It’s surprising to find that a man who has filled two rooms of a Sheffield gallery with paintings by Polish artists has no connection to the country.
Art collector Mathew Bateson is an artist himself. He started collecting works from artists who had moved to this country from all over the world.
He is lending the Graves Gallery in Sheffield Central Library 59 works by 19 Polish artists, who mostly settled here when their country went to war against Nazi Germany. At first he didn’t realise he had so many.
He said: “I didn’t come from any Polish connection at all. I’m interested in Expressionist and narrative painting. I paint and it’s an extension of my own interest and personality.”
He says that he bought the pictures because he thought they were fantastic works of art.
He picked up his first Polish painting from what is known as an ‘abbatoir’ auction,
Article source: http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/out-about/pole-of-attraction-for-artist-1-6361748