Artist Topsy Qu'ret claimed he was forced out of job at Waygood Gallery

Oct 21 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

AN artist was forced out of his job at a troubled art gallery after a row with his “bullying” boss, a tribunal heard yesterday.

Topsy Qur’et told an employment tribunal sitting at Newcastle’s Quayside that Waygood gallery director Helen Smith got him sacked after months of tension.

Matters were said to come to a head when Ms Smith was left frightened and shaken after the artist allegedly stared at her “unemotionally” during a discussion about his role.

Ms Smith was alone in her gallery at the Harkers Building on Shields Road in Byker, working on a private art project, when she said Topsy suddenly approached her and said he was convinced she thought he was not doing a good job. The gallery director said she was very “unnerved” by Topsy as he stood and stared at her and she asked him to leave her studio, but became more unsettled as she realised she was alone with the artist.

She told the tribunal she was intimidated, saying he was “verbally aggressive and seemed determined to stay”. Ms Smith said she started to panic, and raised her voice, saying three or four times she wanted him to leave.

When this did not work, she said that she “started to panic and at that point I completely lost it”.

Asked to clarify just what it was that had upset her, Ms Smith said: “He was just watching me and showing no emotions, watching me panic and there was no sympathy whatsoever.”

Eventually, she told the tribunal, she pushed Topsy by the shoulders and forced him to leave.