Edinburgh Fringe Festival: ‘Bring on the wall’ for Harry Hill’s mad art

LIKE so many of the country’s top comedians, Harry Hill honed his art at Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival. But this year, the comic
returns not just as a stand-up, but also with his own art exhibition, which is as quirky and madcap as the man himself.

• Harry Hill returns to Fringe with new stand-up show and exhibition of paintings

One piece features broadcaster Phillip Schofield posing like Edvard Munch’s The Scream with a swarm of helicopters in the background.

Others include a quirky RIP portrait of a favourite guinea pig, and TV presenter Chris Tarrant lost in the wilderness.

The comedian, who has ties to Edinburgh dating back to his Perrier comedy prize in 1992, has an exhibition of 40 quirky artworks.

Billed as “funny, sad and macabre”, the pictures go on show in the second floor of a George Street shop today, as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, not far from where Hill has been performing in his more familiar role.

The 47-year-old filmed his last episode of TV Burp after 11 years this spring and has been testing out new comedy routines this summer both in London and
Edinburgh.

The exhibition, titled My Hobby, takes his last 15 years in television as his inspiration, though it includes one work taking a tongue-in-cheek look at Ken Livingstone’s tenure as Mayor of London.

Celebrity artists from Bob Dylan to Oscar-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins have toured work in Edinburgh exhibitions – though not as part of a high-profile festival.

Hill’s exhibition, which includes a group of britpop stars painted on to coconuts, also features an interview with one fan, the Scottish artist David Shrigley.

Hill said: “For my day job, I watch television, play with knitted toys, and regularly get
custard pies thrown in my face.

“So in the evening I like to listen to Schubert, read a bit
of Proust and dabble in oil painting.

“I’ve been doing it for about 15 years. It’s a lovely hobby with a long lineage. Prince Charles and Winston Churchill are both keen water colourists, and I hear that Peter Andre is very handy with crayons.”

He added: “Art and celebrity culture go hand in hand.

“Picasso, Dali, Warhol, Hill. We are commentating on culture around us in our unique ways.”

“If Andy Warhol was alive today, he would certainly have been making ten foot screen prints of Chris Tarrant.

“Dali might well have painted Alex Salmond holding a salmon,” he added.

“If the show goes down well, I’m hoping to tour it. I’ve made several calls to the people at the Louvre, and I’m pretty sure they are interested.”

In the interview, Hill told Shrigley that he began painting in the early 1990s – and his
favourite place to work is in front of the TV.