Yesterday we went to the TATE Gallery in Liverpool to check out the 2007 Turner Prize entrants. I’ll be honest - I’m not as keen on modern art as I am on anything from the nineteenth century and earlier, but I can appreciate artistic enterprise. Pablo Picasso was a genius. Andy Warhol was a genius. The Turner Prize entrants, however, are in no danger of being grouped with these heroes of twentieth century art. There was a video of a man dressed as a bear, wondering aimlessly around the foyer of a Berlin building at night. There was a room filled with walled-enclosures with peep holes that revealed mirrored lights. There was a collection of photography of empty rooms. There was a collection of lightbulbs on scaffolding that spelt ‘There Are No Miracles Here’.

It all left me wondering, has art come so far that it’s actually gone full circle, and has undone all the progress that men like Da Vinci, Monet, Turner, Picasso, and Warhol have made? The entrants were so avant garde and ‘cutting edge’ that they resembled the sort of things highschool film students come up with for their end-of-year assessment; the artists were trying so hard to be riske and ‘thought-provoking’ that they had lost sight of what art should actually be - skillful, emotional, and meaningful. Of course, there were the helpful explanations that went along with each entry that attempted to explain why a man dressed as a bear was worthy of winning £25,000 and the glory of being a Turner Prize Winner, but to be honest they all sounded the same: ‘The artist has composed this piece to highlight the solitude / bleakness / reality / depressing nature of everyday life. The artist’s theme was derived from animals unable to mate in a zoo / nature / poverty / history and is a telling / revealing / thought-provoking / realistic portrayal of the modern world.’

Absolute and utter tripe.

Luckily, we had seen some other incredible art that saved the day from being a complete waste. Antony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’ IS ‘thought provoking’, and I thoroughly recommend you make the journey to Crosby Beach to have a look. ‘Another Place’ is a collection of cast-iron models of men spread along the Crosby Beach. When the tide is low, all (or most) of the men are revealed, some half buried in sand, others appearing to stand on the beach like men. When the tide is high, some are hidden by the waves, others have their heads poking out from the sea. Your first reaction when seeing them is to laugh, to reach out and touch them, to stand next to them and have your photo taken. As you walk up the beach, you feel sorry for these men, all staring out to sea, all corroding slowly in the sea air. This is art that is useable, touchable, educational, and both funny and sad.