Leading article: The shock of the old

THERE IS one constant about cutting-edge artists. They are robust in their defence of the shock of the new while it is they who are new and doing the shocking. But, all too predictably, they become champions of artistic tradition when a new generation threatens to eclipse their own shock value. Generational tensions have been there since the Renaissance, when Titian reputedly chucked that young upstart Tintoretto out of his studio.

Now John Hoyland, one of Britain's most renowned abstract painters, has attacked Damien Hirst for lacking humanity, and employing assistants on some of his paintings.

Wait a minute. Who was it, back in the Sixties, who was accused of lacking feeling in his baffling, non-figurative works? None other than John Hoyland.

The ideas coming out of Hirst's Alma Mater, Goldsmiths College, are "old hat", complains Hoyland. He's seen them all before. Picasso probably muttered "vieux chapeau" when Hoyland and Bridget Riley exhibited their canvases in swinging London. And in 40 years' time Professor Damien Hirst RA will shake his head sadly at the new crop of millionaire 15-year-olds who show sheep and sharks without that aesthetically essential formaldehyde. Plus ca change...