Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online discussion organised by the Royal Society of Arts focusing on the current debate about the removal of statues of controversial figures. The discussion brought together the cultural and historic commentators Mary Beard and David Olusoga who had debated this topic on Twitter taking slightly opposing views. They discussed the recent removal of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol agreeing that it had been a pivotal moment with one of them (sorry bad notes!) saying “the removal of a statue is the creation of a new history”. In reality their views were quite similar and both called for more nuance in the debate which was not possible via the sound bites of social media. I liked Olusoga’s call to judge people by what they did not what they thought as often what they thought was a reflection of the times they lived in. I was also interested in Beard’s example of attempts to ignore difficult bits of history and culture in students she had had who wouldn’t study Ovid Met...

Interesting discussion as part of the online version of the Masterpiece Art fair on the current issues around the removal of statues of controversial figures. The panel consisted of a journalist, Farah Nayeri; a museum director, Simon Martin of Pallant House: an artist, Zak Over and a director of a private gallery, Polly Bielecka. This interesting mix of people were asked to respond to the incident in Bristol of the toppling of a statue of a slaver trader and suggest what might replace controversial statues. The point was made that statues and sculpture are subtly different things and that sculpture, even if figurative, can open up more of a conversation about an issue than just a figure of a person, as it can emphasis what they represent. There was some discussion around the cost of replacing work, whether cheaper materials could be used and if temporary exhibits, like the Fourth Plinth might be the right approach. I was interested to hear that the Mayor of London has called for all s...