My Knowledge Of Art Is Infinitesimal
Groucho Marx’s introduction to From Frozen North To Filthy Lucre by Ronald Serle with commentaries by Jane Clapperton (Viking Press, 1964):
My knowledge of art is infinitesimal. I know that Rembrandt was deaf (no, that was Beethoven), I know that Van Gogh got hungry one day and cut off his own ear and that Toulouse-Lautrec walked around on his knees. And that’s about it.
So for me to write an extended frontpiece for Ronald Serle’s collection would not only kill the sale of book, but would also ruin what is left of my vanishing career.
However, it does not need the curator of the Museum of Modern Art to tell the world that Mr Serle is a genius. Whatever the price, the buyer will be getting all the best of it.
