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December 11, 2007 1:37 pm
From Hogarth’s beautifully executed satire to Sarah Lucas’ mocking yob machismo and her bawdy visual puns, humor has always been the sharpest tool the British use to attack hypocrisy, injustice, and social inequality. “The Rebel,” which launches in London’s Notting Hill this week with an event promising “wines, cheese, crystallized ginger, and harp music,” is a limited-edition satirical magazine produced by the Sartorial Contemporary Art gallery. It’s carrying on the Hogarth tradition with its first issue, which is dedicated to the subjects of class and art. Among its headlines are such tantalizing topics as “23 Artists Tell Us About Their Social Class,” and “The Art World’s 50 Least Important People.” Before the launch,
Style.com exchanged e-mails with Athens-born Gretta Sarfaty Marchant and English artists Jasper Joffe and Harry Pye, who offered their insights as “The Rebel’s” founding editors.
A first issue about class seems very English. Is the English art world really classist these days?
Harry Pye: The English are obsessed with class. I’ve noticed that in America if they remake a sitcom that features a cockney or south London wide boy, they’ll make the character black. I think that in America it’s less about class and more about color, and African-Americans or Mexicans are seen as the underdogs.
Gretta Sarfaty Marchant: Britain is the most civilized and polite place I’ve ever been. British people are creative, but best of all exciting. They have a rough side to them, like pirates. They can suddenly turn and be like a pirate. I find that really fascinating.
Who has an easier time—affluent, Oxford-educated genius Conrad Shawcross; Richard Billingham, whose art began by being about his chav childhood; or an artist with a rougher accent and rougher work?
Jasper Joffe: I don’t think it holds you back being from a poor background once you get on the big stage, but the terrible school you go to in England if you live in a crappy area definitely doesn’t help you get anywhere.
HP: Morrissey often quotes a story about Kirk Douglas saying he was always waiting for someone to tap him on the shoulder and tell him to go home. I believe that a lot of working-class people who’ve done well would relate to this idea that no matter how many awards, backslaps, and money they get, there will always be a part of them that believes they’re inferior and that one day they’ll have to hand it all back. Whereas someone from a privileged background is much more likely to be nominated for an award and think, “Yes, quite rightly, too.”
Who are your ideal readers?
HP: I like the Tony Hancock film, “The Rebel.” I like the way the Hancock character believed he should have more success and respect and wasn’t happy with his lot. He is our ideal reader.
JJ: I’d like Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin to read it. They were always publishing their own magazines and books, and even set the type themselves.
Do you think the art world generally takes itself too seriously?
HP: All the best artists had a decent sense of humor. However, there is a lot of fear in England that if an artist makes a joke in his or her work then somehow it’s proof that it’s all a big con. The truth is, there’s many a true word spoken in jest.
JJ: I think generally the art world/art often pretends to be ironic but actually isn’t. A bit like me.
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