Taking advantage of my friend鈥檚 car, I escaped the city this weekend to visit the unique environment of Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It鈥檚 a fantastic summer day out with the country鈥檚 best permanent collection from the movers and shakers of modernism such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, to contemporary giants of sculpture Anthony Gormley and Winter/H枚rbelt. These are sculptures which belong in the open air, and it鈥檚 so rare to see them in such a setting 鈥 weathered by the elements in a way that only serves to enhance their beauty.
But that鈥檚 for another blog, I鈥檇 wanted to stop by the Sculpture Park to catch the new indoor exhibition, , after interviewing its curator, Grayson Perry earlier in July. Perry鈥檚 reputation precedes him, but what is special about his work as a curator is how irrelevant much of the preoccupations on Perry as an artist seem to be. Interviewing Perry, it is clear that he is attracted to the quieter side of art, the unassuming Britishness which makes up our national heritage and jars discordantly with the shouty sensationalism of contemporary art
The works on show question our view of the past and the invert the rose-tinted nostalgia of the good old days. With works including photography, painting and sculpture, Perry has included his own thoughts on many of the pieces and explains their appeal from among the Art Council鈥檚 extensive collection of home-grown art. Paintings such as Carel Weight鈥檚 The World We Live In, are typical of their time 鈥 kitchen sink representational art that highlights the hardships of a very particular moment in South London. Before gentrification, willowy figures amble aimlessly in a windswept yard, they are swayed by the wind in a manner that alludes to feelings of worthlessness and worklessness during the deep recession of the 1970s.
Photographical studies of the long-term unemployed in Newcastle Upon Tyne, and distinctive record of British grit, accompany the paintings and sculptures and visitors are invited to lounge in easy chairs and browse a collection of books on the period captured, and the artists involved. Perry himself has created two new works for the exhibition, one of which, Queen鈥檚 Bitter, showcases his trademark craftsmanship with an acerbic wit, and highlights that Perry is not as removed from the showmanship of contemporary art as he鈥檇 like us to believe, daubing the image of his alter ego, Claire, over the ceramic alongside further representations of our green and pleasant land. Unpopular Culture makes us aware of the flipside of British nostalgia 鈥 the grey times of unemployment and want that tempered the post-war UK. Perry notes: 鈥淪omehow people feel that they鈥檙e working towards a golden moment when everything will be all right. That doesn鈥檛 exist and people need to be reminded that life is a work in progress and there isn鈥檛 any solution at the end of it.鈥 It鈥檚 a fascinating exhibition, expertly collected by one of British art鈥檚 leading figures in an effort to criticise itself.
There鈥檚 a full feature on Unpopular Culture, as well as the accompanying film screenings from the British Film Institute archive, Nostalgia for the Bad Times, in the new issue of Aesthetica out now 鈥 available at WH Smith, Borders and selected newsagents.
[Image credits: Henry Moore, Bryan Kneale, Carel Weight]
