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  • Published: 4 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9780141980454
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download

Playing to the Gallery



'It's easy to feel insecure around art and its appreciation, as though we cannot enjoy certain artworks if we don't have a lot of academic and historical knowledge. But if there's one message that I want you to take away it's that anybody can enjoy art and anybody can have a life in the arts - even me! For even I, an Essex transvestite potter, have been let in by the artworld mafia.'

Now Grayson Perry is a fully paid-up member of the art establishment, he wants to show that any of us can appreciate art (after all, there is a reason he's called his book 'Playing to the Gallery' and not 'Sucking up to the Academic Elite'.)

In this live recording from the Reith Lectures (2013), he talks about his own funny, personal journey through the art world and answers the basic questions that might occur to us in an art gallery but seem too embarrassing to ask. Questions such as:

What is 'good' or 'bad' art - and does it even matter? Is there any way to test if something is art, other than a large group of people standing around looking at it? Is art still capable of shocking us or have we seen it all before? Can you be a 'lovable character' and a serious artist - what is a serious artist anyway? And what happens if you place a piece of art in a rubbish dump?

  • Published: 4 September 2014
  • ISBN: 9780141980454
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download

About the author

Perry Grayson

Grayson Perry is one of the most popular artists in Britain today. His first art prize was a large papier-mâché head he awarded to himself as part of a performance art project at college. Since then he has won many other awards, including the Turner Prize in 2003, and has had major solo exhibitions all over the world. His book Playing to the Gallery is based on his acclaimed BBC Reith Lectures.

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