Art for arts sake. Money for fucks sake.

We should never expect too much of artists and musicians, especially famous ones. There is no reason why the opinions of scrapers of catgut and canvas should be given more weight than those of surgeons, bricklayers, professional footballers and other truly talented individuals. Despite all pretencions otherwise, the primary function of the artist is after all to entertain us. I know next to nothing about pottery and not much more about cross-dressing but I know what I like and Grayson Perry makes me laugh and I'm thankful for that. In his first Reith Lecture  Perry was amusing enough and poked fun at the art establishment without ever pretending to not be a part of it. Ostensibly, his theme was "How do we value art?" and the answer was pretty much summed up in the Q&A session at the end of the lecture. When asked if he made ceramics for poor people, pots for those without a pot to piss in, his reply was simple. "No. I used to. You could pick up any of my stuff for a weeks dole money but now I get what I can get. The market has decided". Who can blame him? and as I say, we should never expect too much.