Muse

Muse Synopsis

"Wow! Just wow! … It's a really stunning thing. A love letter that is itself a work of art about a work of art that is Grayson. Both playful and deadly serious ... these photos are not simply about 'serving looks' but about restlessness and identity and transience.... Ansett's work is mind-blowing … not cosy at all. Just brilliant photography." - Suzanne Moore?

"Great to see Grayson in his various guises. He must have more women's clothes than the average woman!" - Martin Parr

"Some are artists, some are muses - Sir Grayson Perry is both, according to a new coffee table book." - The Standard
"Muse documents Perry's Bowie-like range of personae, from his alter-ego Claire, to Madonna and child, to a Dolly Parton-style American country girl." - Yahoo News UK

Grayson Perry is an award-winning artist best known in the art world for his ceramic works. To the wider public, he is perhaps equally famous for his cross-dressing alter ego. This book reveals a unique relationship between Perry and renowned portrait photographer Richard Ansett through a previously unseen archive from photoshoots spanning over 10 years.

Ansett astutely captures the wit, style and irreverence of Perry's many complex personas. Beyond the snazzy outfits and cheeky poses, these thematic portrait collections offer wry social commentaries on current and popular phenomena, including the EU referendum, American pop culture and the existential questions of life and death.
At once glossy, fabulous and cutting-edge, Muse: A Portrait of Grayson Perry offers a complex, fascinating and ultimately affectionate insight into our recently knighted national treasure with anecdotes and narration from Ansett himself, this is a masterpiece of rhetorical observations and quick-thinking camerawork. Perfect for art geeks, style freaks and Perry's long-devoted following.