Trying to destroy the Mona Lisa [many have tried] to get your name in the papers may not seem on a par with shooting John Lennon but inevitably, cultural artefacts of all types are seen as soft targets and a way to instant fame, however short-lived.
So where to the artist? There are more art practitioners today than ever before with a burgeoning online market set up to sell their works, but the designation ‘artist’ is of ultimately no more value than yesterday’s newspaper, now rebadged as fish wrapping.
Artists left to survive on their own, art students with nowhere to go and policy makers ignoring the need for a concerted nation-wide policy in the arts, all point to a return to a time when Australian artists had no choice but to head overseas.
If the artist’s work features many strange markings, it is a sign of carelessness and inexperience.
Once upon a time Picasso was one of the few artists everyone knew about or at least the one artist whose name everyone knew once you got past Da Vinci and Michaelangelo.
The role of art and artists has altered over time. The ancient world is full of monuments to power, records of the doings of civilisations and individuals, and examples of the transmission and perpetuation of culture