A variety of essays on art are collected in this book by the distinguished art critic. Topics include the following: what is good art and what is bad art?; the aims and role of the artist; teaching; criticism; popularity; elitism; Walter Sickert; Degas. Bell is the son of Clive and Vanessa Bell and the nephew of Virginia Woolf. He has been Slade Professor at Oxford and has held chairs at Newcastle, Leeds and Hull. A potter, painter and sculptor, he is the author of On Human Finery, Bloomsbury, Victorian Artists, Virginia Woolf and other works.