Art and Humour

Fun online discussion from the Art Fund looking at the role of humour in art.

The event brought together a good panel chaired by Annie McGrath, a comedian and podcast host. She interviewed Emma Stirling-Middleton from the Cartoon Museum, artists Reuben Dangoor and David Shrigley, and Simon Minty, producer and member of Abnormally Funny People.

They started by discussing how we don’t associate laughing with galleries and museums and why that might be. They talked about how humour can make art more approachable and that comedy is not the opposite of seriousness.

The two artists discussed their work and talked about how it had been affected by Covid. I loved the image I use here by Dangoor. Both artists had turned to social media to share their work during lockdowns. Minty talked about how new ways of sharing art over the pandemic has made it more accessible to disabled people including talks like this one.

Stirling-Middleton talked about the current show at the Cartoon Museum which is looking at the psychology of humour and if we can analyse what people find funny. More about this later as I have been to see the show since as it sounded so intriguing.

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