British artist Grayson Perry has opened a provocative solo exhibition at London's Wallace Collection, using a fictional alter-ego named Shirley Smith to examine themes of gender, class, and mental illness. The show, titled "Delusions of Grandeur," runs through October 26 and presents Perry's response to the museum's famous collection of Rococo art through the lens of his created character.
The exhibition's centerpiece is Perry's reinterpretation of Jean-Honoré Fragonard's iconic painting "The Swing" (1767-68). Perry's tapestry version, called "Fascist Swing" (2024), transforms the original's pastel colors and playful flirtation into a psychedelic nightmare. Where Fragonard depicted a smiling woman kicking off her pink slipper while watched by two male suitors, Perry shows a woman alone in mental disintegration, her face contorted into a mask of horror.
Shirley Smith, Perry's fictional alter-ego for this exhibition, represents a working-class London woman whose mental illness led to delusions of grandeur. According to Perry's narrative, Smith experienced a prolonged psychotic breakdown during which she believed she was a member of the aristocracy and the rightful heir to Hertford House, the Wallace Collection's home. This character draws inspiration from real "outsider artists" who struggled with mental health challenges, including Aloïse Corbaz (1886-1964) and Madge Gill (1882-1961), whose works are featured in the exhibition's opening room.
The show employs what Perry calls a "gesamtkunstwerk" approach, blurring the lines between truth and fiction in often confusing ways. Visitors encounter fictionalized archival photographs and letters supposedly by Smith displayed alongside genuine documentation of Gill's actual activities at the Wallace Collection in the 1940s. The audio guide proves essential to understanding Perry's created world, with tracks alternately narrated by Perry himself and the fictional Smith, though critics note that Smith is given a stereotypical Cockney accent that reinforces class-based caricatures.
The exhibition follows Smith's imagined life story, culminating in a recreation of the bedroom where she supposedly spent her final days. Notable pieces include a cabinet decorated with portraits of women from the Wallace Collection and "Hospital Queen" (2024), a hand-beaded self-portrait that Smith allegedly created during a mental hospital stay. Another significant work, "A Tree in a Landscape" (2024), uses portrait miniatures from the museum's collection to create a family tree, with each figure labeled with different mental health diagnoses.
However, Perry's treatment of mental illness has drawn criticism for its lack of depth and sensitivity. Despite the artist's own struggles with mental health issues, reviewers suggest his approach feels superficial when dealing with serious psychological conditions. The exhibition caption's claim that "we all exhibit some traits that could be pathologized" has been particularly questioned as an oversimplification of complex mental health realities.
Additional controversy surrounds Perry's piece "Man of Stories" (2024), a deliberately unsettling beaded sculpture inspired by storytellers from the Luba people of central Africa. Critics have raised concerns about the work's lack of clear connection to the Wallace Collection and Perry's statement about being "fascinated by the idea of a travelling bard" as a response to "over-intellectualism in Western culture," suggesting possible exoticism in his treatment of African culture.
Despite these criticisms, the exhibition has proven extremely popular with visitors. The colorful, accessible approach draws large crowds on weekends, demonstrating Perry's ability to engage the public with questions about gender, class, and how contemporary audiences relate to historic art collections. Perry's work typically focuses on specific aspects of British social identity rather than universal human experiences, making his art particularly resonant for UK audiences.
While the exhibition succeeds in creating new dialogues around the Wallace Collection's holdings and challenging traditional museum presentations, critics argue that Perry underestimates his audience's capacity for more nuanced discussions of these complex social issues. The show's "ugliness, brashness, and occasional moments of insensitivity" represent both its strengths in accessibility and its weaknesses in depth, according to reviewers who suggest that popular appeal need not come at the expense of intellectual rigor.
