these very rarely-seen paintings will be shown, and many will be returning to the artist’s house-museum for the first time in over 120 years, placing them back where they were originally displayed.
Down tools ⚒️ | A 20-year excavation at one of Europe’s greatest prehistoric sites is to end, with the ancient buildings re-covered with soil. This is despite the discoveries so far being just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of what could be there. Archaeologists are adamant that the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney should be now be left alone until future technologies can make further excavations more safe. In size and sophistication, the Ness rivals the wonders of Sutton Hoo and Hadrian’s Wall, but is thousands of years older. (Read more)
Museum Vandalised 🏛️ | Police are investigating after an early morning attack saw the entrance and walls of Grade II-listed Manchester Museum daubed in red paint. Manchester University which runs the museum said they “were subject to an act of criminal vandalism”. The group University of Manchester Action for Palestine has claimed responsibility on social media. Specialist paint removal contractors were called in, and the museum remained open. (Read more)
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News from around the world
USA 🇺🇸 | A cyber attack has forced Christie’s website offline for the past week. The attack took place just days before the most important auction season of the year, and the auction house is still yet to reveal exact details of the incident and if a ransom is being sought. Yet the auctions still went ahead as planned, hauling in about $114.7 million and setting several new artist records. (Read more)
Vatican City 🇻🇦 | Forty-nine Vatican Museums employees have started an unprecedented labour dispute over what they say are unfair and poor conditions at their workplace. The workers, mostly museum visitor assistants, have sent a petition to the state’s authorities lamenting rules that cause "labour conditions undermining each worker's dignity and health." Unions are not allowed in Vatican City. Vatican Museums — some of the world’s most visited — employ 700 people. (Read more)
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | The largest collection of Rembrandt etchings ever to be seen in the Netherlands will be displayed from next month. More than 200 masterful etchings from collector Jaap Mulders will fill the Westfries Museum in Hoorn. The museum is hosting this impromptu exhibition due to a delay in its renovations. Never before has Mulders collection been shown in full.
Best of the rest
Royal approval ⛪ | Westminster Abbey is to construct a major new building to improve the visitor experience, and it will be constructed in honour of HM The King. It will offer a more prestigious entrance and will free up 10% of the Abbey’s floorspace. (More)
Nightingales display ✈️ | A display celebrating the women who risked their lives flying into battle during WWII has opened at the Florence Nightingale Museum. Known as the Flying Nightingales, the women delivered supplies to troops and evacuated injured men. (More)
British record 🖼️ | Leonora Carrington has become the most valuable British-born female artist after one of her paintings sold for over £22.5m. Les Distractions de Dagobert sold at Sotheby’s in New York to the founder of the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires. (More)
BREAKING NEWS 🚨 | The old Museum of London building WILL be demolished. There’d been hope it would be saved as Housing Secretary Michael Gove halted the plans for a review. That block has been lifted, giving the green light. (More)
Rocket Man 🚀 | The McCartneys — that’s Paul, Stella and Mary FYI — came out to support Sir Elton John as he opened his new exhibition of his photography collection at the V&A. (More)
👀 Last week’s most read news | Just Stop Oil protesters in their 80s target Magna Carta
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Thank you for this issue!
I don’t think that the Royal portrait is rubbish, but it looks very bloody.
The first small exhibition that came to mind and that I often think about was Scenes of Last Tokyo (Tokyo kaiko zue): Japanese Creative Prints from 1945 at Ashmolean Museum back in 2016.
Jean Mingham at the small Museum of Fine Arts in Vannes, Brittany, France.