THE SPECTACLE: A LETTER TO THE JACKDAW (November 5, 2008)

Call me a cynic, but I feel that Nick Serota and his many clones at Tate Modern and the Turner Prize establishment have an important rĂ´le to play in contemporary art. Not only important, but perhaps even crucial. And thus I feel that you are misguided in lambasting them in every issue. In your place, I would laud them, albeit ever-so-slightly excessively. I would egg them on to ever-greater if more dreadful heights. I would invite them to blind us with their unfathomable vision of art. By and by, they would respond, I am quite sure. They would cast around for new and unbeatable delights. They would spin ever faster. In the end, they would explode with boundless energy and zeal. And London would become the indisputable capital of contemporary art at its very worst. The pits of the pits. Call me a cynic, but the spectacle would be well worth your pains.