bright colours, funny animals, blunt messages and not taking things too seriously.
david shrigley, I hate human beings, polar bear, 2022
i like art that makes me smile.
this probably sounds like a fairly obvious thing to say, but i think it's worth remembering. we spend so much time talking about what art means, what the artist is trying to tell us, and whether we're looking at something important, challenging or culturally significant, that it's easy to forget one of the simplest pleasures of looking at art.
sometimes you just like it.
and david shrigley is an artist whose work makes me smile. a lot.
i love the bright colours, the wonderfully simplistic and odd drawings and the messages that can be in equal parts funny, uplifting or just plain rude. and my favourites are his animals, most of which seem to have an attitude problem, which makes me like them even more.
there's something rather refreshing about work that doesn't take itself too seriously. shrigley's works are often very simple, but they all have a distinct personality that makes them instantly recognisable. you don't need to know anything about contemporary art to enjoy them, which is one of the things i like most.
the colour, the humour, the animals
one of the things i love about shrigley's work is that it is so in your face, that you cannot ignore it.
the colours are bold and bright and the words do the rest of the heavy lifting. there's often a slight mismatch between what you see and what you read, and that's where much of the humour comes from.
and the animals - dogs, seals, polar bears, frogs - have all been given a unique voice. they can be sweet, grumpy, confused or downright contrary. sometimes all at once.
i like that combination of simplicity and personality. an almost childlike image, a bright colour and a handful of words, and suddenly there's a whole character in front of you.
i’m so excited
david shrigley, i’m so excited, 2022
i'm a sucker for a bit of optimism, and i'm so excited is a great example of shrigley's ability to make me smile with very little fuss.
there's something rather lovely about the straightforward enthusiasm of it. no complicated message, no need to work out what the artist might have meant. just excitement, delivered with the sort of directness that we could probably all do with a little more of.
of course, the humour is part of the appeal. shrigley has a way of making the obvious feel funny, and the funny feel oddly profound, without ever appearing to try too hard.
i also like the fact that a work like this can bring a bit of colour and personality into a room. art doesn't always need to be challenging or unsettling. sometimes a little reminder to be cheerful is perfectly enough.
at the end of the day, it’s just a happy smiling dog, running with gay abandon (probably in circles). and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that in my book.
balance the ball on your nose
david shrigley, balance the ball, 2022
i'm not sure how much cooperation you can reasonably expect from a seal, but this one isn’t going to play ball. literally.
i find this sort of thing very funny. there's a lovely sense of mischief in it, and the bluntness of the message is part of the joke. shrigley doesn't need to explain the punchline or give us a lengthy backstory. he leaves us to fill in the gaps. i’ve been balancing a ball on my nose for you for the last eight years, now please bugger off. something like that anyway. probably.
balance the ball is a good example of why i enjoy collecting art. if you live with one of shrigley’s prints, as i do, even though you look at it every day, you can still get a little pleasure out of it. i'd argue that's a pretty good return on your investment. which is undoubtedly why i have so much art on my walls.
the poodle and the tennis ball
david shrigley, i destroyed your tennis ball, 2023.
i should probably declare an interest here.
i'm a big tennis fan.
watcher and player.
but note that i’m better at watching. on court, i’m as enthusiastic as alcaraz, but move like boris johnson in wet cement.
all this to say, that when it comes to this i destroyed the tennis ball print, i may not be entirely objective.
but i love it.
anyone who has spent time around dogs will recognise the general problem depicted here. you have a perfectly good tennis ball (usually a new one) and the dog immediately sees it as a new chew toy. a simple enough situation, captured forever in shrigley’s inimitable style.
what appeals to me is the combination of the image (i love that the poodle is bright pink) and the matter-of-fact statement. job done. tennis ball destroyed. what's the problem? onto the next ball.
the tennis connection, the pink and the f*ck you poodle attitude makes this one of my favourites. i really am a simple man to please.
art doesn't always have to be serious
i've collected art for more than 25 years, and one of the things i've learnt is that the works i enjoy living with aren't necessarily the ones that are the most contemplative and thought-provoking.
sometimes there's a story behind a work, or something about the artist's approach that makes you want to find out more. sometimes you appreciate the skill involved, or the way an artist sees the world differently from the rest of us.
and sometimes you just like looking at it.
i think shrigley is a good reminder of that. his work has humour, colour, character and a very distinctive visual style. it can be absurd, cheeky, occasionally rude and sometimes surprisingly uplifting. but it doesn't demand that you take it all terribly seriously.
that's not to say there's nothing more to it. there is often a sharp observation about human behaviour lurking beneath the joke. but i don't think you need to unpick every last detail to enjoy the work.
discover david shrigley at luck contemporary
i've brought together ten david shrigley works for sale at luck contemporary, and they capture much of what i enjoy about his work: bold colours, animals and deadpan humour.
if you already know and love shrigley, you may have your own favourites. if you're discovering him for the first time, i hope you'll enjoy exploring the collection.
and if you find yourself smiling at a picture of a poodle that's destroyed a tennis ball, or a p*ssed off seal, or a dog having a sugar rush, i think you'll understand why i've included them.
sometimes art really is as simple as finding something you love looking at.
and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.