Kate’s Vogue shots shouldn’t be in a gallery. They’re not art | Jonathan Jones

Either the royals are hoarding art or they’re sanitising it. The showing given to the Duchess of Cambridge’s portraits is part of the latter

A Vogue cover shot is not a serious portrait. Who would expect it to be? I’ve nothing against the romantic rural pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge that decorate the June issue of Vogue. Nice face, nice clothes. But is a glossy picture of Kate Middleton in any way a serious work of art?

The National Portrait Gallery claims it is. This royal fashion shoot by photographer Josh Olins was jointly commissioned by Vogue and the NPG, and one of the pictures will hang in its exhibition Vogue 100: A Century of Style. The gallery’s director, Nicholas Cullinan, has fawningly enthused that “Josh has captured the duchess exactly as she is – full of life, with a great sense of humour, thoughtful and intelligent, and in fact, very beautiful.” The NPG is apparently working hard to turn Kate Middleton into an icon of modern art.

These are just slight and silly pictures that only a flatterer would call art

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