Monday 19 September 2005

I don’t even know what I like

Having publicly confessed to my deficiencies in the field of sport, I might as well own up to my total lack of artistic talent or appreciation. This seems to me to be a far more serious failing; any whippet can run faster than a man, any fairly fit wildebeest can jump higher, and it would not be difficult to teach a bright chimpanzee to play most ball games, but the ability to create a work of art (except by accident) is something that distinguishes us from animals.

So while my admiration of sportsmen is less than whole-hearted, I have enormous respect, and some envy, for people who can draw, or paint, or sculpt, or even make a nice picture by sticking grass and bits of cloth on a piece of cardboard. Recently I have been enjoying making up web pages which exhibit the work of a few artists; I charge a small fee for this but it’s not a money-making venture, just a source of satisfaction in that it makes me feel that I am associated in some small way with the world of art.

And I imagine that on the whole artists are rather more agreeable and interesting people than footballers or cricketers, though I don't actually know any of those.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've had a look at your website. It isn't bad, and in fact many of the professional and amateur artists who have a page on it are clearly very talented.
But you should really be more selective in granting pages. It cannot be acceptable to real artists to find that their work is being displayed on the same site as that of talentless idiots such as Goswell Frand, whose pathetic photographs are not worth exhibiting anywhere.

Anonymous said...

I don't know this fellow Julius de Basil, Tony, but I'm surprised you haven't deleted his offensive comment. Impertinent popinjay, how dare he call Goswell Frand a talentless idiot? Fellow needs a good horse-whipping if you ask me.
I'll have him know that in our Long Gallery we have a couple of dozen of Frand's photos which Venetia bought and which have been much admired by some distinguished critics.

10:31 AM

Tony said...

No, I don't know this de Basil chap either, Hugh, but as his comment inspired you to use the splendid epithet "impertinent popinjay" I didn't have the heart to delete it.
Give him a bit of a horse-whip if you want to, but actually Goswell is rather an idiot, isn't he?
Love to Venetia and all your brood.