Grayson Perry (b.1960)
Grayson Perry (b.1960)
Grayson Perry (b.1960)
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Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
Grayson Perry (B.1960)

We've Found the Body of Your Child

Details
Grayson Perry (B.1960)
We've Found the Body of Your Child
glazed earthenware
18 7/8 x 11 x 11in. (48 x 28 x 28cm.)
Executed in 2000
Provenance
Laurent Delaye Gallery, 2001.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.
Literature
M. Holborn (ed.), 100: The Work that Changed British Art, London 2003, no. 94, pp. 192-193 (illustrated in colour).
J. Klein, Grayson Perry, London 2009, p. 80 (illustrated in colour pp. 80-81).
E. Booth-Clibborn, R. Cork, et al (ed.), The History of the Saatchi Gallery, London 2011, p. 371 (illustrated in colour).






Exhibited
London, Laurent Delaye Gallery, Self Portrava, 2001.
Exh. cat., New Labour, London, Saatchi Gallery, May 2001 (illustrated in colour, unpaged).
London, Victoria Miro Gallery, Grayson Perry, October - November 2004.
Pittsburgh, The Andy Warhol Museum, Grayson Perry, April 2006.



Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. VAT rate of 20% is payable on hammer price and buyer's premium

Brought to you by

Leonie Mir
Leonie Mir

Lot Essay

'I was looking, too, at a number of Brueghel paintings, including the Hunters in the Snow, whose composition provided the inspiration for this pot. I wanted ambiguity, so there’s a woman with the dead body of her child in front of her, surrounded by figures, some of whom look like soldiers. Is she being arrested, or is she being comforted? I also had in mind the Tom Waits song ‘Georgia Lee’, a ballad sung by a father for his child who is found dead in the woods.

The phrases on the pot are things that many parents find themselves saying: ‘Never did me any harm’ or ‘Never have kids’, which my own mother used to say a lot. These phrases are the thin end of the wedge of child abuse: they’re about the way we don’t take children seriously or treat them as equals.

This has become one of my better-known works but it was odd, because most people didn’t actually look at it.'

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