STOP THE OBFUSCATION

Sir Peter Bazalgette put the boot into the art world last week when he said:-
“Sometimes if you walk into an exhibition and you read the notes you would feel as though you are reading a foreign language”

And I guess most of us agreed. Not a lot to disagree with is there? It’s like teenage drinking, drug taking and pregnancy - a disgrace that has to be cracked down on.  But here’s the funny thing - because it has been. In the instance of teenage drinking, drug taking and pregnancy all have declined rapidly with drinking by 16 – 25 year olds reducing more sharply than amongst any other sector of the community. Teenage pregnancies are now the lowest since the 1960s.  And in the galleries I visit the quality of curating and simple English has reached new levels of clarity. Peter will say no doubt: “the word I used , you will notice, is ‘sometimes’. I was not saying it was prevalent”

Well if not prevalent or a serious problem why raise it and I have to say in the video of you explaining the Daily Telegraph article which trailed this alleged communication crisis, you did look rather anguished about this so-called issue.

In his book “Breakfast at Sotheby’s: the A-Z of the Art World” Philip Hook fingers some of those troublesome “foreign-sounding” words: “Accessible, challenging, decorative, difficult, important, interesting, monumental”

Crikey – they are hard ones aren’t they?

But this is yesterday’s fight. Overall the world of arts and culture has never been more astutely aware of the need for audiences and simplicity. Post-Apple, cleanliness and brevity of communication is the thing. The V&A gets this, the Ashmolean gets it….hell they all get it. Wherever you go the way in which art is talked about, the odd Brian Sewell apart, in words of one syllable.

On Sunday’s “Broadcasting House” on Radio 4 Paddy O’Connell interviewed people in the street about the side by side “Van Gogh “Sunflowers” at the National. It was a lightweight but refreshing piece demonstrating that the Chairman of the Arts Council’s concern lest anything impede art being for everyone is really pretty groundless.

So don’t be blue, Peter. The arts world is in better shape than you fear and the language with which it’s described is a) English and b) generally clear and simply informative.  My concern is the opposite of yours. Do you ever worry we aren’t being careful enough to get to the root of things and embrace complexity when it is there?  Brian Sewell is a fine example of someone unafraid to say either something is really difficult or, in entertainingly extravagant language, that a given work is ghastly.

The good thing about Sir Peter’s outburst, and perhaps this was his motive all along, is he hit the headlines and this blog.

Written by Richard Hall and first published on http://www.businessofculture.com/