{"id":1264,"date":"2014-10-24T18:23:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T18:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2014-10-24T18:23:26","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T18:23:26","slug":"the-serpentine-as-fat-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/?p=1264","title":{"rendered":"The Serpentine as fat cat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why should the interests of those in limousines be subsidised by the rest of us?\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What is the difference between a line of black limousines at a Mob funeral in Brooklyn and an identical cavalcade at the opening party of the new Serpentine Gallery annexe in Hyde Park? Well, not as much as you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d think. Although Cosa Nostra are undoubtedly the subtler of the two coteries represented, both have a common interest in protection rackets. In the case of the Serpentine this means inflating the reputation and value of the deluxe \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbranded\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 art which will be shown there and will have originated, or will end up, in the collections of the limousines\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 occupants.<\/p>\n

Unaware that a shindig was in progress I cycled past the Serpentine while the limos were chrome-to-chrome outside. At first this didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t register as unusual: another evening, another hoolie for the vain and vulgar at the Serpentine… One has got used to it. But the image of those black limousines, just that few inches too long, that shade too opaque, that chauffeur-wipe too shiny, lingered until it formed an indelible symbol for everything that stinks about State Art. What is passed off as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpublic interest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe public appetite for contemporary art\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (the latter is the often repeated favourite lie of President-For-Life Serota himself) is yet another means by which the wealthy protect their interests. The public has no say in what is shown in the Serpentine despite the fact we have always paid for it. And if we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like it we can eat cake.<\/p>\n

Here is a publicly funded art gallery which specializes in showing recent art of negligible visible quality, that the public couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care a toss about, which is hawked by the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wealthiest and most powerful shopkeepers, has its value maintained by salerooms who rig prices during glamorous soir\u00c3\u00a9es, is traded in by billionaire collectors who purport to like it but treat it merely as a secure commodity of exchange, and is endorsed using a new language written by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153international curators\u00e2\u20ac\u009d no literate outsider can fathom. You couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t invent a more perfectly rounded system of self-interest and exclusion.<\/p>\n

The limos were celebrating the Serpentine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest expansion. A listed neo-classical building of agreeable proportions by Decimus Burton, formerly an arsenal close to the main gallery, has had a caf\u00c3\u00a9 and restaurant designed by Zaha Hadid attached to it. Enjoying limitless freedoms of manoeuvre as it does, State Art never has any problem acquiring permission for one of its chosen architects to tamper with the historically important and therefore supposedly protected. In this case what resembles the roots of a gigantic wisdom tooth have been impacted on the side of a Doric portico. It couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be less sympathetic and like everything gratuitously eye-catching it is unnecessary. New gallery spaces are poky and the caf\u00c3\u00a9 charges \u00c2\u00a33.38 for a small cup of waiter-delivered coffee. How very charitable \u00e2\u20ac\u201c come to think of it just like those other exemplary, public-spirited \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccharities\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, the Royal Academy and The Art Fund.<\/p>\n

Between them the limousines paid the \u00c2\u00a314 million cost for the expansion, as well they might as many of them will be its main beneficiaries. Running costs and an exhibition programme have been underwritten with a \u00c2\u00a33 million endowment from the Lottery. This comes on top of the minimum \u00c2\u00a31.3 million a year the gallery has always received from the Arts Council. In fact, in the 19-year history of the National Lottery, the Serpentine has received no fewer than twelve awards totalling \u00c2\u00a36.8 million. Thus is the Serpentine the means by which money from the poorest, those who buy lotto tickets and scratch cards, is laundered to assist the wealthiest (non-doms many of them) in the appreciation of their investment portfolios. This revolting system is defended by the all-purpose State Art lie that the likes of the Serpentine \u00e2\u20ac\u0153provide a public service\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Up to a point, but the real winners are behind all that dark glass.<\/p>\n

The Serpentine is run by a pair perfectly suited to their task: one is a dim socialite who does as she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s told, while the other is a Swiss \u00e2\u20ac\u0153international curator\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who speaks six languages and has neither penned nor spoken a clear sentence in any one of them.<\/p>\n

So who pays for the Serpentine? You do. Who is it for? Definitely not you. What is its purpose? Mind your own business.<\/p>\n

David Lee <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why should the interests of those in limousines be subsidised by the rest of us? What is the difference between a line of black limousines at a Mob funeral in Brooklyn and an identical cavalcade at the opening party of the new Serpentine Gallery annexe in Hyde Park? Well, not as much as you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d think. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[40,222],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leader","tag-david-lee","tag-serpentine-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1268,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions\/1268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejackdaw.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}