I retired in 2016, after many years of working at the National Gallery in both the Education and Curatorial Departments. One of my tasks there had been to work on the Associate Artist scheme, whereby contemporary artists such as Paula Rego, Peter Blake or Michael Landy were invited to work in a private studio for a period of around two years, to make new work inspired in some way by the Gallery’s historic collection. In addition to this there were occasional exhibitions of work by other living artists such as Bridget Riley, Frank Auerbach and Maggi Hambling, all of whom had had a close relationship with the collection.

I was the lead curator for these exhibitions which, together with my involvement with the Associate Artists, allowed me to get to know some of the most significant artists of our time. Amongst my colleagues in the various departments at the Gallery were world leading researchers, academics and curators. Moving amongst these battalions of scholarly excellence, I liked to remind myself that the National Gallery was actually founded as a resource for artists – not art historians! I have often felt that there is an invisible wall between the two camps, the artists and the academics and this helps to explain why there are five of my own works in the Seeing Each Other exhibition. It might look as if I have suddenly changed camps, moving from being a curator to a practitioner but no, I haven’t. I have always made art and I am especially attracted to the medium of printmaking.

Back in 1975, as a student at Manchester University I wrote a fan letter to Frank Auerbach and he kindly agreed to become the subject of my final year dissertation. I told him that when it was finished, I would put a copy in the post to him. He said no, don’t do that, bring it round. That’s just what I did, which resulted in the memorable ordeal of sitting silently in his studio watching him slowly read the whole thing, all 12,000 words of it. I needn’t have worried. After he’d finished it, he was wonderfully kind about my youthful efforts and I left his studio thrilled to be carrying a beautiful little drawing of Primrose Hill that he gave me.

Fast forward 20 years, it’s now 1995 and I am working at the National Gallery, curating the exhibition Frank Auerbach and the National Gallery; Working After the Masters. I knew that Frank was an occasional printmaker and so an idea struck me. After the show had opened, I dropped him a line saying that I was planning to make a portrait print of him, in etching and aquatint, based on the various published photographs of him in his studio standing in front of his easel. I planned to leave the canvas on his easel blank and would he like to finish the print by doing something in that empty space? His reply came by return of post. ‘I have never heard of a more ridiculous suggestion. When shall we start?’

Frank actually chose to do my portrait in the empty space, which delighted me as it gave me the opportunity of sitting for him. The finished print is on two plates, with Frank’s contribution being made on two different days. Technically it was very tricky, given Frank’s way of working. There were a couple of false starts that Frank rejected but I remember him being very pleased with the final result. When I say pleased, I mean that happy laughter followed when I showed it to him, which is one reason why I titled the print The Joker.

From that came the rest of the series, to which I gave the title Double Vision. Peter Blake and Paula Rego, who had both been National Gallery Associate Artists, were my next subjects. Paula, like Frank, worked directly onto the plate while I sat for her. Peter used a photograph which he translated into a series of precise horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines that capture me perfectly. These were followed by the American R.B. Kitaj who was delighted to accept my invitation to be the fourth in the series. While working on his 2001 exhibition at the National Gallery, Kitaj: In the Aura of Cezanne and Other Masters, I visited him at his home in Los Angeles, to where he’d moved following the death of his wife Sandra in London in 1994. I spent two enjoyable days with him and after my return to London, I made my portrait of him, using an image taken from the film we had made in his studio. I then cut a small copper plate to the exact size to fit the empty space that I had left to represent a bare canvas on Kitaj’s easel, wrapped it carefully and sent it across the ocean, together with a set of photographs for him to select one to work from. Pretty soon it came back and I took it to the print studio, placed it in the acid bath to etch Kitaj’s drawing into the copper. I then printed it in the space I’d left in my portrait of him, with two plates combining to show Kitaj sitting in his studio in front of his portrait of me on the easel.

In 2016 I began what is to date the final one of the series. I gave the wonderful Maggi Hambling a call and to my delight she was very much up for it. I visited her with a couple of prepared plates, onto which she drew me with an etching needle. While she was doing this, I was trying to sit still and not laugh at her often risqué stories about various figures in the art world. Laugh too much, or even crack a smile and I’d be hit with a fierce ‘Wiggins, stop laughing, I told you to sit still!’

I made my portrait of Maggi on a rectangular plate, leaving much of it as empty space. I then chose one of Maggi’s square plates and printed it over the top of my print, to combine the two images into one. The idea was that she should be seen as having drawn me straight onto her studio wall. Whether this works or not is up to the viewer – but I think it does!

I was completely taken aback at the invitation from Pallant House to show these works in Seeing Each Other. I’d never made them for any other reason than personal enjoyment and could never envisage them being shown at a serious and prestigious venue like Pallant House. At first, I pretended to be reluctant to agree but there was no chance I was ever going to say no. And encouraged by their reception, I am now embarking upon further prints with different artists who I got to know during my time at the National Gallery.

Watch this space!

Join us for an Art History Lecture with Colin Wiggins:

[ Sold Out ) Circles of Influence: Artists Amongst Artists on Wednesday 24 September 2025

Face to Face: Collaboration in Portraiture on Wednesday 8 October 2025

Homage: Tracing Artistic Lineage on Wednesday 22 October 2025