Life in Britain has been a bit of a shit-show post-Brexit. Aside from young people stepping up to the plate at the general election, there's been very little to smile about and the nation still feels more divided than many of us can remember.
Now, the results of another poll are threatening to cause yet more dismay and alienation among the UK populace. Around 2,000 people were recently asked to pick their favourite artwork from a shortlist of 20 devised by arts editors and writers – and the most popular work hasn't exactly been greeted with rapturous applause. Many have blasted it as "basic" and we've even heard someone call the decision "worse than Brexit". You be the judge.
Taking the top spot was Banksy’s Balloon Girl, the graffiti artist’s mural of a girl letting go of a heart-shaped balloon, reported the BBC. The mural was painted onto a printing shop in Shoreditch, east London, in 2002 and was removed in 2014 and subsequently sold. Another version printed onto cardboard sold at auction for an eye-watering £73,250.
In second place was Constable’s 1821 landscape The Hay Wain, followed by Jack Vettriano’s 1992 painting The Singing Butler, Turner's 1839 painting The Fighting Temeraire and Antony Gormley’s sculpture the Angel Of The North, which was completed in 1998.
Other favourites included LS Lowry’s Going to the Match , the album cover for the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by Peter Blake, and the cover for Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon by George Hardie.
Judging by the reaction on Twitter, any of these would have been a preferable winner.
this country is nothing if not consistently disappointing https://t.co/JB7WMEP7O4
— sanaa (@sanaa_mq) July 26, 2017
"Banksy's mural of a girl letting go of a heart-shaped balloon is voted the nation's favourite artwork" pic.twitter.com/kycweuTX5b
— John Rain (@MrKenShabby) July 26, 2017
We have national art galleries which are free, what's more they're filled to the brim with masterpieces. There's no helping this island.
— Joshua Murray-Nevill (@JoshuaMurrayNev) July 26, 2017
Banksy's girl & balloon, voted UK's best picture. See also, 'Imagine' and 'Angels' - UK's best song lyrics. Democracy stinks sometimes https://t.co/teMKrrGVA6
— Harry Wallop (@hwallop) July 26, 2017
Two years ago I asked Twitter if Banksy's Girl with Balloon' (now "the nation's favourite painting") was any good. This was the result. pic.twitter.com/wEyYaUQTad
— Andy Miller (@i_am_mill_i_am) July 26, 2017
Banksy's balloon girl chosen as nation's favourite artwork - excellent symbol of post- #brexshit UK https://t.co/t4GG1rBlWv
— Angus Dawson (@PublicEthics) July 26, 2017
Sweet Jesus. End of bloody days. https://t.co/lgDznrOYpK
— 🔪🔪Tim Hayward🔪🔪 (@timhayward) July 26, 2017
Some also highlighted the lack of diversity among the artists on the list, which featured only two women: Bridget Riley’s Movement in Squares and Maggi Hambling’s Scallop, a memorial to the composer Benjamin Britten on the beach at Aldeburgh.
Girls get to be in the art, but women artists don't get to be in the list. https://t.co/q1sY6iu6LZ
— sianushka (@sianushka) July 26, 2017
The nation's 20 favourite artworks:
1. Banksy; Balloon Girl
2. John Constable; The Hay Wain
3. Jack Vettriano; The Singing Butler
4. JMW Turner; The Fighting Temeraire
5. Antony Gormley; The Angel of the North
6. L S Lowry; Going to the Match
7. John William Waterhouse; The Lady of Shalott
8. Peter Blake; Sgt Pepper album cover
9. Hipgnosis and George Hardie; Dark Side of the Moon album cover
10. George Stubbs; Mares and Foals
11. Thomas Gainsborough; Mr and Mrs Andrews
12. John Everett Millais; Ophelia
13. Andy Goldsworthy; Balanced Rock Misty
14. David Hockney; A Bigger Splash
15. Bridget Riley; Movement in Squares
16. Anish Kapoor; ArcelorMittal Orbit
17. Stik; A Couple Hold Hands in the Street
18. Maggi Hambling; Scallop
19. Henry Moore; Reclining Figure
20. Jamie Reid; Never Mind the Bollocks album cover
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