A new Robert Rubbish exhibition has opened in Fulham. The exhibition features a selection of works from previous exhibitions.
Below Rubbish’s niece A A Greene (@agreenearts) asks five questions about the show.
What is the significance of the Minotaur in your paintings?
The Minotaur in these artworks is the Minotaur of Montmartre, he is a mythical character in my work. He is the guardian of labyrinth. The labyrinth in these works is Paris and the artworks are my drift though the time and space fabric of Paris. The Minotaur of Montmartre is more camp and less macho than the traditional Minotaur favouring a stiletto high heel or a ribbon lace up bowed espadrille and a posing pouch. He also likes to perform psychedelic opera arias.
How important is fashion in building a sense of narrative or character?
I am interested in researching photos and films to see what people wore in different times. I like that the surrealists dressed in suits and ties and who looked quite smart. I like to place them dressed like that sometimes in incongruous places. I read a book for research ‘The Beautiful Fall’ about Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld and got a lot from it like seeing how the 1920s and 1930s glamour and flair inspired these looks in the 1970s. These designers made me think I am more interested in style than high fashion.
Are you inspired by 1970s desserts?
Yes I was born in the 70s and the 70s was spilling on into the early 80s. My favourite would be strawberry Angel Delight, Artic Roll and a cream horn; all desserts of the gods. I also find 70s desserts visually stimulating.
How much do your surroundings or the places you have been influence your work?
A lot of my artwork is based on things that happened in Paris so I like to visit as many of the places I have read about and to wander around the city on a drift seeing what I might encounter. Last summer I went to visit the pink granite coast in Brittany and some of the rock formations made it into my artworks. I think wherever I am it filters into my art in obvious or subtle ways and sometimes also elements of the landscape or the history.
Many of your paintings show the rituals of eating and drinking together, what do you think these situations bring out in people? Do you ever imagine how these characters would interact in this kind of space?
Yes I like having events in my artworks of dinners, tea parties and cafe meetings. The lives of the Paris surrealists are a big influence on my art, and they would meet daily in cafes for drinks so a lot of passing of ideas were done at these gatherings. Lots of good ideas from working with the group of artists I worked with Le Gun were born over this way and I’m sure lots of them in Chan’s budget Chinese restaurant on Mare Street in Hackney we even took inspiration from some of the hand written wisdom in there. One of the artworks “Bouillabaisse ceremony at La promenade de Venus” plays on the idea of some cork hats the artist Eileen Agar made and I then made an artwork of her younger self and her older self and husband and friend and her biography about to dine on some Bouillabaisse. I imagine that it could be interesting dining with one’s younger self sort of like what may happen in a dream.
Robert Rubbish, ATTENTION AU CHAT EXCENTRIQUE – 30th January 2025,
James Jackson 279 Lillie Road, Fulham
Open Monday-Saturday 11AM till 5PM
