Grayson Perry- the artist, most famously known for his pottery and tapestries, as well as being a transvestite. In his new exhibition: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever! – Perry demonstrates with great finesse the flexibility and broad spectrum of masculinity, and excels in making art which attracts the general public.
The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever! – is an exhibition designed to question your beliefs of masculinity and gender. The large frilly pink motorbike pokes fun at the traditionally macho view of motorcycles and what that tells us about expectations of men. Perry wants us to look at the object through a new lens, one that isn’t gendered or altered by societal norms, but rather to just see a vehicle or a piece of art. Arguably, Perry’s specific choice in the medium of his work is one of their most successful aspects, as working in pottery allows him to use size and organic shape, whilst also making a statement about the type of work you might expect to see made out of pottery.
Perry through his work has a way of addressing the stereotypes of masculinity by focusing on their hypocrisy. His piece, Object in Foreground (2016) shows the hypocrisy of London’s investment bankers. The phallic shaped piece is Perry’s way of calling out their macho-corporate world by ultimately concluding that it is all down to the very dated views on the role of men and importance of masculinity. Perry uses a grey and neutral colour scheme to show how men are often encouraged to shy away from bright colours as these are seen as too “feminine”. Perry couldn’t be making a bolder statement by contrasting the Object in Foreground with the highly decorated and “feminine” motorbike.
However, although Perry’s work generally presents a very critical view of ideas of masculinity, he also does consider a more empathetic side. Unusually his work doesn’t just tackle masculine ideals in the very educated world of bankers. His work, Death of a Working Hero (2016) tackles the often-oppressive hyper-masculine ideals which are often very prevalent for working class men. Perry’s use of imagery like weights, and a boxer, shows how men often feel pressure to be physically larger and stronger than their peers. In juxtaposition to this, Perry shows family members grouped around a coffin, which arguably shows how masculine traits are essentially meaningless when the end comes. This aspect of masculine ideals for working class men is particularly poignant due to increasing rates of male suicides and the loss of many jobs during the recession of 2008. Now more than ever it seems we need artists like Grayson Perry to not only highlight the pressure many men feel to conform to masculine ideals, but also to show through art work the great diversity in what a man can be.
Grayson Perry is well known for being a transvestite and, subsequently playing with the idea of gender and identity through his work. His nude work called Reclining Artist pushes the question of gender identity in recent years to the forefront of the viewer’s mind. The sheer size of the work creates a rather imposing sense that this piece is not to be ignored-that we must face gender issues head-on. Furthermore, the classical style of nude that Perry has emulated here in his work further questions past ideas of gender, whilst keeping it accessible to a modern audience- the nude is situated in a cluttered living room. This work is Perry’s ultimate statement of self-expression, a true representation of the gender fluidity of the artist. Perry’s success here is by showing masculinity in a surprising context- a classical nude pose, complete with breasts. This is so significant because it’s a statement about how people are made up of many “feminine” and “masculine” traits, and really its all a bit irrelevant.