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
RA summer exhibition: not all open exhibitions are cheats
In The Jackdaw ♯8 artist Doug Lowe asked if the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition was a genuine open or an Academicians’ closed shop. Has anyone ever worked out the total cost to artists of a big show like the RA Summer Exhibition in time, depreciation of vehicles, fuel, parking, framing, mounting, entrance etc.? It must… Continue reading RA summer exhibition: not all open exhibitions are cheats
RA summer exhibition: plus ca change
PLUS CA CHANGE: In The Jackdaw ♯10, over ten years ago, anonymous artist ‘Trimmer’ responded to the inclusion of guests of the young British artists who are now, coincidentally, themselves nearly all Royal Academicians: Effectively, a whole generation of painters has been erased from the art scene, precisely because they hold some principles and adhere… Continue reading RA summer exhibition: plus ca change
Can the RA summer exhibition still be considered an open submission show?
… Painter Patrick Cullen supplies damning evidence that the answer is ‘No!’ A detailed survey of 2011’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition reveals that the non-members’ work now represents only 29% of the total exhibition if measured by the amount of wall space it commands. This is in contrast to a figure of 78% estimated for… Continue reading Can the RA summer exhibition still be considered an open submission show?
Culture Select Committee of the House of Commons: evidence
Having already given evidence to the Culture Select Committee of the House of Commons, the editor of The Jackdaw was asked to justify some of his criticisms in writing. What follows is his further submission to the Committee… We were discussing, I recall, the Arts Council Collection, a repository of some 7,546 works (plus 67… Continue reading Culture Select Committee of the House of Commons: evidence
Mickey Mouse museums
The word ‘Disneyfication’ is usually pejorative, implying noise, trashiness and escapist superficiality. Not any more. It was only a matter of time before ‘difficult’ history and learning were sweetened to something more palatable and instantly gratifying. Serious cultural commentators are now using this word to describe a useful policy designed to increase the appeal of… Continue reading Mickey Mouse museums