The Daily Telegraph is carrying a story about Hitler's sketches which failed to get him into the Vienna Academy of Art. The annoying thing, from my point of view, is that they're actually not bad. A critic quoted in the story dismisses them as "only up to 'moderate GCSE standard'", but hey, how many of us are even that good? If I were turning out work like that, I'd be quite pleased.
As is well known, Winston Churchill was also a dabbler in paints, and it gave him great enjoyment, particularly during his periods of "Black Dog", but I don't think he would ever be described (or would have described himself) as brilliant.
One of the issues it raises, of course, is that good things can be done by bad people. But then for Christians this should come as no surprise, since we are all sinners.
Perhaps the other point it raises is that it is better to be a bad painter than a great dictator.
John Richardson
24 March 2010
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I disagree with the Emeritus Dean of Art at Bristol University. These are A level standard, not GCSE.
ReplyDeleteNow if only people had been kinder about them...