2004-08-10
... ? Guardian Unlimited | Arts critics | Jonathan Jones: Dim, cloned conservativesThe French artist Jean Dubuffet gave the name "art brut", raw or wild art, to the untutored graphic productions of children, the insane and graffitists. A statement signed this week by Tony Blair deserves to be recognised as "criticism brut" - ignorant, clumsy, yet a stroke of raw genius. In apparent unawareness of 50 years of modern thinking, Blair and 121 MPs have signed a statement published by Keep Britain Tidy in response to its report that councils spend £27m a year erasing street daubs. Endorsing the hygienic organisation's call for zero tolerance of teenagers with spray cans, the MPs declare baldly that "graffiti is not art, it's crime".
