On Radio 4 this morning, Quentin Letts asked, not unreasonably, What’s the Point of the Arts Council?

The reason Arts Council officials demand “challenging and contemporary” work is not that the new is necessarily better; it’s because the new gives them an edge. They can be its arbiters and make sure it follows approved creeds.

To hear a glittering cast opine, along with the notion of subsidised beer and what may be the first broadcast use of the term “tickboxery”, click here.

Masaru Tatsuki has spent nine years photographing Japan’s decorated trucks and the people who drive them. 

A book, Decotora: 1998-2007 Japanese Art Truck Scene, is available here.

Related: Smart Car Monster Truck. 

Via Photoshop Disasters, I stumbled across a romance novel whose cover promises a little more than is delivered. Behold Christina Dodd’s historical yarn, Castles in the Air. From the blurb: What man would have her once he discovered her secret…?

Ms Dodd’s publishers have subsequently fashioned a corrected – and, alas, less intriguing – jacket.

A brief taste.

Chris Jordan’s statistical art features, among other things, jet trails, Barbie dolls and painkillers. Cans Seurat (60 x 92”) recreates Georges Seurat’s La Grande Jatte using 106,000 images of aluminium cans – the number used in the US every thirty seconds.

(h/t, Dr Westerhaus.)

A directory of visual concept art.

From Star Wars to Iron Man. Related. And.