Jarvis Cocker Talks Art

Jarvis Cocker said more people should go to galleries to see original pieces of art, when he appeared at London’s St Pancras International today for the first time as Eurostar’s Cultural Ambassador.

Legendary Pulp frontman and pop culture icon Jarvis Cocker met with art students from St Martins College of Art and Design and local school children this morning to launch a new art initiative to encourage more people to visit European art galleries.

Standing in front of replicas of iconic pieces including Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe print and Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lillies’, he said: "I think it’s really important to actually go to these places and see the real thing. You can see the paintings on screen, but it’s nice to actually be there."

This comes after a survey revealed that one in seven children think the ‘Mona Lisa’ was painted by Leonardo DiCaprio and one in ten believe Vinnie Jones created the sixteenth-century Leonardo Da Vinci portrait.

Children are also getting famous paintings confused with music, with 60 per cent of 12 year olds saying that Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ is a band. One in eight have never visited an art gallery, but one in three kids said they’d like to learn more about modern and classical art.

So, to get more people in touch with art and culture, Eurostar are offering two for one entry to fifteen art galleries across the UK, France and Belgium, including the London’s National Gallery and the Tate.

Jarvis Cocker, who lives in Paris, spends a lot of time travelling between France and the UK. He spoke about how easy it is now to travel from London to France and Belgium, which should allow more people to experience art and culture on the continent.

He advocates art as a way of broadening people’s minds, and said visiting galleries to see important pieces of art gives you a chance to see things through other peoples’ eyes.

"Hopefully this will encourage people to get out, meet people, see things and get some ideas going in their heads. Because to me that’s what culture is all about."

Words by Clare Vooght