But is it art?

The question that constantly gets asked plus another one - “does it matter?”

Over the last month I’ve luxuriated to the sound, skill and passion of the Heath Quartet playing Haydn and Mendelssohn and to the raw energy and panache of Tamsin Waley Cohen playing Ravel.

I’ve read a wonderful book Peter Hall and Marilyn Scott’s on sculpture heads in which the subjects talk about the experience and the role of sculpture portraiture. Here’s what Times Art critic, Nancy Durrant, said about her experience:

“A portrait is not a mirror. The face in the mirror is the one that you show it; a portrait is you through another’s eyes- you have no power over what he sees. And yet vanity, insidious beast, does its best. You don’t even realise you are doing it – pouting a little; assuming a slight smile; sucking in your cheeks; creating the face that you think you have, or want people to see. But it’s no use. The artist knows it…..”  

All the above are unquestionably art and good art.

And then there’s the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy and I begin to wonder.

Much of it so depressing and ordinary and it fails the acid tests:

• Does it make me think?
• Would I like to own it and have it in our house?
• Is it in some respect outstanding?

And then I saw the sculpture “Christ Swarm” by Bill Woodrow….astonishing, frightening and squirm inducing, Dae Hun Kwon’s Chalna, the Girl Mailing by the Postbox, whose sculpture always excites me and Emily Allchurch’s Grand Tour, a novel on canvas.

From depression to exhilaration…plenty of art, plenty of outstanding stuff and enough I’d like to own. But there are so many weeds, so much scrubland and such hard work.

And now a confession.

I wrote recently and teasingly about Gangnam style. Unfamiliar to me. Pop. Virally launched and it became the best-selling record and most watched video around the world. The Korean Psy and his entourage riding their invisible horses. I watched it a couple of times and then showed it to my grandsons (aged 5 and nearly 7) who thought it was terrific and very engaging.

I had a look at some of the (translated) lyrics
Gangnam style - Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh
A girl who looks quiet but plays when she plays
A girl who puts her hair down when the right time comes
A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all
A sensible girl like that.

Curiously reflective and romantic. When did you hear the Troggs, Stones or Arctic Monkeys praise “common sense”? And then when Psy sings about himself:

I’m a guy
A guy who seems calm but plays when he plays
A guy who goes completely crazy when the right time comes
A guy who has bulging ideas rather than muscles
That kind of guy

“Bulging ideas” is a brilliant description of Asian entrepreneurial spirit.

Is it art?

I don’t know, I don’t think so but I think it matters.

I think it’s fun.

And I love my invisible horse.

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Written by Richard Hall and first published on