They should have questioned him and perhaps gained an appreciation of what he was trying to achieve. Or not. For what it's worth I don't care for his work at all but on a couple of occasions learning about the motivation for an artist's work can change your viewpoint. Back when the South Bank Show was on ITV (yes, really) Melvyn Bragg did a programme about Bjork who was regarded as ridiculous at the time due to her bizarre vocal style. Me included....I thought she sounded like a fax machine. But the documentary explored Bjork's Icelandic roots and the way that a native singing style had been developed for songwriting and storytelling and that was the heritage she was drawing upon. Since then I don't always like her work but I do get where she's coming from and don't dismiss it out of hand.
I used to be someone who preferred figurative artwork but went to a Royal Academy exhibition about Vincent Van Gogh and his brother, and the show not only featured the paintings but correspondence between the two, sketches, etc and I came away with a real appreciation for Van Gogh's work which hadn't really been there before. After that, the studied figurative work seemed dull and lifeless.
I would like an opportunity to ask Tracy Emin - who is Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy (
) - how she has made such a name for herself with little discernible talent that I can see. She is still making a very decent amount of money thankyouverymuch from her work but only due to the notoriety of her early headline-grabbing efforts.
