From beautifully mastered ceramic works to cross-dressing alter egos, award-winning artist Grayson Perry’s life has crossed and sampled all cultural avenues. Dip your toes, now, into the waters of Perry’s long-time musal relationship through the eyes and camera of portrait photographer Richard Ansett. As Perry himself puts it, “It’s Like Art!”
Ansett astutely captures the wit, style and irreverence of Perry’s many complex personas. Beyond the snazzy outfits and cheeky poses, these thematic portrait collections offer wry social commentaries on current and popular phenomena, including the EU referendum, American pop culture and the existential questions of life and death.
The photos in this book are a singular, unique, queer gaze and, mostly unpublished, they represent a treasured personal edit from a huge archive formed during numerous commissions to create the iconic images that have promoted Perry’s many activities.
This punch packed book is as much about the inspiration of and exacting depictions by Richard Ansett as it is about the guises of Grayson Perry. In spite of Perry’s extravagantly costumed veneer, there is empathy and commentary in this portrayal–through Richard Ansett, we get to Grayson Perry and beyond!”
— Clare Freestone, Curator of Photographs, National Portrait Gallery
Richard Ansett is a fine art social documentary and portrait photographer based in London, UK. His images have been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, London, his portrait of the film director David Lynch was acquired by the Smithsonian, USA, and his portrait of film director David Cronenberg acquired by the National Canadian Library and Archives. A portrait of a boy with a head injury from the Donbas region of Ukraine and a bather from the same region have been acquired by Bibliotheque National de France. His portrait BIRTH – A Portrait of Grayson Perry was awarded first prize at the Sony World Photography Awards 2019 and his series of portraits exploring the complex mental health of women prisoners and the series exploring a disappearing community in South London, Behind The Brutal Facade, 2020 were both shortlisted subsequently for the same awards. The series won Gold Award at PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris.
Richard Ansett : Muse : A Portrait of Grayson Perry
ACC Art Books
Publish Date: October 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781788842334
