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.

LA art dealer Stefan Simchowitz has confirmed that he has a cameo role in Darren Aronofsky’s new horror flick, Mother! ‘Doing a scene with Jennifer [Lawrence] and having Ed Harris, Javier [Bardem], and Michelle Pfeiffer on set with you on your very first acting day ever on three hours’ sleep was pretty amusing’, Simco told ArtNet. Let’s hope we can say the same for his screen presence…

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Jeff Koons has been spotted in some unlikely places this silly season. First came the gargantuan ‘balloon dog’ sculpture that Jay-Z has been using as a stage set at this summer’s festivals. Then, somewhat less auspiciously, critic Jerry Saltz pointed out a resemblance between the artist and a certain member of Donald Trump’s inner circle…

Left: Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Right: Jeff Koons. (I am a Koons fan, but … 🤡🤡🤡) ht @deliabrown69 pic.twitter.com/ff8psxMMdS

— Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) August 27, 2017

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As revealed in a recent New York Times profile, the playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and his partner, the cultural critic Mark Harris, are avid art collectors. Welcoming interviewer Brett Sokol into his Provincetown home, Kushner revealed that he thinks the ‘infant-size ceramic angel’ created by artist Kukuli Velarde that hangs from the ceiling bears a striking resemblance to Dwight Eisenhower. ‘Not everybody loves them as much as I do,’ he admits.

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Time was when town councils went out of their way to crack down on graffiti. Now, the city of Ferrol in Galicia has done precisely the opposite, with its Canido district launching an ad campaign encouraging Banksy to come and make his mark there – and going so far as to reserve him a designated spot.

@thereaIbanksy – some people in Spain 🇪🇸 have an offer… #Banksy #Ferrol pic.twitter.com/fFCQtrLoMh

— Tim (@timgmorris) August 27, 2017

Canido hosts a festival in which artists from around the world liberally daub their own interpretations of Velázquez’s Las Meninas throughout the neighbourhood. ‘People come here only to see the house where Franco was born and it is an albatross around our neck,’ says organiser Eduardo Hermida. ‘I would much prefer them to come and see the Banksy.’ How could the world’s most mysterious Bristolian refuse?

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