Sotheby's summer show: creatives from Grayson Perry to Bella Freud on the art event celebrating London
Tomorrow, a major new exhibition opens at Sotheby’s called London: An Artistic Crossroads, with the Evening Standard as media partner. It brings masterpieces from around the UK to celebrate artists who have been inspired by London and who have left their mark on the capital.
Here, leaders in a range of creative fields from design to art and performance, pick their favourite works from the show, and try to answer the question why London attracts so many creative minds and how the capital inspires them...
Shirley Bassey, singer
Why does London attract so many creative minds?
London is steeped in history, music, architecture, museums, food, fashion, nightlife...I could go on! There is something for everybody.
How does London and its people inspire you?
I love visiting London and enjoying its offerings, especially the West End and its many theatres. They are constantly crafting and creating. It's exciting, diverse and keeps me inspired.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Marcus Gheerharts the Younger, Frances Howard: “Diamonds may be forever, but pearls are also timeless - don't take my word for it, the Old Masters knew it too. I love this portrait for its vivacious energy, but it was that beautiful piece of jewellery that first drew me in.”
Bella Freud, designer
Why does London attract so many creative minds?
Part of what is dysfunctional about London is also what attracts creativity. The lack of industry means the industry of ideas flourishes. The British disregard of peoples' opinion is freeing and makes for brilliance and smashing through conventional thought.
How does London and its people inspire you?
I am endlessly inspired by how people dress. I travel a lot on public transport, and I always see someone looking interesting and with a style. This isnt about being trendy, it's about individuality which is what style is all about. Londoners are the best at this, from teenagers to 80 year olds.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world?
You can wear pretty much anything you like with people batting an eyelid. Unconventional, experimental dress is quite acceptable here. Our habit of never mentioning anything serves this characteristic of Londoners. Sometimes people don't wear anything at all. I was once in a cab crossing Waterloo Bridge when about 40 naked cyclists unhurriedly in the opposite direction. It was exhilarating.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
John Minton by Lucian Freud. I love this painting, it makes me think a lot about states of mind. I never met John Minton but my father talked about him in an affectionate way.
He had illustrated the recipe books of Elizabeth David, a cookery writer we were slightly obsessed with. She was one of the first people to write simple French and Italian recipes involving fresh produce and garlic, a novelty in those days. A description my father used about people was 'sympathetic' – and he used this about John Minton.
He said people liked him, though he suffered from deep depression and alcoholism, eventually committing suicide aged 39. For me this painting has so much feeling beneath the translucent skin, and in those huge tortured eyes. It strikes a chord.
Lily Cole, writer, model, filmmaker
What is it about London that attracts so many creative minds?
London is a wild mix of things, with an eclectic open spirit that invites creativity. It offers a meandering labyrinth of deep history, a tapestry of multi-cultural perspectives, an enduring irreverent gritty underbelly, a wry sense of humour that is never far away, and occasional quaint eccentricities that creep up to remind you which island you’re on.
How does London and its people inspire you?
I grew up in London and though I no longer live here, it still feels like home. I love returning to London because of the extraordinary richness of art, culture, people and perspectives it holds. Having worked in the worlds of fashion, film, art, activism and literature, I’ve been lucky to meet many brilliant and creative minds that call this city home.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world?
I think it’s the variety of possibilities that make it unique. Whether music, theatre, parks, pubs, protests, or places of worship are your thing, Londons got it, and got it good.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
I am immediately drawn to Frank Bowling’s Big Bird – the large canvas dances with colour and energy that envelopes you. The geometrical lines turn the swan’s feathers into pianos in my mind, with musical dynamism. The painting was apparently inspired by a real dying swan, its feathers stuck together with oil, that Frank Bowling saw one day while walking along the shore of the River Thames. The painting captures both suffering and the enduring struggle to survive - the swans simultaneously dying and taking flight.
Grayson Perry, artist
How does London and its people inspire you?
I love nothing more than sitting with a friend outside a restaurant with a drink on a fine evening watching the people go by and bitching about them and making up their stories.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Andre Derain, Barges on the Thames. I am drawn immediately by the colour. A hundred and eighteen years after this was painted I still rail against the incessant chromophobia of London. Everyone wearing black or beige, grey buildings, beige interiors, grey cars. I want to live in Derain’s world not Sickert’s.
Claudette Johnson, artist
What is it about London that attracts so many creative minds?
London drew me in back in the 1980s because of its cosmopolitanism. For a while it was a hub for Black women artists from across the UK! Everyone that I wanted to meet seemed to come through here. I think it's still the same now. You can be surprised everyday by a new encounter that engenders a creative conversation via music, literature, theatre or the arts.
How do you personally draw inspiration from the city and its people?
I am endlessly inspired by the museums and galleries in London. I make regular pilgrimages to Tate, Courtauld and National Gallery to see favourite works by Vanessa Bell, Rembrandt and Lautrec. The range of cultures rubbing along in London is endlessly stimulating. Chance encounters with Ugandan, Caribbean, Ghanaian and Nigerian people have been the stimulus for a number of paintings and drawings.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world?
Experience the imprint of centuries of migration in its buildings, streets and culture. The sheer variety of food available in a relatively small area is astounding. My favourite haunts include Columbia Road Flower Market in the east End, great for food and flowers, whilst Ridley Road market in Dalston was for many years my sole source for the Caribbean foods of my childhood (gunga peas, plaintain, saltfish) as well as access to exciting foods from across the globe.
Erdem Moralioglu, designer
Why does London attract so many creative minds?
I have always felt like London is where everything begins. Ultimately, I think that is what drew me to London when I studied here many years ago at the Royal College of Art. The city is where everything began for me.
How does London and its people inspire you?
London is a constant source of inspiration to me and its history, architecture and characters have inspired many of my collections. There are so many incredibly inspiring institutions, from the Royal College of Art where I studied to The London Library where I feel most creative. The British Museum, The National Portrait Gallery and Sadler's Wells are all extraordinary and also places where I have shown my runway collections.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world?
The Sir John Soane's Museum is a real gem to explore. It is home to his beautifully compulsive collecting habits. For food, my favorite is the River Café. I love Ruthie Rogers and everything that comes out of the kitchen is wonderful. There are also so many brilliant galleries in London, Maureen Paley, Sadie Coles, Thomas Dane and Stephen Friedman are my favourites.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
I have always loved the work of Lucien Freud, his portrait of John Minton has such a raw and beautiful honesty to it. In this portrait there is a wonderful humanness to it which resonates particularly with me given the tragic story of John Minton, whose work I also very much love. There is undoubtedly a very human melancholy to this piece, which I find very moving.
I have been privileged to view a number of magnificent Freuds up close when visiting Chatsworth House. There is an extraordinary mural of flowers and leaves that he painted onto the walls of one of the private bathrooms, that remains unfinished. I thought the idea of an artist leaving an unfinished work on the walls of a house was a beautiful gesture.
Francesca Hayward, principal dancer with the Royal Ballet
What is it about London that attracts so many creative minds?
London is the culture capital, people are hungry to experience art and I think people feel free and open to explore and liberate themselves artistically.
How do you personally draw inspiration from the city and its people?
I love just walking around and feeling the energy of the city, the rawness, the free spiritedness, there is so much life wherever you go! The fashion, the real everyday moments and the attitude!
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world?
Keep endlessly discovering new parts of it with every part having a different feel. I love that you can look out the window on the train or in a taxi and know where you are by one glimpse of the architecture or the locals. I've lived here for 16 years and there's still so much to see.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Frank Bowling’s Big Bird… to me it looks like two swans dancing! I just finished dancing in Swan Lake so my mind went to swans and the colours and quality make me feel free and happy.
Yomi Adegoke, author and journalist
What is it about London that attracts so many creative minds?
London attracts so many creative minds because it attracts so many different kinds of people. In an increasingly divided world, London is (to quote the overused but not inaccurate descriptor) a true 'melting pot'. A city in which every kind of person is represented but also where these varied, unique cultures are truly embraced. That being said, as those who help make up the vibrant tapestry of our capital are forced elsewhere by the housing crisis and the arts continues to be systematically decimated through budget cuts, we run a real risk of entirely losing what makes this city what it is. Part of what makes London great is that it is supposed to be for everyone, but right now, it is not. Those of us who love the capital and it's creativity must fight to preserve it.
How does London and its people inspire you?
I've always been inspired by and written about London, firstly as a music journalist from Croydon. The much-maligned borough isn't even considered part of the capital by some, but is responsible for some of the biggest names in music right now, such as Stormzy and Raye, as well as being the birthplace of Dubstep and the home of the Brit School. Then when I turned my hand to novel writing, it felt like a no-brainer to base my debut The List in the capital. London's grittiness and eclecticism felt like the perfect backdrop; the only question was where. I ended up setting parts in Soho, Camden, Canning Town, Tooting, Streatham, each scene a little love letter to my favourite parts of the city.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Mondrian, Composition C (No.III) with Red, Yellow and Blue. There is something so inviting about this piece. Abstracts can be understandably alienating for occasional art fans, but this is a work that I believe connects with everyone on a base, almost instinctual level. Everything from the use of primary colours to the simplicity of the horizontal and vertical lines create a sense of harmony, order and sense without it being at all boring visually. In fact, the longer you look at it, the more satisfying it is.
Gus Casely Hayford, director of V&A East
What is it about London that attracts so many creative minds?
London has always been in revolt, it is both the home of amazing cultural institutions: the British Museum, a quarter of a millennium old – the BBC, the font of broadcast, the Royal College for more than a generation the most celebrated art school on earth – but it is also the home of dissent and counter-culture, of revolt and churn – the terrain of innovation and imagination – the space of refuge of the marginal, the platform for the quiet and forgotten – all fuelled by frenetic culturally complex and diverse, ever changing populations.
How do you personally draw inspiration from the city and its people?
I came home to London after living in America, drawn back by this city’s cultural dynamism and innovation. We simply have the finest and most interesting and cultural offer on earth. And that is a fact.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world? The great transport system, the cheek-by-jowl-close proximity of the way we live, the complexity of the cultural offer and the subsidy of so much art – make for a greater sense of a single London community than any other city I have lived in. We must treasure that.
Which work from the show resonates with you?Walter Sickert, Reclining Nude. I have always loved Sickert – an artist who spent his early years in London theatres and opera houses. He seems to have imbibed the drama and narrative of those spaces, but also their melancholy. Painted as Picasso was beginning Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in Paris, this work painted in North London also exquisitely speaks to vulnerability, to the corrosive nature of our gaze. And like Picasso’s work it is really is about you and me. Why are we here? In the darkness we negotiate some big questions and perhaps find within it something of ourselves
Celeste, performer
How does London and its people inspire you?
Living in London is living in beauty, and when you embrace all the city has to offer, you find yourself in a fruitful and symbiotic relationship.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Andre Derain, Barges on the Thames. To me, the Thames is somewhere I visit to reflect and to rejoin with those who I’ve lost, at times to gaze at shadows, memories of what I’ve known there like watching old ghosts on the promenade. I look down the river with the hope of better days to come.
There is something about staring at the water, the river, that seems to wear the burden well of all of London’s sorrow, offering anyone that chooses to walk by it some glimmer of hope. The water can carry that weight, and take it away upstream. It’s age and history in carrying and clearing with the tides seem to work it’s magic not only in a metaphysical sense but logically and practically too. The two seem to work in unison in a mystic clockwork
David Harewood, actor
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Of all the astonishing work brought together in Sotheby’s exhibition London: An Artistic Crossroads I am personally drawn to Frank Bowling's Big Bird. This painting is a vividly arresting and expressive meditation on vulnerability and seems to me to explore certain paradoxes that working as an artist sometimes demands.
Bowling painted Big Bird one year before I was born and was working with all the context of a Black British artist navigating racial prejudice in the UK in the 1960s.
He was the first Black artist to be elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts and in 2019 was awarded an OBE for his contribution to art. Four years later I was awarded the same honour for services to drama and charity, and in 2024 I have become the first Black President of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Big Bird portrays two abstracted dying swans over a grid of colourful blocks. I am particularly moved by the depiction and animal fragility of these bodies against the formal geometric background. Which I read in the context of being an artist, and particularly a Black artist, navigating the structures and systems out in the world.
The swan was a symbol Bowling adopted through a lot of his work and was apparently inspired by a walk along the Thames where he spotted a dying swan on the shore. In this painting I’m seeing the swan as an emblem of concealed turmoil; serene on top and paddling hard, even struggling, underneath, something I myself have experienced from time to time.
This resonates deeply with my own journey as an actor. When I left RADA in 1987 to start my career, I had this sense that actors needed to be robust, solid and all outward show keeping all that turbulence out of sight. But following a start to my career where I experienced a level of prejudice and racism that ultimately led to a breakdown of my mental health, I have learned the importance of embracing vulnerability. I have learned that safely exploring and working with that vulnerability is an important part for me of what it takes to be an actor.
Rejina Pyo, designer
Why does London attract so many creative minds?
It is the coming together of so many diverse viewpoints in London that makes it such a draw to creatives. The great clash of opinions and cultures is intoxicating – and so evident in the wonderful museums, galleries and restaurants across the city. The longer I live here the more privileged I feel.
How does London and its people inspire you?
As a designer, I often feel inspired by the women I see around London, just going about their days, on the street. The city also offers a rich array of creative networks and mentorship groups, providing countless opportunities to learn from fellow Londoners. I've found that people here are incredibly generous with their time and expertise, always ready to share their knowledge and experiences.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world?
The physical experience of just being in London is unique, the architecture immediately gives you a sense of place and of vast stretches of time and history before you, but the people, the stories and cultures bring it all to life.
For me, a uniquely London day will involve walking through the city, taking in one of the many splendid garden squares; a favourite is Charterhouse Square, very central, but hidden away, with a wonderful variety of architecture from Tudor to Stuart. From there I would walk on to one of the many museums and galleries nearby, perhaps the Barbican in all its brutalist glory.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
André Derain’s Barges on the Thames takes me immediately back to my first weeks and months in London, having immigrated here from South Korea at almost exactly the same age he was on his first trip. Like Derain who came to London with a fervent vision for his future, I arrived here full of hope and wonder at the city I had held only in my dreams for so many years before… The painting feels truly alive, I feel as though I could almost dive into it.
Tim Marlow, director of the Design Museum
Why does London attract so many creative minds?
Partly its history which has been defined by an openness to outsiders which stems from the port, the trading centre and the cultural hub it became. But for me London has always seemed to have the capacity for reinvention, for being a serious place that doesn’t always take itself too seriously.
How does London and its people inspire you?
Where do I start? I fell in love with the city when I first visited at the age of seven and I’ve lived here all my adult life – so almost all my creative inspiration is related in various ways to the experience of London. I love its energy and variety. I’ve had access to many private creative spaces – particularly the studio of artists and designers – but I’ve never felt London was creatively closed off to the majority. It’s a city of creative belonging, not least because its great museums and collections are almost all free to everyone.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world? Watch the dramas, traumas, comedies and triumphs of Chelsea Football Club every other weekend.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Francis Bacon Pope I (after Pope Innocent X by Diego Velazquez). Francis Bacon was ‘haunted and obsessed’ by Velazquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X and, as he added, ‘by its perfection’. I’ve long been obsessed and haunted by Bacon’s responses to Velazquez and their deliberate and expressive imperfection.
Pope I is an early painting from a series that ran to around 50 variants, and culminated in the great screaming heads that are among the most powerful British paintings of the 20th century.
Bacon pays homage and seeks to reinvent one of the great power portraits in western art history but he also subverts that which he loves – Velazquez and his facility with paint – and that which he despises – God’s representative on earth.
The Spanish painter hinted at the darker side of power; Bacon viscerally exposes it this unnerving painting, particularly in a face frozen pre-scream staring owlishly out at the viewer, trapped in a glass cage, sinister but merely mortal, powerless and utterly absurd.
Plinio Fernandes, musician
Why does London attract so many creative minds?I’ve found a home in London, and I plan to stay. The city has provided me with so many wonderful opportunities, as it has for many musicians and composers over the centuries. Here, I have found a platform where I am able to connect to my homeland of Brazil and my identity as a Brazilian artist through music. The possibilities London offers to those in the creative arts really can make dreams come true.
Braimah Kanneh-Mason
How does London and its people inspire you?
Being part of a big musical family and playing music together has given us the freedom to feed off each other’s creative energy. I have found that same energy reciprocated in London, among fellow musicians and from audiences, and when you’re communicating with each other through music, there’s no better feeling.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
I find the soft curves and burnished surfaces of Magdalene Odundo’s ceramic vessels to be very musical in form. The slow and physical process of manipulating the clay to create something wholly unique reminds me of the crafting of stringed musical instruments and the lengths musicians go to in drawing out their special properties.
Sadie Frost, actor
Why does London attract so many creative minds?
London is such a hot pot of culture, drive and emotions – a constant evolution of creativity that is its own entity – never, boring, never dull: there’s always a place to go, something to do or discover and always wonderful people to absorb.
How does London and its people inspire you?
I love the canal and all that goes on there, away from the roads - just losing myself away from the traffic and cars- walking through different neighbourhoods that go from East to West discovering nature, subcultures, barges selling books or bric and brac or delicious food from all over the world - its somewhere to truly lose yourself.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world? I love the parks, the best parks are 100% in London: you can row, swim or join the largest recored breaking meet up of daschunds and their owners (I will be there) - you can watch some of the best theatre nestled amongst the trees whilst eating a picnic watching a superb Shakespearean play such as 'A Midsummers Nights Dream' in Regents Park's open air theatre.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Walter Sickert, Reclining Nude. There is something so calming about it – it makes me want to recline myself! The soft green and dusty pink colours work so harmoniously together, the painting is delightful.
Sophie Ashby, founder of Studio Ashby
What is it about London that attracts so many creative minds?
There is a uniqueness about London - a feeling of optimism that as a creative you can build something here - that I think so many of us are drawn to. Our great institutions, the new ones continually popping up, and the diversity of arts, music and culture in every borough and corner of the city make it a place of possibility, a space to dream.
How do you personally draw inspiration from the city and its people?
From spending weekends exploring with my young family, from strolling around our local neighbourhood to catching the latest exhibitions, eating with friends, enjoying our great parks, meeting so many young, hungry and inspiring creatives through our work as a studio. Sometimes I have to take a step back to pay thanks to how much we have on our doorstep.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world?
There’s not one singular thing, it’s the culmination of all. The rich, historic architecture, centuries old art, the greatest theatre, the opera, ballet, a continually evolving food scene. Take a step into any of our great galleries and museums and you will find so much to nourish you.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
The Frank Auerbach. I find this portrait completely arresting, there is a heaviness not only in the subject matter but also in way the paint itself is applied…I'm a strong believer in enjoying all the different ways an artwork can make you feel, whether it's joy or sadness. That's how we know we're alive.
Martina Mondadori, founder and editor in chief of Cabana magazine
Why does London attract so many creative minds?
London is just so vibrant. For centuries it has attracted the brightest and the best in every field, from every corner of the globe. It’s like sparks fly when they all meet, the energy and the excitement generated is unrivalled, I’ve never lived anywhere quite like it
How does London and it’s people inspire you?
Bizarrely, its almost passive, just by being there you soak up the ideas, the inspiration, the talent. Cabana came into being while I was in London, I’m convinced the creative milieu in which I found myself subliminally spurred me to create just as it has countless others.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world?
Anything! That is the beauty of London. Your imagination is the limit. I’ve done the craziest things which I would not have contemplated elsewhere but which in London just seemed somehow right. It is positively eccentric in a way that gets under your skin – it nurtures the eclectic mind.
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Lucian Freud, John Minton. The sitters emotions are so beautifully, almost hauntingly captured... It encapsulates so much of the very best of Freud.
Tom Dixon, designer
Why does London attract so many creative minds?
It’s the absolute scale that is unequalled in Europe and then the diversity of different talents and trades at a global level which is unparalleled – so many world class institutions, a critical mass of theatre, finance, fashion, cuisine, etc. that allows for cross pollination and new ideas to breed and emerge.
How does London and its people inspire you?
It's the whole world in a city – 287 ethnicities represented apparently and you can go from Somalia to Poland to China to Bangladesh in a few stops on one Underground line. That’s a big source of inspiration alongside the museums and the markets and music, the ancient and the near future all jostling for attention.
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world?According to people that arrive here from less open places you can be yourself and nobody cares or judges you !
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Andre Derain, Barges on the Thames. The Fauvists lived a life so radical and iconoclastic, the landscape that Derain inhabited, hanging out with Matisse, Diaghalev and Appolinaire would have been thrilling and revolutionary- I’m a little bit jealous.The fact that he trained as an engineer and then shifted to painting and sculpture appeals immensely. This view of course still exists and feels very familiar albeit sadly without the industry represented by the barges and the cranes.
Ollie Dabbous, restaurant owner and chef
Why does London attract so many creative minds?
I think there is an “anything goes” mentality and freedom of expression that has always pervaded the city that exists across all the different arts and crafts. There is also a large and receptive audience here and with that an opportunity to grow, so people can actually make a career out their passion.
How does London and its people inspire you?
Generally inspiration comes from within or from visiting the farmers or the actual raw ingredients, but I was recently inspired walking around the tulip garden in Holland Park, which led me to serving them on the menu of late. The stem tastes like baby leek and they can be stuffed like a courgette flower
What can you do in this city that you can’t do anywhere else in the world?
East at Hide!
Which work from the show resonates with you?
Frank Auerbach’s Head of Gerda Boehm. I believe she sat for him on many occasions and I actually saw one of her portraits in person at the recent exhibition at the Courtauld. The layers and thickness of paint was like nothing I had seen before. It was amazingly expressive and intricate, and the effect quite haunting. It’s amazing to think he is still around today.
London: an Artistic Crossroads is at Sotheby’s from May 25 to July 5; www.sothebys.com/artisticcrossroads
