Rough draft about the cult of personality, it was a rough idea on paper that was given impetus because of the euologising in the media of Maggie Thatcher who was given an expensive state funeral in a time of enforced government austerity.
Dictators and repressive governments often try to tap in to a nations cultural history to justify a sense of destiny. Hitler did it, royalty do it. Art is often used as a blunt tool for promotion. Realist art has a huge part to play in the propaganda of repressive governments and dictators.A painting can have an enormous amount of power, we are referring to a portrait here rather than modern or fine art.Fine art and modern art tends to be underfunded and criticized under authoritarian governments.
++Work in progress.
