Monet For Old Rope

‘DO you like pictures? Hey, wait! Come back! Not THOSE kind of pictures! We are speaking here of art. You know, paintings.

‘Know what it is yet?’

There’s a nice one over there, with a pond full of water lilies. And there’s another lovely one, with a sunflower. And what about this one, with a vet operating on a little puppy.

Who’s that by? Is it Monet, or is it Turner? We can never remember the names. Ah, here it is, written on the back. Oh yes, Rolf Harris, of course.

We knew all along, actually, but you probably didn’t. That’s because, like most of the public, you are ignorant.

The Guardian reports that the Encyclopaedia Britannica has conducted a survey of our art knowledge.

Seven per cent thought Monet’s Water Lilies was actually by Rolf Harris.

Forty-nine per cent (that’s almost half, for the benefit of those who did modern maths) could not identify the painter of the Mona Lisa.

And we don’t mean the arcane debate about which assistant did which bit of rock in the background. We mean that 49 per cent didn’t know that it was by Michelangelo.

Or Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti, as we prefer the call him. Not that you lot have even heard of him. We don’t know why we bother.’

Posted: 2nd, October 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink