Why does the Daily Mail love to hate art?

The Mail loathes Tracey Emin, the Turner prize and modern art in general. Yet it elevates puerile jokers, pranksters and gimmick-peddlers to the status of artist

The Daily Mail is serious about art. So serious that it recently ran a lofty denunciation of Tracey Emin, her latest show at White Cube, and the Guardian reviewer me who self-immolated in his admiration for her banal doodlings.

Yes, the Mail is so serious about art that it does not have an actual art critic: its diatribe against the idea, god forbid, that a woman called Tracey might have talent was penned by its theatre critic Quentin Letts, whose lack of actual expertise in art drove him to quote Artwatch UK, the Ukip of aesthetics. Asking its opinion of Emin is like asking Nigel Farage if he thinks illegal immigrants should be eligible for the Turner prize.

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