Reith lectures 2013: Grayson Perry

[Guest]

The Reith Lectures 2013 start on Tuesday 15 October on BBC Radio 4 at 09:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00729d9

The four lectures have the overall title Playing To The Gallery and the lecturer is Grayson Perry.

If Perry's public work and television series on Channel Four about class in Britain are anything to go by, this should be a stimulating series of lectures.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/posts/Grayson-Perry-to-deliver-Reith-Lectures

As part of the run-up to this year's lectures, Grayson Perry took part in a Q&A session for The Observer. Here's an interesting answer to a question that it is just as pertinent to Radio 3 as it is to the world of Art.

Q: Can anyone appreciate art?

A; Well, not instantly. That's the mistake people make, that you're going to walk into an art gallery and have a fantastic time the first time. Same as a lot of culture – classical music, ballet, literature – you've got to work at it a bit. Get used to the language and the conventions and history. I've been looking at art all my life and there are still artists I don't feel up to liking yet. I've always struggled with all those mythical fluffy paintings like Titian, partly because I'm an inverted snob.

Full interview here ...

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/13/grayson-perry-reith-lectures-artist-interview

[Anna]

I shall be listening on iplayer. Talks a lot of sense does Grayson!

[Flosshilde]

I wonder if Roger will be listening? I'll certainly download them & listen (I'v got the removasl men in at 9.00 on tuesday - if it's on in the morning)

[Serial_Apologist]

I shall be listening on iplayer. Talks a lot of sense does Grayson!

Great cartoon piccy of him on the front of RT this week, too!

[jayne lee wilson]

Marvellously articulate and savvy individual, remember those brilliant TV programmes he did when he was creating tapestries to represent the new English classes?
He mixes the demotic and Mandarin utterance with wit and acuity. Actually has NEW things to say. VERY RARE now...

The interesting thing about "Claire's" appearance is how very credible she looks, oddly or not ... yet "Grayson" can look de gear all grizzly in his leather jacket ...

[Richard Tarleton]

Great cartoon piccy of him on the front of RT this week, too!

A self-portrait, indeed, on his i-Pad

[amateur51]

Marvellously articulate and savvy individual, remember those brilliant TV programmes he did when he creating tapestries to represent the new English classes?
He mixes the demotic and Mandarin utterance with wit and acuity. Actually has NEW things to say. VERY RARE now...

The interesting thing about "Claire's" appearance is how very credible she looks, oddly or not ... yet "Grayson" can look de gear all grizzly in his leather jacket ...

The tapestries were in the final room at the Royal Academy Summer Show jlw (great new look y'self btw ) and they garnered by far the most attention

http://www.artfund.org/news/2012/11/30/grayson-perry-tapestries-secured-for-the-nation

Here's the link to the TV programmes

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/in-the-best-possible-taste-grayson-perry/4od

[jean]

He didn't disappoint, did he?

I love the idea that Nicholas Serota has a private collection of Cliff Richard memorabilia.

[Frances_iom]

He didn't disappoint, did he?
...

No - both entertaining and thoughtful - liked the cameo portrait (a studio plant ?)of a 'posh' art dealer(or historian) attemping to catch him out - Perry's choice of Brughel's Calvery as one he would most like to own seemed to sum up the man.

[eighthobstruction]

He didn't disappoint, did he?

....yes good fun [entertainment]....all usual cliches exchanged....and the usual interjections....did I miss 'Emperors Clothes' or was it in their somewhere....(GP fun to go for a drink with no doubt)....

....next year Reith Lecture - Joe Pasquale on Comedy?....

[jean]

...did I miss 'Emperors Clothes' or was it in their somewhere...

You weren't listening properly, were you?

It was there throughout - or rather, the question who decides/how do we know? was the entire theme of this lecture.

I'm not sure what you thought was cliché. Can you be more specific?

[Serial_Apologist]

Great talk - but did anyone else feel acute discomfort on learning before the Q&A sesh that the audience was full of critics, stagers and curators? There was a definite edge thereafter, I felt.

[eighthobstruction]

Missed first five minutes of lecture....but I'm not so stupid that I didn't 'GET' his intentions ref theme....I was asking or wondering was the exact phrase 'Emperors clothe's used....that's all ....

Being an artist and having given talks like this myself (not as good as GP)....there is the road that you go on....cliche wise....(things which in everyday speak are not cliches but in artist speak very much so)....like Urinal Marcel Du Champ....Tracy Emin/ D Hirst.... or the Impressionists....like taking a statement of pretentious art speak and reading it out....Nicholas Serota and Tate Modern are a cliche....there was nothing in the lecture that was new to me.....the Questions from the floor were predictable (and the answers to then short)....THAT IS not to say that i didn't find it well done....I said it was entertaining fun....I don't think Grayson would have thought he was saying anything original, but he will know he presented in a humourous and possibly thought provoking way....which he did....

[jean]

...but I'm not so stupid that I didn't 'GET' his intentions ref theme....I was asking or wondering was the exact phrase 'Emperors clothe's used....that's all ...

If the phrase had been used as a shorthand to avoid discussion of the complexities involved in the validation of 'art', you might reasonably have accused GP of cliché - but it wasn't.

...(things which in everyday speak are not cliches but in artist speak very much so)....

I don't think I understand the distinction.

...Nicholas Serota and Tate Modern are a cliche...

They're not so much a cliché as a fact, both for artists and for the rest of us.

....the Questions from the floor were predictable (and the answers to then short)....

Yes. Will Self's about replicability wasn't adequately answered because the distinction between different sorts of replication wasn't addressed.

GP also shied away from being regarded as 'poster boy' of hands-on craftspersonship - though actually he didn't make the tapestries himself, did he?

[amateur51]

I enjoyed it a lot and I just wish that someone could/would talk about arts broadcasting in the same way.