To think the Tate should not make families with small children walk through a Gilbert and George exhibit to get to a family activity

[KimiTheThreadSlayingAxeKiller]

They are not artist it is not art is is nasty stuff I do not want my 9 year old seeing.
Vile just vile

[KimiTheThreadSlayingAxeKiller]

I am sorry I seem shrill for not wanting to let a 9 year old see these things

[angrypixie]

If my dd or ds were walking through a gallery en route to somewhere I don't think they would have stopped to analyze the images in either 'Hunger' or 'thirst' They are so stylized they look like fingers from a fleeting glance.

I think you made too much of this.

[Heathcliffscathy]

to my mind it's a bit like music. ds knows that swearwords are offensive, very offensive to some people. for this reason he doesn't swear. nor does he let us swear

however, he also knows that there are swearwords in music, and that they are a way of an artist expressing him or herself that isn't necessarily how you would behave irl.

he gets this aged 5.

what do you think that seeing a cartoon like painting of a sex act would do to your 9 year old? make him want to copy??? frighten him (this one is a bit more understandable, but i don't think that the g&g paintings are frightening in tone are they?)?

[stuffitllllama]

Sophable you could probably take a five year old through. But a nine year old can take it in. Perfect age for oh my gosh what's that.

Kimi you do sound a bit shrill but I think you're right anyway.

[stuffitllllama]

Look she just doesn't want her kid to see it. She's allowed to not want her kid to see it, it doesn't make her repressed or a weirdo or a philistine or even over protective.

Not that these words have been used but there's some implication.

She just doesn't want her children to see it -- after one of the purposes of sexually explicit art is to shock and she doesn't want her children to see shocking art.

There is nothing wrong with that, why do people imply there is?

And she sounds like she takes a keen interest in art and encourages it in her children. Which is super great.

[harryharpie]

Kimi you are not shrill these other trendy right on ("lets have more erect penis photos in our "salon" just coz they cost a mint and we bought them from Jay Jopling at White Cube GALLERY")mums, who say must be soo good for the little on's appreciation of art.As a final note to all the left wing touchy feely hipster mums I dislike Gand G and find their art sickly. They call themselves living Art Works and their whole life is included in that ethos. They share some very confused political ideology professing admiration for Oswald Mosely at one time. Tracey Emin is leaving the country coz she hates dear Gordon. I like Tracey and at least she is just a Tory and not a nastly pair of mysoginistic, ultra right wing (is that a word?) heterophobes

[EdgarAllenPoo]

YABU - it is the TATe and you expect to see more edgy art there.

though kids are likely simply to look and think 'oh, pretty colours..and bottoms Hee-hee..'

would Damien Hurst work have upset you too? i don't like that, but it's the kind of thing you'd expect to see in there.

[harryharpie]

Dear Damien friend of the New Tories. I like him also but how does he square with all the lovely trendy leftie art critics. I dont mind my kid seeing a dead cow but i dont want him to see hetero homo water sport sex fetish images masquerading as ART. Lets have Jordans tasty bits and Jeff Koons crotch shots and call it fab art dwahling. And Edgar Tate and Tate Modern are different

[pooexplosions]

Harpie, is that the best you've got? calling us trendy right on hipsters (what are you, 70?). Next it will be long haired loony lefty tree huggers.....

Resorting to personal insults and rather obvious stereotyping means you have nothing worthwhile to hang a sensible argument on. So you'll forgive me if I take your aesthetic criticisms less than seriously....

[MillyR]

I actually am a long haired loony lefty treehugger and I am opposed to the blowjob painting on the way to the children's colouring in table in Tate Britain, and have said so throughout this thread.

I find it quite annoying that the art stereotype and the loony long hair stereotype are now being conflated.

[harryharpie]

Hey Millie poexplosions started that one nicht me, she just put the image in head SORRY BIG TIME I just caleed them tre ndy hipsters and quite kind really

[stuffitllllama]

pooexplosions there are quite a lot of sensible arguments on here: why are you focussing on harry? An easy target?

[harryharpie]

Spell check off sorry guys AND CATS!!

[McSnail]

As an artist I can't bear it when people clutch their pearls at this kind of thing.

Personally, I would rather protect my child from advertising, which is much harder to avoid than an art exhibition. And far more harmful and offensive. In my opinion.

[KimiTheThreadSlayingAxeKiller]

Thank you to everyone who can see where I am coming from, not wanting my 9 year old to see such paintings.

I have no problem with it being there, I just thought there could at least have been a sign so I had a choice of whether to take him in there or not.

[pointyhat]

It's unreasonable that anyone should be made to walk through a G&G exhibition

[McSnail]

You can always sprint through...

[KimiTheThreadSlayingAxeKiller]

/puts heelies on DS2 to roll him at speed through such exhibits in future

[McSnail]

QUOTE
"Art has definitely taken over from religion as That Which Must Not Be Criticised and Those Who Do Must be Looked Down Upon and Shunned."

Tell that to the 'My five year old could do better than that' brigade.
And the 'That's not art!" brigade.
And the "I know what I like" brigade.

I would say art is a pretty popular target for mass criticism.

[stuffitllllama]

"brigade"?

what are these brigades of which you speak?

perhaps they are individuals using their discrimination to decide they don't like what some artists produce

and what a surprise -- there are rather a lot of them which doesn't make them brigades, just makes them numerous

I can see that the fact they are numerous must be awfully annoying for you but that's folk they don't always know what's good for em

[McSnail]

QUOTE:
"I can see that the fact they are numerous must be awfully annoying for you but that's folk they don't always know what's good for em"

I'm not annoyed in the slightest. 'Brigade' means a group of people does it not?

[stuffitllllama]

who says they're a group? calling them "brigades" makes you sound indignant