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Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years, The Holburne Museum, Bath
Subversive show from 'the transvestite potter'

HERE’S a silver lining to some Covid-19 clouds. The Holburne Museum in Bath will survive as a result of a cash injection from a successful crowdfunding campaign and it has cautiously reopened its doors to the public with the critically acclaimed exhibition Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years.

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Perry was the first ceramicist to win the Turner Prize in 2003 and his earliest forays as “the transvestite potter” reintroduces the explosive and creative works he made between 1982 and 1994. A subversive by choice and nature — and a supporter of Corbyn’s Labour — he compulsively scratches at British “prejudices, fashions and foibles.”

His in-yer-face approach caused one one critic to call him “the social worker from hell” — no doubt a badge of honour for an artist for whom social conscience is not a vacuous fad but a firm commitment.

Last February, Perry won the highly prestigious Erasmus prize, previously given to Charlie Chaplin in 1965 and Henry Moore in 1968. The judges commented: “At a time when we are constantly bombarded with images, Perry has developed a unique visual language demonstrating that art belongs to everybody and should not be an elitist affair.”

Perry’s response, not entirely tongue-in-cheek, was “my great overall skill is spontaneity and winging it.”

May it never fail him.

Runs until January 3. For more information, follow @Holburne on Twitter or visit holburne.org

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