My National Gallery, London: 200 Years of Art and Stories | Exhibition on Screen

In celebration of the National Gallery’s Bicentenary, Exhibition on Screen presents My National Gallery, London, celebrating 200 years of bringing people and paintings together. Our arts editor Gillian Smith attended the premiere at Picturehouse Central, and shares more in an interview with director Phil Grabsky.

My National Gallery London tells the story of one of the world’s greatest art galleries, shining a new light on its artwork and giving a voice to those whose lives have been touched by its exhibitions down the years. Visitors, celebrities, devoted staff members and art experts come together to paint their own portraits of this iconic institution on the occasion of its big 200th.

With a collection that spans the late 13^th to the early 20^th centuries and includes works by Bellini, Degas, Monet, Leonardo, Titian, Turner and Van Gogh, to mention but a few, there’s a lot to talk about.

But with art galleries being very much an in-person experience, when you think paintings, you don’t normally think film.  MST decided to delve into this interesting dichotomy by speaking to My National Gallery director Phil Grabsky, a true veteran in the field of arts docs.  His company Seventh Art Productions has just celebrated its 40^th anniversary, while Exhibition on Screen has racked up more than 10 years of bringing award-winning arts films to cinemas across the globe.

It’s a nice niche to have cornered the market with, so our chat with Phil started with the basics:

How did you get into this area of filmmaking?   

I made my first documentary when I was at film college in London and sold it to ITV, it was a biography of the Dalai Lama of Tibet.  I was lucky that just when I was starting out, Channel 4 set up and their remit was only to work with independent producers.  So, I was a very early independent producer and it wasn’t entirely deliberate, but I’ve ended up primarily doing biographies, more than 100 at the last count.

Fast forwarding somewhat, how did Exhibition on Screen come about?

Seventh Art made over a hundred art films for all the broadcasters, notably Channel 5, and Sky Arts, plus others. But it was becoming harder and harder to get these kinds of commissions.  

I could see what was happening in the cinema, which was the arrival of digital technology, along with event cinema.  It began with the Met Opera.  I was making a film for Channel Four about the War Horse production at the National Theatre when they did their first NT Live and they didn’t know if they’d ever do another one! But of course, that’s become very successful, rightfully so.

There was clearly an audience for cultural offerings in the cinema, where, frankly, films are at their best. There are no distractions; big screen, good audio, usually. We’d been filming the exhibitions coming through London for television and I decided that this was a good time to bring one to the cinema – but never as a walkthrough or just a pure exhibition. It was always as a springboard to a kind of new, fresh look at the artist or the period. I spoke to friends at the National Gallery, and they said, well, we don’t really understand what it is you are doing but we support you.

As luck would have it in 2011, they had the biggest Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition ever. So that became our first Exhibition on Screen. Cinemas were very nervous. We only managed to get one chain, the Picturehouse, interested. I had three meetings with the Managing Director before I persuaded her to take it. She put it into 42 cinemas and 41 of them sold out. And then people started taking note. When we showed Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition last year, I think we topped 500 cinemas.

So, My National Gallery, a big project, overwhelming even?

In terms of its structure, it was a challenge because normally our films are very cinematic. They have an ebb and flow.  When we’re covering an exhibition, which is an artist’s life, then you have the chronology, and that gives you drive. When we did Monet, which was just based on his letters, you’ve got the early years of the artist right through to his death. So, you have a natural story. This was in a sense, 21 smaller stories, so there are reasons why we have some early and some later.

My National Gallery though, applies to anybody who comes to the National Gallery. Art is for everyone. Art can speak to everyone, and everyone can speak about art.  I’m trying to make people not feel intimidated and frightened and realise that they can communicate. In some ways, the less experience they had had previously on camera, the better.

I’ve seen it so often in galleries, people who will queue, get to the painting, take a snap of their phone and move on. The whole point of Exhibition on Screen is to encourage people to look. A painting is as much about what you bring to it. It’s a good bit of advice to go to a gallery and just find a painting that connects with something in your own life. I also hoped that there’d be a good smattering of people talking about the importance of being brought to the gallery for the first time.

The celebrity head count is pretty impressive, with contributions from, amongst others, Claudia Winkleman, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and Jacqueline Wilson…

For this film, while the celebrity element is to try to encourage people to come to the cinema, what we did say was that they had to feel genuine, rather than just because they were a big name.  One of the reasons that these individuals are quote unquote celebrities is that they are very articulate. So, Claudia Winkleman, for example, has a great story, but she’s also tremendously good at telling it. As is Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam too. 

The way we structured the questions in the interviews is it’s not about the artist’s biography necessarily, or even the craft of the art. It’s much more personal. It’s about what somebody, how somebody is connecting.

And now that the finished article is available for viewing, what has the feedback been from the participants? 

It’s all credit to them because they’re putting themselves in our hands. We have a body of work and the National Gallery knows us, but for the contributors you’re still seeing yourself 40 feet across from a big screen, maybe talking about something quite personal, I would say. But they loved it. They really did and the National’s extremely happy.

The film will be released on 4^th June, so after the excitement of the recent screening, what now?

There’s always such a lot of follow-up to do. I’m broadly thinking it’s all going well. Obviously, what we need to do now is translate that enthusiasm and encouragement into sales, you know, bums on seats!

And you can’t argue with that!

MY NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON is in cinemas from 4^th June, check your local cinema for details or go to: https://events.seventh-art.com/find-a-screening/

Written by Gillian Smith

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