Daft Old Duffer returns. Guest opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Ed
I see that Durham University have generated a bit of an uproar by their plan to spend £1.4 million on art works by such as Picasso and Warhol.
Various groups, including those representing the students, think the cash would be better spent on university facilities and help with student fees.
There was a time I would have agreed with them. But my time spent pottering around France and seeing all the items of abstract sculptures they arrange around the place has changed my mind, for they definitely add a certain ‘quelque chose’.
Unexpected delights
One that particularly sticks in my mind is an abstract that suddenly loomed up beside a motorway, seemingly nowhere near any town or village. It proved to be mounted atop a gents urinal, obviously, in my view, placed there to combat the French male habit of peeing at the mere sight of some open country.
What a great way to advertise such a facility! No giant ‘Public toilets’ or ‘Gentlemen’s’ sign sprawled above the motorway, just something quirky to invite exploration.
Local choices
Here on the Island we have our own versions of course, in the variety of wonderful wood sculptures that delight the eye. And there was for a time the marvellous dragon that glared so fiercely at the traffic rounding Coppin’s Bridge.
I wonder however, how much of an uproar there would have been had the Council declared their intention of buying the dragon and leaving it on permanent display. Using money so badly needed for our schools, for example.
A spoonful of joy
The point is, I suggest, that there never was, is, or will be, a right time to invest public money in art. There will always something more practical, more necessary, queuing up.
Yet, by not ‘wasting’ funds in something that’s only function is to please the senses, we fashion a world that is drab and grey.
Surely, we need, from time to time, to inject a spoonful of joy.
