One To One With Richard Bartle
Meet the man who’s contributed to the hotel’s art scene since its inception.
Under a steely sky, lines of identical houses are lashed with rain. In another work by artist Richard Bartle, row upon row of neat, bright flowers border a precision-striped lawn. And then there are the lanes of same-colour, same-model BMWs, all queuing in a motorway traffic jam (except for the one on the hard shoulder). Repetition. Multiplication. The motif in a series of eight mixed media works purchased by One Aldwych when it opened over 25 years ago.
Bartle hadn’t created the series especially for the hotel and yet, presciently, he’d already entitled the collection One. ‘Even though multiples are featured, the theme of these pieces is individualism,’ explains Bartle. ‘I was pondering how you can be an individual in an age of mass production. For instance, it struck me how marketing was often in the business of selling something to help you express your individuality and yet, if you were to flick through a hundred magazines, you’d see the same product featured again and again. While the way I create my work has evolved over the years, individualism remains a central theme, including looking at the world and trying to figure out my place in it through the process of dissecting something about the society we live in’.
It was hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray, during his initial collaboration with One Aldwych, who led the purchase of Bartle’s works. Today the hotel is still home to a curation of magnificent art, including sculptures such as André Wallace’s The Boatman in the Lobby Bar and Emily Young’s substantial stone Dionysus in reception.
As a celebrated and collected artist, Bartle had always known creativity was his calling but while growing up, he could see no tangible opportunities to follow his dream. His sense of insecurity didn’t help either. This meant his early career took a very different channel when he became a commercial salvage diver. ‘It was dark and not without risks. After a bad experience, when I became trapped in a fishing net, I felt I had to think again, particularly as my then-wife was pregnant,’ recalls Bartle. It was the motivation he needed to change track completely and apply to study fine art at the University of Leeds and then later, at Sheffield Hallam University.
While studying, he explored the idea of alchemy – initially transforming the metals from his salvage years, which later fed into a deeper notion of taking culturally low value items, such as images from magazines, and putting them through a repetitive and chemical process such as photocopying, before dissecting them methodically and intricately to turn them into something of higher value…art. Hence his work often incorporated collage.
Bartle cites One Aldwych as having helped transform his fortunes. When he sold his series One, it not only proved he could make a living through his art, it also gave him more confidence. ‘It’s a struggle to be an artist. You have to make choices. To live differently to other people. And you spend a lot of time in your own head. Unless you teach to supplement your income, it can be tough. A friend of mine once joked that there were only two types of artist; rich and poor.’
For Bartle, confidence has been hard to engender and possess, freely admitting that while he has the security of those who now collect his work, he worries about whether he will appeal to new buyers. ‘Honestly, if the King were to come along, buy something of mine and hang it in a prominent position in Buckingham Palace, I’d probably go home and worry I might not sell another one.’
It’s this self-deprecating demeanour that makes Bartle so disarming and delightful to converse with. And yet there is a central core of courage and a strong aspect of challenge to everything he creates. It means checking out his pictures while you’re at the hotel is an absolute must.
What’s more, visitors can raise a glass to Bartle because the Lobby Bar’s Gallery menu, celebrating the hotel’s art, lists new creations by pioneering mixologist Marcis Dzelzainis, including the Bartle Cup.
‘I really like that if you approach the Concierge and ask about an artist whose work resides there, they will help you find examples to view,’ concludes Bartle. I hope guests appreciate how special that is. Because it’s like visiting someone’s private house and enjoying what they have collected. For me, when I think of my early work hanging there, it feels like coming home.’
To explore more of Bartle’s work, visit richardbartle.co.uk