2009 was the centenary year of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). To mark the occasion they invited artist James Hart Dyke behind their closed doors and into the secret world of espionage. The resulting series of paintings and drawings formed the subject of a selling exhibition ‘A year with MI6’, at Mount Street Galleries, London. The pictures represented an outsider’s unique interpretation of an existence that, for those who work in SIS, can often be dangerous and surreal.

    It is highly unusual for anyone to be publicly associated with MI6, and in this respect an art exhibition about SIS was simply unprecedented. James had to work under strict conditions of secrecy, and was extensively vetted before being selected for the project.

    The exhibition attracted international media coverage on radio, TV and in the broadsheets. This included items on the national BBC and ITV news, a documentary by CNN and an interview by Mark Lawson on Front Row, BBC Radio 4.

Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art

‘Waiting in the hotel room’ was illustrated by the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, New York, in a lecture supporting their exhibition ‘A room with a view-The Open Window in the 19th Century’ 2011. The curator, Sabine Rewald, discussed how the motif of the window has historically been used in art and continues to be a vibrant subject matter for artists today.

‘ They (the paintings) are very good.....the images have a blurred, washed-out, down beat, quality reminiscent of Gehard Richter and Luc Tuymans.’

Rupert Christiansen. The Telegraph, Arts Review

‘James Bond has finally been replaced by an image that is unglamorous as it is credible-an anonymous person, alone staring through the curtains of a hotel room, waiting and watching.’

Ben Macintyre. The Times Newspaper 15.2.11

  J A M E S   H A R T   D Y K E

END

‘The Headquarters, Vauxhall Cross, London’ 2010, oil on canvas 30x40cm, private collection

‘Waiting in the hotel room’ 2010, oil on canvas 75x75cm, private collection

‘Toy duck’ 2010, oil on canvas 45x45cm, private collection

‘Agent giving information to SIS officer’ 2010, oil on canvas 55x75cm, private collection

‘Going for a meeting’ 2010, oil on canvas 75x75cm, private collection

‘Espionage’ 2010, oil on canvas 168x215cm, private collection

Not a red herring 2010, oil on canvas 75x75cm, private collection

‘Battersea Power Station’ 2010, oil on canvas 55x75cm, private collection

‘Doughnut on stripes’ 2010, oil on canvas 75x75cm, private collection

‘Early morning view over Kabul’ 2010, oil on canvas 55x75cm, private collection

Liaison meeting 2010, oil on canvas 55x75cm, private collection

‘GCHQ, Cheltenham’ 2010, oil on canvas 75x75cm

‘Working in Africa’ 2010, oil on canvas 55x75cm, private collection

‘Meeting an agent’ 2010, oil on canvas 55x75cm, private collection

‘The quiet place, Baghdad, Iraq’ 2010, oil on canvas 30x40cm, private collection

‘Chatting in the bar’ 2010,oil on canvas 30x40cm, private collection

‘Across the river’ 2010, oil on canvas 30x40cm, private collection

‘Mansfield -Cumming’ 2010, oil on canvas 153x127cm

Based on a painting of Mansfield-Cumming by H F Crowther Smith

private collection

‘Secret’  2011, oil on canvas 45x45cm, private collection

‘Contrasts’ 2010, pencil, watercolour and charcoal on paper 20x28cm, private collection

‘Station’ 2010, pencil, watercolour and charcoal on paper 28x40cm, private collection

Waiting in hotel room, study 2 2010

pencil, watercolour and charcoal on paper 28x20cm

private collection

‘Oluf Reed-Olsen’ 2010, pencil, watercolour and charcoal on paper 20x28cm

Based on a photograph taken during the Second World War

private collection

‘Secret Jammy Dodger’ 2010, pencil, watercolour and charcoal on paper 28x20cm

private collection

‘Sleeping officer’ 2010, pencil,  and charcoal on paper 20x28cm, private collection

‘Green Ink’ 2011, watercolour on paper 20x28cm, private collecton

‘Dog in the round’ 2010, oil on canvas 180x180cm, private collection

‘Lobby’ 2010, watercolour, pencil, charcoal and pastel on paper

private collection