A R T S & C U LT U R E
“The Royal Academy and the great public collections are not just art galleries – they are huge repositories of free speech and free thinking”
Though these architectural interventions represent a new age, the academy is just as dedicated to celebrating its distinct heritage. For the first time, visitors can experience free displays drawn from the permanent collection. This incredible treasure trove of more than 46,000 works spans five centuries of British art, including donated pieces from every academician to date and vast ‘study collections’ of Classical and Renaissance prints, painting and sculpture. A significant highlight currently on show is a copy of Leonardo’s ‘The Last Supper’, carried out during his lifetime by a studio assistant. President Christopher Le Brun explains it is significant “because it is a copy. It covers the principle of what we are doing here, which is showing how works were used in schools, because they were for teaching purposes.” Until now, it has been hanging in Morton College, Oxford. “We’re grateful to them for looking after it,” Le Brun adds, “but we’d much rather have it back. I’ve been campaigning for a space worthy to show this for some time.” Naturally, the academy continues to mount sizeable temporary exhibitions, which span the parameters of art, design and architecture. None are more significant
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hang and perhaps consider a purchase (works are for sale, with proceeds funding the school). This time round, Grayson Perry has coordinated the selection and display, employing canary yellow walls to pack an added punch. “It’s a big rough and tumble,” he says. “Everyone who subjects their work to it — you’re in the mix! It’s all about a celebration of making stuff. There is no other show like it in the world where someone like Anselm Kiefer or Marina
BOB & ROBERTA SMITH, RA
that the annual Summer Exhibition, which has existed as long as the academy itself. This cacophonous open-submission show was first announced as ‘an annual exhibition of paintings, sculptures and designs which shall be open to all artists of distinguished merit’. Sure enough, it became a high-society affair peppered with scandal, where the likes of Turner and Constable engaged in battles of oneupmanship, and the Pre-Raphaelites shocked the art establishment with their idealised views of beauty and romance. Now, 250 years on, the show is as popular as ever, with similar crowds craning their necks to examine the wall-to-ceiling salon
THEGLOSSARYMAGAZINE .COM
04/08/2018 11:37