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.

Last week’s UK General Election surprised everyone, and the leading lights of the art world were no exception. David Shrigley took an, erm, sideways look at the result:

Hung parliament pic.twitter.com/pyXSNCx7vn

— David Shrigley (@davidshrigley) June 9, 2017

Bob and Roberta Smith spookily pre-empted George Osborne:

'Brexit is a dead man walking' after the disastrous 'Brexit election' has destroyed @Number10gov pic.twitter.com/hljelN6M2z

— Bob&Roberta Smith (@BobandRoberta) June 8, 2017

"Theresa May is a dead woman walking" – @George_Osborne didn't hold back on the #marr sofa this morning. #hungparliament #GE2017 pic.twitter.com/mosxrYwCeN

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) June 11, 2017

Newly appointed Environment Minister (and sometime amateur art critic) Michael Gove responded in kind…

Here's me giving @bobandroberta and the coalition of crayons what for in Scarborough a couple of years ago. Bring it on greens! pic.twitter.com/Hupln1WEmh

— Michael Grove (@MichaelGroveMP) June 12, 2017

… And Grayson Perry contemplated exploiting the power vacuum to his own advantage:

At the palace hoping to get in first and form a govt while the others are dithering pic.twitter.com/bC5cLnzAoV

— Grayson Perry (@Alan_Measles) June 9, 2017

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Skate-related multiples firm The Skate Room is currently flogging limited edition skateboards adorned with Perry’s image of Kate Middleton, as seen in his current show at the Serpentine. Perry explains his ‘Kateboard’ thus: ‘she is a popular figure who does good works and a church brass might be the only [other] context where we would get to stand on top of a member of the Royal Family.’

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The Rake learned a lot from an interview with novelist turned photographer Michel Houellebecq in the current New Yorker. Houellebecq, whose ‘French Bashing’ exhibition has just opened in the Big Apple, is sparing when it comes to decoration in his Paris apartment, but does own a few paintings, which he claims he bought ‘from a guy who only paints his dog’. It also turns out that he hasn’t been particularly hands-on in the specifics of his show – officially, in any case. Asked whether the works in the New York exhibition are for sale, he responds ‘In principle, no […] I took a tourist visa, so I’m not supposed to earn any money during my trip.’ Prices apparently range from $5,000 to more than $20,000 – which certainly stretches said ‘principle’…

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