Government Art Collection at The Whitechapel Gallery - Oh Yes, it stinks! "It is the crack of bumrise…the foul stench of elitism and hypocrisy hangs over the Whitechapel Gallery…an exhibition has plopped that gives nepootism a bad name.
Just across Whitechapel High Street from the gallery is one of the main buildings of London Metropolitan University, which has the highest intake of working-class students of any university in the UK. London Met is in the process of implementing cuts that will see an astonishing 70% of its courses, from Performing Arts to Caribbean Studies, eliminated. And, of course, fees for the few courses that do remain will double or perhaps even triple as a result of government education policy. London Met’s students have little in common with the materially poovileged and narcissistic knights, dames, lords, consorts and other turds being invited to play at curating at the Whitechapel. These students have no interest in gusting along the corridors of power shrouded in ermine; few will spend much time sipping champagne, gobbling canapés and kiss kissying at private views. And now, because of the education cuts, many of us will never even have the chance to study the arts and humanities. In this context, the Whitechapel’s decision to play host to these dilettante grandees is not just tactless and inappropriate, but mocking and grotesque. The Whitechapel’s show reeks of sycophancy. It is a sad truth that these powerful pampered parasites get used to flattery and as a result lose any self-awareness. Thus the spymaster Sir John Saw-arse had this to guff in the show’s catalogue about his choice of Claude Heath’s Ben Nevis: “I recall a negotiation on Iran I chaired sitting under this picture. When the going got tough between Americans, Europeans, Russians and Chinese, we took a break for tea and reflected on the art work. Agreement was reached an hour later.” La-di fucking-da! How hollow and rotten this proud boast is about art’s ability to bring people together against the backdrop of the impact of the coalition’s austerity policies!" http://artsagainstcuts.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/goverment-art-collection-at-the-whitechapel-gallery/ _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
