Arts: The week in review
The Exhibition Sensation
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Your support makes all the difference.The RA's hang of Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection includes Rachel Whiteread's Ghost, plus works by (no surprise) Damien Hirst, Richard Patterson (above), and Marcus Harvey's Myra, a giant reproduction of the police mugshot of Hindley composed of child's handprints, which has been temporarily removed after damage by visitors.
Royal Academy, London W1 (0171-439 7438) until 28 Dec.
Tom Lubbock shook his head at empty provocation: "The works acquire an aspect of stupidity. All they can do is point. They stand wide-eyed before their perception that the world is full of threatening anxieties." "The uneven quality of his collection is cruelly exposed ... the installation does this art no favours," asserted the Telegraph. "A welcome sign that the RA has belatedly decided to atone for its disgraceful, antiquated intolerance in the past," cheered The Times. "The tide of filth ... predictable, distasteful offerings of the new establishment," expostulated the Mail. "Saatchi's assemblage of freaks, frauds and feeble failures makes the sane man sick," snarled the Standard. "No one is being forced to see these works. But for those with an interest in British art over the past decade, `Sensation' is essential viewing," approved The Guardian.
Scandal or no, apart from good work by Marc Quinn, Rachel Whiteread, and Tracey Emin, the rest is
all gong and no dinner.
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