A painter who won a prestigious British portrait award sponsored by BP has donated part of his winnings to Greenpeace in protest at his art being used to promote the image of the multinational oil company.
Henry Christian-Slane, an artist from New Zealand, won the BP young artist award at the National Portrait Gallery for a painting of his partner Gabi. The high profile prize, which was chosen out of 2,580 entries, came with £7,000 prize money, which was presented by BP’s chief executive Bob Dudley.
Christian-Slane, 26, said he was happy to receive the accolade but was not comfortable “about being part of BP’s PR strategy”.
He said as a “symbolic act” of defiance he was donating £1,000 of the prize-money to Greenpeace projects that directly protested against BP’s extraction of fossil fuels from the ground.
“I hope this action will help keep the issue of BP’s role in climate change from being overshadowed by their contribution to the arts,” he said.
“I was very uncomfortable with the idea that the portrait award was being used to improve BPs image. Big oil companies like BP have the power to prevent the fossil fuels in the ground from entering the atmosphere as greenhouse gases, and we need to keep pressure on them to accept this responsibility. The individual has a role to play in this.”
Greenpeace and the alliance of campaign groups Art Not Oil have long protested against arts institutions accepting sponsorship from the oil giant, and previous protest actions have included climate activists spending 25 hours scrawling messages on the floor of the Tate’s Turbine Hall.
Last year it was announced that BP’s sponsorship of the National Portrait Gallery portrait prize would continue for another five years, and the company announced it would invest £7.5m in other major cultural institutions such as the British Museum, Royal Opera House and Royal Shakespeare Company. The deals prompted an open letter of condemnation by figures such as Mark Rylance.
Commenting on Christian-Slane’s gesture, Sara Ayech, oil campaigner for Greenpeace UK, thanked the artist for his his principled stand against “art’s co-option by the oil industry.”
She added: “Purchasing a dominant position in London’s cultural scene is starting to become a bit of a double-edged sword for BP. As Henry has demonstrated, not everyone can be bought, and while BP are maintaining their brand’s relationship with the city’s elites, they are also providing a platform for the environmental damage they do around the world to be exposed in front of their home audience.”
