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YPN Art & Fame Debate

So, is pop culture art? This was the question everyone was pondering on January 20th when the charity put together a panel of contemporary artists and art historians to discuss Art and Fame in Soho’s fashionable Groucho Club.

Gallery Curator Henry Little kicked off the discussion by trying to show the audience of YPN’s the distinction between “low art” and “high art”. He queried whether pop star Rhianna’s raunchy lyrics could ever be compared to the sensuality of artistic works by people like John Currin or Lisa Yuskavage.

This distinction was jumped on by the other panellists. Jasper Joffe argued that to state something like “low culture” existed was elitist and wrong. His message seemed to be that what is “good” is simply a matter of taste, whether it is Lady Gaga gyrating on screen, or a Picasso hanging in Tate Modern. Warhol expert Jean Wainwright then covered the cult status of Warhol and studio 54, with Jillian Edelstein further
illustrating this convergence of the celebrity and art world, telling amusing anecdotes from her experience of photographing celebrities.

After a fiery round of questions to close the session, guests lounged in the Groucho Club
till the early hours of the morning. This evening was the second in a the Thought Leadership series, running throughout 2011, looking to engage our young supporters in philanthropy, our work and intellectually rigorous debate.

Speaker Biographies

Jillian Edelstein is a London based photographer who studied at the London College of Printing (1985). Her portraits have appeared in many publications including The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair and Vogue; her numerous campaigns include work for Comic Relief and The Royal Shakespeare Company. Amongst her many awards are the Kodak UK Young Photographer of the Year (1986), the Photographers Gallery Portrait Photographer of the Year Award (1990), and the European Final Art Polaroid Award (1999). She has exhibited internationally in prestigious venues such as the National Portrait Gallery and the Recontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles, France, and released the award winning book Truth and Lies, shot in large format, in 2002. Between 1996 and 2002 she returned frequently to South Africa to document the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Jillian is currently working on the publication of her next book. www.jillianedelstein.co.uk

Jasper Joffe is an artist who holds two MA’s, one in Fine Art from the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford (1996) and one in painting from The Royal College of Art, London (1999). He also received a scholarship to the British School in Rome (2000) where he spent nine months. In describing his work, Joffe explains “my shows have always challenged the limits of painting, a statement evidenced by his 1999 show at the Chisenhale Gallery where he painted 24 paintings in 24 hours. A writer, as well as artist and curator, he set up an open forum for art and culture reviews in 1999 worldwidereview.com, to make use of the internet as a useful space for widening the scope and participation in criticism, while his first novel Water (2006) describes the rise and fall of a contemporary British artist. In 2009 Joffe sold all his possessions and paintings in "The Sale of a Lifetime" at Idea Generation Gallery in London. Joffe is also a tutor at City and Guilds of London Art School. www.jasperjoffe.com

Henry Little has completed two MAs in the History of Art both at Cambridge University (2008) and the Courtauld Institute (2009). In 2009 he founded HRL Contemporary, an itinerant curatorial enterprise focusing on emerging artists, original collaborations and site responsive exhibitions. Forthcoming projects include a solo show of work by Clarisse d'Arcimoles, also currently showing in Saatchi's Newspeak. In addition to this enterprise, Henry has worked since 2009 for the London School of Economics as their Curator and Collection Manager, and since 2010 for the Contemporary Art Society as Public Programme Manager. The former has involved cataloguing a collection of over 900 works and curating a permanent exhibition of political drawings by some of the UK's most widely known cartoonists, and the latter leading educational events for the Society’s members. www.hrlcontemporary.com

Jean Wainwright completed her MA from Goldsmiths, London University and her PhD from Surrey University. She is an art historian and critic whose areas of expertise are contemporary arts and photography. She has published extensively in this field and appeared on television and radio programmes including the Today Programme, Channel Four, BBC and Open University with specific reference to Warhol. Her practice as an art critic most prominently features interviews with international artists, photographers, filmmakers and curators including Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Jeff Koons and Sam Taylor Wood. In this capacity she has published numerous 'conversations' for Audio Arts Magazine; the archival interviews were acquired in 2006 by the Tate Gallery London. Many of her interviews are included in the book Speaking of Art (Phaidon). She is also writes for the Art Newspaper, is the interviewer for The Art Newspaper TV, is a senior lecturer at the University for the Creative Arts and is currently completing a book on Art and Fame to be published by IB Tauris.