Main content

I Found Myself in the Art World

Grayson Perry discusses the painful yet rewarding process of becoming an artist and assesses the role of the artist in society.

In the last of his four Reith Lectures, recorded in front of an audience at Central St Martins School of Art in London, the artist Grayson Perry discusses his life in the art world; the journey from the unconscious child playing with paint, to the award-winning successful artist of today. He talks about being an outsider and how he struggles with keeping his integrity as an artist. Perry looks back and asks why men and women throughout history, despite all the various privations they suffered, have always made art. And he discusses the central purpose of creating art - to heal psychic wounds and to make meaning.

Perry was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003 and is well known for his ceramic works, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and tapestry. He is also known as one of Britain's most famous cross-dressers as alter ego Claire.

The Reith Lectures are presented by Sue Lawley and produced by Jim Frank.

Available now

42 minutes

Last on

Sat 18 Apr 2020 19:15

Broadcasts

  • Tue 5 Nov 2013 09:00
  • Sat 9 Nov 2013 22:15
  • Sat 18 Apr 2020 19:15

Featured in...

Exclusive drawings by Grayson Perry

View the full gallery of images created for the 2013 Reith Lectures.

New to the Reith Lectures? Here’s where to start

Four lectures recommended by the series producer.

Podcast