Grayson Perry portraits break records at National Portrait Gallery

16 March 2015

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A record quarter of a million visitors came to see new works by artist Grayson Perry at the National Portrait Gallery, in a free display, in partnership with Channel 4. In total, 850,000 visitors to the National Portrait Gallery are thought to have seen at least one new work by artist Grayson Perry as part of a gallery-wide free display and trail, it was announced today, Monday 16 March 2015. 

The new portraits were created during the making of his Channel 4 series Grayson Perry: Who Are You? which started broadcasting on Wednesday 22 October.

Starting close to the entrance in the Gallery’s Main Hall and then interspersed throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century Collections, the portraits were seen by the 850,000 visitors since the free display and trail, which focused on the theme of identity, opened on 23 October 2014.

It is the most visited temporary display in the Gallery’s history but was part of a popular autumn season which also included the free displays The Real Tudors and Snowdon: A Life in View together with the exhibitions Anarchy and Beauty: William Morris and His Legacy and Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2014.

The success contributed to the 2,062,502 total visitor figure for 2014 just announced by Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, the Gallery’s second best year, and its third consecutive year with over two million visitors.  

Perry’s new portraits – which included a major tapestry, sculptures and pots – were of individuals, families and groups who were all trying to define who they were in modern Britain.

The Channel 4 programmes followed the artist as he spent time with people who were at a crossroads or crisis in their own identity, and created works that tried to capture each of them in a single, revealing image.

These included politician Chris Huhne, a young female-to-male transsexual, a couple living with Alzheimers, a young Muslim convert and X-Factor and Celebrity Big Brother contestant Rylan Clark.

Winner of the 2003 Turner prize, Grayson Perry is one of Britain's best-known contemporary artists. He works with traditional media; ceramics, cast iron, bronze, printmaking and tapestry and is interested in how each historic category of object accrues over time’s intellectual and emotional baggage.

Grayson Perry is a great chronicler of contemporary life, drawing viewers in with beauty, wit, affecting sentiment and nostalgia as well as fear and anger. His hard-hitting and exquisitely crafted works reference his own childhood and life as a transvestite while also engaging with wider social issues from class and politics to sex and religion.

Grayson Perry has had major solo exhibitions nationally and internationally including the critically acclaimed Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman at the British Museum. His monumental suite of tapestries The Vanity of Small Differences, which were inspired by his BAFTA winning Channel 4 series: In the Best Possible Taste, are currently on a national and international tour led by the Arts Council Collection and British Council. In June 2013 he was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. Grayson Perry is represented by Victoria Miro Gallery, London. 

ENDS