Your actual Robbie Williams is exhibiting his paintings at Sotheby’s

When Robbie Williams famously asked us to let him ‘entertain us’, we naively assumed he meant strictly through the mediums of song and dance. How wrong we were.

It turns out that the ‘Angels’ singer is bang into painting. And throughout May the 300-year-old Bond Street auction house Sotheby’s will be exhibiting the fruits of his creative labour. The 14 never-before-seen paintings aren’t entirely his own work, though. Williams has collaborated with his designer pal Ed Godrich.

‘Art is really whatever you want it to be,’ observed the singer-painter, sagely. ‘Just like music it has the ability to soothe and provide company when you’re lonely. Art and music have punctuated my ups and downs, but more importantly they both have the power to change how I feel in a moment.’

Williams has admitted that his introduction to art came in the form of Peter Blake’s famous cover design for the Beatles’ ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’. Meanwhile, the new work, exhibited as part of The Black and White Paintings show, is heavily inspired by ’90s rave culture and dance music. Does that mean it features little smiley faces? Why not pop along to Sotheby’s and find out for yourself?

‘Black and White Paintings’ runs May 13-25 at the auction house’s New Bond Street base.

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