British artist Grayson Perry indulges playful side in new show

It was a radical idea: give British artist Grayson Perry, known for his cross-dressing and flamboyant, colourful art, carte blanche to create new works inspired by one of the world’s finest collections of decorative arts.

The result, which is going on show at London’s Wallace Collection museum, is surprising, as well as full of mischief and fun.

“I gave me permission to sort of play,” the eccentric artist told reporters on Tuesday.

“I think that … as an artist, especially as you get older, you’ve got to give yourself permission to play, mess around, have fun, enjoy making things.”

Some 40 totally new works by the artist will be on show from March 28 in the exhibition Grayson Perry: Delusions Of Grandeur at the Wallace.

The collection normally houses paintings from the 14th to the 19th centuries by artists such as Titian, Velazquez, Rubens and Van Dyck alongside arms and armour, and enamel, glass and bronze artworks.

“I was walking around the museum, and I realised that there was a lot of the work that I liked, but I didn’t love,” Perry said, with a pink bell-shaped hat clamped on his blonde hair, and wearing a patterned pink, red and orange burlesque ensemble.

“I came up with this idea that I needed to invent an artist who loved the Wallace collection beyond measure.”

To help him, Perry invented an alter ego: the unknown and fragile artist Shirley Smith, who thinks she is Millicent Wallace, heiress to the collection.

“And so this is a sort of collaboration between me, her and the Wallace collection,” added Perry, who was knighted in 2023 for his contribution to the arts.

Perry, 65, a winner of the prestigious Turner Prize, has become a household name thanks to numerous appearances on television including this year’s celebrity singing competition “The Masked Singer”, in which he was disguised as a kingfisher.

His 40 new creations include sculptures, tapestries, drawings and ceramics inspired by the works in the Wallace – in the museum’s largest ever contemporary exhibition.

‘Having fun’

One new work is based on an 18th-century bronze of a musician, but coloured pearls have been replaced by bits of shells and stones, in a Rococo style.

And since politics is never far from Perry’s works, the musician sports a cape adorned with protest badges denouncing austerity policies or supporting various charities.

Less directly provocative than other Perry collections, these new creations still recall the contemporary issues and familiar themes which thread through his works.

In one work, Fascist Swing, Perry thumbs his nose at artists who claim to be activists and for whom the word “fascist is an easy insult”.

“He’s having fun creating things. He’s… playing with badges and shells and making the pots and making things out of clay,” said Xavier Bray, director of the Wallace Collection.

“At the same time, he’s also aware that there are modern techniques such as artificial intelligence, which he uses for his self-portraits.

“And then with that, he starts layering it with meaning, with symbols, with words, with signs, to … bring out the sort of social context.” – AFP