Why is JK Rowling missing from this influential artists list?

Rarified cable TV channel Sky Arts has recently revealed its list of the top 50 most influential British artists of the last 50 years. Even in the crowded field of clickbaity lists, which usually contain at least one or two names calculated to raise eyebrows and hackles – ‘Octopussy is the best Bond film’ – this makes rum reading. As a list of some of the good and sometimes great British artists of the period, it’s fine, just about, if eccentric. As a list of people who are being lauded as influencing others on a grand scale it is downright peculiar.

We are told the list has been compiled by ‘expert judges’ – so it’s interesting as a snapshot of what our cultural betters in 2022 think we ought to think. The most immediately striking thing about the selections is how obviously and painfully compromised they are by identity considerations.