Cultural debate

Published on 28/10/2012 21:07

Tiffany Jenkins’s bold criticism of the art establishment (Perspective, 26 October) is long overdue. Art is far too important for all criticism to be abandoned to a self-interested cabal of current artists, curators, galleries and dealers.

These people have stifled 
honest public opinion with the unspoken assertion that those who disagree with them are ignorant philistines. The art establishment has succeeded in pushing genuinely popular work into the shadows.

The Royal Scottish Academy might have a fit of the vapours if it was suggested that it mount a major exhibition of the work of artists such as Millais, Alma-
Tadema, Waterhouse or Ford Maddox Brown and yet these men were a major influence on the art world of the later 19th century. They drew enormous crowds and were in the press and excitedly argued-over in all walks of life. That was before “popular” became a dirty word. Why does the public put up with being told what to think? Left to themselves, I doubt many people would clamour for dead animals, flickering strobe lights and an unmade bed.

Peter Laidlaw

Bramdean Rise

Edinburgh