I've been offline for a few days due to the telephone line. News follows!
I've delivered Remembering Summer (pictured) to M.O.M.A. Wales as my entry for the Tabernacle Competition. Regular readers will be aware how much work I've put into this painting. I await the results of the jury.
While on the train I received a phone called from the wonderful Peter Boughton from The Grosvenor Museum to confirm that my painting has been accepted as part of the permanent collection. Cheshire is now a county of two halves, east and west. The east lacks a municipal art collection so my painting effectively forms part of the Cheshire County collection. More details later on this will follow later in the year.
The painting was a donation. Apart from anything else, museums are under extra financial pressure at this time and need support from their communities more than ever. There is a definite prestige to having a painting in a museum, but apart from any tangible benefit from publicity or having a museum piece on my C.V. there are other important philosophical considerations that made me decide to accept the request for the painting. I'd rather donate a painting to a public museum than sell one to an investor who would lock it away unseen to die a yellow death in darkness. A painting should at least be seen.
Peter's love and understanding of the painting was a consideration too. I'm lucky in that I've encountered several ideal customers, people who love the painting for what it is and what it means to them. Those sales are the most valuable.
I can't give away paintings forever but a painting that goes on regular public display not only benefits me more, but the museum or gallery, and the public, the world, and everything else. An artwork that is unseen might as well not exist.
I've been thinking of how to ensure this in future. I wonder if a sales contract that forces private buyers to sell or temporarily loan a painting if a museum desires it is feasible? My paintings are getting better. Now is the time to think of just such possibilities. I wonder if other artists worry about such things.
