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Art

Turkeys and Christmas

Well, this is a surprise, isn\’t it?

Arts Council England (Ace) was plunged into a crisis when 500 of the country\’s top actors passed an unprecedented vote of no confidence in the organisation over cuts it is making in grants to almost 200 theatres and music companies.

The supplicants for your and my money are hardly going to cheer when the swill trough is removed now, are they?

Mr Hewitt was told by Sam West, Alison Steadman and Caroline Quentin that hitting regional and London fringe theatres would have a damaging knock-on effect that would lead to the whole of British theatre being "starved " of plays, directors and actors.

Snigger. Cue Dr. Strangelove and the mines gap. One thing the UK is never going to have a shortage of is luvvies.

Let\’s get this straight shall we? There shouldn\’t be any taxpayer subsidy for the arts. You like it, you love it, great, get out there and do it. If you\’re not good enough to draw a large enough paying crowd to make money out of it then you\’re going to have to do it for free.  There\’s really no reason to tax the dustman and the nurse for this indoor relief for that part of the population that likes to show off.

 

The Mirror of the Sacred Scriptures and Paintings World Foundation

So this group are claiming that Leonardo da Vinci put into his paintings, in the same way that he used mirror writing, images that only clarified themselves when seen in a mirror.

But now a group known as The Mirror of the Sacred Scriptures and Paintings World Foundation believes that he applied the same technique to some of his best-known creations, including the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, to conceal mysterious faces and religious symbols.

When applied to the sketch The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, which hangs in London’s National Gallery, the authors say the mirror image reveals the ancient Old Testament god Jahveh, who "protects the soul of the body’s vices" and wears the Vatican’s crown.

All most interesting of course and if you want to know more, try out their website. And, well, they\’re pushing a book about it all: isn\’t that amazing?

Me, I\’ll take it all with a pinch of salt, I will:

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They\’ve found Darth Vader in a Leonardo sketch? Give me a break, please.

 

Brain Haw for the Turner Prize!

I think we should start a campaign.

The conceptual artist Mark Wallinger, otherwise known as the Dancing Bear, has won the £25,000 Turner Prize for his monumental political work, State Britain, a recreation of the one-man Parliament Square anti-Iraq war protest destroyed by Tony Blair\’s government.

Most weird that a direct copy, a stencilling almost, should win an art prize. Thus we should campaign fo the prize (and the £25,000 cheque) to be stripped from Wallinger and award to Haw. He did, after all, make the original and isn\’t that what "Art" is about? Originality?