Ellie Goulding and Caspar Jopling (QuarARTine special episode)

On this week's Talk Art, we're feeling the POWER of LOVE! Russell & Robert chat to the captivating superstar duo of Ellie Goulding and Caspar Jopling from their home in Oxfordshire.

As passionate art collectors, we learn about the artists they admire and collect including Rebecca Warren, Julie Mehretu, Tracey Emin, Donna Huanca, Raymond Pettibon, George Rouy, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jack Whitten, Raqib Shaw, Cy Gavin, Christina Quarles and Ellie’s favourite - a neon of a double cross by Jonathan Horowitz in rainbow colours. We hear about the shyness of their first date visiting two exhibitions in London: Anselm Kiefer at White Cube followed by Robert Rauschenberg at Tate Modern. As their relationship grew, visiting exhibitions has become an integral part of their life as well as art fairs like Frieze and Art Basel!

Ellie discusses her dedication to female artists and how her art collection has evolved since meeting Caspar, the works she used to collect were “dark stuff” gothic in style like ship wrecks or skeletons, skulls or ghosts! Whilst Caspar reminisces about his first art purchase growing up of a poster by Sir Terry Frost, his admiration for his uncle the legendary gallerist Jay Jopling (White Cube), how he advises his friends to support and collect art, and how he even experimented with screen printing and painting during his teens inspired by Rauschenberg, Richard Prince and Andy Warhol.

With no motivation for investment, Ellie feels a close correlation between the art she loves and the songs she writes, something she explored whilst writing her forthcoming new album 'Brightest Blue': “I love the idea that you can buy something, that I can stare at for a long time and then it could maybe draw a song or a lyric out of me”. The album's title directly inspired by a Doug Wheeler artwork the couple saw at David Zwirner's gallery in New York. The intense installation of a blue room was “like walking into another world”.

Art also inspires her music's visuals, collaborating with creative director Imogen Snell as well as photographers Louie Banks, Ronan Park and Rankin. We discuss her musical collaborator SerpentWithFeet who appears on her new album but also recently sang at her and Caspar's wedding in Yorkshire. We remember her collaborator the late rapper Juice Wrld and the impact of his passing on artists like Katherine Bernhardt and the international art and music communities.

Finally we discuss Caspar's experiences working for Sotheby's but also within the film industry, his current studying for his MBA at Oxford University, the recent news of the Gallery Climate Coalition and how the art world is approaching sustainability, online viewing rooms, the positives and negatives of buying art (and clothes) online, and the escapism in lockdown watching period drama Downtown Abbey as well as the joys of completing Kandinsky and Lichtenstein-inspired puzzles! 

Ellie's fourth studio album 'Brightest Blue' can be pre-ordered NOW, released in full on 17th July 2020! Follow Ellie & Caspar on Instagram @EllieGoudling and @CasparJopling, @EllieGoulding on Twitter, her official website https://www.elliegoulding.com/. For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave...

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