Fionnáin reviewed Playing To the Gallery by Grayson Perry
Review of 'Playing To the Gallery' on 'GoodReads'
2 stars
Starting with the good, I love the illustrations throughout this book, I loved the fourth chapter, I Found Myself in the Art World, and I love Grayson Perry as an artist. The fourth chapter is personal, straight, humorous, and has enjoyable anecdotes. The rest, however, is a watered down series of half-observations on what art is, and how it exists in the 'art world'. Although I accept that some of the observations on high art have accuracy, they are too simplified and miss some of the key points that were made by the artists (such as a poorly referenced throwback to Joseph Beuys' idea that everyone can be an artist, or a series of strange insults to the idea of curatorial practice). The writing also meanders away from the central points, and even the humour seems bitter at times when exploring the other themes of the book (what is …
Starting with the good, I love the illustrations throughout this book, I loved the fourth chapter, I Found Myself in the Art World, and I love Grayson Perry as an artist. The fourth chapter is personal, straight, humorous, and has enjoyable anecdotes. The rest, however, is a watered down series of half-observations on what art is, and how it exists in the 'art world'. Although I accept that some of the observations on high art have accuracy, they are too simplified and miss some of the key points that were made by the artists (such as a poorly referenced throwback to Joseph Beuys' idea that everyone can be an artist, or a series of strange insults to the idea of curatorial practice). The writing also meanders away from the central points, and even the humour seems bitter at times when exploring the other themes of the book (what is art? who decides?). So this is just OK, maybe an interesting introduction to contemporary art for someone unfamiliar with art today, but overall not very enjoyable.
