Poor Man About Town

I was reading this article in The Times about the Tate Modern. I never liked Tate Modern, I could not put my finger on why. Then I saw this photo in The Times - it had New Model Parents wearing sunflower head-dresses along with their sprogs - they were playing an enlarged board game. I guess it was designed to help their sprogs learn about art. There is this ironic notion that we are culturally starved and therefore we should turn art into a form of junk-food in order to stave off our hunger for it - dumbing down. Children and families have been starved of modern art and therefore Tate Modern has been turned into a Theme Park for Modern Art. This is no great shakes but when you consider a programme like Robert Hughes' Shock of the New that was dedicated to many of the genres on display at Tate Modern, you think that this literal toying around with the said exhibits loses their shock value - they become not so much tame but resigned like circus animals - packaged as flat-pack art, mugs, t-shirts etc.

There was a time when you could go to places for grown-ups, you found only grown-ups and you felt at home, away from the Hell that is Bratdom and its consequent consort of parentdom; there is an insistence in this country to turn every single place and adult sanctuary over to the tyranny of Family Friendly and you know what that means - intolerable brats with their intolerable parents. Cheese Pleeze.

Labels: art, art market, cheesy, dumbing down, family friendly, Lifestyle, museums, Parents