............................................there's a giant arse on TV - nothing new there, you might think, but this one's a work of art as shown on the BBC's Breakfast show, featuring as it did this morning regular visits to Tate Britain and its Turner Prize exhibition. Taking art to the masses. Bussing in school kids and asking them what they think. The one's I saw interviewed thought is was great, of course, they would because art's 'cool'..................................................
.........................................................more entertaining were the photos from viewers of art on their walls...one being a cat, another a village street scene...well what did you expect, an installation?
Presenter Charlie Stayt did a decent job of remaining objective whilst suggesting there may be more to what meets the eye without, of course, having time to follow up the sub-text with in-depth examinations into 'meaning' and aesthetics in relation to conceptual work - although the classic mistake was made of asking how we know any of these contemporary works are of a 'genius' standard................................................but you wouldn't expect a breakfast TV presenter to not ask a dumb question because she/he is either a bit dumb about contemporary art, or they're posing everyperson questions on behalf of every art-ignorant person watching as directed by the producer..............................................whatever, perhaps 'we' have got beyond the pile- of-bricks-loada-rubbish mentality, partly due to the selling of Tate Modern to the masses therefore, we might think, a broadening of minds regarding what constitutes contemporary art...............sadly, this has lead to the deifying of Damien Hirst, but that's another matter.....................
..........................to look for 'genius' now is missing the point of art today, when nobody merits, or deserves, the accolade...........because it's irrelevant anyway, although events like the Turner Prize encourage such an idea, still, by their very existence and the framework of a competition between a selected few, thus leading a lot of people to think that there is a 'top' class and four artists are in it...................
........................................................................................................................the gallery world........
inherently elitist..........
................................art is for everyone to make if only they knew it but things like the Turner Prize promote the notion of art degrees needed and the studio in which to build giant arses.............but.............be your own genius.........go on....................nobody may recognise that you are one but that's OK.......
............................................................................actually...........................................................................
............................................................................forget genius because the term's loaded and leads to ridiculous expectations based partly on what is reckoned to be 'genius' along with centuries of history which have no bearing on you today...............................as I tried to say earlier....................................................
.....now excuse me........I'm off to paint a cat...............................
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