£50m In 4 Months To Keep Precious Paintings Here

I woke up to the news today that two precious paintings by Titian(Diana & Acteon and Diana & Callisto) loaned to the National Galleries of Scotland by Lord Sutherland since 1945 could at best be lost as a national treasure or at worst be sold abroad. A scenario neither of which bodes well for anyone remotely interested in art.

I just came back from Scotland and one of the highlights of my stay there was my visit to the National Galleries where i saw the Tracy Emin:20 Years exhibition and among others the Bridgewater Collection featuring impressive names like Raphael, Poussin and Rembrandt and of course Titian. I must confess i found Diana & Acteon a very stunning piece. Such a brilliant painting should not be allowed to be out of public view without every reasonable effort being made to secure it.

I suppose there must be a way to keep the painting if the will is strong enough.

Face Of Fashion

I was at the National Picture Gallery this week and outside on a lifesize giant billboard they`ve got Kate Moss looking like someone in advanced stages of anorexia with the caption`The Face of Fashion`. Pardom me. The Face of fashion? Same Ms Moss of the white powder fame? Im no prude but i do not think Kate Moss has done anything to deserve such appellation. But thats debatable.

What is unassailable a fact is that it is shameful and and ill-advised for the boffins in the National Gallery to be party to such a campaign promoting so gaunt looking a model. What with all the talk about young impressionable women(mostly women) seriously harming themselves trying to live up to the image of beauty as portrayed by the fashion industry. And that is the crux of matter.

To have Kate Moss on that billboard at such a strategic position and at such a respected and well visited institution as The National Picture Gallery looking the way she does and adorned with that caption is a smack in the face for all interested in seeing a way forward and out of the `thin is beautiful`philosophy. All the billboard is saying simply, is you must look anorexic to be considered beautiful. That is not acceptable.