MD: How is the DE seen as a competition to win or to have paintings purchased there, as opposed to other exhibitions? How is it viewed?

GC: That's very interesting. First of all, it has an element, like the Moore's, of competition. I tell my students when they say "How do I really start in the art world?", I tell them "You don't hang around Cork Street looking sad with your portfolio under your arm, because you're just going to get wet". I say "What you do is, you go into shows" - you go in for established competitions and you go in for things like the John Moores, for the DE; you go in for this, you go in for that. And that is how you gradually build your reputation. So, to be in the show is a thrill. And the fact that it is in London, to be perfectly blunt, makes it accessible to, well, for a start 9 million people live here! Plus always about 2 or 3 million passing through! And being in the Mall - it doesn't get any more central than that, does it?

MD: Do you think that DE is now established as one of the major shows? How do artists view it as an exhibition?

GC: Yes. When I was one of the judges I invited 5 or 6 people and every one of them jumped at it. And some were pretty serious operators – with amazing reputations and all the rest of it, jumped at it. And everyone has a lovely time, because it is literally jammed with delightful small pictures. There are lots of different shows where you have lean hangs and you maybe have the whatever, this that and the other … but this, it is a jewel because of the scale thing.

This idea of the intimate is really, really important and is something that I don't think is reflected in any other exhibition, where unfortunately ambition is measured in square feet.

Whereas ambition in my case (and hopefully in the case of lots of what I would regard as the really top end, the cream of DE), people who really know how to paint exquisite small pictures. It's great. I think that the idea of the intimate is something that more sponsors, competitions, galleries should take more seriously.

As I say, the wonderful thing is the intimate size. Anyone can paint a very, very ambitious large painting. What is amazingly difficult is to paint a very, very ambitious tiny painting. And we all know about Manet, those wonderful asparagus tip paintings, or the crucifix that Picasso hang over his bed for the whole of his life. That is actually 9 inches by 12 inches or something like that.

I'm not knocking large paintings, but what I'm saying is it is very important to realise … I was going to say that size doesn't matter !

 

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