How do artists use humour? A year ago this appeared to be a simple and original brief for an art exhibition. I had already curated well-received shows on drawing and the word in art. Humour, I foolishly thought, was mostly a soft thing, a sugar pill to make life better. I envisaged sheep on stilts, rocket dog, cartoons of cats and other funny animals. This would be an exhibition to cheer people up in hard times. It would be entertainment like a classic Hollywood film, Errol Flynn slapping his thighs with a grin. But something more interesting and more human has appeared. Humour is the sugar pill that lets us look at life… and death.
A big misconception about art is that it looks to the future, creating
the world that will be. It doesn’t. Good art is a looking glass to its time,
reflecting back what is important. Picasso painted modern paintings that
reflected the angst and change of the 20th century. Hieronymus Bosch did the
same for a time where religion, death and the afterlife were never far away.
And humour? Without it their work would be almost forgotten.
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| A Pessimist in Heaven - Alan Macdonald - oil on linen - 107cm x 119cm |
I asked how do our contemporary artists use humour and what are they
reflecting? I ignored Saatchi artists, with their cult of personality and
penchant for found objects, for I don’t think that is art. That is art
democratised to an extent where anyone can do it, and this is a joke that’s not
funny. I was seeking skilled virtuosos on a journey, looking for something
profound, and I had to ask myself ‘is that funny?’
First up for the humour test were dogs cobbled together from ladies’
leather boots, called ‘well-heeled bitches’ by the Cornwall based artist David
Kemp. Of course these are funny. And a chess-set made from scrap? The queen has
three breasts, so Helen Denerley’s chess set goes into the show too.
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| Chess set by Helen Denerley |
How about a kinemat? A sculpture that tells a story with mechanical
monkeys pulling chains. I won’t reveal the end of its tale, but it had to go
in. This work is by Eduard Bersudsky (of Sharmanka Theatre) and he will also
lend us his powerful drawings made while surviving Soviet Russia. Much of his
work will make you cry and laugh at the same time. He is an important world
artist.
The show is looking to be very strong. Is a dead mummified cat and rat
(cast in bronze) locked in an eternal ‘Dance of Death’ funny? It’s like a
twisted but beautiful children’s tale and I had to trust my instinct and admit
that I found it very amusing, in a troubling way.
And then I needed painters. Is a painting in the style of a Dutch master
but with surreal undercurrents funny? It can be. The first paintings into the
show were work by Alan Macdonald and I’ve put his oil of ‘A Pessimist in Hell’
onto the invitation. Pop–art and its newer sister Pop-Surrealism are by their
nature amusing. To take a popular icon and change it in a way that is fun for
the artist has to be good. Michael Forbes’ work went into the show. In the
catalogue I put his piece where Elvis, a Burger King crown, and a skull are
fused together. Another painting of Elvis, by Henry Fraser, became available
and that had to go into the show too.
When people think of humour in art, they think of cartoons. Immediately,
the incredible work of young artist Robert Powell sprung to mind. They’re not
cartoons, but intricate ink drawings and etchings that take on the tradition of
James Gillray and run with it, updating it for our century. We couldn’t miss
out on the much-missed George Wyllie who died last year, so we will have some
of his etchings too.
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| The Learning Machine - Robert Powell - 20cm x 15cm |
Blimey, I thought, looking at all the images and names on my desktop,
that’s a lot of work by some of the most interesting artists around. This
subject – the Art of Humour – has brought together a band of artist and a
bounty of art that is far from just a sugar pill. It had become a unique
collection of work, by artists that will be remembered. Humour filtered out
something very special, an under-rated tool in the armoury of an artist. If you
want to find out exactly what it can do, you will have to come to the
exhibition and let the works tell their own funny stories.
Tony Davidson
Gallery Director
Kilmorack Gallery
+44 (0) 1463 783 230
Fascinating and thought-provoking. This promises to be a memorable and fun show. Can't wait to see it.
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