Tag: RA

David Jones – painter Desmond Sloane on an important British artist and poet

Painter Desmond Sloane rehearses the career of an important British artist and poet who fought in the trenches and whose work is too often overlooked. ‘Part of me, the artist within me, has never left the trenches.’ So wrote the artist and poet David Jones about his service as a front line soldier in the… Continue reading David Jones – painter Desmond Sloane on an important British artist and poet

The RA summer show in record time

The Meeting, Royal Academy of Arts by Leonard Rosoman

Out of respect for one of its recently deceased Academicians, Leonard Rosomon (1913– 2012), the Royal Academy skied one of his best works in the corner of an obscure gallery at this year’s Summer Exhibition (until August 12th). His Committee Meeting, Royal Academy (above), 1979-1984, was on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, where it… Continue reading The RA summer show in record time

Chalk and cheese

Happy Dialectics (detail)

From the Hayward and the ICA to the Royal Academy, and from the public to the private sector, Angus Stewart compares and contrasts the qualities of works on show in London. The British Art Show at The Hayward Gallery should be lively – there are 39 artists. It is, according to the Southbank Centre, recognised… Continue reading Chalk and cheese

Criticism and the collapse of culture

Dr Eric Coombes looks back over the period since 1997 and identifies the collapse in standards of art criticism which has allowed conceptual art to prosper uncritically After the recent change of government, this might be a suitable moment to look back to the year in which the recently ejected gang of liars, buffoons and… Continue reading Criticism and the collapse of culture

The case for a more – not less – traditional Royal Academy

First published in The Jackdaw ♯1, September 2000 …All of this is distant from the reason that the Royal Academy was set up in 1768; namely, in order to provide an Academy, a school, for the training of artists, as well as to give members and hopefuls the fixed target of an annual exhibition to… Continue reading The case for a more – not less – traditional Royal Academy

RA summer exhibition: An institution betrayed

First published in The Jackdaw ♯71 September 2007: Figurative painter Gary M James on the 2007 RA Summer Exhibition. Any outsider who entered figurative work which was not small enough to squeeze into the small south room had wasted their time, money and effort I became a Friend of the Royal Academy not long before… Continue reading RA summer exhibition: An institution betrayed

RA summer exhibition: State Art is swallowing the RA

First published in The Jackdaw ♯21, September 2002 As the cost of non-member submission has increased so the chance of inclusion has diminished owing to the reduction in available room. Seemingly unstoppable, the apparently incurable bacterium of State Art continues to spread like a plague into every corner of culture. Like the feared superbug, necrotising… Continue reading RA summer exhibition: State Art is swallowing the RA

RA summer exhibition: Why has that man got no clothes on, Dad?

First published in The Jackdaw ♯12, October 2001 Will Harvey demonstrates how the RA Summer Exhibition performs a useful function for those who can’t get their works easily exhibited elsewhere… Thousands of paintings are entered for the RA Summer Exhibition. A few squeeze through the jury. Fewer still get past the Hanging Committee and onto… Continue reading RA summer exhibition: Why has that man got no clothes on, Dad?

RA summer exhibition: losing transparency

First published in The Jackdaw ♯50, July/August 2005 The RA should come clean about its intentions. It was instituted to help artists not cheat them. Whereas once the Summer Exhibition was a bazaar for the otherwise disfranchised it is now being recreated as a curated exhibition with the usual sly interference from State Art.  One… Continue reading RA summer exhibition: losing transparency