The Vanity of Small Differences

The Vanity of Small Differences is a series of six large-scale tapestries by the Turner-Prize winning artist Grayson Perry.

Inspired by William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress the tapestries, chart the ‘class journey’ made by young Tim Rakewell and include many of the characters, incidents and objects Perry encountered on journeys through Sunderland, Tunbridge Wells, and The Cotswolds for the television series ‘All in the Best Possible Taste’ with Grayson Perry, first aired on Channel 4 in June 2012.

In the series Perry goes on ‘a safari amongst the taste tribes of Britain’, to gather inspiration for his artwork, literally weaving the characters he meets into a narrative, with an attention to the minutiae of contemporary taste every bit as acute as that in Hogarth’s 18th century paintings.

Perry’s tapestries take an art form traditionally associated with grand houses – depicting classical myths, historical and religious scenes and epic battles – and play with the idea of using this ancient allegorical art to elevate the commonplace dramas of modern British life. Politics, consumerism, history and art history are bound up in the work, in both subject and medium.