Among the hundreds of mostly younger artists taking part in the 2014 Liverpool Biennial, Britain’s biggest festival of international contemporary art, one name stands out: James McNeil Whistler. No, this isn’t some wincingly hip 20-something digital artist, who just happens to share the name of the great 19th century American painter, or who has adopted it as kind of post-modern jape.
This is the actual Whistler, the great proponent of "art for art’s sake", American born and raised, Paris trained, and long resident in London, most famous for painting his mother and his murky views of the Thames at night.
