BUT ... IS IT ART?

If this question gives you food for thought you have plenty in common with artists, thinkers and educators, not just in our present time but throughout Western Art History.

Plato was one of the first to agonise over the question!

The question can seem particularly pressing now that anything, and everything, seems to go! We agree that a Raphael Madonna is Art, but argue about Tracey Emin's My Bed. Can they both be Art, and, if so, what do they have in common? Is My Bed Conceptual Art or just a 'con'?

Can we agree on a definition of Art, or are we at the mercy of Nicholas Penny, Nick Serota and Charles Saatchi? Join me to shake up some preconceptions and face up to some prejudices; to ask: But...is it Art?