By, Rosa Doherty
1 min read
ByRosa Doherty, Rosa Doherty
When Reuben Dangoor put his medical degree on hold seven years ago, his family was concerned for his future.
They could not have imagined he would become the artist behind an unlikely series of images mixing 18th-century British portrait painting with the underground music scene known as grime.
In a series of works Mr Dangoor, 28, has paid tribute to the music he grew up on, and taken the chance to flip “what we see as quintessentially British on its head”.
Born out of a development of drum and bass and dance music in early 2000, grime has attracted international attention, with American Hip Hop royalty Drake, and Kanye West declaring themselves fans.
He said: “Grime has become such a British export as a genre of music. It is so British as a sound and so is that style of painting and I wanted to bring that together.
“One represents Britain now and the other one used to. Back in the day if you had done something noteworthy you’d get a painting done of you.
“Now more than ever Grime is getting the respect it deserves internationally and I thought there was a lot of fun to be had by mixing the two images.”
In his one of his paintings he depicts grime’s newest star, Stormzy, resting in his country manor in a Adidas tracksuit, while behind him hangs a painting of Wiley, known as the “godfather of grime”.
Mr Dangoor ,whose father’s family fled Iraq in the 1960s, said his career choice is a far cry from the typical “high achieving” businessmen and philanthropists associated with "doing good” in the Dangoor name.
One of his ancestors was the former Chief Rabbi of Iraq, Ezra Dangoor.
He is also related to Iraqi-born entrepreneur Sir Naim Dangoor, who was knighted earlier this year for his "extraordinarily generous philanthropy” to a range of health, educational and religious charities.
The artist said: “Naim is my granddad's brother. It is a huge family and there are lots of children my age which is really nice.
“Education is a big thing in the family and while I deferred my own medical degree I certainly see the value of it.
“As frivolous as it may seem the more creative side of things comes more naturally to me, and while I enjoyed the rigour of medicine what I do now just feels more like me.”
He added: “Despite it being a great thing to say in the Jewish community that my son is a doctor, my family have all seen the attention my paintings have got online and they have been really positive.”
Mr Dangoor even likes to think he may have taught them a thing or two in the spirit of education.
He said: “They might have not known what grime is before, but they do now.”
