Seeing Each Other/Pallant Gallery Chichester

Once again the Pallant has been innovative in an exhibition of portraits of artists by artists.

It’s well-curated and ordered chronologically but the actual portraits are of variable quality.

As you arrive you see a “Wanted Poster” of a Lucian Freud portrait of his (then close friend) Francis Bacon which was stolen from a Berlin museum and has never been recovered to this day.

The first room is titled Bohemia and is of artists who were at the Slade under the tutelage of the legendary Henry Tonks.

The first picture you see of of Augustus John by the famous and fashionable Irish portraitist Sir Willian Orpen.

In the room there  are more equally fine portraits by – and of – Walter Sickert.

The other rooms follow British artists of the 20th §century like John Bratby but – in my opinion – these do not reach the quality in that first room.

In particular there is a diametric abstract by Sir Howard Hodgkin in the style of Brigitte Riley, but this was not a portrait of an artist.

However a portrait Girl in Striped Nightshirt by Lucian Freud was memorable.

In the “pop art” section there was a rather indulgent portrait of two students- Isabel Myersough aand Chantal Joffé-  painting one another who had met at art school, but this was not my bag.

I was struck however by a picture of Tracey Emin impersonating Frida Kahlo on a bed.

The great artists are versatile.

Well do I remember visiting a museum in Barcelona exhibiting early works by Picasso.

These – painted when he spent  time in Barcelona before moving to Paris at the turn of the last century – were not abstract, but portraits of his family and you could appreciate his immense talent.

Many artists are accomplished floral painters and Cedric Morris – who taught Lucian Freud – went from gardener to flower painter and attached himself to the Suffolk school of Edward Bawden and Eric Ravillious. Other artists remained within their genre.

Thus, whilst admiring the Pallant for its innovation of theme, I did consider not enough of the portraits to be memorable.