The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.

Speaking to the Observer, Peter Blake suggests that the art establishment has never accorded him quite as much respect as more ‘earnest’ contemporaries such as Lucian Freud or Frank Auerbach. ‘I was maybe too light’, he admits. ‘But, you know, Frank [Auerbach] has his light side too. He was a great Ken Dodd fan.’

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Rakewell is looking forward to watching The Square, a contemporary art satire from film director Ruben Ostlund that premiered in Cannes last week. The plot involves a museum director (Claes Bang) who suffers a meltdown after his phone is stolen, and finds himself trapped in a mysterious situation every bit as ingenious and baffling as the performance art he regularly commissions for his day job. More intriguingly still, Dominic West plays Julian, a contemporary art star whose works include an installation that is accidentally swept away by cleaners. Rakewell can only guess who might have inspired his performance…

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Eddie Izzard has made his mark as a comedian, actor and activist, and now has his sights set on politics. One medium he won’t be venturing into, however, is painting. Speaking to the Times, Izzard reveals that he has been reading a biography of Picasso – with some reservations. ‘Fine art intimidates the crap out of me’, he says.

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Donald Trump has cancelled an official visit to the historic fortress of Masada after local authorities forbade him from landing his helicopter on the site. Masada, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of Israel’s top tourist destinations. Trump had been due to follow in the footsteps of previous US presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton, both of whom made visits to Masada using a special cable car to ascend to the summit – a mode of transport seemingly beneath Trump.

Got a story for Rakewell? Get in touch at rakewell@apollomag.com or via @Rakewelltweets.