Fresh Art

What is it that’s so attractive about a tortured soul? Sure, ambition, success, and charm are all winners. But in the presence of an intense artist-type, you still all go weak at the knees.

Perhaps it's the existential scarring, the creative torment, the smouldering quotations from Picasso. Or maybe it's just the black turtle-necks.

I'd like to be the kind of art-lover who drops in on a gallery each week; who keeps abreast of the art scene and absorbs some lessons in smouldering from the masters. Really I do. But you know how London is. Scarcely enough time to breathe, let alone encounter some culture.

When almost a dozen museums went free back in 2001, it wiped out a perfectly good excuse. And now, with one of our favourites, the ICA, also dropping its entrance fee to all exhibits and its gorgeous bar, our artistic impediment is screwed.

But a man's got to eat, right? Well, with the much-hyped Bistrotheque pop-up, Flash, opening at the Royal Academy in November 1st, they've covered that one too.

Art for art's sake, then. And your belly's.

by AC