GnosyArt Ltd

The current art establishment is a mirror image of the Victorian art establishment, replacing tradition with novelty, pomposity with pretentiousness, sentiment with vacuity, and craft with junk. It is equally superficial, and, because it is likewise based on fashionable taste, will be similarly ephemeral.

Today’s power brokers are as confident as their 19th century predecessors of the enduring worth of their position, and are reassured by the auction results of Jeff Koons, just as the Victorians were by the 1882 record-breaker, The Babylonian Marriage Market, by Edwin Long. Who? Quite. Within a decade of his death, Long’s work had plummeted to 10% of its former value.

He is perhaps the most famous, or infamous, artist alive. To some a genius, to others a vandal. Always controversial, he inspires admiration and provokes outrage in equal measure.

Since Banksy made his name with his trademark stencil-style 'guerrilla' art in public spaces - on walls in London, Brighton, Bristol and even on the West Bank barrier separating Israelis and Palestinians - his works have sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

1. Creativity is a gift possessed by a chosen few.

Personally, I don’t believe this. I’m convinced that creativity is something every normal human being is born with, something along the lines of Deepak Chopra’s “pure potentiality.” Each of us born with a clean slate and the potential to develop into a creative being. You make creative choices every day, and by using a little imagination you can stimulate your own creativity every time you decide what to wear, what to fix for dinner, or how to plant a flower bed. Creativity doesn’t pertain only to artists.