David Lee
January/February 2021
Despite grovelling worthy of Darius on our part, The Jackdaw no longer qualifies for press view invites to the National Gallery. As a result I didn’t see the Artemisia Gentileschi show in the few weeks it was open before Boris announced the second slam dunk. It was in any case fully booked months in advance by Adlestroppers up for the Cup. What an opportunity then when the gallery announced that for eight quid you could join a curator tour on the computer. One really ought to have known better. At press views the curator’s intro, the art historical equivalent of Valium, is to be ruthlessly avoided. If ever you have the misfortune to coincide with it sprint to the exit and work backwards.
This mercenary innovation was much disapproved of by State Art’s finest hypocrites, who queued up to blow raspberries … as if most of them hadn’t already seen the show free of charge. In a way you can hardly blame the Gallery for trying it on not least because blueberry muffins and Holbein rubbers aren’t exactly flying off the shelves.
Having seen Artemisia’s work in galleries all over Europe, as well as in survey