State of the art...

I’M NOT an expert on art,’ protests writer, actor, comedian and presenter of Sky Arts’ smash hit Portrait Artist Of The Year, Stephen Mangan. Which, you would think, might make him a strange choice to inaugurate a huge outdoor art trail called Augmented Gallery, launched last week in the first ever collaboration between the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts. But it’s actually what makes him perfect.

‘I think a lot of people find art a bit intimidating,’ he says, minutes after unveiling a huge goldframed painting called Equestrian Portrait of Charles I by Anthony van Dyck, which turns out to be a code you can scan with an app on your smartphone or tablet.

It’s one of 20 masterpieces by names from Titian to Van Gogh, Tracey Emin to some of the winners of Portrait Artist Of The Year, scattered around London’s West End that you can visit, click into and examine, even in close detail using a free-to-download app, on which you’ll find commentaries on the works from Stephen, James Acaster and ‘some people who actually know about art.’

‘It’s like having your own private tour of a painting,’ says Stephen. ‘Galleries can be intimidating. You go in and there are 2,000 paintings hanging on the wall and you don’t even know where to begin. I very quickly become overwhelmed by wall after wall. This is like someone taking you by the hand and saying, “OK, we have 20 paintings to look at and this is why this is interesting...”’

Ros Morgan, Chief Executive of Heart Of London Business Alliance, who came up with the app idea, says: ‘We set about thinking how we engage with a younger audience, maybe people who think they don’t like art but maybe because they haven’t had the opportunity.

‘So we thought, let’s let the art spill out onto the street.’ The app also makes the art works a bit more intriguing, in that you won’t know what you’re getting until you point and click.

‘It’s more fun,’ says Ros. ‘And the codes you scan look like pieces of art themselves.’ ‘A lot of people feel that you need a certain amount of knowledge to enjoy art,’ chips in Stephen, who’s filming the semifinals for the next series of Portrait Artist Of The Year, ‘Or you don’t like “the right things” but what I’ve learnt is that any reaction to art is valid. It’s OK to love some stuff and hate other stuff. It doesn’t mean you have bad taste.’

And whether it’s Van Gogh’s famous Sunflowers from the National Gallery, a portrait of Nile Rodgers from Portrait Artist Of The Year or Seurat’s strange and lovely post-impressionist masterpiece Bathers at Asniéres, there’s bound to be something you love

‘The Sunflowers was always going to be a strong choice for summer,’ says Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, who chose which art should ‘spill out onto the streets’. ‘We wanted the paintings to be representative and maybe something that people recognise.’

And though this is the third attempt to get the Augmented Gallery up and rolling, it actually couldn’t be better timing. ‘We were following government rules before, where people were encouraged to stay at home and not use transport,’ says Ros. ‘And it was important for us to do it at a time when people were around.

‘And we wanted to do it just before the galleries open on May 17, to get people confident to come in and start using transport. Then they can go into the galleries.’

Oh and as for Stephen Mangan’s favourite among the masterpieces. ‘It’s the Duncan Shoosmith portrait of Tom Jones,’ which just happens to have sprung from - you guessed it! - Portrait Artist Of The Year, back on your screens this autumn. ‘Van Gogh and Titian have had enough love,’ he adds.

Download the Art of London: AR Gallery app to

get started

‘It’s OK to love some stuff and hate other stuff. It doesn’t mean you have bad taste’

n