http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/yourcollection/ Promoting works of art: the Tate Britain has been running an unusual ad campaign recently. Basically, instead of doing what’s generally done, and promoting a special exhibition of famous art by a famous fellow and encouraging you to run along because this is the one and only time you’re gonna be able to see such fine works in your life, they’re running billboard ads that group a half-dozen works from their permanent collection around a theme—and not grand themes like war or love or the farm but themes more personal, idiosyncratic, quotidian like I have a big meeting, happily depressed and haven’t been here for ages—and suggesting that you might like to form your own personal “collection” in the same vein.
I was a bit sceptical of all this at first (the chatty, cheery tone of the ads was a little disconcerting) but I’m much more up on it now. I’m not sure if it’s right to emphasise one’s emotional responses to art over the aesthetic, but it’s an issue worth thinking about, and quite apart from all this, the ads are certainly memorable, so in that respect I guess they “sell.” 23:12