Stepping into any art gallery, the last thing you expect to be greeted by is a cacophony of barking and wet noses on your knee. This, however, was the welcome I received at the current exhibition at Southwark Park Galleries.
Dog Show is, as the name suggests, about dogs. Not just about dogs, though; each of the works has been chosen by a dog — or, as they put it, a canine curator. ‘We’ve never asked dogs about their opinions on art, even though some dogs see an awful lot of it,’ explains Judith Carlton, director of Southwark Park Galleries. Well yes; it’s most likely true that no one has ever asked dogs for their thoughts on art, but there’s probably a reason for that. I’m not sure my dog has ever paid any attention whatsoever to a piece of art; perhaps a sculpture of a tennis ball could be the one exception.
But the canine curators of this exhibition have done a very good job — much better than my philistine dog could do. It probably helps that these are all particularly cultured dogs. One of them, Tess, is a border terrier owned by art dealer Karsten Schubert. Another, Olive, lives with artist and curator Matthew Higgs. ‘I think Olive sees more exhibitions in a week than I’ve been to in my life,’ comments Carlton. Turning dogs into curators sounds like a pretty novel idea. But as Philomena Epps writes in the exhibition booklet: ‘One could quite easily rewrite the mainstream story of 20th-century art through the eyes of dogs,’ whether that’s Frida Kahlo’s hairless Mexican ixquintle, or Lucian Freud’s whippets.
Either way, the curators have chosen a fun and quirky selection of pieces. As you walk into the Lake Gallery, the first thing you notice is a number of dogs lying about the place, looking as if they’re just having a quick snooze.
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