I’ve been fascinated by the innovative and penetrating social commentary in (Sir) Grayson Perry’s work for many years, and not surprised when he was granted a knighthood, recently.

While in Edinburgh for a few days of frantic ‘Fringe’, we decided to also visit the National Galleries’ exhibition of Perry’s work – comprising hundreds of his most famous pieces (many of which have been sold, privately) gathered back together, with the owners’ permission, into a dramatic show on several floors of the main gallery.

Photography was permitted, which is refreshing and welcome. It allows me to share a small cross-section of the artist’s work in this blog.

It’s the biggest ever exhibition of Sir Grayson Perry’s work, covering his 40-year career. Perry has gone from taking pottery evening classes to winning the Turner Prize, presenting television programmes on Channel 4 and writing acclaimed books. He’s a classic polymath, but a most unusual one. Love or hate is often the reaction… Personally, I find his work challenging, refreshing and acute. It’s just the kind of subtly ‘deadly’ commentary we need in these divided times.

Perry’s vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, depicting subjects at odds with their attractive appearance. There is a strong autobiographical element in his work, in which images of Perry as “Claire”, his female alter-ego, and “Alan Measles”, his childhood teddy bear, often appear.

Perry is decidedly odd – and likes it that way – shifting between his cross-dressing feminine side, as ‘Claire’, and his childhood identification with a character created out of the solitary conditions in which he spent many of those years – the teddy bear, Mr Measles was the result.

Perhaps unusually for artists, pottery allowed him the opportunity to indulge his fascination with sex, Punk, and counterculture in the most unlikely and polite of artforms. But he’s not afraid of controversial social issues and uses mixed forms to deliver his observations.

Perry describes Britain is Best as originating from a television programme he made in 2014, in Belfast, called Who Are You? As part of this a group of the production team, including Perry, went to see a march celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Ulster Volunteer Force. Perry interviewed five Unionists and this resulting embroidery depicts them all riding one horse. The image was based on a an existing mural of King Billy painted onto a gable end of a house in Belfast. Perry observed that they ‘seemed to be holding out for an imagined golden age.’

In Perry’s own words:

‘King of Nowhere refers to the gangs that roamed the Digmoor Estate, in Skelmersdale, near Liverpool. A lot of the bits and pieces were picked up off the ground on the Estate. It’s inspired by the African tribal sculpture I had seen at the British Museum. Gangs are tribal too. It’s a kind of power figure for gang members. And with the candles it’s also a kind of shrine to knife violence. Everyone was wearing branded clothing, particularly Adidas and North Face, so their logos are in there.’

Popular and provocative, Perry makes art that deals with difficult and complex ideas in an accessible and often funny way. He loves taking on big issues that are universally human: masculinity, sexuality, class, religion, politics and more. On view are subversive pots, brilliantly intricate prints, elaborate sculptures, and huge, captivating tapestries, the latter created by hand in Perry’s studio and then transferred to a computer-driven weaving process. They are breathtaking in their scale and intricacy.

Throughout, the works are imbued with Perry’s measured words, sharp wit and social commentary. Working with traditional artforms, Perry addresses the controversial issues of our times in a way quite unlike anyone else.

He’s clever; and being unusual and edgy has never bothered him. Two of the large tapestry sequences, each taking a full room of the gallery, depict a life story of an individual or couple as they develop from innocence to a life-finale.

The last piece I had chance to photograph – we were due at another performance in the Fringe programme – was titled ‘Vote for Me!’ The accompanying text, reproduced below, highlights Perry’s basic honesty and also his bravery at tackling controversial subjects…

Vote for Me! 2023 – Colour woodcut

‘I completed this image in early September 2022, long before the problems that engulfed Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party and now it feels very prescient. A self-portrait in homage to another well-turned-out female politician. I sit in my very nice modern home surrounded by the symbols of identity, success, culture and mortality. I have been asked many times if I would want to go into politics. I admire people who do, it is a hard and usually thankless task, but it is not for me.’

If you get the chance, go visit! We’re unlikely to see another collection of Sir Grayson Perry’s work on this scale, again.

National (Royal Scottish Academy)

On now until Sun 12 Nov 2023

Open daily, 10am–5pm

Bio of Sir Grayson Perry from Wikipedia:

Grayson Perry was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003. He was interviewed about the win and resulting press in Sarah Thornton‘s Seven Days in the Art World.^[13] In 2008 he was ranked number 32 in The Daily Telegraph‘s list of the “100 most powerful people in British culture“.^[14] In 2012, Perry was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork—the Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover—to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life.^[15]