Masterpieces in public spaces
Helen Citron investigates the story behind the masterpieces on York city walls
The Grand Tour was the Seventeenth Century equivalent of a gap year: an itinerary of European travel undertaken by young, male members of the British nobility which provided exposure to cultural artefacts, as the culmination of a classical education. Now, visitors to York’s historic centre can expect to be similarly culturally enlightened as a result of The National Gallery’s project of the same name.
Astonishingly realistic reproductions of forty-five pieces from their permanent collection, as well as four from York City Art Gallery’s collection, are adorning the streets of York until the end of September. Renoir’s ‘The Skiff’, Velázquez’s ‘The Rockeby Venus’, Michelangelo’s ‘The Entombment’ and Monet’s ‘Water-Lily Pond’ all feature, each handsomely framed and wittily captioned.
The public reaction has been one of excitement. The day the pictures were hung, crowds blocked the pavement in front of Holbein’s ‘The Ambassadors’ on High Petergate, and a car screeched to an amazed halt outside ‘Christina of Denmark’, by Hans Holbein the Younger, currently hanging on Bootham.
The project has certainly been constructed with a sense of humour. ‘A Grotesque Old Woman’ by Massys hangs between two beauty salons on Grape Lane, the eroticism of Botticelli’s ‘Venus and Mars’ is placed playfully next to Orgasmic Bar and Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ hangs behind the St Helen’s Square flower sellers.
At the project’s press launch I had a chance to speak to some of the people behind the venture. Natalia Yanez-Exner, from The National Gallery, told me “Our aim is to bring art to people, as opposed to people having to actively seek out art. Hopefully seeing these great works will draw new people into galleries as well.” If the Tour’s overwhelmingly successful London leg is anything to go by, The Grand Tour will succeed in its aim of getting more people visiting art galleries.
Gary Alden, a representative from Hewlett Packard, who provided the technological know-how which made the venture possible, tells me that the machine used to make the reproductions “is essentially a scaled-up version of a normal ink-jet printer, set in super-wide format.”
The paintings are UV- and water-resistant, could withstand outdoor conditions for up to 7 years and are, importantly, graffiti-proof. It is, perhaps, a shame that no contemporary art is included in the collection and that the organisers have not used the opportunity to promote new ways of thinking about art of a more diverse cultural agenda, choosing instead to stick to established European classics. However, viewing these famous images surrounded by bricks, mortar and the bustle of the city is a new and exciting experience in itself.
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