We visited Bristol to celebrate our granddaughter’s first birthday and, on the rainy Sunday, went to Bristol Museum and Art Gallery to see the installation of pictures, sculpture and other art works from Grayson Perry’s second series of ‘Art Club’ from 2021.
Art Club teatowel
I know we’re not alone in finding these joyous programmes a wonderful boost during the pandemic lockdowns over the past two years. We’d missed the show from the first series and were determined to see this one.
Each programme in the series covered a different topic (e.g. ‘Work’, ‘Nature’ and ‘Family’) and the general public, celebrities and professional artists submitted work to illustrate the themes, many from a Covid perspective, and Grayson chose his favourites and submitted some of his own.
I have concentrated here on the professionals’ work because they are mostly more photogenic, but the amateur artists have run the gamut of emotions and the observer is alternately uplifted and saddened.
Allan Measles (Grayson’s teddy bear) surveys a room
Kumari and Burman
Some of the work was cleverly integrated with the gallery’s other collections, and it was fun to track these down - for example, a Philippa Perry willow-pattern plate in with the ceramics and a couple of Banksys are integrated with the Museum’s original features.
From a Cambridge Restaurant window
Banksy
Without us there is no Britain
Liberty Dersley
The show began in Manchester and is in Bristol until early September.
Do go if you can - https://www.graysonsartclub.com/ - and the third TV series starts soon!