'Should we care about attribution'?

March 18 2016

Picture: RA

The RA website has an interesting piece on whether we should care about who painted what, in light of the new Giorgione exhibition in which attribution is hotly debated. Arguing 'yes' is the eminently sound art historian and noted connoisseur, Prof. David Ekserdjian, while arguing no is contemporary artist Doug Fishbone (who should presumably have written anonymously).

You can read the cases for yourself here, and there's a poll at the end of the article in which you can vote. Pleasingly, it's running at 80% in favour of Prof. Ekserdjian's case at the moment. Which just goes to show that no matter how often we're told that 'attribution doesn't matter' in art history, it certainly matters to the public.

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