“We’ve just done a talk, me and David Shrigley,” said Kate Bryan, moments after stepping off stage at Chelsea Arts Festival at Cadogan Hall. “How was it for you?”
“It was really good, yeah,” replied David Shrigley, with his trademark dry understatement.
Kate Bryan is a British art historian, curator and arts broadcaster. Since 2016, she has been the curator for Soho House’s global art collection which numbers 10,000 artworks. For over a decade she has regularly presented television programmes for Sky Arts including My Week With and is a judge on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of The Year. She teamed up with David Shrigley to produce How to Art a refreshingly honest and entertaining guide that cuts through art world pretensions to reveal the ways in which art can bring us all joy. They joined us at Chelsea Arts Festival to celebrate their book launch in front of a live audience.
“We talked about art,” Bryan added.
“We talked about art,” echoed Shrigley. “We talked about making art, we talked about looking at art, buying art, being an artist, and we fielded questions which were very intelligent.”
“They were very intelligent questions,” Bryan agreed. “We liked our audience. Actually, we could have done the questions for the rest of the afternoon. It was amazing, yeah. And we talked about whether David’s seen the Mona Lisa or not – answer, no. And we talked about the Sunflowers. Yeah, we had fun. It was great.”
“It’s Good to Get Out of the House”
For both artists, the joy of the afternoon came from sharing ideas with a live audience. “I think what I really love about having an in-person audience is you feel responsible to the audience to communicate your message and try and be clear and lucid and to actually make it fun and lively,” said Bryan. “And you just get the vibes in the room. I quite like it when they laugh at our jokes.”
Shrigley nodded. “Yeah, and it’s good to get out of the house,” he said.
“It’s always nice to get out of the house,” Bryan laughed.
Watching the World Go By
When asked about their favourite corners of Chelsea, Bryan didn’t hesitate. “Oh, I really like people watching on Sloane Square,” she said. “Anywhere that I can sit and eat on Sloane Square, I’ll sit outside and just watch the world go by. Also, watching people inside taxis because there’s always a very interesting bunch of people in the back of black cabs. And you can have a look at who they are.”
Shrigley agreed. “Yeah, I like Sloane Square. Yeah, sitting in Sloane Square when it’s not raining.”
“It’s very, very fun,” said Bryan. “Also, I like walking up and down the King’s Road with a couple of shopping bags and then imagining I’m in 1970s London going to Biba. You just feel the history, don’t you? It’s good.”
Biba being one of many iconic King’s Road fashion stores of the 1960s/70s.
“Lots and Lots of People Talking About Art”
As the pair reflected on the festival atmosphere, Bryan was quick to highlight the buzz of the weekend. “Well, great,” she said. “I mean, there’s lots and lots of people today on a Saturday afternoon all gathering to talk about art. Stephen Fry’s face on posters around Chelsea and any other number of amazing people.”
Shrigley summed it up neatly: “It’s been incredibly civilised.”
“Very civilised,” Bryan agreed. “Chelsea is civilised though, isn’t it? It’s a civilised part of town.”
Between their witty back-and-forth and unpretentious love of art, the pair embodied the spirit of Chelsea Arts Festival – creative, good-humoured, and grounded in genuine enthusiasm for sharing ideas. Judging by the long queue of attendees waiting for signed copies of their book, Bryan and Shrigley’s event was clearly one of the weekend’s biggest hits.
