The question of state subsidies to galleries has always been an issue of debate . News of cuts in the subsidies has caused consternation in the arts world , with one significant exception.
Jack Vettriano, Britain’s best-selling artist, said that the cuts will force art galleries to pay more attention to the public’s taste and in particular his own work.
“Every year the national galleries are given a budget from which to purchase new work for the collections and that money is the taxpayer’s, but it seems to me that they take little notice of the taxpayer’s money. Maybe, if they did take notice of what the taxpayers wanted then the b––––––– would actually show my work.”
Vettriano, 58, whose most popular painting, The Singing Butler, sells more posters and postcards than any other artist in this country, has complained in the past that public galleries will not exhibit his work.
The artist, who has been variously described as a purveyor of “badly conceived soft porn” and a painter who “just colours in”, said the Scottish art establishment should abandon its snobbery. “They should listen to the people,” he said. “I am not asking for a whole exhibition.” Vettriano’s latest exhibition , Days of Wine and Roses , comes to London in September