Grayson Perry: ‘Of course I love the super-rich – they buy my work!’

Grayson Perry: ‘My job is to trust my intuition and often it’s in your gut and in your body and in your emotions’ - (Richard Ansett for the Wallace Collection)

My aim is to unsettle by showing what’s real and what isn’t,” says Grayson Perry, all messy hair, stubbled chin, crumpled T-shirt and paint-smeared trousers, with only the shocking-pink fingernails on his rough artisan’s hands showing a hint of “Claire” – his famous cross-dressing alter ego.

In his north London studio it is almost a shock to see the artist so blokeishly casual, just two weeks after I’d witnessed his dramatic entrance at lunch in Mayfair’s Arlington restaurant in floral dress, coloured tights, shining lipstick and red high heels. His voice is powerful, almost gravelly, alternately angry and funny, as he explains why the role of the artist is to provoke – on beauty, class, gender, money, sex and even AI.