Grayson Perry Reclining Artist

Grayson Perry Reclining Artist
Etching printed in colours, 2017, on wove paper,
Signed by the artist and numbered on the reverse
70.3 x 102.7cm.
27.7  x 40.4 in
Edition of 58.
Published by Paragon Press, London

This original print is a limited edition single etching signed by the artist and numbered on the reverse. The original woodcut Reclining Artist appeared in ‘The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!’ at the Serpentine gallery (June 8th – 10 September 2017)

Grayson Perry Reclining Artist

Winner of the 2003 Turner Prize, Grayson Perry creates ceramics and other objects that explore diverse historical and contemporary themes.

Perry has presented himself as his alter ego, Clare, in a pose that evokes Manet’s ‘Olympia’, and he has amplified the idea of self-portraiture by including a wealth of other cultural allusions, from a book on the architect Zaha Hadid to a copy of Viz magazine. Rendered in Perry’s characteristic style, with dense abundant detail and clashing, saturated colours and flat perspective, ‘Reclining Artist’ neatly summarises Perry’s many and diverse influences – many drawn from popular culture – and his abiding interests in gender, identity and constructions of masculinity. ‘Reclining Artist’ is a truly powerful work of contemporary art.

‘This is me, both as artist and model in my studio. I wanted to make something in the tradition of the reclining nude. I’m hoping it will be popular with educated middle-class people who might enjoy spotting the art-historical references within it. Reclining Artist is both an idealised fantasy and also the messy reality. It is perhaps me expressing my desire to be a sex object and also show off my cultural capital and boyish paraphernalia. The sofa is draped in a test piece of my 2011 tapestry Map of Truths and Beliefs. Alan Measles, my teddy bear and metaphor for masculinity and god, appears as a sculpture, as an inflatable and on a dress hanging on the wall. The cat is called Kevin.’ Grayson Perry

THE WHISPER GALLERY × SHAPERO MODERN

Created in partnership with Shapero Modern, The Whisper Gallery has launched ICONS: Collection of Modern & Contemporary Prints from Warhol, Miró, Dalí, Lichtenstein, Bacon, Rauschenberg, Tàpies, Hepworth, Perry, Haring, Shrigley, Murakami.