Bloody shambles at Pete Doherty’s Barcelona art exhibition launch

CELEBRATED expat bullfighter John Fulton became famous in his latter years painting with bulls blood.

Tragic UK rock star Pete Doherty has gone one step better using his own blood to create a series of paintings.

But the Babyshambles singer’s latest guise didn’t go down well when he failed to show for the launch of a solo exhibition of his work Flags from the old regime in Barcelona.

The bad boy of British pop – who dated model Kate Moss for a couple of years – failed to leave his hotel room for the launch, which included 30 journalists from around the world.

The singer, who has a history of drug abuse, instead decided to stay in his hotel room for an entire 48 hours.

The exhibition of 30 paintings, a number using his own blood, is all part of Doherty’s attempt to be taken seriously as an artist.

“I am essentially a poet,” Doherty had earlier told a journalist in France after moving to Paris two years ago to further his artistic ambitions.

Quoting Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde and Rimbaud as influences, one of Doherty’s works is a large collage featuring images of Marilyn Monroe.

“I have always been interested in her as she suffered the problems of both fame and notoriety,” he said.