Madam, – I attended the auction this week in which the much- hyped (by many media outlets, and particularly, it seems to me, this newspaper) Paul Henry painting was sold. In spite of more than 40 per cent of the lots selling for lower than their (optimistic?) low estimates, this was portrayed as a new era for Irish art.
It was chilling to me the frenzy I witnessed during the bidding for this picture.
Is it me, or are we witnessing the genesis (part fuelled again by the media and PR departments of vendors) of the if-we-hype-it-enough-it-will-sell nonsense that was part of the ruination of our mindsets during the now dreaded, and hopefully extinct beyond rebirth, Celtic Tiger? – Yours, etc,