Victoria Art Gallery Press Releases – Unpopular Culture
Unpopular Culture: Grayson Perry selects from the Arts
Council Collection
October 09
Unpopular Culture, a Hayward
Touring Exhibition from the Southbank Centre, opens at Bath &
North East Somerset Council’s Victoria Art Gallery in Bridge
Street, Bath, on 7 November 2009 and runs until 3 January 2010.
Grayson Perry was catapulted into the public
consciousness in 2003 when he won the Turner Prize for his delicate
coil pots adorned with drawings and text commenting on British art
and society. Perhaps less well-known is Perry’s work as a curator.
Unpopular Culture highlights this aspect of
Perry’s practice and offers his personal view of the Arts Council
Collection, one of the foremost national collections of British
post-war art, with over 7,500 works.
The show includes works by Frank Auerbach;
Lynn Chadwick; Barbara Hepworth; L.S. Lowry; Henry Moore, Paul Nash
and Eduardo Paolozzi as well as two striking new works by Perry
himself.
Unpopular Culture examines a
period in history which Perry argues was ‘before British Art became
fashionable.’ The exhibition of more than 70 works by 50 artists
encompasses figurative painting, bronze sculpture and documentary
photography. Spanning the era from the 1940s to Thatcherite Britain
of the 1980s, the selection epitomises a time when we as a nation
had a different sense of self, one less defined by interventions of
television, mass media and digital communications. The chosen
artworks embody a quiet nostalgia and restraint. Rather than
retreat into a world of rose-tinted romanticism, Perry presents a
unique and alternative view of British art.
Grayson Perry said: “The first time I trawled
through the catalogues of the Collection I was drawn to these three
distinct categories of art, which are bound together both by the
period of their inception and their ineffable sense of mood;
subtle, sensitive, lyrical and quiet in contrast to today when much
art can seem like shouty advertisements for concepts or
personalities. I also felt a need to confront the hackneyed version
of the recent past that is the default mode of the nostalgia
industry. Take the swinging sixties - this psychedelic,
mini-driving, mini-skirt wearing, Beatles-loving supposed glory age
which I suspect was really only enjoyed by a minority. This
exhibition shows another side.”
Jon Benington, Manager of the Victoria Art
Gallery, said: “Bath & North East Somerset is delighted Grayson
Perry agreed to select works from the Arts Council Collection to
create this fascinating show, which is coming to Bath for an
exclusive West Country airing. Indeed, for four of the artists –
Kenneth Armitage, Jack Smith, William Scott and
Bryan Wynter – it is something of a homecoming, as
they all taught at the Bath Academy of Art in the 1950s. Their
interest for Grayson stems from the fact that they span the time in
which he and his parents grew up.”
For his selection, Perry gravitated towards
those painters and photographers whose work was an honest
reflection of British life and society. The lyricism of painters
Paul Nash and Victor Pasmore are juxtaposed with the frivolity and
celebration of the beauty contests, seaside trips and Pearly Kings
and Queens immortalised in the photographs of David Hurn, Tony
Ray-Jones and Patrick Ward.
The sculpture selection includes the cast
bronzes of Henry Moore and Kenneth Armitage, the polished
abstraction of Barbara Hepworth and the linear, spiky forms of Lynn
Chadwick and others.
Unpopular Culture presents an
alternative view of British art, bringing a fresh, new perspective
on this period. Unpopular Culture is
accompanied by a catalogue that includes commissioned essays by
Grayson Perry and Blake Morrison. Grayson Perry has designed
a limited edition silk scarf which will be available to buy from
the gallery.
The Victoria Art Galley in Bridge Street, Bath
is open Tuesday – Sunday, closed Mondays. Entry is free. For more
information visit the website http://www.victoriagal.org.uk/
ENDS