Prime Minister's Visit to the Tate Gallery

EDM number 352 in 1989-90, proposed by Brian Sedgemore on 22/01/1990.

That this House expresses its admiration at the decision of the Prime Minister to leave what she calls the flat over the shop to visit an art gallery this week, namely the Tate; calls on the Prime Minister to rejoice in the fact that Turner's painting there, The Field of Waterloo, which depicts the gruesome aftermath of the battle does not glory in war or nationalism; invites the Prime Minister to view the nudes in Turner's masterpiece, The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apples of Contrition in the Garden of Hesperides and to repudiate the published claims of Conservative honourable Members that these nudes are no different from page 3 nudes in the Sun newspaper; calls on the Director of the Tate, Nicholas Serota, to explain to the Prime Minister that gazing lovingly and with humility on paintings is a far more worthy pursuit in this life than that of exercising political power; and believes that there is a lesson for us all, not only in Mark Rothko's abstract expressionist paintings at the Tate, but also in the supreme and heroic sacrifice that he made when he committed suicide on the job and was found on his studio floor bleeding to death, having slashed his own wrist.

This motion has been signed by a total of 20 MPs.