Eye | Kate Middleton Art Muse | Taylor Swift 1989 & Victoria's Secret | Johnny Depp Loves Pegasus

ArtTracker

Another People’s Princess?

Last month a spray-painted image of a pregnant Duchess of Cambridge appeared on a wall in Islington, the North London borough Kate Middleton has visited several times in her charity work. The mural is not the work of the street artists Banksy or JR, but Pegasus, a 29-year-old American who goes by Chris.

He spent all night doing this image of Kate because she seems to be really supportive of this borough and people here love her for it,’ says a spokesman for the Faith Inc Gallery on whose outside wall Kate is painted.

It’s only been up since last night and I’ve already had two offers to buy it prised off the wall, which isn’t possible anyway,’ reported London’s Daily Mail.

Johnny Depp Pegasus Drop In

Fast forward to Saturday December 6th where Pegasus had his first solo show at London’s Faith Inc. Gallery. Jaws dropped when actor Johnny Depp made a surprise visit to the gallery, paying £25,000 for a Pegasus painting of a young Queen Elizabeth posing 1950s style in a bathing suit and the Diamond Diadem Tiara.

Depp also commissioned a new work of Catherine Middleton with nothing except a crown on her pregnant stomach. One assumes the final painting will resemble the Islington wall painting.

Related: If Banksy thinks he’s following in Andy Warhol’s footsteps, he’s tripping The Guardian

To quote another guru of modern culture (Marshall McLuhan) the medium is the message: what you do is less important than how you transmit it. If you make street art you instantly, by that act, proclaim so many hip affinities that your art becomes a symbol of widely admired associations and meanings. All graffiti is cool. The form, not the content, defines that coolness. Calling out Banksy as a bad artist is therefore impossible. If you say he’s crap, he will turn out to be in on the joke. He’s the perfect fraud for our time.

So it goes, to the streets of New York, and Warhol is undoubtedly amused in the great sushi bar in the sky.

View more Pegasus artwork at his online gallery.

Pop It

Givenchy 2015

Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci turns to American actor Julia Roberts for its Spring Summer 2015 ad campaign. Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott capture Roberts styled by Katy England.

Asked why he chose Roberts, Riccardo Tisci told WWD:

I wanted it to be an honest collection, true to myself and true to Givenchy, of course, but more to myself. It was a very pure message. Very black and white. A powerful woman, with sex appeal but at the same time with masculinity, which is my style. And I wanted an honest campaign. Every house has a show—you sell that, of course, but you do have in the shop what are your icons. I always start from my icons. The world is so full of images, so full of everything, if you don’t have an identity, it’s very difficult to find the point of where you want to go. Soon it’s going to be 10 years [that I’m at Givenchy]; I really wanted to shoot my iconic pieces. The first time Julia contacted me to work with me was for the red carpet and she wanted my tuxedo. I thought it would be amazing [to get her] for the campaign. I respect her a lot as a beauty and as a woman. She’s a very intelligent girl. And a very funny girl. Super-funny. And very confident of herself, which is very much my woman, you know like Marina [Abramovic], Mariacarla [Boscono]. I thought it would be difficult because Julia really doesn’t do [campaigns], so I was surprised that she said yes.

Taylor on TIME

What was the goal of your new album, 1989?

With 1989, I was really putting my neck on the line, because I was the one saying I need to change directions musically. And my label and management were the ones saying “Are you sure, are you positive? This is risky.” And I was the one who had to come back every time and say, “No, this is what we’re doing.” When I put forth an album cover that didn’t have half my face on it, and tried to convince my label that this was the best way to sell an album, you know, I got some kind of interesting side-glance looks. But I knew that this was the best cover to represent this record, because I wanted there to be an air of mystery. I didn’t want people to know the emotional DNA of this album. I didn’t want them to see a smiling picture on the cover and think this was a happy album, or see a sad-looking facial expression and think, oh, this is another breakup record. When I wanted to call the album 1989, people on the team questioned that. Every single element of this album has been called into question, and I’ve had to say “No, this is how we’re doing it.” And the fact that we came out and did the kind of numbers we did in the first week—you have no idea how relieved I was, because it was all on me if this didn’t work. It was a little hard to sleep the night of the album release. Read on. 

Taylor Swift Is a Finalist for TIME’s 2014 ‘Person of the Year’ Billboard

TIME’s Person of the Year short list has big name, bigger issues U-T San Diego

Who should be Time Magazine’s much ballyhooed Person of the Year in 2014? Should it be a big name? Or a big cause? The world’s biggest pop star or protesters in a small Missouri town-turned-global stage? The man who made the new iPhone a breakout hit or the doctors and nurses who are battling the Ebola outbreak?

Given that TIME magazine was searching so hard for controversy and eyeballs last month — giving readers the opportunity to ban the word ‘feminist’ from the global vocab, they could go for Taylor Swift.

2015 1989 Taylor Swift World Tour Schedule link here

Victoria’s Secret Angels Lip Sync ‘Shake It Off’ Before Tonight’s CBS Fashion Show Broadcast

Taylor Swift’s chart-topper gets the Angel treatment during the fashion show rehearsals in London. Featuring Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Behati Prinsloo, Candice Swanepoel, Doutzen Kroes, Karlie Kloss and Lily Aldridge. The 2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, with musical guests Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande and Hozier, airs TONIGHT!! December 9, 10/9C on CBS.