Artist Grayson Perry has warned that the pandemic has created a divide in the arts, with young creatives “screwed” by lockdowns halting the social side of the job.
Turner prize winner Perry told The Londoner Covid was hard on young people “because you need to do lots of schmoozing and hanging out with your mates. Art school is basically you on a journey with your peers… It’s been bad”.
Perry said that artists “who were already doing well have done very well over the pandemic, but I think students have been really screwed”. He said for established artists, times were good because some rich people had spare cash. “Collectors weren’t spending much money, so they were shopping,” he said. In 2020, Perry drew criticism for claiming the fallout of Covid might clear galleries of “dead wood”.
Perry gave some tips to young artists for making money, arguing that while “a lot of people moan about the art market and selling out”, it can be useful to be commercial. “One of my favourite quotes about art is ‘You’ll never have a decent commercial art career if your art doesn’t fit in the elevator of a New York apartment block’,” he said. Pass the oil paints.
No princely sum for royal joke help
Omid Djalili has a claim to call himself Prince Charles’s favourite comedian. Djalili revealed how Charles’s former senior valet Michael Fawcett would regularly “call him up” if the prince wanted a joke for a speech. The comic added that Fawcett would ask: “We need 10 jokes, emailed, tomorrow.” Fawcett, who left the heir’s services last year after allegations over cash-for-honours,
also once offered him a helicopter to come and coach the Prince, but not money. Djalili is compering a special event for the Queen’s jubilee next month at Windsor Castle. Let’s hope he’s paid this time.
Downtown’s stuck in past, says star
IMELDA STAUNTON failed to stick to the script when promoting Downton Abbey: A New Era at the film’s premiere last night. The actress, who appears in the movie, told us she was a fan of rival period drama Bridgerton too, in which her daughter Bessie Carter appears. “What they’ve done is extraordinary,” she said, going on: “Bridgerton is period drama for today and Downton is still locked into shows we were making 10 years ago.” Whoops.
Eels slip off menu ‘because of Brexit’
Has Brexit put paid to the iconic London jellied eel? The Londoner was walking past Arments Pie & Mash shop off Walworth Road and saw a sign in the window: “Due to Brexit, fresh eels are not being imported at the moment.” The shop, which has been in business for more than a century, confirmed eels have been impossible to order for months. Many are imported from Northern Ireland. Some who don’t care for the slimy delicacy might wonder if we’ve finally found a positive side to leaving the EU.
SW1A
JACOB REES-MOGG has taken another shot at civil servants working from home. Speaking at the CPS think tank yesterday after a fire alarm went off, Rees-Mogg declared: “It might be quite tempting to have a few fire alarms to see who’s actually in various buildings up and down Whitehall”. Fanning the flames.
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Labour MP Neil Coyle is suspended after claims he made racist comments at a Parliamentary bar. But the Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP has broken cover to pick a fight with a local renters union who flyposted his office after a cancelled meeting, accusing them of a “silly stunt”. How to win back hearts and minds.
Sun shines for Strange times in the Square
Stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen looked cheery at a sunny photocall for their Doctor Strange film in Trafalgar Square today. Last night, Olly Alexander attended an It’s a Sin event at Bafta, Pearl Mackie went to The Joy Of Text after-party at Langan’s, and presenter Amelia Dimoldenberg was at the launch of Raven Smith’s new book in Soho. Smith also posed up with his proud mum. Elsewhere, Prince William was at the London’s Air Ambulance gala at The Londoner Hotel.
