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.

There is a school of thought – or conspiracy theory – that believes that Banksy is Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, and Goldie has just given it more to go on. ‘Give me a bubble letter and put it on a T-shirt and write “Banksy” on it and we’re sorted. We can sell it now,’ the musician said in an interview last week. ‘No disrespect to Robert, I think he is a brilliant artist. I think he has flipped the world of art over.’ Within moments, the Internet began speculating that the singer, who is an old chum of Goldie’s, has been leading a double existence. Could the rumour have legs? ‘We are all Banksy!’ Del Naja declared the last time he was challenged about his supposed alter ego. The Rake politely begs to differ.

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In his soon-to-be published memoir, tennis star John McEnroe reminisces about his encounters with Andy Warhol and describes the artist as ‘annoying’. At late-night parties where one might ‘loosen your collar and try to find a good-looking model or whatever’, Warhol ‘always seemed to be up in everyone’s face with his camera’. He doesn’t think much of the Pop artist’s work, either: ‘Everyone all of a sudden is going, “He’s one of the world’s greatest, unbelievable.” I’m like, “He is?”’

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Now that the White House is regularly banning cameras from press briefings, media outlets are looking for inventive ways round the problem. CNN has drafted the courtroom sketch artist William J. Hennessy Jnr to capture the briefings in coloured pencil. No word yet as to what the Trump administration thinks about this – but the Rake thinks Sean Spicer gets a rather flattering treatment.

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