English artist Grayson Perry dressed as Claire, his alter ego.
Grayson Perry is known almost as much for his eccentric and unapologetic personality as he is for his artwork. Though initially a controversial figure in the art world, in recent decades, Perry has secured his reputation as a thoughtful and talented contemporary artist, and the prices paid for his work reflect this.
Perry is primarily a ceramicist, but he has also experimented with numerous different mediums, and he says that printmaking has become “a major part of my practice.” Prints account for 23% of the artist’s work sold at auction, and though the majority fetch between £100 and £500, a significant proportion have reached up to £50,000, with his imaginative map prints proving especially popular.
Perry’s personal life and experiences have informed much of the artwork he’s produced, and as such, it’s helpful to know a little about the artist when considering his work. Below is a list of six things you might not have known about Grayson Perry.
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He Had A Difficult Upbringing
Grayson Perry’s father left the family home when the artist was a young child, after discovering that his wife (Perry’s mother) had been having an affair with the milkman. Perry’s mother subsequently married the milkman, and the artist has said his stepfather was violent and unpredictable, and his mother was extremely volatile. Perry’s relationship with his parents did not improve as an adult, and he remained estranged from his mother for the rest of her life after she told his wife:” You must be desperate to marry a transvestite.”
By all accounts, Perry’s childhood was unhappy and unstable, and as a coping mechanism, the artist retreated into his imagination and created fantasy worlds, often centred around his teddy bear named Alan Measles. Perry has stated that “my teddy bear presided over my imagination like a God”, and the bear has appeared in a number of his artworks. The fantasy worlds Perry created also served him well in his career, with his imaginative maps (such as Print for a Politician and A Map of Days) proving very popular at auction.
His Most Expensive Print Sold For £120,000
Map of an Englishman was made in 2004, and it accounts for Perry’s four most expensive prints sold at auction. Like many of the artist’s map prints, the etching’s style is inspired by 16th and 17th century cartography, and rather than charting any geographical location, instead it explores the realms and recesses of the human psyche. The imaginative island resembles a human brain, and the print was sold by Sotheby’s in June 2024 for £120,000, setting a new record for the artist.
Map of an Englishman sold by Sotheby’s in 2024
He Is Inspired By Literature
Grayson Perry comes across as thoughtful and well-read, and much of his practice is informed by various canonical texts. A Map of Days (Blue), for instance, was loosely inspired by a map in John Bunyan’s 1678 allegorical text, The Pilgrim’s Progress, and A Map of Nowhere was partly influenced by Thomas More’s 1516 book, Utopia.
He Has An Alter Ego
Perry first started cross-dressing as a teenager, and it was part of the reason he became estranged from his parents. Over time, he developed his alter-ego, Claire, who often wears a girlish sticking-out dress with bows and ribbons. Claire has appeared in many of Perry’s artworks, including A Map of Nowhere, where she is labelled as ‘Saint Claire’.
Perry’s tendency to appear at public art events dressed as Claire caused a bit of controversy at first, but it also helped to set him apart from his contemporaries, and over the years, it has earned him a significant following. The artist has always been extremely open about his experiences of cross-dressing, and he often uses his work to explore ideas about gender and sexuality.
He Won The Turner Prize
In 2003, Grayson Perry became the first ceramic artist to ever have been awarded the Turner Prize. The judges praised his use of traditional mediums combined with his “uncompromising engagement with personal and social concerns”. Perry accepted the £20,000 cash prize dressed as Claire, saying that he would spend some of the money on his wife and daughter, and some on new dresses for Claire, stating, “Believe me, Claire’s a very expensive woman to keep in clothes.”
Grayon Perry with his prize winning piece
He’s Married To A Well-Known Psychotherapist
Grayson Perry is married to the writer, journalist, and psychotherapist Phillippa Perry. The couple met at a creative writing class in 1987, and Phillippa Perry has said, “I think what attracted me to him then is what still does – he has a different way of looking at the world, a very original mind.”
Living with Phillippa, and attending therapy for a time himself, had a profound effect on Grayson Perry, allowing him to have “a clearer vision of the world” which “really helped my work, and it gave me a subject as well.” When describing his culture war-inspired print, The American Dream, the artist said that “When looking at the conflicts that swirl around social media, I find it illuminating to observe the scene like a psychotherapist might listen to a client.”
