Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories
Some bright spark in Donald Trump’s reelection team has decided to appropriate Kehinde Wiley’s presidential portrait of Barack Obama, creating an image of the former president spying on his successor through the bushes that make up the background of the original painting. And they made T-shirts!
Subtle it ain’t, but it does at least display some familiarity with the world of contemporary art. The same cannot be said of erstwhile Trump acolyte Anthony ‘The Mooch’ Scaramucci, who was recently spotted at an exhibition of work by the Spanish artist Javier Martin held at a New York members’ club.
Any suspicions that the former White House director of communications might have discovered his inner aesthete were sadly short lived. According to a source quoted in the New York Post, Scaramucci ‘dashed away’ the moment Martin commenced a guided tour of the show. ‘I’m from a blue collar background, I don’t understand art, so it’s not my thing,’ he was reportedly heard to say. ‘I’m sure it’s probably f***ing great, but it’s not for me.’ Such honesty. No wonder he only lasted 11 days in the Trump administration…
Got a story for Rakewell? Get in touch at rakewell@apollomag.com or via @Rakewelltweets.
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Why are fathers so absent from art history?