National Museum Wales loaned Stoutzker art collection
Works by some of the 20th Century's greatest artists have gone on display at National Museum Cardiff.
By Huw ThomasBBC Wales arts and media correspondent The Bacon to Doig exhibition contains works by artists including Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud and David Hockney. All of the paintings and sculptures are from the private collection of Ian and Mercedes Stoutzker. It is believed to be the finest private art collection to be shown in Cardiff since the Davies sisters first exhibited in the city a century ago. Businessman Ian Stoutzker's Welsh heritage prompted him to loan the works to the museum. His mother Dora was a music teacher from Tredegar, and he was evacuated to the town from his London home as a boy. "I'm not a Johnny-come-lately to Wales," he said. "My mother was born in 1894 in Tredegar, and she lived there for the first 25 years of her life. "When I hear my mother's accent I say 'I'm back in Wales', because that was my background and she never lost her love of Wales, which she passed on to me. I looked like my mother as a boy, and I am my mother and she lives through me. And I know the contentment she would have that I share her love of the country." The art collection includes sculptures by Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor, neither of whom have previously been displayed at the museum. It also includes a pair of vases commissioned by the Stoutzkers from Grayson Perry, and a work by Peter Doig painted especially for Mercedes Stoutzker. Of the two Stoutzkers, it is Mercedes who has spent considerable time researching and buying contemporary artworks. Many of the collection's most significant works were bought from artists near the beginning of their careers, before their prices increased. "I've looked at a lot of art, because I used to go around the museums and around the auction houses to learn, rather than to buy," she said. "Little by little I knew what I liked and what I didn't like. And when I went around the galleries I picked out the artists who really spoke to me, and one of them was Francis Bacon. "But before that we bought a Ben Nicholson, we bought a Lowry. These were the artists we could afford. And then I went on looking, selecting and buying. It wasn't just the artists, it was the work that mattered, it was the painting or the sculpture." The couple, who met and married in the late 1950s, put together works which gave them "immense joy and pleasure". Mrs Stoutzker added: "I wanted to share that with people who didn't have the privilege of living with these works. "So I was very happy when Ian suggested the works came to Wales, and I am very happy with how they have been displayed. It's very exciting for me to come and walk around the room to look at them afresh." Mrs Stoutzker said she has never treated the art as a commodity or a financial investment. "I'm happy for the artist that their prices went up, but as far as I am concerned I wish they never did, because then I could go on buying, which we can't at the moment, as the prices have overtaken our purse." Ian Stoutzker's main passion is music. As a trained violinist he established Live Music Now with Yehudi Menuhin, while the concert hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama was named after his mother Dora following a significant donation in 2011. "What Mercedes will tell you is she believes these works should be shown, and not hoarded for a few," said Mr Stoutzker. "So I felt that, if this was her feeling - that it should be shown, then it should be shown in Wales." The exhibition is the result of detailed discussions with the Stoutzkers over recent years. Andrew Renton, keeper of art at National Museum Wales, said it would be a significant addition to its collection. "We are here in the museum to inspire our visitors with the greatness of art, and to show how important art can be in terms of giving life joy, meaning and value. And to be able to show such wonderful examples is really core to what we are aiming to do. Having works of this quality is a massive bonus for us over the coming year." The Bacon to Doig exhibition, which is free entry, is at National Museum Cardiff until 31 January 2018.