The Art of the Ridiculous
I walked down the stairs, and there he was, the artist, let’s call him Mr P — bouncing across the stage, zipped up in a sleeping bag painted to look like poop. It was absurd, hilarious, and, somehow, completely serious.
“Hi, Jules!” he yelled. Yep, you read that right. Quite a few of his works feature faeces. To my amazement, the audience wasn’t laughing; they were having an intellectual discussion about his work being displayed in the loos.
But to be fair, dung in art isn’t exactly breaking news. Chris Ofili famously won the Turner Prize for paintings that incorporated elephant dung, beads, glitter, and clippings from porn magazines. I saw one of his pieces recently at the Saatchi Yates Gallery. I’ve always been a fan.
Chris Ofili - Through the Grapevine 1998 - Once Upon a Time in London
And then there’s Piero Manzoni, who, back in 1961, took conceptual art to its most extreme conclusion. He literally canned his own excrement and sold it as artwork. Yes, really.
This kind of stuff has been driving art collectors bananas (literally). Someone paid $120,000 for Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian, a banana taped to a wall. Then there was the shredded Banksy (now worth a cool $25 million), Exploding Shed, and Tracey Emin’s infamous My Bed.
Talking of ridiculous performances, I’m in NYC, where a giant orange wotsit seems to be directing the national stage. In the middle of it all, I encountered Analia Saban’s Puffer. Referencing the material of classical sculpture, yet carved by both the hand and the latest robotic technology, the work encapsulates a central concern in Saban’s practice: the dichotomy of the hand versus the machine.
In total, I visited three galleries:
Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper Museum. Fondazione Prada, not to be confused with Museo del Prado in Madrid. You can never have enough Prado, can you, darling? Fondazione Prada is a converted distillery with elegant, chic shadows silently wandering around. You know when it's so sophisticated that the toilets don't have signs or door handles. I fell in love with Carsten Holler's Upside Down Mushroom Room; whatever you do, don't go to the loo on mushrooms, though, that's too complicated.
The other gallery I visited was Palazzo Citterio, an eighteenth-century building that took over 50 years to transform. The entrance hall features a multi-sculptural table made of wood. Upstairs in the elegant palace, the rooms are equally as beautiful as the art. Remember to look up at the blue and white ceilings. The art collection is now home to over 200 20th-century masterpieces, including works by Boccioni, Modigliani, Morandi, and Picasso.
Ciao for now, I hope you enjoyed Milano. If you are going away this summer, get in touch. I can help you with gallery trips across the world. Just get your own ticket!
Much love,
Jules
*Cover photo: Gilbert and George