Thoughts in a Haystack

Alain de Botton has been allowed into the Rijksmuseum, home of many Rembrandts, Vermeers and other great Dutch art, to "put up giant Post-It™ style notes next to the paintings, telling the viewer how he/she is supposed to react to the paintings."

I would recommend a firing squad* for de Botton and the Post-Its but shooting is too good for them!

They should be boiled in their own fatuousness.

Jerry is spot on:

The good thing about art is that each person brings his or her baggage and history to each work of art, imbuing it with different meanings. Imagine what would happen if de Botton went next door and got his sticky fingers on the Van Gogh Museum!

I'm more worried that he'll go closer to home ... the Tate ... and leave his grubby shallow fingerprints on J.M.W. Turner.

Other than to tell you a bit about the painting's subject and history, who needs to be told how to react to it?

I can go blind staring at that all on my own, thank you very much!
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* For the sarcasm impaired, I'm not serious about that ... much.