Oh No! It’s the death of British art…
Mark Quinn’s sculpture of Kate Moss gets a bashing in the Guardian today when Jonathan Jones describes it as “mediocre” and “a monstrosity” in an article grandly entitled “Kate Moss and the death of British art.”
In a piece where Jones goes after the cult of celebrity in art, I found myself agreeing with him on several levels, notably when he says “His (Quinn’s) characterless artefact won’t make any sense when her current notoriety is forgotten; a future art historian will have to dig out old newspapers to discover why this smooth, bland object was ever invested with meaning.”
I feel the same way about a lot of modern art, especially some conceptual art - if you have to read what the artist says about his/her work for it to make sense, then something is wrong. The work should speak for itself. Don’t get me wrong though, I love lots of conceptual stuff, when I see Tracey Emin’s bed or Damien Hirst’s shark, I don’t need to read how I am supposed to feel/think - they both affect me - even though I have potentially/probably “missed the artists’ point”. Suppose I’m just an old philistine who knows what he likes when he sees it. 
BTW - I’m not a Stuckist, I have never been a Stuckist nor have I ever played a Stuckist on TV.
Story here
Pictures here
April 17th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
I think quite the opposite. Quinn’s sculpture is a striking work visually and Kate Moss will be remembered in the way that, for example, Sarah Bernhardt is. Quinn has created something that didn’t exist before, and is reinventing figurative sculpture in a simple but original and effective way. It is the shark and the bed which will lose significance, once the hype goes and they are reduced to what they really are - mundane objects.