It was a nice kind of shock that people were as desperate to get into see the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition which recently closed at London's National Gallery as they were to get the hottest designer handbag or to view the latest episode of Downton Abbey. Well, it was a once in a lifetime chance to see the largest ever retrospective of paintings by one of the greatest artists in the history of Western art even if that meant a total of nine pictures. But now it seems this rushing to see art is a trend.The Royal Academy exhibition of David Hockney's big and lurid wooded scenes is packing them in. The National Portrait Gallery show of 100 portraits by Lucian Freud (at least three quarters of which are likely to be soon forgotten) is also a hot ticket. In all cases, opening hours have been extended, queues form in the morning to get day tickets. The shops are doing a terrific business. No one would wish hard times on anyone...but fears about meeting mortgage payments, keeping jobs or even getting one in the first place...are sending people to museum exhibitions. Unlike inflation, printing money and vanished interest rates on savings, this is a heart lifting by product of the financial mess we're in.
Who knows, maybe it is because I am a prude but more likely it is because I am a cynic, that I have a hunch there has been a parallel boom in on line pornography watching. But why think about that? Or for that matter why think about the work of some of the painters drawing the crowds? Wherever else people are seeking solace, it's cheering that so many people want to spend what discretionary cash they have looking at art. I don't think much of the Hockney paintings but the photomontage's look better than ever and Freud's early portraits never looked anything but haunting.
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