Thursday, June 15, 2006

The Emperor's New Sculpture

One of the few things I learned in pursuit of my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree was never to trust any Art or Literature, particularly when they start with a capital letter. Talented people can make beautiful things. This is one of my current favorites. When people try to be Artistic, particularly when they are being Artistic in lieu of being Talented, large volumes of crap almost always follows. The situation then snowballs as people, not wanting to seem crass, start spouting nonsense about how visionary the Artist is.

Case in point: the Royal Academy in Britain recently put on display the pedestal support for a statue, in the mistaken belief that it was a work of art. The actual sculpture that the pedestal was supposed to support was judged not worthy of inclusion in the exhibit.

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