Thom Yorke, the Radiohead frontman, reflects on his journey back to visual art in an exclusive interview with The Art Newspaper. Having left art school in the late 1980s, Yorke felt resistant to calling himself a visual artist, a discomfort compounded by his music career. He and his bandmate Stanley Donwood, whom he met at Exeter University, are now opening their first institutional exhibition, "This is What You Get," at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The show spans 30 years of record covers, sketchbooks, and recent paintings, marking a significant return to Yorke's artistic roots.
This exhibition matters because it challenges long-held divisions between music and visual art, particularly within the UK music industry of the 1990s, where such crossover was often dismissed. Yorke and Donwood's work also critiques art world exclusivity, aiming to make art more accessible. The show has sparked debate in the British press about these issues, highlighting a broader cultural shift toward embracing hybrid creative practices. Their representation by Tin Man Art gallery and past exhibitions at Christie's further signal a growing acceptance of musicians as visual artists.