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:

Bob and Roberta Smith spookily pre-empted George Osborne:

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

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

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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’…

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