Arty
Bollocks is everywhere in Edinburgh just now. Just ask Will Gompertz, whose
remade and remodelled version of his show, Double Art History, sees the BBC’s
erstwhile arts editor and talking head return to the stage after a decade to
explore the assorted isms of the world he occupies. These are terms propagated
by the self-righteous likes of, well, us, in order to try and make sense of
things. Either that, or else maybe just to sound like some pseudo-intellectual smartarse
while proceeding to baffle, confuse and alienate those not already well-versed
in such guff.
This
was something Gompertz addressed when he booked himself in for a few lessons in
stand-up comedy for an article in the Guardian somewhat magnificently titled
How to Talk About Art Without Talking Bollocks. The original show spawned from
the exercise was a bullshit-free whizz through the history of modern art which
arrived perfectly on point with its assorted auteurs and enfant terribles’
increasing penchant for performance.
Gompertz’s
ideas were channelled into his book, What Are You Looking At?: 150 Years of
Modern Art in the Blink of an Eye. A decade on, as with the 27 isms Gompertz
examines, his rebooted show is in flux.
“Lots
of things have changed over the last ten years,” says the former director of
Tate Media. “That’s been the case both in the art world and the wider world at
large, so I thought, let’s do it again as a sequel of sorts.”
Citing
the likes of Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin as great levellers of the art world,
one of the changes Gompertz notes is how “museums seem to have discovered women
artists. On the other hand, one thing that hasn’t changed is how much curators
tend to over-complicate things. That comes from the fact that curators are
academics, and are existing in an academic environment, where they’re seeking
approval from other academics rather than the general public.
“Don’t
get me wrong, I love academics. I applaud their knowledge and dedication in
their chosen field. I couldn’t do what I do without them, but you don’t need
fancy words to describe art. In that sense, I suppose I’m a kind of bridge
between academics and the general public, and the whole point of the show
really is explaining the rules of the game.”
Such attempts
to bring art-speak back down to earth are nothing new. The late John Berger’s
seminal 1972 TV series, Ways of Seeing, and its accompanying book similarly
attempted to simplify some of the more high-fallutin’ approaches to art without
ever dumbing them down.
“John
Berger was great,” says Gompertz. “He was asking us to look at art in a
completely different way, and Ways of Seeing was a reaction to what Kenneth
Clark did with his series, Civilisation, which suggested that art is all about
posh white men.
“What’s
so interesting about now is the whole notion of what art is and can be is
changing. Once upon a time art was just thought of as something you’d hang on
the wall, but now we’re seeing more collectives, more social practice, and more
political engagement over the last ten years or so. You can see that in the
work of someone like Jeremy Deller. In fact, I think the latest ism in the art
world is social activism.”
Double
Art History finishes with an exam, co-opting its audience into the world of
academe it gleefully critiques.
“I’d
like the audience to go away with full marks,” says Gompertz, “and to have some
sense of knowing a bit more than when they went in. If they have a laugh or
raise a smile along the way, that’ll do for me.”
Will
Gompertz: Double Art History, Underbelly, August 19th-25th, 3.35pm-4.35pm.
The List, August 2019
ends
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