Lucy Ash makes visible those communities and people that are hidden away
Some of the portraits at the exhibition are hidden behind the artist’s interpretations of the sitter; some created by others at the behest of Lucy Ash, or have been hiding beneath a bed for 70 years, writes Michael Holland.
The invisibility of gay men living secret lives is another big factor in bringing together what initially looks like a disjointed exhibition, until the artist freely explains her feelings and thoughts about the work she has produced, and you can see how it all comes together.
Ash has copied a series of artworks from a set of paintings by Duncan Grant, one of the Bloomsbury Group, known for their unconventional lifestyles. Made in the 1940s, but kept hidden under his bed for many years until he put them in the safekeeping of a friend who made them public in 2020. Erotic is one word for the content, which some would say is pornographic and would have been highly illegal at a time when homosexuality was a jailable offence. Today it is mere exotica.
Her copies are hung, framed by a 1940s bed frame, with the wire springs caging the art, fencing it in; still under a bed, but now only partially hidden.
There are portraits of two WW1 poets: John McCrae, who penned ‘In Flanders Fields’, and Wilfred Owen, famous for ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. The poets are there on the canvas in spirit only. McCrae is manifested as blocks of colour that bleed into each other. There is barbed wire, battalion insignia, a plain cross, and a horse that looks out beyond the painting.
Wilfred Owen is depicted as a cross made up of regimental badges and the simple words, ‘The Pity of War’.
Lucy Ash does do portraits of the living, but before she makes any brush marks, she needs to know that person. Really know and understand them to make the best possible image.
There is one portrait that kind of follows conventional rules, and that is of Jen, the sister of Ian Baynham, who died just across the road in Trafalgar Square after a homophobic assault. His memory is the focus of much of the exhibition, purposely held in Pride Month. Jen is sitting pensively, while a ghostly mirror image shows a woman incomplete without her brother.
The artist has also revisited her ‘Portraits of Inspiration’ collaboration with Southampton City Art Gallery. She asked the community to do portraits of any LGBTIQ+ person that had inspired them, on small blocks that she had painted the background colour. Spread between two large panels, there were the usual names: Danny La Rue, Oscar Wilde, Freddy Mercury, Elton John, Dusty Springfield, Boy George, Quentin Crisp… Plus, the unusual but hilarious entries – a couple of Muppets have been outed here. Yes, there has always been speculation around Bert and Ernie, but the official line is that they are ‘just friends’… Some of the community artists had painted their mates, which has a poignant touch.
Lucy Ash is a collaborator. A lot of her art is created by the community that is often marginalised. With Invisible Portraits, she makes visible those communities and people that are hidden away. Sometimes we get to see or hear of them just by name, but without doubt, we will remember them.
The gallery is also hidden behind the kind of security checkpoint that you would expect at any entrance into an embassy, so take good I.D.
Canada Gallery, High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom, Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London SW1Y 5BJ until Saturday 3 October 2026. 11:00 – 17:45 Monday to Saturday.
Admission: Free.
Website Link: https://culturecanada.co.uk/canada-gallery/lucy-ash-invisible-portraits/
