ART

In an ideal world there is no good art, and no bad art. There is just art. But that's in an ideal world. This world is far from ideal.

If art is not being judged from an investment point of view, it's being judged from a what-do-the-critics-think angle. As with music, you should either like it or dislike it...and for reasons of your own. What others think should not even come into it.

There are people out there who have their own ideas on things, and who are not afraid to state them. I like these people. I tolerate the others - though happily! - because we all share the same air. But if you think I am setting myself up on some kind of higher plain to the rest of the world, you would be in error. I will listen to opposing views until my ears ache, hoping I hear something that will give me a rounder view; maybe even make me change my own views. I do tend to act in a Devil's Advocate kind of way, however, but only because I reckon that's the only way to see the complete picture.

MODERN ART

I have a feeling that this subject suffers somewhat from the Emperor's New Clothes syndrome - a lot of it anyway. I visit galleries that show modern art and I have made it a point to stand close to a group of enthusiasts as they discuss some work or other; in particular one that I just don't understand, that I just can't see. And I get no further forward. I hear their words, but they make no sense to me. They talk about how they reckon the artist was suffering when he made this or that brush stroke, or the state of mind he or she was in when they conceived the original idea. All of it may well be true...but I don't see it, and I try very hard to see it.

Maybe - in the greater sceme of things - I'm just not meant to.