The Covid Diaries 44: The Holburne Museum incl. Grayson Perry

A review of the Grayson Perry exhibition at the Holburne Museum, Bath. In which the temporary exhibition is small but interesting, while the rest of the museum is strangely lacking in character.

A Note On Today’s Review Of The Holburne Museum

Normally, when I am reviewing a museum and its temporary exhibition for the Covid Diaries, I start with the museum and then move on to the rest. However this time, for reasons which will become apparent, I’m doing it this other way around. Partly this is because the Holburne’s exhibition Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years was our reason for coming to Bath. Or at least our thinly-veiled excuse to see friends just before all the Covid rules changed again. Partly it’s because the temporary exhibition is really the main draw right now. Or maybe I just like imagining Jane Austen settings right now.

Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years

The ‘pre-therapy years’ is an interesting way to package an artist’s early work. The concept is that entering psychotherapy smoothed out a lot of Perry’s rough edges. As a result, these early pieces (mostly loaned back from private collections after a public appeal) are gritty and urgent and challenging. There’s loads of nudity and sexual imagery; meditations on gender, identity, violence and belonging; and a generous handful of swastikas thrown in for good measure. We forget now because we are accustomed to Grayson Perry edging ever closer to ‘national treasure’ status that at the time he produced these works their mix of traditional ceramic forms and techniques with this kind of subject matter was avant-garde. It’s the kind of art that probably requires living in a London squat with your alter-ego personality to produce.

I really loved the sense of time and place that the works on display engender. At the time, the ‘newsreader-type’ as an example of poised and polished femininity fascinated Perry. This comes through in the Margaret Thatcher-lookalikes in some of the ceramics and the notebooks. Perry was also interested in his relationship with his Essex roots. The rather bleak landscapes of parts of Essex have changed less than some of the fashions in his peopled ceramics, so these works have more of a timeless quality but a strong sense of place.

A Glimpse Into the Artist’s Psyche

Throughout the exhibition notes from Perry elucidate his inspirations or what he was thinking as he created a certain piece. The whole exhibition thus takes on an element of being a glimpse into Perry’s psyche, aided by the positioning of this as his ‘pre-therapy’ output. When I first saw the Grayson Perry exhibition, which is all contained in one room of the Holburne Museum (with a little overspill into the picture gallery next door) I was a little disappointed. I thought it would be a quick job, but actually you could spend a long time unpacking everything here.

Now for the Holburne Museum proper!

As for the rest of the Holburne Museum, it was strangely underwhelming. Unless I am much mistaken, this must be the result of Covid measures. I had read about the museum online before heading to Bath; so knew that it was largely the collection of Sir William Holburne (1793-1874) who inherited part of it and built up the rest. Following his death and with no heir among himself or any of his three sisters, his collection was left to the City of Bath. The City/Holburne Museum has continued to add to it since.

What is strange, though, is that there is no sense of this cohesive collection when you visit the museum currently. There are really only two rooms to speak of: a picture gallery and a room of decorative arts downstairs. While both are in the historic wing rather than the newer extension, they look to all intents and purposes like any other modern museum space. Interestingly, most of the pictures in the picture gallery seemed to be long-term loans rather than permanent collection. The space in the middle of the decorative arts gallery was taken up by a new acquisition of porcelain. It was unclear where exactly the historic collection was.

Probably there were closed-off rooms somewhere which would have shed more light on things; either the story the museum was trying to tell or the nature of the collection’s growth over time. But as a first-time visitor this certainly wasn’t clear. Instead, our experience consisted of spending quite a while in the interesting temporary exhibition, and then a far shorter period looking at two rooms which were mildly interesting at best.

Shedding a Light on Connections to Enslavement

There was one highlight for me amongst the permanent galleries of the Holburne Museum. This was the text panels accompanying the paintings in the picture gallery. The paintings themselves are typical 18th Century fare by Zoffany and the like. They mostly depict scenes and people with connections to Bath (plus a small collection of paintings of actors – mainly David Garrick). But pretty much every label called out a connection to enslavement and enslaved people, for example in a person’s business connections or the source of their wealth. This sort of transparency is interesting; it brings a new dimension to a selection of artworks which otherwise would hold little interest for me. I wonder if other historic city museums are doing the same?

On its own merits: 2.5/5
Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years: 4/5
Implementing Covid rules: 2.5/5

Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years until 3 January 2021 [subject to change – check museum website for details]