After the pressure of Crufts it felt good to unwind. Dogs Playing Pool by C M Coolidge
We can't step out the door these days without some form of art being thrust in our face. What was once the scourge of society is now termed "street art", and where once I could enjoy a quiet pint with just the nicotine-stained wallpaper for company, I now invariably find myself in the middle of an exhibition.
Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes, which opened in Shoreditch, London, in July 2002, was one of the first so-hip-it-hurts bars to popularise this trend. A knock-through space of two old garment industry shops, its progressive policy was to collaborate with artists to create radical, changing environments, and they have produced some amazing creations over the years.
Now, however, there is a dearth of identikit businesses opening their doors faster than you can say skinny fit jeans. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but there's something Machiavellian about hoards of would-be bar owners rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of a 200% markup on the booze being served to willing throngs of scenesters lining up to soak up the art - or being seen to do so, at least. If art in bars is to work, it has to be done with the bar, not the art, coming first.
Take Common in Manchester's Northern Quarter. Since it opened in December 2004, the owners, Jonny Heyes and Chris Stevenson, have had a positive arts policy, throwing commissions open to artists to cover the bar walls with their work. The latest exhibition by Jim Medway, running until 26 April, sees him take his love for Richard Scarry and some hearsay about the Northern Quarter having the largest concentration of record shops in Europe, and using it to transform the bar into Busy Busy Records, in tribute to Scarry's book, Busy Busy World. I can deal with this, because when you go into the bar you don't get the sense that it's jumping on the proverbial bandwagon in pursuit of alt-cool status. It's a good bar first of all, with good staff, good drinks and then, dare I say it, good art. Also in the rainy city, Koffee Pot, a former greasy spoon, is now a better greasy spoon, but with the added bonus of art. Why can't there be more places that value substance over style?
When art in bars is done like this, I like it. Otherwise it's just a gallery that serves drinks. I don't, like some, deplore the morals of turning our drinking dens into art galleries. I don't think it trivialises artwork by turning it into a backdrop to the everyday drinking experience. I don't think it's dumbing down. In fact, I would go as far to say it's an example of the democratisation of the art world; art for the masses.
Artists, taken out of the traditional gallery environment, are not forced to pay a huge slice of commission if their work sells, as bars tend to charge little or no fee. This means (or should mean, at least) that art becomes more affordable, and therefore more accessible to everyone, which in turn should free up artists to create more varied work for a more varied audience. Of course, not everyone visiting these multi-use spaces will be art-lovers, but for those that do, an ever changing environment surely holds more appeal than dogs playing pool. What could be better than this almost subliminal advertising of an artist's work to a captive audience, who will sit for hours, drink in hand, subconsciously absorbing it?
