Dates: Now until 26 October 2025
Location: The Wallace Collection, London
“Playfulness is at the heart of being an artist” says Grayson Perry in one of the wall texts to the Wallace Collection’s new exhibition. “There is no right way to make art, you just have to play around and see what comes out”.
The show, which celebrates Grayson Perry’s 65th birthday, features an impressive range of ceramics, tapestries and works on paper which are displayed alongside works from the Wallace Collection that proved pivotal in shaping Perry’s vision for exhibtion. The largest contemporary exhibition ever held at The Wallace Collection, Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur features 40 new works by the seminal artist. Handcrafted creations neighbour digital artworks, creating a plethora of alternative artistic approaches. It’s an exhibition that celebrates exploration and creation; whether of the self or an artwork.
As visitors enter the show, four intricate drawings depicting a female figure by ‘outsider artist’ Madge Gill are displayed in coloured ink on paper. Nearby, works by fellow ‘outsider artist’ Aloïse Corbaz have a similar vibrancy with their vivid colours rendered in crayon and pencil. Their presence ignites Perry’s own response, as the exhibition explores the concept of ‘outside art’ and making and creating, throughout the show.
A hand-scrawled letter at the start of the exhibition transports us into the realm of Perry’s fictional construct Shirley Smith, who too, has an alter-ego, The Honourable Millicent Wallace who she believes is ‘the rightful heir to Hertford House and the Wallace Collection’ which builds a captivating narrative into the show. In the adjacent room, a humorous woodblock print titled ‘My Home’ features Millicent Wallace stood in front of a pink Hertford House coyly greeting guests.
Painted female figures such as the French Rococo artist François Boucher’s Madame de Pompadour painted in 1759 is displayed near a woodblock print of The Honourable Millicent Wallace by Grayson Perry which sees her delicate hands clasped around an ornate red gun that blends with the wonderfully whimsical wallpaper in the same room. A small purple crown is perched on top of her tightly coiffed curls coloured a deep teal; her dress a similar style to the ornate frills, tumbling layers and bows seen on neighbouring Madame de Pompadour, both wearing a similarly serene expression.
Highlights include ‘Fascist Swing’, a tapestry based on Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s The Swing, where Perry has cleverly evoked the mystical, dreamlike light that filters through the trees in Fragonard’s painting. Perry similarly recreates the dappled light through a masterful mix of woven shades and tones. While, six glazed ceramic plates depict scenes that conjure Millicent Wallace’s journey. Minatare portraits from the Wallace Collection are cleverly displayed alongside fluorescent framed scenes by Perry.
Another wall text by Grayson Perry, reads: “We humans are narrative animals, we search for a story that gives meaning and emotional logic to our lives. We look at art through the fractured and tinted lens of our own experience”, which seems a pertinent expression of this exhibition that is both eclectic and electric.
For further information about the exhibition visit The Wallace Collection's website.
