Grayson Perry turns his razor-sharp gaze to those on the fringes of society in Britain today, proving himself something of a modern-day Hogarth. He sends one on a delightful treasure hunt through the National Portrait Gallery in his Who Are You? (until 15 March). Working in a variety of mediums from tapestry and silkscreen to his trademark ceramics, his witty portraits are dotted throughout the collection. Perry sets off with a mind-map self-portrait, and then offers the best and worst of Britain as a colourful comfort blanket. Perry had unrestricted access to the British Museum’s vaults a few years ago, which resulted in a fascinating show that juxtaposed old and new. Using this reference point here, he presents outsize ladies as a version of the ice age fertility symbols, while an X-Factor contestant aware of the fragility of his fame is shown in a Victorian love locket, and the religious group working with the homeless become a medieval reliquary. A single white mother, one of a growing number of British converts to Islam, wears her hijab on a delicate silk print and a gender-change appears in the form of a Benin bronze. Despite being a flamboyant cross-dresser himself, Perry’s humour and insight clearly talk to the common man. His show is free and fun, and clearly a hit with audiences who are tempted into places in the sometimes stuffy galleries they have never been before.
Bright and cheerful too, but this time utterly vacuous, is Allen Jones at Burlington Gardens (until 25 Jan). His roots are in pop art, but although some of his early canvases are interesting, Jones quickly got caught up in a garish version of sexuality that shocked viewers but gave him an instantly recognisable presence. Verging on the X-rated, this eroticism of Kate Moss lookalikes with pert breasts becomes tedious when seen en masse.
Another pop artist who doesn’t wear well is the East German Sigmar Polke, currently enjoying a huge show at Tate Modern (until 8 Feb). Sharing the same beginnings as Gerhard Richter, using images from newspaper clippings, he then never seems to emerge from his drug-fuelled ramblings tha t include montages of magic mushrooms and coloured in photographs of his trips to the East. Every doodle and note, every incoherent video clip is jumbled together and presented as art. But then who am I to disagree with the Tate and MOMA? Born within a few years of Polke, his compatriot Anselm Kiefer’s powerful retrospective at the Royal Academy (until 14 Dec) is also challenging art, but of a completely different stature. Continuing the German fest, the British Museum’s Germany: Memories of a Nation (until 25 Jan) addresses the complexities of the country’s history in objects that include artwork by Dürer, Holbein, Käthe Kollwitz and Richter.
Also at the British Museum is a vast overview of a golden age in China, from 1400 to 1450, with loans from many Chinese museums never seen outside the country. Ming, 50 years that changed China (until 5 Jan) fares better than the Museum’s Viking show which opened its new exhibition space and is another in the growing number of shows educating the West in Chinese art. From lacquer work, cloisonné and superb Ming vases to long scrolls, this introduces one to a world where China was a global superpower.
Top: Grayson Perry’s “The Ashford Hijab” on display at the National Portrait Gallery. Photo: Nushin Elahi 2nd row left: A portrait of five loyalists from East Belfast – Grayson Perry’s “Britain is Best” on display at the National Portrait Gallery. Photo: Nushin Elahi 2nd row right: A visitor admires a Grayson Perry bronze in Benin style, “Alex”, on display at the National Portrait Gallery. Photo: Nushin Elahi
exhibition at Burlington Gardens. Photo: Nushin Elahi Above left: Sigmar Polke, “Mu nieltnam netorruprup”, 1975, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Above centre: Käthe Kollwitz, “Selbstbildnis en face (Self-portrait, full face)”, 1904, The British Museum
Above right: “Portrait of Yang Hong (1381-1451)”, Ming dynasty, ca. 1451, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
3rd row: Installation shot of Allen Jones’ current
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