This major new exhibition of work from the artist focuses on a number of different issues including popularity and art, masculinity and the current cultural landscape. But what have critics been saying about the exhibition?
The Independent: ** “What else? Surely the point – or perhaps the principle selling point of Grayson Perry these days – is that he has skillfully transmogrified into a trenchant social commentator, a prober of our national habits, a miraculous being who can see into our class divides. Something of an intellectual then. Much evidence of that here? Well, there is a large tapestry in the principal gallery called Battle of Britain 2017, but anyone who might be looking for a savagely analytical piece, something with vital imaginative force, is in for a disappointment.”
The Telegraph: ** “Perry’s satire lacks bite and passion at least partly, you suspect, because the demands of TV don’t leave him time to fully engage. The impression is of an artist coasting on ideas that have long since been overexposed.”
GQ: “Perry’s art, in this time, at this place, is much more relevant and interesting than Damien Hirst or Jeff Koons’ recent offerings.”
The Guardian: *** “Perry is evenhandedly contrarian and nicely curmudgeonly, poking at prejudice wherever he finds it. A lively, perceptive and engaging commentator on social habits, masculinity and – in his Reith Lectures – on art and the art world, Perry’s ideas translate less well as art itself.”
Evening Standard: ***** “In his unpretentious and witty way, Grayson Perry finds a visual language for Britain’s political climate in his beautiful new show.”
The Arts Desk: “The exhibition title is tongue-in-cheek, of course, but nevertheless it suggests a certain nervousness about what popularity means for him as an artist now that he is the nice man in a frock who explains art to the masses.”
The Londonist: **** “Perry delivers his work with a large dose of humour, but he’s also one of the most politically relevant artists operating at the moment.”
The Reprobate: “This is a show that seems to want to heal division, not further it, and for that alone is admirable.”
Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever! is on display at the Serpentine Gallery until the 10th September. For more information visit: http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/grayson-perry-most-popular-art-exhibition-ever