Not for art’s sake

Here is a work about art that has a purpose, focusing on work by Quentin Blake that has been commissioned for a particular place or for a particular use. Illustration is the most accessible visual artform and one that is used in all aspects of life; as Quentin Blake says, ‘it is, if you like, a vernacular; it’s a language that everybody understands. They may look at it and not think that they’re looking at art, but it’s having the effect on them of art. It’s a language that everybody can read, so to speak.’ The work here shows Quentin using this vernacular to great effect and for very different purposes.