Art News

United Kingdom Government Art Reveals Ministers’ Nostalgic Tastes

LONDON (AP).- It’s a tricky question for a British politician — which of the government’s thousands of pieces of art do you put on your wall? When it comes to paintings, members of Britain’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition favor landscapes, battle scenes and portraits of their illustrious predecessors. The government art collection holds more than 13,000 works by British artists from the 16th century onwards, including pieces by Hans Holbein, John Constable and J.M.W. Turner. Many are in storage, while others adorn government buildings and British embassies. A lawmaker has published a complete list of works that ministers have chosen from the government’s vast art collection to hang in their offices. Obtained by opposition Labour Party legislator Tom Watson under freedom of information legislation, it show that the new government has more conservative tastes than those of the previous Labour administration, which championed conceptual “Young British Artists” like Tracey