Royal Academy of Arts,London
The rock god makes a fine nude model. But he’s no match for Quentin Crisp wearing nothing but toenail varnish, a blue rinse and a jock-strap
This is a triumph of style over substance. Even the arch and precious hand-drawn wall texts and little labels pinned beside the works (as whether to remind us of the price-making process on the 2D surface, or as my old tutors had it) are irritating.
Some of the diligent (showing care in doing one's work) artists drawing a bare,69-year-old Iggy Pop, in a project by Jeremy Deller that takes up almost a half of the exhibition, or are overly precious. Some had barely drawn before,others had drawn all their lives. Brought together by Deller at the New York Academy of Art, they proceed at the living rock legend in a variety of illustrational ways. The worst doll him up with inky washes and tinkerings, and responding to the singer’s body with the sort of stuff that’s often called “fine art”. The best drawings aren’t very fine at all,but as raw as his music and his confrontational on-stage persona. Give me the inept (not suitable or capable, unqualified) and the out of proportion any day. They feel more human.
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Source: guardian.co.uk