Controversial London-based art critic, Brian Sewell, recently expressed outrage that an exhibition of works by European post-War artists group, Cobra, will open at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art on Tyneside, rather than in London. Northerners, he claimed, are not as sophisticated as London audiences, and would not fully appreciate an exhibition of international significance.
His comments have incited anger from Londoners and Northerners alike. If responses to a BBC Online forum are to be taken as a ‘straw poll’, the majority believed art should be accessible to as wide an audience as possible (indeed, a view endorsed by Government policy) and further, that people outside London should be afforded the opportunity to see quality works of art, in order to nurture the knowledge and enjoyment such exhibitions – as well as other artforms – bring.
