Boris: children must have more time for art

Speaking at the annual dinner of the Royal Academy last night - attended by many of the biggest names in British art - the Mayor also condemned "mushy-minded cultural relativism".

He declared himself an unashamed cultural elitist by asserting the superiority of writers such as the Greek poet Homer and of the artistic output of Renaissance Italy.

But he praised the new as well as the old and said that as Mayor he would "make absolutely no distinction between heritage London and the dynamic contemporary [art] scene".

He would do everything he could to support both and "make this the most artistically exciting city on the planet".

Mr Johnson hopped across cultures and continents in a speech that stoutly defended tradition.

"I do worry that we have lost interest in our history and in traditional artistic skills," he said.

"And I mourn the loss of so much music teaching in schools and as Mayor I want to help restore it and I grieve that kids have so little time to learn to draw properly."

The Mayor veered on to dangerous territory when he praised the Elgin Marbles over the "uniform stooges" of the Terracotta Army seen recently at the British Museum. "You can see why democracy and individualism got going in western Europe rather than in East Asia," he said.

But "before there is some kind of international incident", he quickly also acknowledged his love of Chinese art and the way Damien Hirst had been inspired by Aztecs.

He told the Royal Academicians that he had realised his function of Mayor was "to be a kind of Don King [the boxing promoter] of the debate between tradition and revolution".

He said he would build on the achievements of Ken Livingstone and support and encourage the creative and cultural sectors in any way he could.

But he added that the kind of dilemma he faced as Mayor was illustrated by the question of whether a statue of war hero Sir Keith Park or contemporary art should occupy the vacant fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

"I can go for a dead white male war hero, gloved, goggled, moustached, forged in traditional bronze and thereby - so I am warned - earn the odium of the entire liberal funkapolitan art world.

"Or else I can continue to support the rotation of strange and wonderful works of contemporary art and enrage those who think these conversation pieces are out of keeping with Nelson's square."

Mr Johnson is now supporting a temporary memorial to Sir Keith Park in Trafalgar Square because of difficulties in erecting a permanent statue.