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.

France’s victory in the World Cup has provoked no end of jubilation. In Paris, an estimated 1 million football fans partied on the Champs-Elysées to celebrate bringing home the World Cup. Even RATP, the city’s normally deadpan public transport operator, is getting in on the act…

[#MercilesBleus] La #RATP célèbre l’@equipedefrance sur son réseau. On vous dévoile 6 nouvelles stations de métro en l’honneur des Bleus #ChampionsDuMonde ! 🏆 🎁 Toutes les infos ➡ https://t.co/9TdZq7Uwmp #FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/lAGJhLuBm8

— Groupe RATP (@GroupeRATP) July 16, 2018

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Not to be outdone, Transport for London is celebrating England’s impressive performance in the tournament by adding a temporary prefix to one station on the Piccadilly line…

Southgate station has actually been renamed Gareth Southgate station https://t.co/GcKnrPMgpw pic.twitter.com/NpqCsi1jK0

— Londonist (@Londonist) July 16, 2018

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Former Tory MP Brooks Newmark has an unexpectedly arty background. As Newmark reveals on My Favourite Work of Art, a new podcast hosted by Laura-Jane Foley, his mother inspired a silk print by Andy Warhol. This connection apparently allowed him the future politician, then just 15, to infiltrate the Studio 54 set and rub shoulders with the likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Henry Moore and Warhol himself. No wonder he developed a fondness for provocative images…

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Finally, courtesy of art critic Andrew Russeth on Twitter, Rakewell learns that MoMA is hiring performers for its upcoming Bruce Nauman retrospective. Sound like your dream job? Be warned. As the job advert makes clear, candidates must be ‘capable of holding poses for extended periods of time’ and able to master a sequence involving ‘leaning with their back to the wall, bending at the waist, squatting, sitting, and lying down’.

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