This reminds me of the tussle between the Archibald Prize and the Doug Moran Art prize, here in Australia – both for portraits.
The Archibald is the full arty-farty number with big canvases, big egos, big reputations, and all the codswallop you can swallow… Some decent pictures in there of course, but all washed down with bucket loads of arty waffle. But Australians like nothing better than taking the p*ss out of each other, so while the Art heavyweights sip their Chardonnay and discuss the layers of meaning that Ankledankle imbues her textures with, and the ‘risks’ that Binkledonkle takes with his yellows, the viewing public also votes for a People’s Choice award. And equally well reported is The Packers’ Prize – awarded by the workmen whose job it is to unpack all the crates and lug the ‘masterpieces’ around. The packers tend to like nudes. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> There is also a rival 'Bald Archie' competition run by people who don’t get invited to the Archibald exhibition.
All well and good, but it got right up the nose of Mr Doug Moran, a reportedly tyrannic old right winger who made his considerable fortune out of farming geriatrics - i.e. running chains of nursing homes. Mr Moran likes a portrait whose eyes follow you round the room and which look just like the person who sat for it.
So he endowed a prize for ‘realistic’ type portraits. But the nice touch was that the old buzzard made sure that it was the richest art prize in the country – just to get back at the people he no doubt thinks are a bunch of poofy arty farty types. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" />
So let’s try the Doug Moran approach for a change – you can have whatever public or private art you like, just so long as you’re prepared to pay directly for it. Whip the Government teat out of all those Opera and Ballet mouths and make the people who want to watch them pay the real cost of putting them on, just like people do who want to watch football matches or rock concerts.
And Art Galleries? Bah, humbug! Put the money into restoring and maintaining our architectural heritage instead. No, better still, give it me and I’ll spend the whole lot on a series of 'action art pieces' involving Ferraris, Lamborghinis, crates of beer and bus loads of nymphomaniacs. It’s the New Art, and I’m its Salvador Dali .... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />
