SIR GRAYSON PERRY (BRITISH, b.1960)
Perversion/Apathy/Arrogance/Selfishness/Ego/Hypocrisy
signed with the artist's initials, titled, and with the artist's Potter's Mark
glazed earthenware
33.5 x 17.5 x 17.5 cm. (13 3/16 x 6 7/8 x 6 7/8 in.)
Executed in 1987
(unique)

Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Exhibited
Bath, The Holburne Museum, Grayson Perry, The Pre-Therapy Years, 24 Jan-25 May 2001, pp.108-109 (ill.col.); this exhibition toured to York, York City Art Gallery, 19 Jun-20 Sep and Norwich, Sainsbury Centre 18 Oct-31 Jan 2021

“It’s absolutely vital what you call yourself. I’ve always called myself an artist, who happens to make ceramics.” - Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry's recognition in both 2003 with the Turner Prize and in 2023, twenty years later, with a Knighthood underscores his significant impact on the British art world. His multifaceted career spans ceramics, tapestry, and other forms of visual art, with his works often exploring themes of identity, gender, class, and social issues. Perry's distinctive style combines craftsmanship with deep personal and societal commentary, and his work frequently challenges established norms.

Grayson Perry’s early ceramics such as the two present examples demonstrate the role of his early ceramics in shaping both his distinctive style and artistic identity.

Early on, Perry employed traditional ceramics techniques, including hand-building and slip casting. He decorated his works with intricate surface designs which drew on inspirations from historical ceramics, folk art, and the decorative traditions of cultures from around the world. His pots often featured detailed, narrative-rich imagery, often combined with text, that told stories about his life, experiences, and thoughts on society.

The medium of his pots, in both examples are also vehicles in which Perry is able to questions many complex ideas. In Perversion/Apathy/Arrogance/Selfishness/Ego/Hypocrisy, Perry outlines themes which have become to characterise many subsequent works by the artist. His own alter Ego, Claire, has enabled Perry to explore with themes of selfishness and ego. The idea of ego—both inflated and fragile—is at the core of much of Perry’s work. This is too reflected in the medium of the pot, likewise with its fragile quality. Themes like perversion, apathy, arrogance, selfishness, ego, and hypocrisy are explored through both personal narratives and broader societal critique, and this is of course the given title for the work. These works reflect a deeper, more reflective message despite the medium of the decorative crafty ceramic. Fragility is at the forefront of Perry’s messaging and this is extended to the medium in which he uses. The work, a precursor to many future examples, challenges us to confront our own flaws—both as individuals and as a society.

Similarly, Return Me to Essex from Where I Come, is an early, pivotal work that marks an important moment in the development of his artistic identity. This ceramic is an another example of Perry’s autobiographical exploration and the work documents both his place of birth while also confronting issues of identity, gender and class. Essex is the place of his childhood and a symbol of the working-class background that Perry both identifies with and feels distanced from. Essex, in British cultural imagination, is often associated with a specific working-class identity, and Perry was keenly aware of the class-based expectations and limitations that were placed on him. Both pots in their decoration demonstrate a dense mix of personal imagery, social commentary, and narrative elements, all reflecting Perry’s internal landscape at the time. Like many of his early works, the piece serves as a form of self-portraiture, where the works themselves become vessels which portray the artist's emotions, identity, and experiences.