Robbie Williams turns his hand to art with £18k Jesus sculpture

Despite his initial reticence to reveal his art publicly, Williams has enjoyed two successful solo shows in Amsterdam and Barcelona this year

“I don’t know that any art needsto happen,” admits the singer Robbie Williams, smiling, friendly and relaxed on a zoom call from his west London home a few days ago. “But I’ve been doing it for quite a while and, to be honest with you, I’m a bit scared coming into this world going, ‘I’ll show you this but please don’t kick me in the head.’ I’m aware I’m a celebrity doing art and I’m aware that’s frowned upon.”

Williams, who hit 50 earlier this year, has been quietly drawing and painting for the best part of 20 years – only in the last few years has he felt comfortable enough to start showing it. We’re speaking ahead of tomorrow’s launch of his first ceramic sculptures, which will be presented at the Mint Gallery in London during the Frieze Art Fair week.

The four art pieces, two 70cm-high sculptures and two 1.5 metre-high wall pieces, were conceived in collaboration with the Stoke-on-Trent ceramics specialists 1882 Ltd, a fifth-generation workshop founded by Emily Johnson, known for its experimental, contemporary design work with artists, designers and architects including Paul Smith, John Pawson, Faye Toogood and Yinka Ilori.

Stoke-on-Trent, where Williams was also born and raised, has been the beating heart of British ceramics since the 17^th century. So, when Williams decided his work should come off the page and live in 3D, he approached Johnson to help transpose his illustrations into ceramics. It turned out the pair were simpatico. “If you’re from Stoke you have clay in your blood,” explains Johnson. “My family has been involved for years and a lot of Robbie’s family worked in the industry too. I visited him at his London home and we chatted for ages about the funny stuff you only know if you’re a Stokie. His sister and I were at the same convent school, although we didn’t know each other.” Johnson examined Williams’ portfolio and quickly established which of Williams’ illustrations would work well in ceramics. “I spotted his Pope and Jesus drawings and thought they were so great – very out there – so that was a great place to begin,” she says of their project, entitled ALittle Private View of Things.

Each piece was hugely complex to construct, taking numerous iterations to perfect – the results are wonderful, showstopping and a bit nuts. “Because of the scale, it all had to be carefully supported; the sculptures take five weeks to dry before you can even think about firing, painting and glazing. We’re firing them at over 1000 degrees, so there’s a lot that can go wrong.” Why so big? “I think go big or go home,” says Johnson. “Also, if a pop star is going into art, you must make sure it’s exceptional; which it is. For us as a small, creative business we can showcase our technical capabilities as well.”

Alongside making music and performing for 35 years, Williams has long been extremely heart-on-sleeve about his own mental health; having crashed and burned very publicly more than once. Arguably, those experiences have given Williams the finely tuned emotional intelligence he now possesses – which led him to utilising art as a healthy form of distraction and therapy. “I think the seed of ‘oh, maybe I should have a bash at doing some of that’ came from seeing a lot of art and thinking ‘I could do that’. Not in an accusatory way but rather ‘oh maybe I should then,’” he explains.

That interest has morphed into a compulsion over the years as he now draws every day. “I suppose without adult guidance my brain wanders off to not very good places,” he says, “so if I think about what I’m going to draw or what kind of joke or image I’m going to present then I’m not thinking about being insecure and neurotic and sad. It’s no coincidence to me that since I’ve given myself in earnest to ‘what am I creating next’, my life, my mind and my health has got better.”

Williams, who began casually showing his work to his three million Instagram followers during lockdown, is self-taught. “Banksy was for me, ‘Oh! Ordinary people can do this,” he says of his own early attempts. “Art, when I was growing up through my art teacher was ‘if it’s not The Hay Wain by Constable then why bother?’ An absolute shame. There is a British disease passed down from the class system. My grandma’s report card said, ‘will do well for the person over her’. That’s where we’ve been. We’re in this box, lucky to be here, and therefore we don’t venture out for fear of somebody being unkind or thinking ‘who do they think they are?’”

What began for Williams as experiments with Posca pens, paint and paper has led him to working digitally. “There’s a huge namedrop coming in,” Williams forewarns. “Me and my wife went round to David Hockney’s house, and he was showing me stuff on his iPad. I don’t think there’s any way I would’ve looked at the iPad as a medium unless David Hockney had done it. So, because of technology I can facilitate my ideas. There’s a lot I couldn’t do without the iPad because it would take me 20 or 30 years to be talented enough to do what’s in my head.” He also cites David Shrigley (“the OG”) and Vic Reeves (Jim Moir) as influences, as well as supporters of his own creative ambitions.

Despite his reticence in revealing his art publicly – “I seem to have flown under the radar so far” - Williams has, this year, enjoyed two successful solo shows with Moco Gallery in Amsterdam and Barcelona: a series of giant colourful prints of his illustrations. His work appears naïve and charming, with deliciously naughty slogans or cheeky cartoon-like characters. The illustrations enable him to poke fun at himself, at celebrity and the trappings of success. But it also addresses the more serious side of addiction, self-loathing and shame that he lives with.

The work also offers a glimpse at a trademark sense of resilience and positivity. That’s the thing that Williams does so well as a person, in music and art: he constantly shows his vulnerability. And because of it, his artwork is good. Maybe surprisingly so. Of course, there’s ego and a keen eye on commerce, which for him are reassuring markers of adulation rather than a need to make (even more) money. As he says, he plans to “Keith Haring this s–t”, in reference to the late American artist known for posthumous canny licensing deals. Is he concerned about what the art critics say, one wonders? “Honestly, Becky, I haven’t read anything so I’m happy,” he admits. “The music critics haven’t always been nice to me and I’ve still managed to sell over 100 million records. I just try to stay away from the words and then nothing will hurt me.”

So, what’s next for Williams’ burgeoning sideline in art? For starters, there’s a series of hand-cast earthenware mugs also launching this week (made by 1882 Ltd) with a collection of Williams’ handwritten slogans.

But more than anything he’s really content. “My life is getting better because of the kids and my wife and I’m now the creature I always wanted to be. It’s taken me ages to get there and I’m full of purpose. I’m finding purpose through artistry in whatever form that takes and that’s helping me retain some sort of sanity – I’m very grateful for that. My life doesn’t exist because of the art so this is a free swing for me. I’ve come to regard it as a form of connection to others, to prove we exist and to give ourselves self-worth. I want to see where this can go.”

The Pope and Jesus sculptures: £18,000; the Pope and Jesus wall pieces: £25,000, all in editions of 10 are available throughwww.1882ltd.comandwww.mintgallery.co.uk

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