Art folk who okayed empty gallery weren’t framed, they’re guilty of insulting us

In an era of continued financial constraint, that £11,077 of public money has been flushed down the pan by Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art on a six-month art “exhibition” of literally nothing is an outrage (your report, 31 December).

Belgian luvvie Marlie Mul’s failure to produce anything for the exhibition as contracted meant the entire ground floor lay empty from May to October, with merely a sign saying; “This exhibition has been cancelled” to greet visitors.

Curator Will Cooper’s weasel words that it was intentionally left empty “to question the value in turning over exhibition after exhibition” seems to be bungling incompetence blustering as cultural pretension.

It’s an insult to local artists obliged to hire expensive space at the nearby St Enoch Shopping Centre because local publicly-owned galleries won’t give them a chance.

Cooper and the rest of his “soundbites over the cappuccinos” ilk are long overdue being made government artists – that is, drawing the dole!

MARK BOYLE Linn Park Gardens Johnstone, Renfrewshire I’m not surprised that so many visited empty rooms at the Glasgow Modern Art Gallery.

My family visit the Modern Art Galleries in Edinburgh from time to time, mainly because of a pleasant cycle there, a lovely café with outdoor seating, an impressive building to wander through and a few appealing works of art, such as Charles Jenks’ land form. Most of the work on display, however, is ugly, vacuous, trivial, incomprehensible or vulgar. The pretentious labels provide more amusement than enlightenment.

Art so divorced from beauty, inspiration and representation of the admirable and significant can only flourish through government subsidy. If you want to see art that appeals, go to a commercial gallery instead. I always worry that my visits to modern art galleries will be interpreted as some sort of appreciation of their contents, and permission to keep spending my taxes on such overt cultural nihilism.

Thousands visiting empty rooms at the Glasgow Modern Art Gallery should help dispel that myth.

RICHARD LUCAS Bath Street, Glasgow