Blowing it

Dash Snow: artist icon who launched a petty rebellion

I was intrigued by the story of a young American artist named Dash Snow this week. Born into one of New York's most esteemed families, it seems Mr Snow spent his life rebelling against his family's wealth.

Before he died last week of a drug overdose at the age of 27, he made quite a name for himself. His shocking pictures were displayed in prominent galleries around the world and collected by the likes of Charles Saatchi. And according to Francesca Gavin in The Guardian, he was something of an idol for today's youth. "There aren't many icons around these days. But Dash Snow perhaps deserves the title."  Snow came from the de Menil family, one of America's richest and most prominent art-collecting dynasties. His great-grandmother Dominique Schlumberger was an heiress to a Houston oil fortune. His mother, Taya Thurman, is Hollywood actress Uma Thurman's sister, and recently gained attention for charging the highest rent on record at the Hamptons – $750,000 for a single summer season.

Snow was a rebellious child and at the age of 13 was sent to reform school in Georgia by his parents. He never returned to the family home, setting off for the streets of lower Manhattan at the age of 15. He boasted that his career began after he stole a camera to take pictures of the places he had been when he was drunk. "Snow's work fed on his extreme living," says Gavin. He soon became famous for his graphic pictures of the bohemian lives of the people in downtown New York. The trouble is – sad as his story may be – it all seems like rather petty rebellion to me. All I see in the graphic sex and drug photos that made Snow's reputation is a young man trying to shock his parents.

If Snow had really wanted to rebel, he could have done worse than take a lesson from his own family's history. Schlumberger met Snow's great-grandfather John de Menil at a ball at Versailles. The French aristocrats married in 1931 and on their Moroccan honeymoon they commissioned Max Ernst to paint their portrait, riding on horseback down the Bois de Boulogne. When the Nazis invaded France, the two fled Paris for Houston, where the de Menils did a fantastic job of upsetting conservative Texan society.

They regularly invited black guests to dinner during the era of segregation. And they caused a huge upset when they tried to give one of their sculptures, called the Broken Obelisk, to the city – on condition it be dedicated to Martin Luther King. Houston refused. John de Menil is even rumoured to have used his wealth to smuggle rifles, grenades, landmines and missiles into Cuba in 1960, helping to bring Castro to power. When he died, his funeral was attended by a local contingent from the Black Panther Party.

That's quite a life. And it shows that you don't need to rebel against money to be truly subversive – in fact, if you really want to upset people, having a pile of money is the best kind of head-start. It's a pity the young Snow – as an idol for today's youth – won't grow old enough to realise that himself.

Tabloid money... lend us your helicopter

• There is one quick solution to the helicopter shortage in Afghanistan, says Jeremy Clarkson in The Sun. We need a repeat of Dunkirk, when the government called on boat owners to head to France and help evacuate Allied soldiers. Nowadays, plenty of rich people in the UK own their own helicopters. "Could they not be called upon in these difficult times to use a car instead and let the military borrow their machines?"

• Jordan – otherwise known as Katie Price – could do well in Hollywood, says Carole Malone in the News of The World. The former glamour model has had plenty of acting experience. "Judging by her performance on Piers Morgan's show last week – those well-timed tears and the sharp intakes of breath as she sold the story of her miscarriage for £100,000 – I think she actually can act."

• Interest rates on mortgages are so high that "it smacks of desperate profiteering" by the banks, says Mark Austin in the Sunday Mirror. What makes it worse is that the highest rates are being charged by the banks that have been bailed out by the British taxpayer. They were given that money and told to use it to start lending to the public again. Instead, "it seems hundreds of millions of pounds are being stashed away to build up the fortunes of the institutions themselves".

It's time the government put pressure on the banks to get lending. "If they don't, let's have the money back, and if the bank or building society goes bust then tough luck."