2,500 years ago Plato through his Republic sought to banish the mimetic arts from his notion of an ideal society, in that he recognised the distracting and destabilizing effects of art on its citizens
THE INHERENT DANGER OF ART
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Sculpture
WHEN HACKING LOSES ITS THRILL YOU CAN ALWAYS TRY ART THEFT
There is no doubt that Rembrandt would have been surprised that he holds the Guinness Book of Records medal for the most stolen work. Jacob de Gheyn III was stolen in 1966, 1973, 1981 and 1983.
KEEPING PUBLIC ART SAFE – BANNING UMBRELLAS, MUFFS, PARCELS, SELFIE STICKS, CANAPES, FORKLIFTS, WOMEN, CHILDREN AND ARTISTS
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.
THE ARTIST, THE SHOPPING TROLLEY AND THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR
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.
WHO UNDERSTANDS PICASSO?
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 CULT OF THE NEW AND THE OBSESSION WITH NOVELTY
Much has been written about the idea of originality in art but in the end just what does ‘originality’ mean? Before the 20th century it wasn’t a term much considered. Artist studios were places where apprentices went to learn from the master and with the advent of Art Schools, nothing much changed. The cult of originality is a 20th century obsession and yet it ignores or neglects that much great art was produced within the western tradition using traditional techniques.