Grayson Perry Prepares His American Introduction. By Roslyn Sulcas.
LONDON — “I don’t normally dress up for an interview,” the artist Grayson Perry said, opening the door of his studio. “But I’m going to a Royal Academy council meeting straight afterward.”
Mr. Perry wasn’t wearing a suit and tie. He was dressed in a voluminous A-line dress in a shiny plastic fabric (“It’s lined”) decorated with brightly colored circles, accessorized with orange tights, pink pumps and matching bangles. A circle of rouge was neatly inscribed on each cheek; his large gray-blue eyes were framed by false lashes and a tequila sunrise application of pink and orange eye shadow.
Mr. Perry, 55, who won the Turner Prize in 2003 and will give a lecturetitled “Playing to the Gallery” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday, has become almost as famous for his cross-dressing as for his beautiful and subversive ceramics, tapestries and sculptures. In recent years, he has acquired a significant popular following here through histelevision programs about taste, class and identity, in which he has proved to be a genial and perceptive interviewer, unafraid to ask tough questions and eager to demystify the process of creating his art.
