Being Awkward About Exhibitions

The Youtube videos of my pen sketches of magicians and the few details about the exhibition to feature them has led to my receiving various communications, most frequently involving four types; therefore, I thought it best to address them here.

The first is from the people being very kind and paying me compliments about my art. I have tried to answer the emails of as many of you as I can but the point has been reached where all I can sensibly do is say thank you to everyone by using this blog and apologise for not being able to directly contact all of you.

The second is that many people have asked if they can buy some of the portraits featured in the Youtube videos. The answer is a polite no; they have been commissioned and therefore unavailable.

The third is regarding those asking to host an exhibition of my work. These inquiries have been of the kind where someone wishes to host an exhibition of my work on the premise that I only receive any form of payment if any of the artwork sells. The answer to all and any inquiries of that sort is a polite no. My artwork for others is done on a commissioned basis only. I am commissioned to do a project, I complete the project and I get paid. Whether or not someone exhibits the final project is up to them. I will not be involved by that stage. That is what is happening with the Magicians project. I will not be attending any of the venues of the exhibition. Should a client make a profit in selling any of the artwork commissioned then that is fine with me; that is what happens in the art world anyway. (Anyone wishing to commission art work is welcome to contact me but I advise them to be sitting down when they hear the price.)

My reasons for working this way are many but here is one of them which is self-explanatory. Take a look at this picture:

It is a study in pencil of a bronze by Rodin. This was one of thirty such studies of sculptures by Rodin. Note the word ‘was’. I have three left; the other twenty-seven were stolen in an exhibition. Or so I was told by the person hosting the exhibition. It was the only time I said yes to a gallery that exhibits art with a view to selling it on behalf of the artist. After much effort, I made no profit and lost twenty-seven items of financial value. It will remain the only time that I have said yes to a gallery that exhibits art with a view to selling it on behalf of the artist.

Now we move on to the crackpots, the conspiracy theorists, etc. It has reached the stage that I delete all emails and messages of this type without reading them. For those of you wondering what sort of lunacy these emails contain, I can say that the small number that I read when I first started to receive them were of a very imbecilic nature. The subsequent ones that followed were no different. It is very sad that some people have gone to the trouble to learn to read and write and yet have not bothered to learn to think, making the whole process a waste of time.

I hope that covers most people’s inquiries. Sane and sensible people are still welcome to contact me. I cannot guarantee a reply but will try my best in most cases.

Sketch of John Archer

The Dali Universe

Not far from the London Eye is the Dali Universe. The exhibition has a most disappointing start. Two dimly lit corridors are decorated with photographs of Dali and various quotes by him about himself and his art. Most of the second corridor is a chronology of Dali’s life printed on large boards and there’s barely enough light to read them. In seeing these I became concerned as to what the exhibition was going to be. At £14 per adult to get into the exhibition was it going to be an expensive rip-off, consisting of just photos and blurbs? Thankfully, no.

The main room beyond those corridors is where Dali’s art can be found. There are drawings, paintings, and sculptures. They don’t disappoint. Some of it is not as dynamic or engrossing as can be found in other Dali collections. Nevertheless, I felt it was worth seeing. Of particular interest to me was his small paintings based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. They are surrealist interpretations of the engravings by Gustave Doré. It is a shame that prints of Doré’s originals were not on display to allow a comparison. The exhibition does do this with his other pieces when his artwork is inspired from a famous engraving or print.

There is only one large painting. It was commissioned to be used in a dream sequence in the film Spellbound by Alfred Hitchcock. The stairs by the painting lead down a room below where a small number of prints by Picasso are on display.

The way out of the exhibition is through a shop. If you would like to own a lithograph based on a picture by Dali then it will only set you back a tidy sum. I didn’t look at all the prices. The ones I looked at varied from three figures to four figures; for lithographs … you know … prints, where there’s more than one of each so they’re not unique, by another artist, based on pictures by Dali.