Born in Chelmsford, Essex, in 1960, Grayson Perry is a highly acclaimed artist known for his insights and commentary on British society. When Perry first attended art school in the late 1970s, pottery was considered an unfashionable medium; he received no formal training and instead opted for night classes. A turning point in his career came in 2003 when he won the esteemed Turner Prize. On stage, dressed as his alter-ego, Claire, he accepted the prize with the glib riposte: ‘It’s about time a transvestite potter won the Turner.’[1]

While ceramics is the backbone of Perry’s artistic career, he has worked laterally across print-making and drawing, photography, iron and bronze casting, sculpture, textiles and tapestry. He has also produced a suite of television documentaries on the curiosities of class, culture, aesthetics and taste in contemporary British life. Perry’s foray into textiles began in 2008, with Alan Measles for God. The wool tapestry features Perry’s distinct cartoonish style of drawing, already well-honed through the sgraffito techniques of his vessels – an aesthetic often at odds with Perry’s acerbic social observations. In the same year, Perry worked on a large scale preliminary drawing for The Walthamstow Tapestry (2009) . The monumental, fifteen-metre-long tapestry chronicles a life from birth to death through a stream of corporate brand names stripped of their logos (like Coca-Cola to Louis Vuitton). It was aesthetically inspired by the medieval Bayeux Tapestry and early twentieth century Indonesian batiks. As Perry self-proclaims, “I am a car crash of influences.”[2]

The Walthamstow Tapestry references a borough of Greater London where Perry has his studio. Walthamstow also happens to be the birthplace of William Morris, who ‘liked a bit of tapestry’.[3] Morris was a leading proponent of Britain’s nineteenth century arts and crafts movement, famous for his wallpapers, furniture and furnishing textiles, and staunch rejection of industrialisation. The ‘Seaweed’ wallpaper (1901), designed by John Henry Dearle for William Morris & Co, is one of four iconic images of “Britishness” appropriated by Perry to produce Morris, Gainsborough, Turner, Riley (2021). Woven in CYMK (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black) on a large digital loom, the image of Morris’ wallpaper is amalgamated with three others: Bridget Riley’s High Sky (1991), an emblem of Riley’s famous Op Art painting style; JWM Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire (1838), an icon of Britain’s industrial revolution and voted the nation’s favourite painting in 2005; and Thomas Gainsborough’s Mr. and Mrs. Andrews (c. 1750), a portrait of the wealthy middle class in eighteenth century Britain.

Perry’s literal interweaving of these four images is an act of both love and iconoclasm. “I see my art in partnership between two parts of my personality…the hobbit and the punk. I always try to balance my love of intricate historical detail (the hobbit) with social comment on my own time (the punk).”[4] Morris, Gainsborough, Turner, Riley speaks to Perry’s fascination with all things British, and the broader tensions and forces that shape the people’s psyche:

Each image perhaps stands for a formative thread in our nation’s culture, the rise of new money from trade, the industrial revolution, new technology, the rise of socialism and popular cultural upheaval. They also stand for different aspects of our character, nostalgia for past wars and cosy hearths, a love of our countryside and occasional bouts of creative freshness.[5]

[1] “The good, the bad and the drunk: Five highs and five lows of the Turner Prize”, BBC Arts, 2 December 2016.

[2] Grayson Perry quoted by Rachel Kent, “Grayson Perry: Stockings and Stealth Bombs”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 10 December 2015.

[3] “The Walthamstow Tapestry”, Paragon Press, accessed 25 September 2024.

[4] Perry quoted by Kent, “Grayson Perry: Stockings and Stealth Bombs”.

[5] Grayson Perry quoted by Leigh Robb, Radical Textiles (Art Gallery of South Australia: Adelaide, 2024), p30.

Books and Articles

Evans, Rebecca, and Robb, Leigh. Radical Textiles, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2024.

Kent, Rachel. “Grayson Perry: Stockings and Stealth Bombs”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 10 December 2015

Mailer, Nick. “Grayson Perry: exploring what it is to be human with humour, irreverence and excess”, The Conversation, 10 August 2023.

Perry, Grayson. Playing to the Gallery, Particular Books, London, 2016.

Perry, Grayson. The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, British Museum Press, London, 2011.

The good, the bad and the drunk: Five highs and five lows of the Turner Prize”, BBC Arts, 2 December 2016.

Websites

Morris, Gainsborough, Turner Riley”, Factum Arte, accessed 25 September 2024.

Morris, Gainsborough, Turner, Riley”, Government Art Collection, Department for Culture, Media & Sport, London, accessed 25 September 2024.

The Walthamstow Tapestry”, Paragon Press, accessed 25 September 2024.

Vote Alan Measles for God”, Artificial Gallery, accessed 25 September 2024.

Video

How to make a pot like Grayson Perry”, TATE, video, 15:44mins, 22 April 2020

  • In ‘The Reith Lectures, Grayson Perry: Playing to the Gallery’, BBC 2013 – Perry stated “My job is to notice things other people don’t notice’.
    • What is something you notice that others might not?
    • Looking at other examples of Perry’s works of art– can you identify things in his work that he has noticed about the world around him?
  • Investigate the works of art that Perry has amalgamated in his tapestry Morris, Gainsborough, Turner, Riley.
    • Mr and Mrs Andrews (c.1750) by Thomas Gainsborough
    • The Fighting Temeraire by William Turner
    • the Seaweed wallpaper (1901) designed by John Henry Dearle for William Morris & Co.
    • High Sky (1991) by Bridget Riley.
  • Why do you think Perry selected these works by these artists for his own tapestry? What distinctive changes has Perry made to the original works of art? What elements has he maintained?
  • Draw onto a reproduction of Perry’s work to highlight where the works overlap or intersect.
  • Perry self-proclaims, “I am a car crash of influences”. Find a work of art by Perry that demonstrates this statement.
  • Morris, Gainsborough, Turner, Riley speaks to Perry’s fascination with all things British. What are you fascinated by? Perhaps it is a certain place, series of books, sport or art.
  • In 2021 Perry stated to Paragon Press ‘the original works of art perhaps stand for different aspects of our (British) character, nostalgia for past wars and cosy homes, a love of our countryside and occasional bouts of creative freshness’.
    • Match these statements to each original work of art.
    • As a class brainstorm different aspect of Australian culture. What dominates our culture? As a nation what are our formative threads? Find four works of art by Australian artists that capture four different key aspects of the Australian character.
  • Think of four things that you associate with the place you live or where you are from. Create a mixed media work of art that blends these four things together. You might incorporate collage, painting, drawing and photography to create a cohesive work of art.
  • Mixed portraiture. Consider the five most important people in your life. Make a list of things that represent these people. Create a work of art that celebrates and amalgamates them into one interconnected piece. You might like to use photographs and create a literal mixed portrait or combine symbols that represent these people instead.

The Gallery’s Learning programs are supported by the Department for Education.

This education resource has been written by Dr. Belinda Howden with activity contributions from Kylie Neagle.