Isolation – How To Do It

With humour, impressive variety and a pertinent portrait of a doctor in plague-ridden 17th-century Italy, galleries are coming up trumps online

- Huon Mallalieu

A possible drawback to writing about dealers’ virtual exhibitions is that, sometimes, they may be replaced between my writing and publication dates. However, unless something has actually been sold, it will usually be findable on the website, even if not as conveniently packaged for the virtual visitor. Dealers might perhaps occupy themselves in the kitchen for a moment at this point, as I mutter, sotto voce, to other readers that this is likely to be a good time for striking bargains.

Last week, I mentioned that Guy Peppiatt had sold 15 works in the week after putting his British portrait drawings online. The Chris Beetles Gallery (www. chrisbeetles.com) has had similar success with its ‘Spirit of England’ show, having sold five of the 12 featured cartoons and illustrations by the time I looked. This was to be the first of a weekly series emphasising ‘optimism and good humour, and sometimes—unapologetically—sentiment and nostalgia’. The next group will be entitled ‘Isolation—how not to do it’.