Outrageous

I love writing about outrage. The passion of anger rivals any other sensation. Ripples surge through us. In the case of Takashi Murakami's latest body of work, a great rift in time has been created. Murakami's distinctive manga-like sculptures and patterns have invaded the spaces of Versaille Palace. A space that has been placed on the pedestal of high art traditions and worshipped daily by the constant stream of tourists.

So is Louis the XIV turning in his grave? Some people are outraged, saying that it is a mockery of the French culture impregnated within those Baroque walls. But as the BBC reporter sneakily added, Louis the XIV had a thing for extravagance, and as much as Murakami's art is a total alienesque culture, it is over-adorn elaborateness.

The reactions from this situation are humorous if nothing else. But it is perplexing how we have come to put art in such a high regard, and history as the set stone of standards.