Grey Britain

Art, it is said, forces us to view the world in new ways, altering long-held perceptions and drawing our attention to aspects of life that otherwise pass unnoticed. This is undoubtedly the impact of Unpopular Culture at the De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea, a touring exhibition curated by the transvestite potter and winner of the 2003 Turner Prize, Grayson Perry.

The exhibition presents Perry’s personal selection of British art from the Arts Council Collection, focussing on 1940 to the 1980s, and so dealing with everything from the traumas of the Second World War to the onset of the Thatcher years. It tells a story of Britain that is not one of sugar-coated nostalgia but rather of personal attempts to survive, in various ways, the struggles that faced Britain in this period. It largely ignores the Swinging Sixties and Pop: Perry argues that these chapters of culture were ‘really only enjoyed by a minority’ and did not affect the popular consciousness in the way they are so often documented. Instead, Unpopular Culture seems concerned with the atmosphere of anxiety that dominated the whole period, taking place, as Perry sees it, between two national calamities.

Perhaps for this reason, Perry’s selections have been criticised for their ugliness and overriding greyness. Although they might not always be spectacular or artistically brilliant, the works seem to reflect the collective temperament of Britons at the time. The sculptures are exclusively cast in bronze, and their bulky, clumsy forms, such as that of Anthony Caro’s Woman Waking Up (1956), seem to reflect the unattractiveness of modern construction at the time, devoid of lightness and grace. Much of the sculpture is typical of the post-war reconstruction of the human body in art that no longer saw man as an unbreakable colossus, but as battered and bruised, a precarious survivor of the brutalities of World War Two.

However, the impression the exhibition gives is by no means a wholly negative one. Many of the works embrace a sense of English eccentricity. Tony Ray-Jones’ Brighton Beach 1967 (1967) depicts a group of pensioners in coats and headscarves seated unceremoniously on deckchairs and surrounded by the ubiquitous British picnic accessories, a Thermos flask and Melamine plates. They embody a sense of stoicism, not only for picnicking in bad weather, but for the struggles of post-war life in general. Other works tell a story of defiant individualism in the face of modern developments, for example David Hepher’s Arrangement in Turquoise and Cream (1979-81). Playing on the concept of abstract geometric compositions, the painting is in fact a photorealistic depiction of a tower block. It is faceless and oppressive, yet simultaneously asserts the quiet individuality of each of the occupants through the variety of colours and patterns of the curtains in each window.

In addition to the works from the Arts Council Collection, Perry has created two new pieces for the exhibition, Queen’s Bitter (2007) and Head of a Fallen Giant (2007-8). The latter is particularly interesting in that it is a conscious riposte to Damien Hirst’s notorious £50 million diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God, one of the defining pieces of recent sensationalist, media-driven British art. Rather than attempting to shock or impress, Perry’s head exhibits a quiet restraint and yet succeeds in representing the entire condition of Britain today. It is cast in bronze, yet appears as if an ancient skull has been dredged up from the depths of the ocean, encrusted with stereotypical British motifs such as the Routemaster bus. The sculpture confirms the assertion that Britain has not really changed since the 1940s in terms of atmosphere; it is still a country on the edge of despair, yet full of humour and hope just around the corner.

The real triumph of Perry’s exhibition is in the locations in which it will be shown. After the exhibition, I took a drizzly stroll along Bexhill-on-Sea’s promenade with its dilapidated amusement arcade and Brighton-esque onion domes, absorbing its peculiar Englishness and quiet charm that is so often suggested in the works in the show. The exhibition is touring round Preston, Durham, Southampton, Aberystwyth, Scarborough, Wakefield and Bath throughout the rest of the year and 2009. Go to see it, immerse yourself in the exhibition’s particular setting, and discover not only some hidden gems of modern British art, but of modern Britain itself.



Yeah Grayson Perry rules!

Text by Lady Muck