Grayson Perry will deliver this year’s BBC Reith Lectures, exploring 21st century art and its place in society today. He is the first artist to have been chosen, and follows in the footsteps of philosopher Bertrand Russell and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Exploring contemporary art in today's society
His four Reith lectures, entitled Grayson Perry: Playing To The Gallery, will take place in October and November 2013 to live audiences at venues in the UK including Tate Modern. They will be recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Drawing on his own experiences as an artist, Grayson Perry will reflect on the key issues surrounding contemporary art today, including how it is defined and valued by the public, press, art market and artists themselves. He will also look at art criticism, the language around art and its intellectualisation.
He says: “I want to celebrate an emotional relationship with visual art, the innocent drive to make it, to look at it, feast on it, to love it. I feel now is a good time to reflect on the idea of quality and how we might, in an age where we are told anything can be art, appreciate which art is any good.
"The words and the money associated with contemporary art also need examining. I want to talk about my ambivalent relationship with the art world, how I am profoundly grateful to it yet struggle not to be a curmudgeon or a cynic.
"In short, I want to talk about what it is like to be an artist, here, now.”
The first visual artist to deliver the Reith Lectures
Grayson Perry will be the first visual artist to present the prestigious BBC Reith Lectures, which were established over 60 years ago to engage British people in intellectual and cultural debate.
He follows in the footsteps of the first Reith lecturer, philosopher Bertrand Russell, and more recent hosts, historian Niall Ferguson and Burmese opposition party leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Find out more about the BBC Reith Lectures.
About Grayson Perry
The Turner Prize-winning artist is best known for his ceramics, print-making, tapestry, and his cross-dressing alter-ego, Claire. His acclaimed documentary series All in the Best Possibe Taste, exploring social and cultural taste in the UK, also won a BAFTA award earlier this year. He is represented by DACS for the Artist's Resale Right.
Grayson Perry's tapestry,
The Vanity of Small Differences, is currently showing at
the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition until 18 August 2013.
Image: Grayson Perry, 'The Agony in the Car Park', 2012. One of six tapestries from the series 'The Vanity of Small Differences'.
Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro, London © Grayson Perry. Photography: Stephen White