Grayson Perry opens biggest show of career in Edinburgh

Artist Grayson Perry is launching the biggest exhibition of his 40-year career in Edinburgh.

Smash Hits, which opens on Saturday, looks back on his entire body of work.

Staged by the National Galleries of Scotland at the Royal Scottish Academy, it features more than 80 objects including pots and tapestries.

Perry went from taking pottery evening classes to winning the Turner Prize, presenting programmes on Channel 4 and writing acclaimed books.

His Edinburgh show considers the individual themes in his work - masculinity, sexuality, class, religion, politics and more.

It features the rarely-shown Walthamstow Tapestry which, at 15m in length, illustrates a birth-to-death journey through shopping and brand names.

It also includes the intricate cast iron ship Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, which was the centrepiece of his 2011 exhibition at the British Museum.

At a preview of the exhibition, Mr Perry told BBC Scotland he always knew that he always wanted to make art.

He said: "I was always very clear that I like making art. I'm not someone who wanted to be an artist, I'm someone who likes making art. They're very different things."

The collection features popular archive works, as well as items only finished in the last few months.

The display will also include objects chosen from his recent Channel 4 series Grayson Perry's Full English, where the artist considered what it meant to be English.

He added: "I'm interested in the nature of identity, that's something I've been obsessed with for years.

"National identity is part of that. But weirdly, England is a bit like being a man, it's a bit like one of those 'default' identities within Britain.

"It's a bit like asking a fish about water.

"That's why I wanted to make a TV show about it - I think English people are, to an extent, a bit shy talking about it."

Patrick Elliot, chief curator of modern and contemporary art at the National Galleries of Scotland, contacted Perry to arrange the Edinburgh show last year.

"Grayson Perry is probably the most famous artist working in Britain today," he said.

"Everyone wants a piece of him. But he's never had a retrospective in Britain before which is extraordinary.

"This is the biggest exhibition he's ever done and I thought it would suit his work perfectly."

He added: "We've got very tall ceilings and it's a Victorian building which can take tapestries that are 15m long and sculptures which are a tonne in weight.

"We also have more discreet rooms for prints and his lovely pots as well. You need a big building to take the kind of work that he's done."

Smash Hits will be on display until mid-November.