Who Decreed That Real Artists Must Be Intellectuals?

“The election of Tracey Emin to join the Royal Academy of the Arts as a Royal Academician alongside more traditionally academic artists such as David Hockney, Peter Blake, and Anthony Caro” raised a question, unspoken though it was: “Is she enough of an intellectual to join the RA?” Ana Finel Honigman matches it with another: “Why is this even an issue?”