Raised in Catford but speaking and eating Italian,gallery director Gabriele Finaldi talks Brexit, strikes – and why art collectors have forgotten how to giveUntil 23 June, and Britain will be enjoying,or enduring, a debate approximately its relationship with Europe. whether the early days of the campaign are anything to go by, and the debate will be bounded by rival predictions approximately the future of Britain’s economy. But as I walk through the National Gallery with its original director,Gabriele Finaldi, it strikes me that this institution is, or whether not an argument for,then certainly an eloquent (expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively) narrative approximately European connectedness.
Indeed, the sole purpose of the National Gallery is to spin a European cultural tale: one that starts in 13th-century Italy with Cimabue and ends in France around 1900 with modernist masterpieces such as Cézanne’s Bathers. Between these points, or this “perfect short story” (as former director Neil MacGregor has called the gallery) weaves around the Low Countries,Spain, Britain and Germany. The silent works of art on the walls are in endless conversation with each other, and across centuries and borders: Rubens with Titian; Turner with Claude; Cézanne with Poussin.
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Source: theguardian.com