What is art for?

I am no artist but I am constantly enriched by the work of artists , not least contemporary artists.

David Hockney is a favourite, especially as he is a Yorkshireman. I know his home and his family. His work is often related to my times and places.

In a speech yesterday he bemoaned the decline of art in his home country and was critical of the present generation of shock-art painters such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.

I think Hirst is posing important philosophical questions through his art and I welcome that.

Hockney is particularly critical of Emin. "Her paintings are OK, but you don't remember them too well". "You always see photos of Tracey in the papers, not of her paintings. I'd rather have photos of my pictures in the papers, not me".

Reviewing the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale art critic, Richard Dorment, is brutal . "Emin lets Britain down; it's high time she grew up. In the 22 years I've been reviewing this Biennale, I've never seen such thin material at the British pavilion" "Emin returns again and again to the subject of her own naked body with works suggesting a sense of profound psychic damage" "She has only one subject- Tracey's fragility, Tracey's pain, Tracey's sense of betrayal" "The note of adolescent self pity she struck at the beginning of her career hasn't altered by one iota" "It's all about poor little Tracey, and what a hard time she's had in life" "She still wants us all to feel sorry for her as she does for herself" "alongside artists of real stature it is obvious how slight her talent really is".

I think the purpose of her art may well be to speak to the human vulnerability of the many out of her own vulnerability. To let others know that they are not alone in their pain is positive.