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.

Cindy Sherman may well have made a career out of photographic self-portraiture, but mention her in the same breath as Kim Kardashian at your peril. ‘I actually hate the idea of selfies,’ she reveals to Andrew Russeth in W magazine. ‘People say […] “Oh, but you’re, like, the queen of selfies,” […] I really kind of cringe at that thought.’

If you thought the Museum of Ice Cream was the last word in curatorial instant gratification, then think again. Later this month, Los Angeles is to play host to a pop-up ‘museum’ calling itself ‘Happy Place’, a ‘special place filled with smiles and laughter for all’. According to Architectural Digest, the institution’s attractions will include ‘the world’s largest confetti dome’, an on-site food truck offering ‘happy-themed items’ and a ‘Paradise Room’ featuring sculptures by never-knowingly gloomy artist Steven Harrington. Frankly, the Rake would rather spend a week in Amsterdam’s Museum of Torture.

Tracey Emin surprised many when she announced that she had voted Conservative back in 2011, and subsequently claimed that her outlook was closer to that of the Tories than it was to Labour. Unfortunately for the artier echelons of the party, it would seem her outlook has changed of late. ‘[Theresa May] is just useless,’ Emin told the Evening Standard’s Londoner’s Diary. ‘She’s a puppet Prime Minister. She didn’t want to be there. Well she certainly wasn’t someone who was invited there’. Ouch.

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