A trip to the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht to see Grayson Perry’s solo show Hold Your Beliefs Lightly.

I saw one of Perry’s tapestries at the Bonnefanten last year, the Walthamstow Tapestry (2009), which is in the museum’s permanent collection. This solo show, however, would be the firs time to encounter his other pieces, especially the ceramics.

Thoughts

One of the things I like about the Bonnefanten is that they break out of the traditional white-walls-only modus operandi. From my visit last year I was struck at the juxtaposition of some of their old masters being hung on walls that were a deep purple. For Perry’s Hold Your Beliefs Lightly a majority of the walls were white, but a few were painted a very subtle blue-gray matte, and the juxtaposition of the tapestries and photographs on this was particularly effective. For my own pieces I have been placing them on a neutral gray background which I was using more as a pseudo-passe-patout. However, seeing Perry’s work in a room that has colored walls has started me thinking that my own pieces would really stand out when the whole wall, and not just the passe-patout, was colored.

When I asked the staff at the Bonnefanten about the colored walls for Perry’s exposition they explained that the color was his choice. They then went above and beyond and not only gave me details of the paint used, but even provided me with a small sample so I could experiment with it in my atelier.

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