Robbie Williams debuts as a graphic artist in his first exhibition: “The 17-year-old inside me can't believe it”

The British singer Robbie Williams has sold 75 million albums alone, to which should be added his successes with the band Take That

,

with which he debuted in 1990 and achieved fame.

But beyond music he is also dedicated to graphic art.

It is another form of expression that he turned to during the difficult period of his first clinical admission to overcome his drug addiction, in those nineties, and that has helped him since then.

Since last Friday, March 8, and until next July 8, he exhibits his works for the first time at the MOCO (Modern Contemporary) museum in Amsterdam.

With mental health as a common thread, the exhibition is presented under the title

Personal Pride and Prejudice.

Robbie Williams has played here with one of English writer Jane Austen's most famous works, titled

Pride and Prejudice

(1813), to provide a kind of visual diary documenting her inner turmoil.

Also the relief that comes with capturing his thoughts, the acceptance of his mental problems and the humorous touch that has helped him cope with them.

“My 50-year-old self is amazed, and the 17-year-old teenager inside me can't believe it,” he declared last Thursday to Dutch television NOS, during a visit prior to the opening of his exhibition to the public.

More information

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Some feelings after his visit to the exhibition that he also wanted to share with his three million followers on Instagram: “I felt overwhelmed by pride and gratitude.

And honestly, if my meds hadn't worked so well, I would have shed a tear," he wrote in a message in which he again addressed the teenage Robbie Williams: "While I was there, I looked in the gift shop and there was a book with a quote from Virgil Abloh.

He was like, 'Everything I do is for the 17-year-old version of me.'

My 17 year old self right now is beaming and wondering how the fuck I did it.

Figuratively, I just gave him a big hug.”

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The singer's works are full of drawings and comments halfway between confession and self-help manual.

Both things, felt firsthand.

Like for example, in this sentence: “he had a mental health problem before he was attractive.”

Or these others: “I'm going out for a moment to have a nervous breakdown, does anyone want something?”

"I haven't lost my mind, it was mine to give away."

Become a pop music superstar, Williams turned fifty on February 13 and has acknowledged having battled his “inner demons” for years, as he himself recounted in a recent docuseries on Netflix in which he reviews his three decades. career.

His humor has helped him express himself freely beyond music, and he even has a nickname for his restlessness.

“Give your anxiety a silly name.

Mine is called

Blanche

.

This is

Blanche

”, He writes on one of the posters of him.

And

Blanche

is a smiling middle-aged lady, intense eyes, tousled hair, hoop earrings and a beaded necklace.

She is a caricature, but without mockery.

Dozens of Robbie Williams' followers waited for the artist at the doors of the MOCO Museum in Amsterdam on March 7. KOEN VAN WEEL (EFE)

Born in 1974 in the British town of Stoke-on-Trent, Robbie Williams became famous as a teenager, and suddenly, as one of the members of the youth musical group Thake That.

Formed by boys, they triumphed in the nineties with songs like

Back for Good

or

Never Forget.

In 1995, however, commercial impositions on tours, the volume of performances and even the way of dressing led him to quit.

The singer wanted to compose on his own, a route full of personal and professional ups and downs, but also overwhelming successes.

The band Take That

sold 14 million albums and 12 million singles.

Solo, Williams has sold 75 million albums, according to the British trade magazine

Music Week

.

In another of the works, you can read this: “My life is perfect.

Everything is perfect.

“I’m not even sad.”

In yet another, amid a tangle of speech bubbles like those used to write dialogue in comics, he admits his confusion and vulnerability: “I don't know why I get so passionate about my opinion.

"I have no idea what I'm talking about."

The management of the MOCO museum presents this graphic conversation by the artist as “an antidote to a sometimes cruel world and our internal struggles.”

There are works in color and black and white “that can help you embark on a form of healing,” according to the artistic center.

One of them is poignant and hopeful at the same time.

It is a red heart that is divided into two pendants and says: “Your mental illness and mine are perfectly compatible.”

Williams himself has said during his stay in Amsterdam that he tries to “create smiles for the mind” and that if that helps others he will be delighted.

During the tour, visitors receive a card where they can write down five positive things about themselves.

Something that the artist, now married with four children, was not able to do for years.

“His earthy visual language, vulnerable yet bold, illustrates his personal struggle with external pressure, shame, fear, and other inner demons,” the museum adds.

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Opened in 2016, the MOCO museum is an independent and private center with offices in Amsterdam and Barcelona - a new one is planned to open in London next summer.

It has among its collection works by Basquiat, Banksy, Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko, and is located in the museum heart of the Dutch capital, in a building from 1904. In Barcelona it is in the old town, next to the museum dedicated to Picasso.

The promoters are the couple formed by Kim Logchies-Prins and her husband, Lionel, owners of an art gallery who embarked on this adventure.