Jake Chapman, of Chapman Brothers fame, told The Independent that taking children to art galleries was a “total waste of time,” and an insult to the creators of complex artworks, artists such as Mark Rothko.
The former YBA enfant terrible and father-of-three is reported saying: “It’s like saying … it’s as moronic as a child? Children are not human yet”—a comment which will no doubt infuriates art teachers and child psychiatrists the world over.
The head of learning at London’s Royal Academy fought back. “I don’t think it diminishes the accomplishment or complexity that great works of art can have,” she told the British newspaper. “No one would say you shouldn’t take a child to a science or natural history museum because they don’t understand what they’re seeing at the level of the greatest in the world. Everyone comes at their own level.”