Grayson Perry - The Vanity of Small Differences - Review

A PERSONAL REVIEW OF GRAYSON PERRY'S TAPESTRIES,

“The Vanity of Small Differences”

displayed at Temple Newsam, Leeds.

Attention seeking, coarse, kitschy aesthetic, childlike, facile, “playing to the gallery”: these are some of the words and phrases that are sometimes levelled to the artist Grayson Perry (Telegraph Newspaper; Various Articles; by Richard Dorment, Alastair Smart, Ed West, October 2014).  

I think this is given very unfairly. Indeed, far from it.  I think Grayson Perry, totally deserves his status as one of the leading contemporary artists in the UK.  It is true that Perry engages directly to explore the absurd. He does parody for instance, the feminine alter-ego character he keeps, of Claire in his rather weird cross-dressing, but nevertheless, attention-getting publicity agent  (I wonder how much he might have been influenced by the works of surrealism and Salvador Dali, whilst he was developing his artistic own oeuvre).  Regardless of his motives though, or his background influences, I genuinely think that his work is original, thought-provoking and an accurate recording of contemporary life.  

My following review helps to position; ‘why’.

I had the opportunity today to go and see some of his most recent tapestry works, “The Vanity of Small Differences” which is a new(ish) departure from his more usual painted pottery, that Perry is already famous for.  These are a series of six images, created on a grand scale as independent wall hangings, and in my opinion, have been cleverly situated at the very formal stately house of Temple Newsam, located just a few miles to the south east of the city of Leeds.  

Temple Newsam was originally recorded as occupied in 1086 or so and the dwelling has had many subsequent changes and influences made upon its architecture, since then.  As an early example, the Knights Templars came to the area, Nuehusum, (perhaps from the German ‘New Houses’ or Husum, a town in Friesland, Northern Gerrmany) around 1155 and influenced much of the foundation of the buildings (together with the area's name, which now includes the word Temple as a designation).  Later, the house was passed under King’s decree to Thomas, Lord Darcy, and thus became a base for nobility, aristocracy, the rich and the elite for many centuries since. The topographical setting of the house, which is formal and stately upon a knoll, is carefully positioned with glorious views of sweeping meadows and mixed woodland and bears all the hallmarks of a landscape crafted by the famous 18th Century landscape architect, (Lancelot) Capability Brown.  These views are still retained, even though to travel to it, one ostensibly has to drive through 20th century housing estates from either site. The importance of this setting will become apparent shortly...

The exhibition and its’ associated setting of Perry’s tapestry works, is in a homage to the 18th Century artist, William Hogarth, and his series "A Rakes Progress" of 1733.  
A Rakes Progress originally started out as a suite of eight paintings (Now in the Sir John Soanes Museum, London), and explores the life of ‘Tom Rakewell’  its lead character, following the death of his father and his resultant inheritance, through Tom’s early life of hedonism and excess, though to his fall into debt, poverty, madness and eventually, the gutter.  (Hogarth later rendered the original paintings as engravings).

Before I had even got into the house at Temple Newsam, I noticed an exhibition advertising board, which had a scene taken from one of Perry tapestries, depicting a man and a lady walking, in a large sweeping open field with an image of a stately home behind them in the distance.  Before even setting eyes on Perry's works,  I’d already figured that this representation had been taken from the famous Gainsborough painting of about 1750, which depicts Mr and Mrs Andrews, of noble and ‘well heald’ aristocracy, in a painting expressing their highly elevated status in society. (I mentioned my notion of Gainsborough to my wife, who happened to also be in the earshot of an exhibition steward, who I’m glad to report, congratulated me on my recognition).  This original and popular Gainsborough painting has since been used in the past few decades to articulate the image of the ‘landed gentry’, the bourgeois, and perhaps the ‘capitalist and controlling’ society of the 18th Century. Clearly, this icon or motif, was also an intended contemporary message by Perry too.

(Due to copyright observance and restrictions, I am unable to reproduce the images of the tapestries here. However they are viewable on the Artfund.org website here).

Perry's first tapestry entitled “The Adoration of the Cage Fighters” immediately struck me with similarity to classical paintings of the Madonna and Child, and even its name suggests a link to the classical paintings of the adoration of Christ.  However, in this tapestry image, Christ has been replaced with a new subject of Perry’s study and that is of the baby Tim.  It is “Tim Rakewell” that acts as Perry's leading figure of the Sunderland boy born into a poor surroundings and poverty, being made good, rich and almost (but not) aristocracy of the modern age.  I notice too, a dog, which is a reference to I think Hogarth’s own dog, Trump, which appears in all the tapestries.

Perry's second image in the series, is called “The Agony in the Car Park”.  This depicts an image which reminded me of Christ on the cross, with perhaps the two Mary's, (Mary Magdalene and Mary the Virgin Mother) at the feet of Christ on the crucifix.  The reference image that I found which is most similar to this is from “Christ Crucified with the Virgin, Saint John, and Mary Magdalene”, by Sir Anthony van Dyck (c. 1628-30).  
This is a very powerful image, often represented in many biblical paintings, and in my opinion is somewhat mixed with the ‘official’ Perry reference which is said to be “The Agony in the Garden” by Giovanni Bellini (circa 1465).  I’m slightly suspicious of the reference, as after my own further investigation I also felt that Perry may have been influenced by an image for the two women from another very similar scene from “Christ on the Cross with Saints Mary, John the Evangelist and Catherine of Siena” by Marco Pino [Italian (Neapolitan), before 1520 - 1587/1588 (Reference source; - Getty Images).

The third and fourth tapestries chronicle the rise of Tim Rakewell through University, his success as a computer geek of the contemporary age, together with the trappings of maturity, and what I would call “The bling of now”...  There are a wealth of little social cues and status messages in all the images that point to modern living, his working class roots, elevation to Middle Class and attempts of the same to get into the Upper Class (but never quite able to ‘make it’ through lack of breeding or pedigree, sometimes called ‘The Nouveau-riche’ as a label of mild derogatory vulgarity and coarse extravagance).

As Tim reaches the lofty status of ‘being rich’, (that so many members of our misguided, celebrity driven culture aspire to), Perry depicts him in the fifth Tapestry as the worried landowner (in the pose of Gainsborough’s Mr & Mrs Andrews already mentioned in my opening comments).  He and his wife show all the wrinkles of the modern ailments of stress, depression and perhaps simple boredom of one another due to their own self-isolation.

The final and sixth tapestry is a depiction of an old and withered dead ‘Tim’, having been hit by (what Perry calls) a “middle class, middle age white man’s” ‘status’ car.  Tim is lying at the side of the road, (or the gutter, viz, Hogarth’s ‘Tom’), his new young and perhaps “trophy” bride looking on stunned, at Tim’s untimely demise. Again, the image is loaded with symbolism (far too many to go into detail here in this short review). One that leaps out poignantly for me is a representation of Tim Rakewell on the cover of “TIME” magazine.  At first glance, it looks like Tim, but with a little scrutiny, I am convinced it is also based on a combination of the faces of Larry Ellison, (who happens to be my Ex-Boss) - The not so well known, nevertheless, probably one of the richest men in the world with a personal wealth in excess of $50 Billion. (He is the founder and boss of the Oracle Corporation (Software company)); together with of course, the more recognisable Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft with an estimated nett-worth in excess of $80 Billion, (another major global Software provider of our time) (References taken from Forbes Magazine, Sept. 2014).  I would be surprised if the combined features of Larry & Bill in the character ‘Tim’ are not completely intentional on the part of Grayson Perry, devised through his detailed research.  In all the tapestries, Perry creates the images in his typical simplified cartoonish style.  It is often this, the unsophisticated contemporary style that gets the “childish” label.  When criticised this way, I think maybe, the critical viewer is missing the point. What Perry is doing is just recreating the easy style of ‘animation like’ images that we have been bombarded and surrounded with since the 1920s with the advent of Mickey Mouse et al.  These are just simple icons to help convey the narrative that Perry wants to convey.  Remember too, Hogarth was also a cartoonist...

One of the traditional roles of an artist has been that of a social commentator or recorder and as such, all art can be considered “contemporary” whenever it is being or has been created.  Grayson Perry performs this particular role precisely with humour and accuracy in an easy way that is easy for the viewer to understand and contemplate.  But he also provides a much deeper commentary, he brilliantly places it with tacit references to the art of the Renaissance and beyond.  By doing so, he appeals to both the public at large, but very much also, the academia and professional critics of the Art world who are sometimes criticised themselves for being out of touch with “the common man”.

I would thoroughly recommend anyone with an interest not only in art in general, but also in contemporary sociology and cultural studies to view Perry's work.  The example cited here is a true reflection of all of that and more.  It provides a genuine insight to living in the 21st-century together with representation of the accoutrements of life.