joseph scissorhands: August 2025

Grayson Perry - Modern, Beautiful and Good

"Obviously I have delusions of grandeur. For this show, I invented an artist with a mental health condition who imagined she was the rightful heir to the Wallace Collection and used that as a sort of vehicle to make the work I wanted to make. I had a lot of fun with it." - Grayson Perry.

To the rather splendid Hertford House, home of the Wallace Collection to witness the spectacle of another Grayson Perry exhibition - Delusions of Grandeur. It is the largest contemporary art exhibition staged yet at the Wallace, and coincides with celebrations for the artist's 65th birthday. The exhibition takes as its heart the conceit of the imaginary figure of Shirley Smith (another Grayson Perry alter-ego), who believes herself to be the rightful heir to the treasures of the Wallace Collection. Through Shirley's persona we learn that Smith experienced domestic abuse, homelessness and institutionalisation, which leads to her obsessive attachment to the Wallace, believing herself to be Millicent, the disinherited illegitimate heir to the museum. It is through the persona of Shirley that we are taken on a multi-disciplinary journey of Old Master pastiches in the form of ceramics, tapestries, furniture, and collage, that are in dialogue with original paintings and precious objects from the Wallace's own rich collections. Several themes emerge such as the importance of the concept of the home, the gendering of objects, the masculine, arms and armour, versus the feminine including Francois Boucher's feminine portrait of Madame de Pompadour, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Swing, as well as Spiritualism and the stigma of mental health issues. The show opens with a section devoted to outsider artists Aloïse Corbaz and Madge Gill. I am familiar with Gill's work, the dreamy female figures surrounded by complex patterns, and its roots in Spiritualism. It was interesting to discover here that Gill had actually exhibited at the Wallace in 1942. An aspect of Gill's oeuvre I was pleasantly shocked to be enlightened by here were a gorgeous series of vibrant, abstract embroideries which I had never seen before and were easily my favourite objects in the exhibition. I found the clashes of colours in the abstract shapes and patterns in these embroideries to be particularly exciting. Perry references Gill's works in a series of his drawings here of women which are obvious homages. There are many things that we have come to expect from a Grayson Perry show, the outrageous costumes of his female alter-egos, the heavily decorated ceramic vessels, the sculptural metal objects studded with beads and badges etc. resembling African fetish figures, and his tapestries which are all present and correct here. Newer developments seen here though are the wallpaper design covering the gallery devoted to the home's walls and other objects dedicated to the domestic environment which are integral to Shirley Smith's story, and which one could see easily being adapted for mass production. Much as I enjoyed Perry's works, as mentioned above the lasting impression of this show were Madge Gill's gorgeous embroideries. Much as I admire her drawings of female figures the embroideries are a real revelation. They are something I definitely need to research further and discover more about.