Alexander Adams

British artist-writer, author of "White Spirit", "The Naked Spur" and "How to Start a Dissident Art Movement". View art at

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

Thank you to all of my new followers for liking and sharing my recent art posts. For anyone new to me, I am an artist, critic and author. My income comes from art and writing. If you appreciate what I do and would like to support me, below are some ways you can do that. (1/5)

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

I am happy to appear at events, promote the cause, also to contribute behind the scenes and sign letters etc. However, a competent and dogged researcher/organiser is needed to underpin such a movement. I have already signed contracts for projects over 2026-7. But I appreciate your sentiments and I agree we need committed people standing up to be counted.

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

For anyone sceptical about the social justice purposes and ESG component, I have added an article I published at the beginning of this year.
Make no mistake, the NG and the activist organisations behind these changes have not hidden their agenda. It is set out in the press releases.
"In September (2025) the National Gallery announced the breaking of a longstanding agreement with the Tate Gallery, namely that the NG would not own works after 1900. Even casual observers knew this move had long been on the cards. The newly launched Project Domani entails expansion of NG’s buildings and collecting remit. The NG has secured £375M out of a projected total £750M cost. The NG press release announced, “Project Domani will redefine the National Gallery” – a chilling phrase.
Current financial commitments come from the NG Trust, Julia Rausing Trust and Crankstart. Crankstart is a San Francisco-based activist organisation that lists as two aims “protection of civil rights and access to the arts”. If you think that these two points are unrelated and cannot see how they might affect Project Domani, you have not been following critical-theory-influenced teaching. Activist curators understand that “civil rights” does not mean literal civil rights (opposing legal barriers to participation, etc.) but social activism. It means wresting control of resources from one group and re-allocating it to others. In material terms, it means promotion of “modern liberal values” by downgrading object/document-based historical research in order to advance injustice-correcting political action. That is, “civil rights” done through “access to the arts”.
Ask any recent art-history graduates – current and future controllers of museums – whether the proper function of museums is preservation and study of objects and presentation of subsequent findings or if it is to effect social change by exposing (and remediating) inequities and engaging in social action, including community outreach, mental-health work, economic regeneration and multi-community inclusion. Ask the Museums Association.
The Guardian notes, “The gallery hopes it will go some way to addressing the huge gender imbalance in its collection: of the 2,300 paintings in its collection, only 27 are by women.” For both Guardian writers and NG staff “post-1900 art” means nothing more than DIVERSITY, in giant letters that dominate their mental universe.
Project Domani is part of an unco-ordinated movement to disrupt the canon (as embodied in the NG collection as it is now) by two means. Firstly, it is done by recovering minor female, non-Western and non-Christian artists and recasting them as marginalised (although no more marginalised than thousands of white male creators lost to historical obscurity) yet integral to the development of Western civilisation. Secondly, it is done by emphasising post-emancipation, secular, multicultural/multiethnic post-1850 art, prompted not by love of Modernism but borne of resentment towards the preceding eras, which are considered tainted by slavery, colonialism and other pre-liberal transgressions.
NG’s senior staff, Director and Board have been keen to earn progressive kudos by mounting shows of female artists (latest is an exhibition of very pedestrian Catharina van Hemessen (1527/8–after 1565)) and by acquiring anything painted by a female hand. Of late, they have packed the Artist-in-Residence programme with women and foreign artists, none of whom seriously engage with pre-Modern art. Latest is Ming Wong, Singaporean video artist. You, my fellow artists, will never be a NG artist-in-residence precisely because you respect Van Eyck, Titian, Stubbs and Seurat.
Project Domani will likely unleash the liberalism of NG senior staff who can set to work besmirching achievements of a culture that they resent. Great art is to be belittled by contextualising labels, diluted by addition of weak work by “the marginalised”, reduced in prominence and sidelined by more recent art. When Prime Minister Keir Starmer praises Project Domani as contributing towards “creating a better, fairer future for all”, he understands it is political action – an act of revenge on the dead.
As I have done for a decade, I repeat this axiom: what you revere will be degraded and destroyed precisely because it is beautiful and you love it. Those appointed to guard our heritage hate both that history and us, as legatees of oppression. They cannot be bargained with, reasoned with or accommodated. They must be resisted and (sooner or later) cast out."

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

The bell tolls for National Gallery, London. Yesterday, the NG announced plans for sweeping changes. Phrases such as "taking an audience- and customercentric approach in everything we do", "removing barriers to engagement" and "reach new, more diverse visitors" will send a chill down your spine. (1/2)

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

@SuzanneSues57 You might enjoy my fish-out-of-water novel about an art student living in Greenwich....

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

If you wonder about today's art, consider these two novels. Written from the inside, they show how students are encouraged to pursue bizarre experiments to please tutors and chase critical acclaim. They explore how personal weaknesses drive artists into the arms of the art world. If you want to understand the state of art, I recommend this pair of novels.

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

A reminder that I've written three books on cultural policy, museums, the canon and related topics. All of these are available via shops and bookselling websites.

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

The bell tolls for National Gallery, London. Yesterday, the NG announced plans for sweeping changes. Phrases such as "taking an audience- and customercentric approach in everything we do", "removing barriers to engagement" and "reach new, more diverse visitors" will send a chill down your spine. (1/2)

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

The client is Crankstart and its founder Michael Moritz, not any NG visitors.

[Paul Symons @PaulSymons64]

@arthistorynews @AdamsArtist My objection is not in the review itself, but in the fact that a citizens jury was used to formulate answers - 64% of whom had not even been to the gallery. Not Ever. No business constructs strategy without discussing with the actual consumer/customer/client.

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

@IsadoraClarus @HMDatMI I think @FerroEgo would be a particularly good contributor. @amwilson_opera @ArtWatchUK @GrumpyArt @emeraldthiele would be great senior figures in the Our National Gallery campaign group

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

@cafecryptoart Good faith participation is how the system operates and I make no judgement of the individuals themselves. Nudge politics and manufactured consent are the problems, not the person pointing out the manipulation.

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

This is top-down steering. You have an aim, you set the terms for consultation, you select members, you guide them to the response that is entirely at one with your initial aim. Power politics distilled.
Give Michael a follow. You won't regret it.

[Michael Savage @GrumpyArt]

The National Gallery Citzens' Jury was a cynical exercise in manufacturing support for transformational changes. An unrepresentative sample was hand-picked and given a narrow assignment. Then they were led to the answer by approved cultural entrepreneurs with no dissenting voice.

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

@BucketsOf_Rain @henrimarsay @harbricht Well, if you start I will join and advise. Unfortunately, I have multiple exhibitions to prepare and books to write, which rather fills my time...

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

Additionally, my rarer titles are also available on that page.

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

Newly available for sale are my novel "The Naked Spur" and non-fiction "How to Start a Dissident Art Movement" and (available for the first time) the novel "White Spirit". Each SIGNED. To purchase, click here: https://t.co/XRlgCNJaDT

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

Newly available for sale are my novel "The Naked Spur" and non-fiction "How to Start a Dissident Art Movement" and (available for the first time) the novel "White Spirit". Each SIGNED. To purchase, click here: https://t.co/XRlgCNJaDT

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

@art_troll_UK I have just the book for you.

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

@henrimarsay @harbricht Establishing a group like Restore Trust, which fought the same fight against the management of the National Trust, might be a start....

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

The rigged consultation panel, the Domani Project, Finaldi's political comments, involvement of Crankstart and packing the Artist-in-residence programme with quota hires means NG is pushing ahead with social activism - indeed, it has to because its funding is tied to ESG. That conflicts with its duty on heritage, collection care, research and object-led systems of museum management.
You cannot have two masters. If your priority is social change (as Finaldi and Project Domani state) then everything else is subordinated to it. At that stage, NG is no longer a museum but a political action group.
This is 100% clear to everyone reading this. If you do not understand at this stage then I suggest you read my book "Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism", which explains why it might not be in the best interests of a nation to have its patrimony used as a weapon of demoralisation.

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

@cafecryptoart @metaburbia People reacted strongly against the Hogarth exhibition (show trial) because they don't like seeing a hero traduced by custodians. It makes you averse to supporting or attending an institution that pays the writers of these labels.

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

@harbricht I think it might be possible to slow things down by protesting and raising legal objections. Ultimately, only the Arts Minister or Prime Minister could intervene to stop it and this programme is entirely in line with their politics...

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

@NationalGallery

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

For anyone sceptical about the social justice purposes and ESG component, I have added an article I published at the beginning of this year.

Make no mistake, the NG and the activist organisations behind these changes have not hidden their agenda. It is set out in the press releases.

"In September (2025) the National Gallery announced the breaking of a longstanding agreement with the Tate Gallery, namely that the NG would not own works after 1900. Even casual observers knew this move had long been on the cards. The newly launched Project Domani entails expansion of NG’s buildings and collecting remit. The NG has secured £375M out of a projected total £750M cost. The NG press release announced, “Project Domani will redefine the National Gallery” – a chilling phrase.

Current financial commitments come from the NG Trust, Julia Rausing Trust and Crankstart. Crankstart is a San Francisco-based activist organisation that lists as two aims “protection of civil rights and access to the arts”. If you think that these two points are unrelated and cannot see how they might affect Project Domani, you have not been following critical-theory-influenced teaching. Activist curators understand that “civil rights” does not mean literal civil rights (opposing legal barriers to participation, etc.) but social activism. It means wresting control of resources from one group and re-allocating it to others. In material terms, it means promotion of “modern liberal values” by downgrading object/document-based historical research in order to advance injustice-correcting political action. That is, “civil rights” done through “access to the arts”.

Ask any recent art-history graduates – current and future controllers of museums – whether the proper function of museums is preservation and study of objects and presentation of subsequent findings or if it is to effect social change by exposing (and remediating) inequities and engaging in social action, including community outreach, mental-health work, economic regeneration and multi-community inclusion. Ask the Museums Association.

The Guardian notes, “The gallery hopes it will go some way to addressing the huge gender imbalance in its collection: of the 2,300 paintings in its collection, only 27 are by women.” For both Guardian writers and NG staff “post-1900 art” means nothing more than DIVERSITY, in giant letters that dominate their mental universe.

Project Domani is part of an unco-ordinated movement to disrupt the canon (as embodied in the NG collection as it is now) by two means. Firstly, it is done by recovering minor female, non-Western and non-Christian artists and recasting them as marginalised (although no more marginalised than thousands of white male creators lost to historical obscurity) yet integral to the development of Western civilisation. Secondly, it is done by emphasising post-emancipation, secular, multicultural/multiethnic post-1850 art, prompted not by love of Modernism but borne of resentment towards the preceding eras, which are considered tainted by slavery, colonialism and other pre-liberal transgressions.

NG’s senior staff, Director and Board have been keen to earn progressive kudos by mounting shows of female artists (latest is an exhibition of very pedestrian Catharina van Hemessen (1527/8–after 1565)) and by acquiring anything painted by a female hand. Of late, they have packed the Artist-in-Residence programme with women and foreign artists, none of whom seriously engage with pre-Modern art. Latest is Ming Wong, Singaporean video artist. You, my fellow artists, will never be a NG artist-in-residence precisely because you respect Van Eyck, Titian, Stubbs and Seurat.

Project Domani will likely unleash the liberalism of NG senior staff who can set to work besmirching achievements of a culture that they resent. Great art is to be belittled by contextualising labels, diluted by addition of weak work by “the marginalised”, reduced in prominence and sidelined by more recent art. When Prime Minister Keir Starmer praises Project Domani as contributing towards “creating a better, fairer future for all”, he understands it is political action – an act of revenge on the dead.

As I have done for a decade, I repeat this axiom: what you revere will be degraded and destroyed precisely because it is beautiful and you love it. Those appointed to guard our heritage hate both that history and us, as legatees of oppression. They cannot be bargained with, reasoned with or accommodated. They must be resisted and (sooner or later) cast out."

[Alexander Adams @AdamsArtist]

Don't be obtuse. This was flagged up last year. Here is an extract of an article I published at the beginning of this year. I have been writing articles in the press, collecting evidence from the NG and the NGOs involved.
"In September the National Gallery announced the breaking of a longstanding agreement with the Tate Gallery, namely that the NG would not own works after 1900. Even casual observers knew this move had long been on the cards. The newly launched Project Domani entails expansion of NG’s buildings and collecting remit. The NG has secured £375M out of a projected total £750M cost. The NG press release announced, “Project Domani will redefine the National Gallery” – a chilling phrase.
Current financial commitments come from the NG Trust, Julia Rausing Trust and Crankstart. Crankstart is a San Francisco-based activist organisation that lists as two aims “protection of civil rights and access to the arts”."