The Times of London looks at the upcoming show of British Art from the British Council’s holdings and discovers that government has a good eye:

The full breadth of the British Council’s hoard of 20th-century British art, toured and exhibited abroad to promote Britain and its artists and designers, is to go on show in this country for the first time next year. The collection, including works by Walter Sickert, Henry Moore, David Hockney and Lucian Freud, will form part of the inaugural programme at the revamped Whitechapel Gallery in East London.

Iwona Blazwick, director of the gallery, said that the British Council had made the most of the relatively low prices for home-grown art yet had shown prescience in its choices. “Up until the late 1980s the art market in Britain was not tremendously dynamic. The British Council were damned lucky, but they were also consistent in getting in early [in artists’ careers] and buying work of tremendous quality.”

British Council to show hoard of 20th-century British art (Times of London)