A Taste of Modern Art.

 How to waste money

                  

This post in about work in the 1990s

You will see what I mean about some museums wasting money - as I mentioned in the post -  The Beauty of Steam - I was working in Bristol City Museum at the time of this post.

I was transporting a painting with Francis Greenacre from the store to the Modern Art display on the first floor, I looked at the painting, and said, "How much did you pay for this painting, Francis?"

He replied, "7, 000 pounds, Alan."

I looked closer at what I was holding, and commented, "You ARE joking!"

"No, that is what we paid."

What was I holding?

A picture of a beautiful lady, a bird in flight, no. I was holding a 4 feet by 8 feet piece of matt white hessian. I glanced at the painting, and made a ball park estimate. Using the price guide of the time, I reckoned the painter's costs to be £100 at the utmost.

To give that some perspective, at the time, that was about eight months wages for me; the price equivalent today is around £18,000. I still wouldn't pay more than £300 for what a child in school can do.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy some modern art. One piece I do recall always amazed me; the main theme was a green field, but when you examined the painting there were many shades of green, and each a tiny bit different to the one next to it. While it wasn't really my thing, I could admire the expertise of the artist to paint all those shades.

I worked there for 15 years, the early years were a delight, but the later years was like being in a prison with so many ex-policemen in the system. 

In the 70s, the TUC (Trade Unions Congress) banned "closed shop" working, this practice comes from "jobs for the boys" where only a select few get the jobs/ promotions; a good example was the fishing and mining industries. Yet, here I was working in a "closed shop" with only former police officers being asked to work there, and given promotions.