"Mawkish - Of faintly sickly flavour; feebly or falsely sentimental"

Admire Lowrie's work or not, that is a completely absurd term to use of it. In fact Grayson's in going on to say "It grates on you after the 58th viewing" seems to indicate a certain awareness of it's absurdity. It's a bit like saying "I don't really like sausages. After I've eaten 58 of them I find I can't face any more".t

I think it's generally true that we take from art what we bring to it. The song shouldn't be allowed to get in the way. The writers of the song were looking through eyes that can reasonably enough be called sentimental - though I'd challenge whether it was "feebly or falsely sentimental" - but that doesn't seem to be how Lowrie was looking at his subjects.

As for which of us is right about how people in a hundred years will regard Lowrie, or Grayson Perry, or Tracy Emin, we won't be there to find out.