Animal Spirit

Best known for his ceramics, Grayson Perry’s prints are noted for their caustic wit and visual inventiveness. Perry’s inspiration for this etching was the frequent use of the phrase ‘animal spirit’ to explain the 2008 financial crisis; he noted, ‘There seemed to be an idea that […] the market was entirely rational but we found out in the crash that it was just as prone to emotional weather as any human system.’ The fantastical beast that controls the markets (half-bear, half-bull, ‘most definitely a he’, in Perry’s words), its side cut away to reveal its tangled innards, is depicted like an illustration in a medieval manuscript. The pink paper on which it is printed may allude to the pink-tinted Financial Times.