Have a titter

[Peter Holmes]

So was Phil Irving a brilliant artist or a brilliant engineer, or both? I prefer to think of him as brilliant engineer, just because something is pleasing to eye does not to my mind make it art, its all getting a bit blurred, I think a lot of it is 'The King With No Clothes' but if you want to see some really wonderful art crafted in metal take a look at 'The Bag' by Gavin Turk.....

 

[Upstreeter]

What you say is true Peter, not everything that is pleasing to the eye is art, in fact some things most displeasing to the eye can be art. Art can be brutal and disturbing. The argument that all 'modern' art (all art was 'modern' once) is some sort of emperors new clothes con has been around for ever. Was Phil Irving an artist? well, he was a brilliant engineer and with PCV produced motorcycles most pleasing to the eye. The fact that they were able to do it without resorting to a 'stylist' - even had there been people around brave enough to give themselves the name, says much about their appreciation of form -in this case born out of function. Not everyone would agree when it came to the enclosed models - a daring and futuristic exercise. Good old carlm (see previous post) has a jolly joke at my attempts to defend the indefensible and brings the whole thing down to earth - quite right - I am probably being a right (or left) tit and should go back to my day job as art critic for The Aluminium Polishers Gazette!