1722 Europe was characterised by financial shocks and stock market bubbles, a controversial vaccine keeping the barely-recognised smallpox virus at bay, Russia invading a neighbouring nation and the Versailles legacy of Louis XIV bankrupting France. Not much has changed it would seem. Three centuries later inflation, Covid, Putin and the excesses of royalty still dominate the news.
I also doubt that prosecuting said art vandals [they were one of the Germanic tribes who sacked Rome by the way – Vandals that is] will do much either as long as the media is intent on turning them into heroes with something to say. The right to free speech may well be enshrined in law in some parts of the world but that doesn’t mean that wilful destruction or desecration of cultural artefacts should be tolerated. After all, the only thing that separates the barbarians from the culturally literate is the Art they leave behind and some artefacts will outlive humankind.
While pay for play galleries is the norm where I live, they generally don’t cost an arm and a leg and while there are no guaranteed sales, words like predatory and misleading aren’t part of the vocabulary.
I’ve gone through life as an artist believing that there is a higher purpose to Art – something over and above mere existence. I’m not talking about religious revelation, metaphysics or existentialism but that intangible, immeasurable quality where paint or any other...
Once upon a time I had a conversation with a West Australian artist who enjoyed a great deal of success in his home state, nationwide, and had at least one book written about him. His name is seldom heard these days. His house, and a covered walkway to the...
Federico Garcia-Lorca wrote that ‘at the heart of all great art is an essential melancholy’. Melancholy ……….a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause. He was writing as a poet, but any number of blues musicians would probably agree...