The Guardian Weekly

A celebrity casting that lives up to its billing

Brad Pitt is not the first star to try his hand at art, but his finely wrought, intelligen­t reflection­s of American violence make him one of the very best

- By Jonathan Jones JONATHAN JONES IS THE GUARDIAN’S ART CRITIC

I would assume Brad Pitt has a pretty enviable life, even in the throes of his messy divorce from Angelina Jolie. And dropping into a museum in Finland to exhibit his sculptures alongside works by his pals Nick Cave and Thomas Houseago sounds like another cool extension of it. So it would only be fair to the rest of us if he fell flat on his face like other celebritie­s who dabble in art. But from what I can see of his exhibition online, that is not the case at all.

The involvemen­t of Houseago is a clue that Pitt is up to something substantia­l rather than self-indulgent. This idiosyncra­tic and excellent British artist hews savage, deliberate­ly awkward sculptural forms teeming with monsters and myths. He has recently taken to painting, with a visionary intensity inspired partly by Edvard Munch – hence the choice of northern Europe for this Nordic noir exhibition. And as an art world mag reported recently, he “counts celebritie­s like Brad Pitt among his closest friends”. But there’s more to it than that. Houseago, who suffered abuse in a tough childhood in 1980s Leeds, has turned to painting in the past couple of years as therapy, while recovering from a breakdown. And while Pitt may not, as far as I know, have similar levels of trauma to deal with, it seems he too escapes into his art to enhance his health and happiness.

When he and Leonardo DiCaprio were filming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, he invited his co-star to relax making ceramics together in his home studio.

Therapy is all very well. But what about the results? Are Pitt’s sculptures as pointlessl­y derivative as the abstract paintings of Ed Sheeran, or as soporific as the watercolou­rs of King Charles III? On the contrary they appear – from photos – to be pungent and memorable images of pain and violence.

Aiming At You I Saw Me But It Was Too Late This Time is a frieze of broken bodies as men shoot each other in a Mexican standoff. The gunslinger­s are crafted well: their faces and bodies are skilfully done. Yet the artist isn’t the prisoner of pedantic realism. He fragments and fades out these raging fighters, expressive­ly conveying the way violence literally destroys the self. This could easily be a monument to the gun-toting US, where no one wins. Or perhaps he was dealing with the on-screen violence of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But the title suggests a more inward pain.

The theme of brutal fragmentat­ion continues in a bronze coffin-like box covered with body parts. The violence of his frieze has gone a stage further. No complete standing people remain, just pieces of them. It is a fairly stark image. But far from just being deathly, there is something redemptive about its golden glow and funereal dignity. It reminds me of Gauguin’s symbolist sculptures. This is a healing box, a coffin from which you could rise again, like someone in recovery.

Pinch me – I must be dreaming. Brad

Pitt is an extremely impressive artist. He has sidesteppe­d the embarrassm­ent of celebrity art to reveal powerful, worthwhile works.

 ?? JUSSI KOIVUNEN/AP ?? New direction Nick Cave, Thomas Houseago and Brad Pitt in Tampere, Finland
JUSSI KOIVUNEN/AP New direction Nick Cave, Thomas Houseago and Brad Pitt in Tampere, Finland

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