Artist Grayson Perry’s creative output has improved after therapy, his wife has said.
The Turner Prize-winning potter made “much better art” after treatment, said psychotherapist Philippa Perry, who added that more creative men could benefit from talking over their issues with professionals.
She told the Radio Times: “People are frightened of unpacking their misery, because they fear the creativity will dry up.
“It won’t, because we (therapists) aren’t that good at making artists happy.
“How Grayson explains it is, before he went to psychotherapy, he had a shed from which he made art. After psychotherapy, it was a tidy shed and he could make much better art.”
Grayson, who collected two RTS awards for his Channel 4 programme exploring masculinity, Grayson Perry: All Man, is arguably one of Britain’s most recognisable artists.
His wife, 56, said they were now regularly approached by fans who wanted to discuss his work.
She said: “When we first got married, we were equals. Then he became famous, so now everybody comes up to him and goes ‘I’d love to talk to you about that piece, blah blah blah’ … I call it plus one syndrome.”
“I can be really enjoying myself and somebody comes up, interrupts and says ‘Do you think it would be all right if I spoke to your husband?’
“I go ‘Well, it’s not all right to interrupt me, but it’s probably fine to do it to him’. Why am I OK to interrupt but they’re not? It drives me up the pole.”
Philippa, who is also an author and penned How To Stay Sane, revealed she has been nicknamed “Dr Freud” by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Of the Conservative MP, she added: “I don’t think he cares for anyone but himself, but he’s jolly and funny and charismatic, which covers all sins.”
:: Read the full interview in this week’s Radio Times.
