Taking pictures of pictures

To The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is right – exhibitions by big-name artists are blighted by phone snappers posting their visit on social media. One solution might be more invisible art, like the piece Maurizio Cattelan reported to the police as having been stolen from his car (although he exhibited the incident report), or the empty plinth over which Tom Friedman got a professional witch to cast a malign spell. But I doubt this would work. When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, more people went to look at the empty space on the wall than used to visit the painting itself. Today they would all be photographing it.

Robin Blake, London

To The Guardian

I’m with Cosslett in despairing at crowds in art galleries taking pictures on their phones. My visit to the van Gogh exhibition at Tate Britain was ruined by the forests of phones being raised aloft to focus on the exhibits. I’m tall, but I still couldn’t see for upper limbs and assorted technology. Some people seemed to be snapping every picture in every room. Perhaps it’s about time that our galleries sold sensibly priced mandatory photo permits, with the income being used for more exhibitions and acquisitions?

Mike Peart, Sheffield

To The Guardian

The phenomenon to which Cosslett refers is not new. Back in the 1960s, the wonderful cartoonist Dave Berg, in Mad magazine, had a tourist returning from his holiday abroad. “How was your vacation,” asks his friend. “I don’t know – I haven’t had my photos developed yet,” came the response. Teddy Bourne, London