As a new exhibition on comediansī prints and portraits opens, Harry Hill, Vic Reeves, Lolly Adefope and more talk us through their masterworksModern Toss on comedians-cum-artists`If itīs not funny, itīs art,` goes the joke by US standup Demetri Martin, protecting his craft should his wry sketches fail to raise a laugh. But are comedy and art really so irreconcilable?The supposed incompatibility of the two comes from the former being regarded as low culture and the latter as high. To bring humour into a civilised arena is seen as a juvenile affront to solemnity, like a fart in a sermon. However, that is comedyīs true power: to take something or someone down to size. The godfathers of satirical cartoons - James Gillray and William Hogarth - knew that. Marcel Duchampīs best gags were a moustachioed Mona Lisa and a urinal in an art gallery, which combined mockery with incongruity. Sarah Lucas used humour to desexualise the male gaze, replacing a womanīs genitalia with a plucked chicken and her breasts with fried eggs. And David Shrigley, with his barbed whimsy, is often laugh-out-loud funny. Continue reading...
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