Ask a person on the street what they think of Degas' dancers or Monet's haystacks, chances are you won't find too much controversy. After all they're not Tracy Emin or Bill Henson, or whoever it was that sent a pile of bricks to the Tate.
French Impressionism has become a veritable haven away from the jarring difficulties of the contemporary. Waterlilies, haystacks, ballet-dancers and race-days at Longchamp: the subjects are quite pointedly pleasant.
Contemporary art is less so. Ask that same person on the street how they feel about Andres Serrano's 1989 'Piss Christ', a photograph of a plastic crucifix submerged in the artist's urine, and immediately you'll find yourself thrown into the deepest, darkest chasms of aesthetic debate ... 'What is Art?'.
Impressionism makes for much easier conversation, and as we face recessions, depressions and global warming there has never been a better time for it. Despite being no closer to Paris than before, Australia in recent months has been recently spoilt with a glut of impressionist art: Monet and the impressionists in Sydney, Degas at the National. Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Degas, Renoir: their names are big and popular, their subjects pleasant and non-controversial.
I particularly wanted to see the Degas exhibition, not least because I lost my faith in him, as many do, in a less than fully-fledged undergraduate enlightenment. Needless to say 'Degas the misogynist' is a commonplace topic.
Impressionism was a controversial move away from the art of the time. But it has become increasingly difficult to revisit these paintings from that perspective as the big-name branding of art has become more common. Paintings that once would have once sparked discussion now sit happily on biscuit tins, umbrellas, notebooks and a whole range of other 'great-master' branded merchandise.
We have killed the controversy and challenges faced in the past by branding it to death. As the old masters have ceased to be confrontational, we are the ones who miss out.
The problem with brands is that they are necessarily simple and identifiable. Good, bad, cheap, expensive: it is easy to surrender our opinions to the all-knowing brand. The cult of celebrity has 'hit' art and it has altered both our perspective and our behaviour towards it. We visit Paris to see 'the real Mona Lisa', cram ourselves in to see 'a real Monet'.
The Great Masters have become A-list celebs and beneath the magnifying lens of time they