Is it Real?

      This lecture on realism made me think about Waxworks.  I hate the idea of Madame Tussauds completely and I don't see why anyone would want to spend the day gazing at slightly odd looking fake celebrities.  However one waxwork museum I would possibly like to go to is 'Louis Tussauds Waxworks-Blackpool', featuring the worlds worst waxworks! In 2008 they auctioned off 75 of 'the best', here are some examples:

Any idea who they are? Nope me neither. That last one's Marilyn Monroe apparently...they all look like they've got some horrible skin disease or something. 

Source http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-509100/Dud-ringers-The-worlds-worst-waxworks-sold-auction.html#ixzz0oESrKcLn

Anyway aside from this slightly ridiculous but entertaining place I think waxworks are very creepy and best left in the bin. 

    When at the Frieze art fair in London the other weekend I found this example of realist painting:

  Unfortunately I didn't write down who it was by and I can't find it on the internet so I can't tell you who painted it.  Although its good, I don't really feel that it being painted really adds any value to it and it could just as easily be a print or a photo. I agree with Wallace Stevens (poet) that "Realism is a corruption of reality" and art should be more about the transforming process rather than an exact copy.