For his final Reith Lecture, Grayson Perry gave an account of his personal journey to becoming an artist, and reflected on what it means to go to art school and to have a career as an artist.
Speaking in front of an audience of curators, dealers, commentators and students at Central St Martins School of Art in London, Perry discussed how artists often mythologise their own stories and described his first pottery lesson when, as a naughty nine-year-old child, he was “put with the girls” and made to wear a shiny light blue PVC smock. He said art then become a place he went to during difficult times in his childhood.
“Art is serious play,” he said, “a chance for children to glimpse their own creative power.” But, he reflected, as we get older, it’s harder to create because we become more self conscious: “I lost my ability to play at the same time I made the decision to be an artist.”
From a perspective that art’s primary role is ‘meaning making’ rather than to fuel asset growth or urban regeneration, Perry reflected on how students still want to attend art school despite economic hardship. Referring to a Department of Innovation and skills report that said the average art school graduate makes just 6.3 per cent more income than someone that didn’t go to university, he said: “It’s lovely that people still want to go to art school.”
Celebrating art school education, which he described as “an advanced course in self consciousness,” he said: “Art school is a place to experiment, a place of unique freedom, to get it wrong and make mistakes.”
Art is ‘an inner shed’
Perry went on to talk about success and how he only started to make a living from his practice at the age of 38. But how does an artist keep a sense of play when others in the art world rely on you for their income, and galleries need you to fill their spaces, he wondered? “I have to create with care-free joy,” he said. “Being an artist is a refuge – a place I go in my head – it’s an inner shed.”
Concluding by describing artists as ‘committed’ and as ‘doers’, he reflected that when you finally get to say ‘I’m an artist’, it’s a noble thing: “You are a pilgrim on the way to meaning.”
In the questions that followed, Perry was asked about society’s responsibility to the arts and artists with respect to the economic downturn.
“The arts does have to take a hit, but in reality it’s a tiny proportion of the government’s budget,” he said. “I’m torn – there’s one bit of me that says ‘art will survive even if you don’t give it any money’, but the counter argument is that if we cut funding it will be difficult to ever get it back. So you have to keep the fire alive.”
Listen to the full lecture here.
More on a-n.co.uk:
Grayson Perry’s previous Reith Lectures:
Grayson Perry: “We have reached the final state of art”
Grayson Perry: “In art, seriousness is the most important currency”
Grayson Perry: “I’d like the power to say, no, that’s no longer art”
