Alastair Upton, Chief Executive at the Bluecoat.I’m on the train to Brighton going to Professor Norbert Lynton’s funeral. Norbert, who was variously art critic for the Guardian, curator at the Hayward Gallery, art history professor at Sussex University and author of numerous books was also my chair for six years when I was running Charleston, the Sussex home of Bloomsbury Group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.

In his Guardian obituary the photograph showed him sitting in the chair at his home where we would have meetings. After taking care of the business at hand we would usually settle down for a chat which would range freely and fully and I would encourage him to talk over his life and work and passions. He always seemed to have at least two books on the go and I followed their development and his thoughts on artists and artists’ families. For me it was like a second education with him teasing out and helping me shape my views on art, artists and any exhibitions I had seen.

He looked for the best in artists and while he held strong views in private would rather not review an exhibition if he only had negative things to say. He felt art in this country did not need to be kicked but to be encouraged. This came in part from his respect for artists and their work. As a teacher he had been a pioneer in crossing the divide between dry academic art history and the vibrant life of art schools. By teaching art history in art schools he brought context to contemporary work and took back an understanding of what it meant to be an artist to those who studied just their work.

The Bluecoat’s aim to expose the process of production as well as the art produced is sympathetic to Norbert’s work. As we approach opening and honing our ideas and going public with what we will do I wish that I could have a last chat. I would have appreciated his humour, sympathy and rigour as we work to ensure the Bluecoat puts the artist as well as the art at the centre of what it does.

Alastair Upton, Chief Executive at the Bluecoat.