MUSE - A Portrait of Grayson Perry

"Wow! Just wow! ... It's a really stunning thing. A love letter that is itself a work of art about a work of art that is Grayson. Both playful and deadly serious ... these photos are not simply about 'serving looks' but about restlessness and identity and transience.... Ansett's work is mind-blowing ... not cosy at all. Just brilliant photography
." -
Suzanne Moore




"Great to see Grayson in his various guises. He must have more women's clothes than the average woman!"
-
 Martin Parr




"Some are artists, some are muses - Sir Grayson Perry is both, according to a new coffee table book."
-
The Standard



"Muse documents Perry's Bowie-like range of personae, from his alter-ego Claire, to Madonna and child, to a Dolly Parton-style American country girl."
 -
 Yahoo News UK







Grayson Perry is an award-winning artist best known in the art world for his ceramic works. To the wider public, he is perhaps equally famous for his cross-dressing alter ego. This book reveals a unique relationship between Perry and renowned portrait photographer Richard Ansett through a previously unseen archive from photoshoots spanning over 10 years.


Ansett astutely captures the wit, style and irreverence of Perry's many complex personas. Beyond the snazzy outfits and cheeky poses, these thematic portrait collections offer wry social commentaries on current and popular phenomena, including the EU referendum, American pop culture and the existential questions of life and death.


At once glossy, fabulous and cutting-edge,

Muse: A Portrait of Grayson Perry

offers a complex, fascinating and ultimately affectionate insight into our recently knighted national treasure with anecdotes and narration from Ansett himself, this is a masterpiece of rhetorical observations and quick-thinking camerawork. Perfect for art geeks, style freaks and Perry's long-devoted following.

List of contents

Introduction 6


Conception 12


First interlude 20


American beauty 28


Second interlude 40


Birth 48


Third interlude 58


Death in Islington 68


Fourth interlude 78


Land of hope and glory 86


Transfuturism 98


Credits 112

About the author

Richard Ansett
is a fine art social documentary and portrait photographer based in London, UK. His images have been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, London, his portrait of the film director David Lynch was acquired by the Smithsonian, USA, and his portrait of film director David Cronenberg acquired by the National Canadian Library and Archives. A portrait of a boy with a head injury from the Donbas region of Ukraine and a bather from the same region have been acquired by Bibliotheque National de France. His portrait
BIRTH – A Portrait of Grayson Perry
was awarded first prize at the Sony World Photography Awards 2019 and his series of portraits exploring the complex mental health of women prisoners and the series exploring a disappearing community in South London,
Behind The Brutal Facade
, 2020 were both shortlisted subsequently for the same awards. The series
fat
won Gold Award at PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris.

Summary

"Wow! Just wow! … It’s a really stunning thing. A love letter that is itself a work of art about a work of art that is Grayson. Both playful and deadly serious ... these photos are not simply about 'serving looks' but about restlessness and identity and transience.... Ansett’s work is mind-blowing … not cosy at all. Just brilliant photography
." -
Suzanne Moore
"Great to see Grayson in his various guises. He must have more women's clothes than the average woman!"
—
 Martin Parr
"Some are artists, some are muses — Sir Grayson Perry is both, according to a new coffee table book."
—
The Standard
"Muse documents Perry’s Bowie-like range of personae, from his alter-ego Claire, to Madonna and child, to a Dolly Parton-style American country girl."
 —
 Yahoo News UK

Grayson Perry is an award-winning artist best known in the art world for his ceramic works. To the wider public, he is perhaps equally famous for his cross-dressing alter ego. This book reveals a unique relationship between Perry and renowned portrait photographer Richard Ansett through a previously unseen archive from photoshoots spanning over 10 years.


Ansett astutely captures the wit, style and irreverence of Perry’s many complex personas. Beyond the snazzy outfits and cheeky poses, these thematic portrait collections offer wry social commentaries on current and popular phenomena, including the EU referendum, American pop culture and the existential questions of life and death.


At once glossy, fabulous and cutting-edge,
Muse: A Portrait of Grayson Perry
offers a complex, fascinating and ultimately affectionate insight into our recently knighted national treasure with anecdotes and narration from Ansett himself, this is a masterpiece of rhetorical observations and quick-thinking camerawork. Perfect for art geeks, style freaks and Perry’s long-devoted following.

Additional text

“The insolence of Grayson Perry, acid king of cross-dressing, who embodies the loneliness born of Brexit in front of the lens of his compatriot Richard Ansett.”

Product details

• Authors: Richard Ansett
• Publisher: ACC Art Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.09.2023
• EAN: 9781788842327
• ISBN: 978-1-78884-232-7
• Weight: 1070 g
• Illustrations: farbige Illustrationen
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Photography, film, video, TV; Non-fiction book > Art, literature > Photo art; Fashion, Photography, art, EU, entdecken, witty, PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Portraits & Selfies, photoshoots, AmericanPopCulture, ContemporaryArt, EnglishArtists, Cheeky, UnseenArchives