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Jack Vettriano - The People's Painter
 The
Singing Butler
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From Art.com
As unbelievable
as it sounds, arguably the most popular painter in Britain
does not have any of his work hanging in publicly funded
major galleries. You won't find it in Tate Britain or
Tate Modern or the National Galleries of Scotland in spite
of the fact he's Scottish. Jack Vettriano has sold more
than three million poster copies of his work around the
world and recentlyreceived an OBE (Order of the British
Empire) from the Queen. The only public gallery to exhibit
his work is the Kirkcaldy Art Gallery where they have
two of his paintings.
He was born in Scotland
in 1951, the son of a coal miner. When he left school at
sixteen, he became a mining engineer. On his twentyfirst
birthday his girlfriend gave him a set of paints and changed
his life. He taught himself to paint by copying the masters,
Van Gogh, Dali, Monet amongst many others. In 1989 he entered
two paintings for the Royal Scottish Academy’s annual
exhibition and both were accepted. Even better, they both
sold on the first day. The following year three of his paintings
were accepted for the Summer Exhibition at London’s
Royal Academy.
Since then, interest in Vettriano's
work has mushroomed. He has had sell-out solo exhibitions
in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. When twenty
of his paintings were displayed at the International 20th
Century Arts Fair at The Armory in New York in November
1999, they sold within one hour of it opening.
Although most people know
his work through reproductions on posters, greetings card,
even packaging for goods, his original paintings have been
bought by the rich and famous including by Jack Nicholson,
Terence Conran and Sir Tim Rice. His most famous work by
far is The Singing Butler. His paintings always
feature people, often in dramatic situations, many with
erotic overtones. The strong images convey a scene from
a continuing drama but it is up to the viewer of the painting
to fill in the story leading up to the scene and what happened
next.
Jack Vettriano's paintings
seem to have a universal appeal—except to art critics
and gallery curators that is. What is it about his work
that they find so abhorrent? Is it his popularity or perhaps
the fact that he is self-taught? Whatever the reason, their
taste is in sharp contrast to that of the public. One wonders
why they set their faces so firmly against exhibiting his
work when it would attract many people who would never normally
visit a gallery. At least it would open up other artists
and their work to these people. Meanwhile Jack Vettriano
continues to outsell other artists.
Want to know more? Read
the review of the book, 'Jack
Vettriano'.
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