ICONS Extraordinary Artworks from the National Gallery and Sotheby’s

Disappointing discussion at the National Gallery examining what makes a painting iconic.

The event marked the publication of "Icons: 100 Extraordinary Objects from Sotheby's History" and brought together Patrick Elliott, curator of modern paintings at the gallery, a recently created role; Will Gompertz, director of the Sir John Soane Museum and Chloe Stead, Global Head of Private Sales in the Old Master's department at Sotheby's. Sadly the author, Elif Shafak, was billed to attend but had a family emergency and had to pull out. She might have brought a non-art world voice to the platform.

They discussed what makes a painting an icon then each nominated contenders for the title from the galleries collection or from works which had passed though Sotheby's auction house. I would have liked them to pick more from the Sotheby's category as the galleries own works were well known and their stories very familiar to the audience.

It was fun however to have Stead pick some unusual objects from Sotheby's such as the original Hermes Birkin bag and to broaden the discussion to the growth in memorabilia in the auction houses.