JULY/AUGUST 2025 Every visual arts hack has chipped in their sixpennorth about the re-opening of the Sainsbury Wing and the rehang it has caused throughout the rest of the National Gallery, parts of which have been visible for many months if only they’d bothered investigating. This is claimed as a major event to celebrate the… Continue reading Well Hung?
Free For All … But Intended For The Rich
JULY/AUGUST 2025 Racketeering continues at the British Museum: just under a fiver for a small cup of coffee and eight quid for a ham and cheese roll. Cheating bastards you might think, but why should they care when they have a captive audience of six million hungry saps a year to fleece. These are not… Continue reading Free For All … But Intended For The Rich
We Are All Snobs
MAY/JUNE 2025 Conceited confessions first … I am far too highly educated, discerning, well-read and knowledgeable about absolutely everything ever to have visited an exhibition of paintings by Jack Vettriano (1951-2025). Neither can I recall ever encountering, even by accident, any original picture by him. To my mind and eyes, there’s nothing there, no one… Continue reading We Are All Snobs
No Compromise On Seriousness
MAY/JUNE 2025 In 2021 Edinburgh decided to recognise suffragette and women’s medical campaigner, Dr Elsie Inglis (1864-1917), with a memorial on the magnificent Royal Mile. Among other things this would help redress, they said, the heavy imbalance in numbers between male and female statues in the capital city. Inglis is a worthy choice. She had… Continue reading No Compromise On Seriousness
Do We Really Need All This Stuff?
MARCH/APRIL, 2025 The British Council is in such serious financial jeopardy it’s been forced to consider selling some of the 8,800-piece art collection it began accumulating in 1938. They borrowed £250 million from the Government during the pandemic and, like thousands of other organisations who accepted the Government’s offer of instant loans, can’t now pay… Continue reading Do We Really Need All This Stuff?
When Theories Kill People
JANUARY/FEBRUARY, 2025 There are three reasons why this important summary should be recommended reading for all art and architecture students, even if some of them need first to be taught how to read properly. First, this lifelong enthusiast’s view gives a solid introduction to our country’s architectural background; how it evolved decoratively from military austerity… Continue reading When Theories Kill People
The First Lie Exposed
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, 2024 Labour’s Election Manifesto proudly announced that art and music will ‘no longer be the preserve of a privileged few’ … Yes, that one again. Like all Sir Barney Rubble’s other promises he didn’t bother burdening us with how he might achieve this impossibility. It is an obvious whopper and their first lie. Labour… Continue reading The First Lie Exposed
At Last A Promising Appointment
MAY/JUNE, 2024 Bryan Christ, a former cleric, has been appointed Minister of State at the DCMS. He adds intellect to a department overseen by mediocrity. Christ is well-educated, fluent in Spanish, and has written a solid biography of Stafford Cripps, Attlee’s reforming Chancellor. It is thoroughly researched, efficiently written and serves as a primer on… Continue reading At Last A Promising Appointment
Philistine Action
MAY/JUNE, 2024 Two days shy of the 110th anniversary on March 10th 1914 of Canadian suffragette Mary Richardson slashing Velasquez’s Rokeby Venus in the National Gallery, a pro-Palestinian supporter cut to ribbons a 1914 painting by society portraitist Philip de Laszlo of A J Balfour in Trinity College Cambridge. Former Prime Minister Balfour was a… Continue reading Philistine Action
KO to Print: Post Mortem
MARCH/APRIL, 2024 In January I travelled into Manchester by crowded tram during the morning rush hour. Of the 200 or so commuters I could see in front and behind the only person reading a newspaper was a young lady standing by a door. The tabloid free sheet, Metro, given away at all stations along the… Continue reading KO to Print: Post Mortem