Sir, - Dorothy Walker (January 19th) tells us to visit our publicly funded art galleries and to trust in the artist's good faith, to leave the soul open to what the artist is saying, the mind open to new insights, the imagination open to fresh stimulation, and the heart open to being lifted."
I have visited both The Douglas Hyde and IMMA galleries several times over the last few years. Whilst there has been the occasional pleasant surprise, for the most part I have seen haphazard displays that included photographs of dog turds, bad representations of pudenda, stuffed animals, broken crockery, blood, building supplies, piles of lost property, pictures of a man sticking his head in a bucket, cow dungs on bottles, daubs of paint on walls, etc.
Perhaps Ms Walker's heart is lifted by such displays. Mine is not: I find them depressing. To me they are self indulgent and meaningless. Their "importance" is inevitably proclaimed in press releases and they are explained at length in unreadable catalogue notes, written in elitist art speak, and marvels of creative obfuscation.
The Douglas Hyde Gallery gets £148,000 and the IMMA a million pounds per year. I can't believe that the public gets much out of it, but there is an element of the art establishment in whose interest it is to preserve the "mushroom agriculture" status quo. - Yours, etc.,
Capel Street,