Last night, after a meeting of the Liberal Democrats’ International Relations Committee at Cowley Street, I walked round to the European Commission office at Westminster — accompanied by the newly-elected MEP for South East England, Catherine Bearder — for the vernissage of an exhibition of portraits and still lifes by the artist Ruth Addinall, a self-taught painter who like so many before her sought inspiration in Paris. As she says in the exhibition’s programme note, ‘I feel very much part of the continuum of European art. Most of my work could be described as a sort of homage to various of my favourite European image-makers, from Piero della Francesca to Bathus.’
The European Commission office holds regular art exhibitions in its ground floor ‘12 Star’ gallery, as a reminder to people living in or visiting London that Europe is about more than rules and regulations. The cultural diversity that can be found within the 27 EU member states is astounding in its diversity and richness. I have been to a number of interesting and sometimes innovative exhibitions there. The next one will be a display of photographs and videos by young Swedish artists, entitled Surfacing, on view during the last three weeks of July and marking Sweden’s assumption of the Union’;s six month rotating presidency.
