Sales Pitch 1987

Sales Pitch

1987

Impressed and glazed stoneware

27.5 x 35.7 cm

One of Perry’s earliest word-based works, Sales Pitch takes the form of a plate whose entire surface is given over to a single, unbroken monologue where the artist is selling the viewer on the very piece they are looking at. Equal parts satire and confession, the text moves from brash self-promotion to a candid admission of financial need, laying bare the mechanics of the art market with characteristic wit. At its centre sit two of Perry’s pre-1992 potter’s marks, “100% ART” and “MADE IN UK.”

Reflecting on the piece, Perry has said:

‘Right from my very earliest ceramics I used words a lot. I found it easier to be funny with words but I enjoyed the look of text as well. This plate is a kind of minimalist joke, an artwork trying to sell itself. Looking back thirty years it all still rings true. I was a cocky bastard. I love the tone of desperation that creeps in towards the end; I really needed the cash to buy my next motorbike. In the centre are two of my pre-1992 potter’s marks, 100% Art and MADE IN UK. It represents my manifesto and is a very important piece.’

Provenance & Exhibition History Acquired directly from the artist at its debut exhibition, The Pre-Therapy Years (Holburne Museum, 2020, p.115), where it has remained in the same private collection since. The work has subsequently travelled extensively, exhibited at York Art Gallery; the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich; the National Museum of Norway (Nasjonalmuseet), for Grayson Perry: Fitting In and Standing Out; the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, for the retrospective Smash Hits (2023); and, most recently, the Wallace Collection, for Delusions of Grandeur.