04/06/2026

LYFE THURSDAY | JUNE 4, 2026

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Winston Churchill’s ‘playful’ paintings on show in London

A S Britain’s wartime leader, Winston Churchill was known for his stirring speeches but a new London exhibition explores another side to his creativity – as a passionate and prolific artist. The exhibition at the Wallace Collection is the most significant display of the statesman’s paintings for more than 60 years, including over 50 canvases, many of them rarely seen in public. Churchill first tried painting during World War I after he resigned from the government over the 1915 failed Dardanelles naval attack. This was a “very difficult time in his life” when “he suddenly finds himself with all this unwanted leisure time. And he discovered painting as a way of releasing the stress, the anguish that the situation had caused him,” Lucy Davis, exhibition co-curator, told AFP. The museum presents a chronological survey starting with his first paintings, created with advice from renowned artist John Lavery, then canvases painted in the 1920s at Chartwell, the country house where Churchill lived with his family. Largely self-taught while o Exhibition spotlights British PM’s ‘witty side’

WITH record prices for Jackson Pollock, Constantin Brancusi and Mark Rothko, New York’s spring auctions are soaring, confirming a trend that began in late 2025: Blockbuster sales are back. According to an AFP database, 12 works have already sold for more than US$30 million (RM119 million) in May in the city, including two that exceeded US$100 million. That is a reversal following a slump in sales leading up to 2025, which experts attributed to global economic uncertainty and a lack of high-value works on the market. “We’re really in a trend reversal,” Thierry Ehrmann, art market information firm Artprice head, told AFP. A Pollock painting recently became the fourth most expensive work ever sold at auction when it was bought at Christie’s in New York. With its black drips of paint accented by touches of red on a huge canvas spanning over three metres, Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948 sold for US$181.2 million. The previous record for American painter Pollock was US$61.2 million, set in 2021. Also recently, a bronze head cast by the French-Romanian artist Brancusi reached US$107.6 million – compared with US$71.2 million for his previous record in 2018. Market shift The first signs of a spending surge date back to late 2025. 16 works sold for more than US$30 million that year, all in New York, with two records at Sotheby’s. Bought for US$236.4 million, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt became the second most expensive work ever sold at auction. And The Dream (The Bed) , a self-portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was acquired for US$54.7 million – making it the priciest painting by a woman. Market analysts note many of these works come from prestigious private collections released onto the market in single blocks, which increases their appeal to major collectors. Ehrmann of Artprice said there has also been a shift in the demographic of buyers. “It’s no longer a market for the ultra-rich,” he said, with younger people aged around 35 pursuing auctions, often drawn from the tech world and the global south. And more buyers are women, Ehrmann said, which can benefit female artists. The auction record for the American painter Alice Neel was broken recently at Christie’s, with US$5.7 million for Mother and Child (Nancy and Olivia) . The most expensive painting ever sold at auction remains the Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) , a Renaissance work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was bought for US$450 million in 2017. New York art auctions roar back with blockbuster sales Rothko’s Brown and Blacks in Reds . – AFPPIC

A gallery assistant poses for a photograph by Bottlescape (1932) at the Winston Churchill: The Painter exhibition. – PICS FROM AFP

Morocco, including The Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque , the only painting that Churchill did during World War II. A gift to then-US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the painting recently belonged to Hollywood star Angelina Jolie. The exhibition ends with the postwar period when Churchill, defeated in a general election, began painting again and continued until his death in 1965, with some of his works going on display at the Royal Academy. As a statesman, Churchill went down in history for his wartime leadership but as an artist, he had

little interest in depicting current world events, the curator stressed. “He was a wartime leader. He was known for these very stirring wartime speeches. But in these paintings, you really see his joie de vivre , his witty side, his playful side.” One painting at the exhibition is an exception: The Beach At Walmer , painted in 1938 as fears grew of imminent war. It shows a sandy beach in southern England with bathers paddling. But in the foreground, a black cannon points at the sea, suggesting a looming threat.

associating with well-known painters, Churchill quickly became interested in landscape painting and drew inspiration from holidays in the south of France to create brightly coloured canvases dominated by blues and ochre. ‘Loved the light’ Churchill “saw painting as a spur to travel” and “just loved the light and warmth and atmosphere which he captures so beautifully”, said Davis. A whole room is dedicated to canvases inspired by trips to

A painting titled Mosque at Marrakech (1948) .

Churchill is famous as a wartime leader.

An easel used by Churchill on display.

UK artist seeks selfies for AI-generated ‘national portrait’

A British artist recently urged the public to contribute selfies so she can create a new “national portrait” with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) for London’s National Portrait Gallery. “There are 55 million adults in the UK. What if we could all be present in one picture – whatever our backgrounds or beliefs, however much we disagree with each other on so many things?” Es Devlin said of the concept. The digital art project “reimagines what national identity could be”, the artist who has been drawing portraits with chalks and charcoal for 30 years told AFP in an interview.

The huge-scale project would not be possible without the use of AI to generate thousands of drawings that resemble her own style. She appealed for UK residents aged 18 and over to take a selfie on a smartphone and upload it onto the website of the “collective artwork”. The artist will then use AI tools to turn each photo into an image resembling a charcoal sketch, a process that takes just seconds. “We are all in this country together: Let’s all be in this portrait, united,” Devlin urged British people at a press conference.

Devlin is asking UK residents aged 18 and over to take a selfie and upload it onto the website of the ‘collective artwork’. – 123RFPIC

Devlin had the idea to create a “national portrait” about three years ago and developed the

digital method in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture Lab.