RA Magazine Summer 2015 by Sam Phillips Portfolio

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS MAGAZINE NUMBER 127 SUMMER 2015 GUEST EDITOR DAVID CHIPPERFIELD RA

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS MAGAZINE NO. 127 / SUMMER 2015 / Â£4.95

GUEST EDITOR: DAVID CHIPPERFIELD RA The architect reframing the Royal Academy 001_Cover_15.indd 1

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Terence Coventry Recent Sculpture and Works on Paper 15th June - 24th July

GALLERY PANGOLIN CHALFORD - GLOS - GL6 8NT 01453 889765 gallery@pangolin-editions.com www.gallery-pangolin.com

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy: Summer Exhibition 17th August - 4th September Sculpture and works on paper celebrating the season Woman Releasing Bird Terence Coventry

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15 May - 27 June PANGOLIN LONDON, Kings Place, N1 9AG Tel: 020 7520 1480 www.pangolinlondon.com

PANGOLIN

JON BUCK CODED FOR COLOUR

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LONDON

IMAGE: Jon Buck, Maquette for Recalling the Dog, Bronze, 2014

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MARY FEDDEN 3 – 24 JUNE 2015

W O R K S F R O M T H E 6 0s Portland Gallery exclusively represents the Estate of Mary Fedden and is delighted to be celebrating the centenary of her birth with a small selection of works from the 1960s, on sale and on loan. Please contact us for further information.

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Exhibiting until Friday 10 th July 2015 Open 10am – 6pm daily

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adrian heath five decades exhibition 21 may – 12 june 2015

Image: Adrian Heath (1920 –1992) Composition – Black, Grey & Red with Yellow 1954

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John Plumb retrospective exhibition June 10th – 20th | Open Daily 10am – 6pm Paisnel Gallery

9 Bury Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6AB

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8 Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BN

For further information about the exhibition please contact the gallery A fully illustrated catalogue is available 020 7930 9293 info@paisnelgallery.co.uk www.paisnelgallery.co.uk John Plumb, Blue Shift on Red Field, 1968, 72 x 72 ins (183 x 183 cms)

39th Annual Exhibition British & French Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Including ceramics by William Plumptre

Sir Matthew Smith (1st floor gallery)

10 June – 15 July 2015 Monday to Friday 10-5.30 Saturday 11-2.00

19 Cork Street London W1S 3LP Tel: 020 7734 7984 art@browseanddarby.co.uk www.browseanddarby.co.uk Matthew Smith (1879-1959) Laura the Parrot, c.1928, oil on canvas, 30 x 25 inches

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Elisabeth Frink 21 May - 20 June 2015

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Royal Academy of Arts Magazine / No. 127 / Summer 2015

Contents CO U R T ESY CO R V I - M O R A , LO N D O N A N D JACK S H A I N M A N G A L L ERY, N E W YO R K . DAV I D CH I P P ER F I EL D A R CH I T EC TS . © T RUS T EES O F T H E PAO LOZ Z I F O U N DAT I O N , L I CENS ED BY DAC S 2015

Immortal souls ‘The dearth of black portraiture in the Western visual canon is a void from which Yiadom-Boakye must sculpt her fictional countenances’ KELLY GROVIER

Grand union ‘It began with an architectural challenge – how to connect Burlington House with Burlington Gardens. It will end as a question about the very nature of the Royal Academy’ JOHN TUSA

Features 46

Grand union The Royal Academy is transforming itself in time for its 250th anniversary, as John Tusa explains

Picture this Four key figures look to the revitalised RA, from RA Collection exhibitions to a lecture theatre

Such stuff as dreams are made on Deborah Solomon lifts the lid on Joseph Cornell’s beguiling boxes of everyday objects

On fertile ground David Chipperfield meets fellow Academician Conrad Shawcross ahead of his spectacular sculpture for the Summer Exhibition

Line dancing Eileen Cooper RA reveals her working process on paper to Laura Gascoigne

Regulars 11 15 19

Exhibition Diary Editorial: David Chipperfield RA Contributors and Competition

Tiles of the unexpected ‘Travellers alighting at Tottenham Court Road were confronted by a feast of fiery images, ousting the bleakness of the old platforms’ RICHARD CORK

Preview UK Lynette Yiadom-Boakye; Frank Bowling RA on late Pollock; Höller at the Hayward; Soane’s apartments; art around Mayfair; Hepworth reappraised at the Tate; six degrees of separation 37 Preview International Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing 38 Preview Books What makes Michael Craig-Martin RA tick 40

Academy Artists Louisa Hutton RA’s studio; Eric Parry RA and Stephen Cox RA collaborate; RAs’ round-up

Debate The Question: Are we building too many museums?; Eduardo Paolozzi’s mosaics; Courses and Classes; Events and Lectures; Excursions

79 88 91

Listings Readers’ Offers Academy News Summer Exhibition posters; Albert Irvin, Robert Clatworthy and William Bowyer remembered 98 Short Story ‘Glass Addition’ by Ben Lerner

SUMMER 2015 | RA MAGAZINE 9

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ASIAN ART IN LONDON 5 - 14 November 2015 London‘s premier Asian Art event, combining leading dealers, auction houses and museums, in a ten day series of selling exhibitions, auctions and lectures. AAL Symposium: Thursday 5 November at the Royal Institution, Mayfair. Find our iPhone app in the Apple app store

info@asianartinlondon.com +44 (0)20 7499 2215 www.asianartinlondon.com

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SCOTTISH ART Wednesday 16 September 2015 Edinburgh Entries now invited Established market leaders for Scottish Art ENQUIRIES 0131 240 2292 areti.chavale@bonhams.com Closing date for entries Tuesday 30 June 2015 FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL RSA RSW (1883-1937) The Blue Jug (detail) Sold for £194,500 April 2015

bonhams.com/scottishart

Prices shown include buyer’s premium. Details can be found at bonhams.com

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What’s on at the Royal Academy this summer

CO L L EC T I O N O F R O B ER T L EH R M A N , CO U R T ESY O F A I M EE A N D R O B ER T L EH R M A N / P H OTO T H E R O B ER T L EH R M A N A R T T RUS T, CO U R T ESY O F A I M EE A N D R O B ER T L EH R M A N . P H OTO GR A P H Y: Q U I CKS I LV ER P H OTO GR A P H ERS , L LC/© T H E J OS EP H A N D R O B ER T CO R N EL L M EM O R I A L F O U N DAT I O N / VAG A , N Y/ DAC S , LO N D O N 2015 . © R OS E H I LTO N

Exhibition Diary

Red Studio, 2014, by Rose Hilton, on display in this year’s Summer Exhibition

Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust The Sackler Wing 4 July to 27 September

Untitled (Tilly Losch), c.1935-38, by Joseph Cornell, on view in the Academy’s Sackler Wing

Summer Exhibition

Richard Diebenkorn

Main Galleries 8 June to 16 August

The Sackler Wing Until 7 June

The world’s largest open-entry exhibition shows works by leading contemporary artists alongside the best of Britain’s lesser-known talent. This year’s Summer Exhibition is co-ordinated by the influential artist Michael Craig-Martin RA, while Academician Conrad Shawcross fills the Annenberg Courtyard with a site-specific sculpture. Sponsored by Insight Investment

One of the great post-war masters in his native United States, Richard Diebenkorn Hon RA produced paintings that embraced both abstraction and figuration. His seductive colours and intricately balanced compositions drew on the light and landscapes of the places he worked, in particular California, as well as from European painters such as Matisse and Mondrian. This is the first major survey of Richard Diebenkorn’s work in the United Kingdom for over 20 years. 2009-2016 Season supported by JTI. Supported by The Terra Foundation for American Art

Friends Preview Days Fri 5 Jun, 10am-10pm Sat 6 Jun, 10am-8.30pm Sun 7 Jun, 10am-8.30pm Friends Extended Hours Tue 21 Jul, 8.30-10am Wed 5 Aug, 6-8.30pm

Friends Extended Hours Thur 21 May, 6-8.30pm

Discover the magical world of Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) in this enchanting exhibition of an American artist widely celebrated in the United States. Cornell’s imagination stretched far and wide, finding form in his collections of objects gathered from the beach and bric-a-brac shops, which he assembled in poetic ‘shadow boxes’ and collages. This is the first major UK show of Cornell’s work in more than 30 years. 2009-2016 Season supported by JTI. Supported by The Terra Foundation for American Art Friends Preview Days Wed 1 Jul, 10am-6pm Thur 2 Jul, 10am-6pm Fri 3 Jul, 10am-8.30pm Friends Extended Hours Tue 21 Jul, 8.30-10am Wed 5 Aug, 6-8.30pm

RA Schools Show 2015 RA Schools Studios 12 to 28 June

The RA Schools Show is the culmination of three years of students’ postgraduate study, and a rare opportunity to see work by a new generation of contemporary artists. RA Schools sponsored by Newton Investment Management Continued on page 12

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Exhibition Diary Coming Soon Ai Weiwei 19 September to 13 December Friends Preview Days Wed 16 Sep, 10am-8.30pm Thu 17 Sep, 10am-6pm Fri 18 Sep, 10am-6pm

Jean-Etienne Liotard 24 October to 31 January 2016 Friends Preview Days Wed 21 Oct, 10am-8.30pm Thur 22 Oct, 10am-6pm Fri 23 Oct, 10am-6pm Coming soon to the RA… the UK’s first museum retrospective of Ai Weiwei Hon RA

Works on Paper by Sculptors

The John Madejski Fine Rooms 29 May to 23 August

The Keeper’s House Until 22 October

Known for her colourful, often witty figurative paintings, the Academy’s Keeper Eileen Cooper turns her focus in this show to drawings, revealing her versatility in charcoal, pastel and ink. She presents works spanning 40 years, including ten drawings she is giving to the RA.

This selling show features works on paper and limited-edition prints by some of the UK’s leading sculptors, including Royal Academicians such as Antony Gormley, David Nash and Alison Wilding.

Courtyard Cinema with Nomad Annenberg Courtyard Selected dates in August

Nomad Cinema presents films in the courtyard, including Casablanca (22 Aug) and Frances Ha (27 Aug). For full listings and to book, visit www.whereisthenomad.com. Doors open 7pm, films start circa 8.30pm. Admission £15, or £25 incl. deckchair and drink. Sponsored by Jack Wills

Timothy Hyman RA A Year with Maggie’s The Keeper’s House until 22 October

A selling show of Timothy Hyman RA’s drawings made at Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres to coincide with his new book A Year with Maggie’s (RA Publications).

Stories from the Past – Visions of the Future: The RA and its Buildings The Architecture Space until 20 September

The RA’s buildings are a palimpsest of architectural interest and invention, spanning four centuries, from Burlington House’s beginnings as a 17th-century town-palace to the site’s 21st-century adaptations. Discover their past and future in this exhibition, as David Chipperfield Architects begins the latest transformation of the Royal Academy’s home in the heart of Mayfair.

Friends benefits RA Friends enjoy free entry to exhibitions, with a family guest, and all-day access to the Keeper’s House. Friends view shows before the public at Preview Days, and receive RA Magazine and an e-newsletter. For more information, call 020 7300 5664, or visit royalacademy.org.uk/friends

Visitor information Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD 020 7300 8000; www.royalacademy.org.uk Opening hours of the RA Sun-Thur 10am-6pm

(last entry 5.30pm), Fri 10am-10pm (last entry 9.30pm). The John Madejski Fine Rooms close on Wed 3 June, Main Galleries from 1pm. On 13 July Gallery 3 of the Main Galleries closes 4pm. John Madejski Fine Rooms Wed-Fri 10am4pm; Sat-Sun 10am-6pm; closed Mon-Tue. RA Shop closes at 6.15pm Sun-Thur; 10.15pm Fri-Sat. RA Grand Café Sat-Thur 10am-5.30pm; Fri 10am-9.30pm. The Keeper’s House Mon-Sat 10am-11.30pm; Sun 10am-6pm. The Restaurant: Mon-Sat 12-3pm for Friends and from 5.30pm for the public (to book call 020 7300 5881). Essential lift maintenance is taking place

Trapeze II, 2012, by Eileen Cooper, in the Fine Rooms

6 July to 14 September affecting access to the RA’s upper floors. Visit http://roy.ac/lift for details or follow @RA_Visiting on Twitter. Access See pages 74-75. Visually impaired visitors can access large-print labels in the galleries and on the RA website. To buy art from the RA visit royalacademy.org. uk/artsales, call 0800 634 6341 or email artsales@royalacademy.org.uk

PHOTO © GAO YUAN . © EI L EEN CO O P ER /A L L R I GH TS R ES ER V ED, DAC S 2015

Hide and Seek: Drawings by Eileen Cooper RA

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HENRY MOORE 22 MAY - 27 JUNE 2015 This important exhibition of the work of Henry Moore contains several works from the 1920s and 1930s that have not previously been seen in public. Highlights include several works from the collection of the family of Mooreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sister Elizabeth Howarth, early carvings and some of the earliest recorded drawings by the artist. Other highlights include wartime Shelter sketchbook drawings and later maquettes. A substantial illustrated catalogue with essay by David Mitchinson is available from the gallery.

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Introducing this issue

Editorial

RA Magazine’s Guest Editor David Chipperfield RA

Making the link My editorial contribution to this special issue of RA Magazine marks the breaking of ground on a major development at the RA by my office. Our work will transform the institution in time for its 250th anniversary in 2018, linking Burlington House and Burlington Gardens for the first time, and creating new spaces for Friends and public alike. Museums are often somewhat lifeless places dominated by objects and exponents, but the RA is a vital and dynamic institution, full of idiosyncrasies and charm. There are the Academicians, the sometimes curmudgeonly but deeply engaged group of British artists and architects who run the RA; the RA Schools, Britain’s oldest art school, where Turner once studied, a fertile soil from which many of our most talented young artists still grow; the RA’s own collection, our family heirlooms accumulated over 250 years; and finally the remarkable sequence of exhibitions for which the RA is renowned. Clearly the Academy has all the fundaments that a great cultural institution desires, and the elaboration of these elements has been at the heart of our approach as architects. The forthcoming development will draw on the uniqueness of this institution, helping it evolve to become the world’s leading independent centre for visual culture, led by artists and architects. I have asked John Tusa – former director of the Barbican Arts Centre and the BBC World

Service – to write about the project for this issue (page 46). He observes the ‘difficult adjacency’ of the RA’s two buildings – the neighbouring but disconnected Burlington House and Burlington Gardens – as a key challenge facing the institution today. Our work over the next three years will provide a bold solution to this issue by forging a physical link between Burlington House and Burlington Gardens, allowing visitors to pass directly between the two. This link, relatively modest as a piece of architecture, will have a profound effect on the institution. Existing spaces like the brick vaults beneath Burlington House and Sydney Smirke’s magnificent Cast Corridor will be revealed to the public for the first time. There will be free and immediately accessible displays of art along this route: contemporary painting and sculpture by students and Academicians alongside work from the RA’s unique collection. Visitors passing through this central artery will get a taste of what the RA has to offer long before they reach a ticket desk. Crucially the Academy promotes not just the exhibiting of art, but also its practice – it is a place where art is made and taught, as well as hung. To this end we have designed a new lecture theatre and Clore Learning Centre in Burlington Gardens for an expanded education programme. The next time an artist like Anish Kapoor RA opens a show at the Academy, visitors will view the exhibition in the Main Galleries before stepping through to the new lecture theatre to hear the artist discuss their work. Drawing on James Pennethorne’s original design for Burlington Gardens, the lecture theatre will retain the simplicity of a semicircular raked seating arrangement, day-lit by original clerestory windows. A continuous programme of events, talks and debates will establish the RA as a leading centre for arts education and a dynamic forum for public discussion. As painter Christopher Le Brun, President of the RA, explains in one of a series of interviews (page 52), the lecture theatre ‘will make the RA the place to come for debate about visual culture’. Articles across this magazine draw out ideas about the RA. Its ethos comes up in unexpected places, even in the work of Joseph Cornell, the American artist and subject of an exhibition at the Academy this summer. Cornell was a voracious collector and his work often comprised boxed displays of obscure objects. ‘His boxes represent the systematising of his objects,’ writes Cornell’s biographer Deborah Solomon (page 54). ‘Cornell’s approach to art might seem to echo, at least partly, the mission of the Royal Academy and Burlington

EDITORIAL Guest Editor David Chipperfield RA Publisher Nick Tite Editor Sam Phillips Assistant Editor Eleanor Mills Design and Art Direction Design by S-T Sub-Editor Gill Crabbe Editorial Intern Hatty Nestor Editorial Advisers Richard Cork,

Anne Desmet RA, Tom Holland, Fiona Maddocks, Mali Morris RA, Chris Orr RA, Eric Parry RA, Charles Saumarez Smith, Mark Seaman, Thomas Sutton, Giles Waterfield and Sarah Whitfield Digital content Harriet Baker, Louise Cohen and Amy Macpherson Editorial enquiries 020 7300 5820; ramagazine@royalacademy.org.uk Comment on RA Magazine

reply.ramagazine@royalacademy.org.uk Follow us online

Twitter: @RA_Mag @royalacademy Facebook: /royalacademy www.royalacademy.org.uk ADVERTISING AND PRODUCTION Advertising Manager

Jane Grylls 020 7300 5661; jane.grylls@royalacademy.org.uk Business Manager

Kim Jenner 020 7300 5658; kim.jenner@royalacademy.org.uk Listings Editor Catherine Cartwright 020 7300 5657; catherine.cartwright@ royalacademy.org.uk Classifieds Irene Michaelides 020 7300 5675; irene.michaelides@ royalacademy.org.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS

RA Magazine is published quarterly in March, May, September and November and mailed to Friends of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of their Friends membership. To become a Friend

£107 Standard Friends (£97 Direct Debit) £150 Joint Friends (£140 Direct Debit) £49 Young Friends (aged between 16 & 25) Friends enquiries 020 7300 5664; friend.enquiries@royalacademy.org.uk www.royalacademy.org.uk/friends To subscribe to RA Magazine

£20 for one year in UK (£30 outside UK). Magazine subscriptions: 0800 634 6341 (UK only), 0044 20 7300 5841 (outside UK); mailorder@royalacademy.org.uk Colour reproduction by Wings. Printed by Wyndeham Group. Published 26 May 2015 © 2015 Royal Academy of Arts ISSN 0956-9332 The opinions in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Royal Academy of Arts. All reasonable attempts have been made to clear copyright before publication.

Continued on page 16

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Editorial BELOW The Hepworth Wakefield, completed in 2011 by David Chipperfield Architects

‘The next time an artist like Anish Kapoor RA opens a show at the Academy, visitors will view the exhibition in the Main Galleries before stepping through to the new lecture theatre to hear the artist discuss their work’

To see a video interview with David Chipperfield, visit http://roy.ac/RA250

CULTURAL BUILDINGS BY DAVID CHIPPERFIELD

The British architect has an international reputation for his designs of museums and galleries. RA MAGAZINE highlights five key works

1. NEUES MUSEUM (2009)

After more than 60 years as a ruin, due to bomb damage during the war, Berlin’s Neues Museum was reopened following a painstaking restoration project. The 19thcentury façade and interiors were repaired and recreated, with scars of war incorporated into the design rather than being removed. 2. HEPWORTH WAKEFIELD (2011)

Named after the Wakefield-born sculptor Barbara Hepworth, whose works help comprise its collection, this art gallery on the banks of the River Calder is clad in pigmented concrete and uses the water’s flow to control its interior temperature (see above and page 33). 3. TURNER CONTEMPORARY (2011)

Dramatically set on the seafront, this gallery makes the most of what brought painter J.M.W. Turner RA to the Kent coastal town

of Margate: sublime light and spectacular views of the sea. Pitched roofs provide natural light to galleries, in a structure designed to withstand the extreme conditions of the seafront such as high winds and waves. 4. MUSEO JUMEX (2013)

Presenting one of the largest private collections of contemporary art in Latin America, this multi-storey Mexico City museum is notable for its rhythmic geometry, light-filled loggia and travertine façade, reminiscent of indigenous Mexican sculpture. 5. METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

In March David Chipperfield Architects was selected to redesign the modern and contemporary art wing of this august New York institution, with plans that greatly increase gallery space for the collection and double the size of the Met’s roof garden.

P H OTO © I WA N B A A N

House’s other learned societies, whose existence owes something to the Enlightenment belief that human knowledge can be collected and classified.’ Artists and architects come together at the Academy, and in this spirit I met with Conrad Shawcross RA in Green Park to discuss his largescale installation for the Summer Exhibition (page 60). A collaboration between architect Eric Parry RA and sculptor Stephen Cox RA (page 43) is examined in the Academy Artists section dedicated to architecture for this special issue; Fiona Maddocks visits the studio of architect Louisa Hutton RA in Berlin (page 40). The International page considers the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (page 37). One of the RA Schools’ most prominent recent alumni, painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye opens this issue’s Preview section (page 24). Eileen Cooper RA is currently the Keeper of the Academy, responsible for the Schools and its students. In this issue she describes the stepby-step development of her own drawings, as a selection go on display (page 66). Painter Frank Bowling RA writes on Jackson Pollock (page 26), and the Curator and Head of the RA Schools, Eliza Bonham Carter, reviews a collection of writings and reminiscences by artist Michael Craig-Martin RA, who oversees this year’s Summer Exhibition (page 38). Academicians, from 19th-century architect John Soane to 20thcentury sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, are the subject of other articles (pages 29 and 70). Elsewhere we examine wider ideas about the role and status of the contemporary museum. The growth and development of our great cultural institutions is a very current phenomenon – every year existing museums expand and new ones emerge. Is it possible, though, that we are building too many? This is the question that opens our Debate section, and Kieran Long and Stella Duffy argue the point (page 68). The celebrated American poet and novelist Ben Lerner takes a more oblique look at the theme of the contemporary museum in Glass Addition, a short story composed especially for this issue (page 98). Ben’s wryly humorous prose describes the vain attempts of a nameless museum to contend with a flock of unwanted visitors. — DAVID CHIPPERFIELD RA, GUEST EDITOR

16 RA MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2015

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MODERN BRITISH AND IRISH ART Wednesday 10 June 2015 New Bond Street, London

DAME ELISABETH FRINK R.A. (1930-1993) Head signed and numbered ‘Frink 1/6’ (at the base of the neck) bronze with a brown patina and polished bronze 50.8 cm. (20 in.) high £80,000 - 120,000

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ENQUIRIES +44 (0) 20 7468 8297 britart@bonhams.com

PARROT. Psittaciformes. FACING EXTINCTION.

A work of art can be priceless. Wilderness can be preserved for £100 an acre. For as long as humans have been making art we have been

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Who’s who in this issue

Contributors BASIL BEATTIE RA is a painter and printmaker. His work is held in public collections including the Tate and the V&A. ELIZA BONHAM CARTER is Curator and

Head of the Royal Academy Schools. FRANK BOWLING RA is a painter. His latest exhibition in London is ‘Frank Bowling: Here and Now’ at the Triangle Centre, Chelsea College of Arts (15–24 July). RICHARD CORK is an art critic, curator and broadcaster. He is author of The Healing Presence of Art (Yale, 2012) and Face to Face: Interviews with Artists (Tate Publishing, 2015). STELLA DUFFY is a writer, theatre-maker and

Co-Director of Fun Palaces, a national campaign for greater access for all to the arts. Her story collection Everything is Moving, Everything is Joined is published by Salt (2014). LAURA GASCOIGNE is a freelance art critic who writes for the Tablet and the Spectator. KELLY GROVIER writes for the Times Literary

Supplement and is author of 100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age (Thames & Hudson, 2013).

NIALL HOBHOUSE is an architecture critic

MARK POMEROY is the archivist for the Royal

and collector.

Academy of Arts.

BENEDICT JOHNSON is a photographer. His clients include museums and galleries such as the British Museum, the Serpentine Gallery and the Courtauld Gallery.

JULE ROEHR is a Berlin-based photographer.

MICHAEL KIRKHAM is an illustrator whose commissions include work for The New Yorker, Financial Times and Wallpaper*. BEN LERNER is a poet and novelist. His latest book is 10:04 (Faber & Faber, 2014). KIERAN LONG is Senior Curator of

Contemporary Architecture, Design and Digital at the V&A, and was formerly Editor of the Architects’ Journal. FIONA MADDOCKS is a journalist, broadcaster and Classical Music Critic for the Observer. Her books include Harrison Birtwistle: Wild Tracks (Faber & Faber, 2014). GEORGE NEWSON is a classical composer. He has received commissions from the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC and the Orchestre National de Lille.

MICK ROONEY RA is a painter. He shows work in a forthcoming group exhibition at Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold (4–24 Oct). ANDY SEWELL is a photographer whose works are held in collections that include the National Media Museum, the Museum of London and the V&A. DEBORAH SOLOMON is an art critic and biographer, and regular contributor to the New York Times. She is the author of the biography Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1997). JOHN TUSA is an arts administrator, writer and broadcaster. A former director of the BBC World Service and the Barbican Arts Centre, he has written books including Pain in the Arts (IB Tauris, 2014). SIMON WILSON is an art historian and former Tate curator. His books includes a monograph on the artist Egon Schiele.

COMPETITION 03

Guest Editor DAVID CHIPPERFIELD RA explains why an evocative image of architecture captures his imagination. Name the building (right) and you could win two Royal Academy exhibition catalogues ‘This is one of my favourite slides of architecture – an image by the great English photographer Roger Fenton. It seems to show architecture at its most fragile and also its strongest. Here architecture has somehow found a place of rest, yet this Yorkshire ruin still casts an incredible power over its surroundings. Architecture and nature have become nearly indistinguishable in this image, and I think that’s a wonderful idea. Wouldn’t it be nice if architecture wasn’t something synthetic and transitory, but instead aspired to such physical presence and permanence?’

TO ENTER

Send the name of the building to reply. ramagazine@royalacademy.org.uk or: RA Magazine, Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD. The deadline is Friday 12 June 2015. Please include your contact details. Three correct entries chosen at random receive the books that accompany the RA’s Diebenkorn and Cornell shows. For full terms and conditions, visit http://roy.ac/catcomp COMPETITION 02

Last issue Cathie Pilkington RA chose a work by Morton Bartlett, Untitled (Standing Girl) (1950-60).

SUMMER 2015 | RA MAGAZINE 19

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Basil ALKAZZI

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Walter Sickert, St Jacques, rue Picquet, 1907, Oil on canvas , Pallant House Gallery (On Loan From a Private Collection, 1995)

Sickert in Dieppe 4 July – 4 October 2015

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NoW iN its 25tH YEAR Over 12,000 paintings are submitted each year to the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Only 800 pictures finally make it onto the walls of the Royal Academy.

‘A sEcoND cHANcE’ The Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, inspired by the original ‘Salon des Refusés’ held in Paris in the 19th century, will hang the best of this year’s work submitted to the Royal Academy but not hung. Hundreds of artists bring their work for a further selection process at the Gallery where they will be told immediately whether they have been successful or not. Oils, watercolours and pastels of all sizes pass through the doors of this lively Gallery on the South Bank. Every painting is for sale and may be taken by the purchaser straight away, creating space for another to be displayed. All paintings will be on show for three weeks, after which new work will be hung. Over the years purchasers have returned again and again, commenting that this alternative exhibition contains more original and exciting work! The Gallery is open from 10am until 7.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday giving the opportunity for everyone to see this regularly changing show.

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Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new this summer in London, the UK and abroad

CO U R T ESY CO R V I -M O R A , LO N D O N A N D JACK S H A I N M A N G A L L ERY, N E W YO R K

Preview

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OPPOSITE PAGE No Place for Nature, 2011, by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Immortal souls

CO U R T ESY CO R V I -M O R A , LO N D O N A N D JACK S H A I N M A N G A L L ERY, N E W YO R K

The paintings of RA Schools alumna Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, on view at the Serpentine Gallery, are revelations from another world, says KELLY GROVIER

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye wants to help you see. Before settling on a career as an artist, the London-born painter contemplated becoming an optician instead. What changed her mind? ‘I had to rule out optics,’ she once admitted to an interviewer, ‘because science was a problem.’ One may be surprised to discover that painting should be considered an option for someone who had decided to ‘rule out optics’. After all, don’t art and ophthalmology share an obligation to measure the strength of our vision? But Yiadom-Boakye isn’t like other painters. The art she makes is far less dependent on the perception of the visual world than might be expected from a genius of contemporary portraiture. Indeed, her paintings are the product of an astonishing impatience and a remarkable resistance to what the poet William Wordsworth called the ‘tyranny’ of the eye. If ‘impatience’ seems harsh (Yiadom-Boakye confesses to having ‘a short attention span’), consider the remarkable fact that she rarely works on a painting for longer than a single day. Nor does she spend the least division of an hour studying the faces of her sitters. Why? Because there aren’t any. She makes them up. No one poses for a Yiadom-Boakye portrait. She magics them, their personalities and the realms that they inhabit from the air of her capacious imagination. So contrary is her methodology, which defies conventional assumptions about the temperament and techniques of portraiture, she dares us to locate her alluring work within the genre at all. By relying on her mind’s eye for the conjuring of countenance and physique, the Royal Academy Schools alumna audaciously does away altogether with the elements of imitation and semblance from the practice of portraiture, requiring us to rethink our terms entirely. In doing so, she excavates a hidden resonance within the term portrait, which stares back to the Latin protrahere (meaning ‘to draw forward, to reveal’). The faces she draws forward from the darkened ground of her canvases are not deft translations from flesh to paint, but revelations from another world. The vision that her work helps us sharpen is one that prioritises insight over sight. To stare into the eyes of a Yiadom-Boakye portrait is to

witness a slow dragging forth, from earthy ochres and siennas, umbers and onyx, a figure that did not dutifully stand still for a short session in a studio, but one whose presence has been gradually looming for centuries. Compressed into the timeless ambience in which the 2013 Turner Prize nominee’s subjects alternately pose, pirouette and turn their backs on us is a profound understanding of the restrained colour that characterises the paintings of Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Walter Sickert RA – artists whose disposition Yiadom-Boakye’s palette echoes. While Degas, Manet and Sickert may be important forebears tonally, in a deeper sense Yiadom-Boakye’s work weaves before us an ‘unfather’d vapour’ (to borrow another phrase from Wordsworth): an eternalising veil for which

‘No one poses for a YiadomBoakye portrait. She magics them, their personalities and the realms they inhabit from the air of her capacious imagination’

there is no obvious or adequate art historical antecedent. The dearth of black portraiture in the Western visual canon is a void from which Yiadom-Boakye must sculpt her fictional countenances. Invariably of dark complexion, the fabricated subjects of Yiadom-Boakye’s art assume the heroic burden of establishing ex nihilo the very bloodline in which they are to figure. The result is a body of work that transcends both tradition and the traumas of racial struggle. An exhibition of her work grinds a corrective lens, bringing into focus the rich history of an aesthetic elsewhere that never was but will now forever be. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Serpentine Gallery, London, 020 7402 6075, www.serpentinegalleries.org, 2 June–13 Sep. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye selects work from the V-A-C Collection for Natures, Natural and Unnatural Whitechapel Gallery, London, 020 7522 7888, www.whitechapelgallery.org, until 14 June

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Pouring his art out Pollock was trying to push the parameters of art-making beyond the Western tradition. By the time he came on the scene in the 1940s, there were conflicting opinions about what exactly an artist did. It had changed from being subservient to the dominant class – painting pictures of leaders, dignitaries and so on – and, as those functions had ebbed away, easel painting had no use any more. Artists set about finding ways to underline what was valuable about making a painting. Subject matter was put aside, to emphasise the process of making. You could paint on the floor, on the wall, you could spread your paint any which way. Action Painting emphasised the action of the artist in making the work, although that was only part of what was happening – the picture still had to appear on the wall as something novel and inspired. And Pollock was a sharp demonstration of that. He worked on the floor, pouring industrial paint onto blank canvas, dripping it, or using a basting syringe – he was dancing across the canvas, sometimes even leaving his footprints on the work. Pollock had enjoyed great success with his drip paintings of 1947-50, some of which are included in a major show of his late work at Tate Liverpool (Summertime: Number 9A,

1948). Yet his black pourings, made between 1951 and 1953, which are the show’s focus, were derided. But Pollock was the kind of guy who just insisted that what he was doing was the way to go. This show tells us that these paintings haven’t had their day and underlines their importance. In the black pourings Pollock was sometimes letting the paint bleed into bare canvas – and this was a precursor to Colour Field painters, such as Helen Frankenthaler Hon RA. With some of the black paintings he was also pushing figuration to the edge, so that it all became one big drawing (Number 5, 1952, right). Some of these figures seem to emerge from the unconscious, the marks distributed all over the surface. Pollock held out real inventiveness and inspiration with his black pourings. The fact that he was derided for these paintings in a way provided a spur for my own work – I fed off his insistence on not giving up on finding enriching ways to proceed. When I left London for New York, in 1966, pouring paint became my way of beginning a work. Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots Tate Liverpool, 0151 702 7400, www.tate.org. uk, 30 June-18 Oct Frank Bowling: Map Paintings Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, www.dma.org, until 2 Aug

Profoundly playful German artist Carsten Höller’s huge helterskelters were a hit at Tate Modern in 2007. Now his dizzying participatory art comes to the Hayward Gallery (10 June–6 Sep) in a survey show, including Dice (2014, right), in which children can play in the tunnels that replace the dots on a cube’s surface. Holler’s art makes a serious point for adults too – his works often disorientate us, prompting questions about how we habitually perceive the world.

Number 5, 1952, by Jackson Pollock

Dice, 2014, by Carsten Höller

© T H E P O L LO CK- K R AS N ER F O U N DAT I O N A RS , N Y A N D DAC S , LO N D O N 2015 . © 2015 CA RS T EN H Ö L L ER . CO U R T ESY T H E A R T IS T A N D G AGOS I A N G A L L ERY/ P H OTO AT T I L I O M A R A N Z A N O

Leading abstract painter FRANK BOWLING RA welcomes a major show that reassesses Jackson Pollock’s black pourings

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Rain eﬀect, Piazzetta, Venice Signed lower left: Ken Howard Oil on canvas: 40 × 48 in / 101.6 × 121.9 cm

Ken Howard OBE RA A selection of paintings by Professor Ken Howard OBE RA, will be on view at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition Recent paintings by Ken Howard can be viewed at Richard Green and online

RICHARD GREEN IS THE SOLE WORLDWIDE

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147 NEW BOND STREET, LONDON W1S 2TS

AGENT FOR KEN HOWARD

Email: paintings@richardgreen.com

TELEPHONE: +44 (0)20 7493 3939

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Carsten Höller Decision 10 June – 6 September 2015

hayward gallery

THE E Y E XHIBITION

Sonia Delaunay ‘Delaunay is one of the crucial reference points in modern art and design’ – VOGUE

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Sonia Delaunay Electric Prisms (detail) 1913 Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, Gift of Mr. Theodore Racoosin © Pracusa 2014083

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A model restoration

P O R T R A I T O F J O H N S OA N E BY C .W. H U N N EM A N / P H OTO: A N DY J O H NS O N /CO U R T ESY O F S I R J O H N S OA N E’ S M US EU M . © T H E B R I T IS H L I B R A RY B OA R D

Sir John Soane’s Museum has opened up the private rooms of its founder, in a triumph of architectural archaeology, says NIALL HOBHOUSE Sir John Soane’s Museum has quietly completed the most spectacular project in a 10-year masterplan for its three adjacent houses designed by Soane at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. On Soane’s death in 1837, the second floor of No. 13 – the main museum building – included the architect-collector’s private apartments and model room. Long closed to the public, this floor has now reopened with Soane’s spaces reinstated, an exercise in both structural and historical archaeology that will come to be seen as one of London’s great set-pieces of building restoration. The project, initiated by former Director Tim Knox and completed under the museum’s present incumbent, Abraham Thomas, is nevertheless the personal triumph of Deputy Director Helen Dorey, who has worked inch by inch over archives, fragments and the fabric, in collaboration with Lyall Thow of Julian Harrap Architects. Of the effort and rigour involved it should be enough to write that nothing in the Soane’s 178-year history has ever been thrown away (the scholarly problem is rather to identify the pieces and to put them together again), and to add that the restoration has gone so far as to reinstall one of the doors of the private bathroom, only then to block it up – as had Soane in the last years of his life – with a bookcase. The 1833 Act of Parliament that established the museum included the provision that it should

be kept ‘as nearly as circumstances will admit in the state’ in which it would be at the time of Soane’s death. In the intervening few years before he died Soane embarked on his last and perhaps most intimately strange architectural project on this upper storey. Seen now, it provides either the missing key to understanding the museum

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TOP

Sir John Soane, c.1776, by Christopher Hunneman ABOVE Soane’s model room, c.1834-35, by C.J. Richardson

itself or it deepens the impenetrable riddle of Soane’s personality. More even than the furniture and complex spaces themselves, he had set out in these rooms to rearrange both his memories and his relationship to his family. He also aimed to codify unequivocally his own contribution to the history of architecture, which had been written and rewritten over his long tormented life but which, for his own part, was never in doubt. The carefully prescribed sequence of the visit includes his wife Eliza’s morning room; the newly glazed loggia looking over to the Fields; the model room (below left), with the great model stand erected in this space that was once Eliza’s bedchamber; a strange top-lit book passage; and Soane’s own bathroom, bedroom and oratory, a small space he created in memory of Eliza, who died in 1815. At the centre of the model stand is Padiglione’s cork topographical model of Pompeii. Hovering above this, at larger scale, are exemplary Greek and Roman buildings, and on the bottom tier are Soane’s own most famous works including some models for his Bank of England; architectural drawings by worthy predecessors and masters are stashed inside the cabinets. This stand, of course, is architectural history with a simple flaw; it presents Western classicism as culminating with Soane himself. No doubt this idea was something he hoped would be sustained by the establishment of the museum, or at least by his determination that his own ghost would inhabit it forever. The most personal spaces of a personal shrine, Soane’s apartments became something of a battlefield for curatorial staff who followed the architect. Here the contradictions of Soane’s vision were sometimes brutally fought out: was the building a museum, a historic house, or a memorial to the misunderstood? The first curators were expected to sleep in the founder’s bed, even as his mahogany-lidded bath was sealed up with papers (his Trustees enjoined not to look at them for 50 years). The model stand was dismantled in the 1850s, the bath itself – finally – between the wars. Eventually, the rooms became the adjoining offices of the lauded post-war curators John Summerson and Dorothy Stroud, developing an alternative, almost equally powerful, mythology. It remains to be seen whether the reopened apartments have allowed Soane to sleep more easily, or whether they have awakened him to pace the spaces of the museum again, as restlessly as he did in his lifetime. The private apartments and model room of Sir John Soane’s Museum are now open in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, 020 7405 2107, www.soane.org (pre-booking required)

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Made for Mayfair

The area behind Burlington Gardens is awash with artistic activity. RA MAGAZINE recommends the best shows and projects to see this summer

URBAN OASIS

ART OF TODAY

MODERN MASTERS

To mark the beginning of the RA’s redevelopment project (see page 46), the Academy has commissioned a site-specific installation for its Burlington Gardens building, in collaboration with the company Turkishceramics. The RA asked for proposals from architecture practices that took ‘transformation’ as their theme and used ceramics as their material. The winning idea, from the Istanbul-based architecture firm SO?, is Unexpected Hill [5] an angular accumulation of stacked shapes on a wide terrace by the building’s entrance (3 July–20 Sep). Rather than decorating the building, these ceramic forms create a new space: a plant-fringed urban landscape where people can sit and relax. A great day to visit is Saturday 4 July, when the street is pedestrianised for a programme of performances, talks, workshops and music as part of Brown’s London Art Weekend (3–5 July; londonartweekend.co.uk). The three-day festival includes tours of local galleries that begin from Brown’s Hotel on Albemarle Street.

Burlington Gardens looks out on the commercial centre of the British art world. While rising rents are testing the resolve of some art dealers, contemporary art continues to be shown all the way up to Oxford Street. Hauser & Wirth devotes both of its Savile Row galleries to drawings by New York artist Roni Horn [6], including her series ‘Remembered Words’ (2013), where colourful gouache discs come together with graphite texts (5 June–25 July; 020 7287 2300). David Zwirner on Grafton Street presents Belgian artist Michaël Borremans’ haunting paintings of figures (13 June–14 Aug; 0203 538 3165), while David Hockney RA [1] returns to Annely Juda on Dering Street with two splendid shows: i-Pad drawings of Yorkshire (9 July–29 Aug), and a selection of single and group portraits, including recent acrylics of card players (until 27 June; 020 7629 7578). And while it is not strictly Mayfair, cross Regent Street and visit the Brewer Street Car Park, where an expansive, rainbow-like installation by German artist Carsten Nicolai [2] is on show (24 June–2 Aug).

There is a strong selection of shows dedicated to post-war painters. Those who enjoyed the RA retrospective of Philip Guston [3] in 2004 will be drawn to Timothy Taylor on Carlos Place, which gathers the American artist’s late work that jettisoned abstraction for a cartoonish style of figurative art (10 June–11 July; 020 7409 3344). Pop artist Andy Warhol’s self-portraiture is on view in Reflections on the Self at Christie’s Mayfair on New Bond Street (2 June–5 Sep; 020 7495 5050) as part of a broad-ranging exhibition that includes Rembrandt, Robert Mapplethorpe and Michael Landy RA. Ordovas on Savile Row spotlights a tender series of portraits by Lucian Freud of Caroline Blackwood, the artist’s wife during the 1950s (5 June–1 Aug; 020 7287 5013). The erudite work of Freud’s fellow ‘School of London’ painter R.B. Kitaj RA is surveyed at Marlborough Fine Art on Albemarle Street (10 June–11 July; 020 7629 5161), while down the road at Connaught Brown, abstract preand post-war paintings by Ben Nicholson [4] are reappraised (until 18 June; 020 7408 0362).

©DAV I D H O CK N E Y/ P H OTO R I CH A R D S CH M I DT. © T H E ES TAT E O F P H I L I P GUS TO N , CO U R T ESY P R I VAT E CO L L ECT I O N , US A . S O? © 2015 . © R O N I H O R N /CO U R T ESY T H E A R T IS T A N D H AUS ER & W I R T H P H OTO GEN E V I E V E H A NS O N . CO U R T ESY O F CO N N AU GH T B R OW N . P H OTO J U L I JA S TA N K E V I CI EN E , CO U R T ESY G A L ER I E EI GEN+A R T L EI P Z I G B ER L I N A N D T H E PACE G A L L ERY © VG B I L D KU NS T B O N N

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Contours in Colour

Retrospective Exhibition

Alan Cotton

Piemonte - Vineyards in Hazy light oil on canvas 61 x 76 cms 24 x 29 7⁄8 in

“The irrepressible optimism of Alan Cotton’s art cannot fail to lift the spirits. The blast of colours confronting the viewer is invigorating and the deep perspective of his landscapes seem to entice the onlooker into the picture”

The Edge, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath 30th June – 12th September 2015

Contours in Colour will be opened by the Earl of Wessex, Chancellor of University of Bath on the 30th June.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter 17th September – 1st November 2015

The exhibition will have a second showing in Exeter opening on 17th September.

There will be a commemorative catalogue (£15 inc p&p), with a foreword by Dame Professor Glynis Breakwell (Vice Chancellor, University of Bath), and the exhibitions will be supported by lectures and talks. For further details please contact The Edge, University of Bath, 01225 386777 ● edgeinfo@bath.ac.uk ● www.icia.org.uk Messum's RA Mag. 15.4.15 (Cotton at Bath).indd 1

Messum’s www.messums.com 28 Cork Street, London W1S 3NG Telephone: +44 (0)20 7437 5545

Alan Cotton is represented internationally by Messum’s

14/04/2015 15:43

Tour some of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most magnificent buildings. (No passport required.)

ABTA No.Y6050

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The Cathedrals of England, 20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;28 April 2016: history, architecture, sculpture, stained glass and current life in Ely, Lincoln, Durham,York, Coventry, Gloucester, Bristol, Wells, Salisbury and Winchester. Led by cathedrals specialist Jon Cannon. One of our most popular itineraries, this is one of around 250 cultural tours for small groups in Britain, continental Europe, the Middle East, India, China, Japan and the Americas.

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Three Forms, 1935, by Barbara Hepworth

Curves with verve

tat e /© b ow n es s , h ep wo r t h es tat e

Barbara Hepworth’s synthesis of sensuality and spirituality places her works at the pinnacle of modern British sculpture, argues simon wilson Barbara Hepworth (1903-75) was one of the great triumvirate of artists who pioneered modern art in Britain in the heroic period between the wars, and who then came to wider fame in the post-war era. The other two were Henry Moore, her close friend, and Ben Nicholson, to whom she was married for 13 years. She has often been seen as the lesser artist of the three, suffering particularly from the comparison with Moore, and the fluctuations in her reputation since her premature death are reflected in the fact that the last major survey of her work in London was at the then Tate Gallery in 1968. This long fast is now being broken with an exhibition whose title, ‘Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World’, reflects its aim to bring out the international dimension of her art and reputation. In his introduction to the Tate exhibition catalogue the co-curator Chris Stephens explicitly states, ‘Too often Hepworth has been considered in relation to other, generally male colleagues’. In the light of this it is odd that two out of the six sections of this show are devoted to her relationship to other artists. The fact is that already by the early 1930s Hepworth was developing a distinctively personal and compelling sculptural vision. Of course she was tuning into aspects of the zeitgeist, in particular an emphasis on carving, on foregrounding the innate qualities of the

materials used, on the simplification of form, and on what might be called elemental themes – procreation, and the human relationship to nature. But she was forging her own synthesis of these. And as the marvellous guarea wood carvings of the mid-1950s later show, she was as capable as any man of carving on a massive scale. Her first marriage, to fellow sculptor John Skeaping in 1925, and the birth of their son Paul in 1929, and perhaps particularly her great love affair with Nicholson, whom she met in 1931, may have helped unleash her own expression of the first of those elemental themes, which emerged in the profound sensuality of her work of this period. By 1933 she was producing carvings such as the startlingly phallic Figure and the explicitly sexual Two Forms. At the same time she created a series of images of motherhood whose flowing, curving, bulging, budding and merging shapes powerfully evoke both the physical and emotional aspects of the subject. In a fascinating essay in the exhibition catalogue on Hepworth’s religious beliefs, Lucy Kent points out the tension she felt between her sexuality and her adherence to Christian Science, which emphasised the purely spiritual: ‘How can we cut out the most lovely thing that God has created,’ she wrote in a letter to Nicholson. It was Hepworth’s deep sense of the spiritual that drove her towards a pure abstraction. Yet an ambivalence can still be seen in what is usually

considered her first major abstract carving, Three Forms (1935, above). Consisting of two ovoids and a ball, it was the first work Hepworth produced when she was able to resume carving after giving birth to her triplets – two girls and a boy. She later wrote: ‘I could, for the rest of my life, take an egg form... and carve an infinite number of sculptures, all giving a different sort of life.’ Following her move to St Ives at the outbreak of the Second World War, Hepworth’s abstract sculptures increasingly reflected her response to the ancient and numinous coastal landscape of the area. This is encapsulated in her celebrated wood carving of 1946, Pelagos. The title is Greek for sea, and Hepworth related this work to the view of St Ives Bay from her studio: ‘the arms of the land, to left and right of me… the curves of coast and horizon… a sense of containment and security.’ And art historian Claire Doherty has noted in it ‘allusions to the womb and to the sheltering, caring function of the mother’. In 2011 a museum devoted to Hepworth opened in her native Yorkshire town of Wakefield. This building, designed by David Chipperfield RA, echoes the artist’s characteristic blend of the abstract and the organic, in its forms and its relationship to its setting. Complementing the Tate Britain show, Hepworth Wakefield has two exhibitions, exploring the beginning and the end of her career. See them all for a deep experience of this richly rewarding artist. Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World Tate Britain, London, 020 7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk, 24 June-25 Oct Hepworth in Yorkshire until 6 Sep and A Greater Freedom: Hepworth 1965-1975 until 3 April 2016, both at Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, 01924 247360, www.hepworthwakefield.org

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Six degrees of separation

1. THE AA STUDENT SHOW

2. TURNER’S WESSEX

3. PABLO BRONSTEIN

Eight elegant Georgian buildings in Bloomsbury are home to the Architectural Association, one of the world’s most prestigious design schools. The AA has a reputation for nuturing Britain’s most progressive architects, including this magazine’s guest editor David Chipperfield RA, and its annual show of student projects is an essential stop for talent spotting (27 June–18 July; 020 7887 4000) for those touring London’s art and architecture schools this summer (see page 79).

J.M.W. Turner RA enrolled as a student at the Royal Academy Schools at the age of 14. But at that ripe old age he had already worked as a draughtsman for the architect Thomas Hardwick, who, so the story goes, encouraged him to become a painter instead. ‘Turner’s Wessex: Architecture and Ambition’ at Salisbury Museum shows the artist’s eye for architecture, displaying his paintings and drawings of Salisbury Cathedral (above) and the nearby neo-Gothic Fonthill Abbey (until 27 Sep; 01722 332151).

Another artist with a love of architecture is Pablo Bronstein, who produces irreverent drawings, installations and performances (above) about historic styles of buildings. His drawings in response to the English Baroque estate of Chatsworth House go on view at its New Gallery (4 July–20 Sep; 01246 565300), and a selection are presented at the same time at Nottingham Contemporary, alongside his choice of works from Chatsworth’s treasure trove of objets and Old Master art (0115 948 9750).

6. CAROL BOVE/CARLO SCARPA

5. HAUSER & WIRTH SOMERSET

4. COUNTRY CONTEMPORARY

The word visionary is often ascribed to the Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, whose cult following continues to grow more than three decades since his death. As well as his radical structures, such as his famously sci-fi Brion Cemetery near Treviso, he created imaginative furniture and sculptures. At Leeds’ Henry Moore Institute, these are juxtaposed with assemblages of found objects and sculptures by the contemporary American artist Carol Bove (Hysteron Proteron, 2014, above; until 12 July, 0113 246 7467).

A corner of rural Somerset is also enjoying a new lease of life thanks to artists. Commercial gallery Hauser & Wirth transformed Durslade Farm in Bruton into an arts centre last year, and the venue has received over 100,000 visitors already. Its current programme has a focus on architecture and includes the superb show ‘Land Marks: Structures for a Poetic Universe’ (until 21 June; 01749 814060), a survey of designs by visionary architects, including Le Corbusier’s maquette for his Open Hand monument, c.1956-59 (above).

Chatsworth is not the only country house to reinvigorate itself with contemporary art as art lovers venture further afield for the summer season. The American artist James Turrell Hon RA presents optically affecting light works (Dhatu, 2009, above) at Norfolk’s Neo-Palladian Houghton Hall near King’s Lynn, including a new site-specific piece that takes his art outdoors – here illuminating Houghton’s entire west façade (7 June–24 Oct; 01485 528569).

Va l er i e B en n e t t/A r ch i t ec t u r a l As s o ci at i o n . © s a l is b u ry cat h ed r a l . p h oto h u go gl en d i n n i n g . P h oto F lo r i a n H o l z h er r / I m age co u r t esy o f Ja m es t u r r el l . © ESTATE O F LE COR B USIER . Co u r t esy t h e A r t is t, m acca r o n e , N e w Yo r k a n d Dav i d Z w i r n er , N e w Yo r k / Lo n d o n

From David Chipperfield’s alma mater to American sculptor Carol Bove

34 ra magazine | summer 2015

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Beijing Renaissance In China’s foremost fine art academy, drawing directly from classical Western casts comes as a surprise to sam phillips, on his visit to the capital TEACHING LESSONS

co u r t esy o f cafa . P h oto © El iz ab e t h F el i cella

ra magazine spotlights global museums and galleries with art school associations

Students at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, draw from the cast collection of Western European art

The Louis Kahn Building at Yale University Art Gallery

Like many of Beijing’s recent buildings, the museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), opened in 2008, has a spectacular exterior, its curved slate-grey form breaching the ground like a huge whale. But arguably the bigger eye-opener lies close by. In a columned rotunda adjacent to the museum, one time-warps from the 21st century to a scene from Renaissance Italy, as CAFA’s young students draw and sculpt from casts of antique statues (above). The study of figurative sculpture has been integral to academies of art for centuries, including the Royal Academy Schools, whose central corridor is still lined with classical casts. But while RA students today take very tangential inspiration from such sculptures, drawing directly from casts remains an essential task for their Chinese counterparts. ‘Since 1950, when CAFA was established, students have had to take an exam that tests their realistic drawing or modelling of sculpture,’ says CAFA’s museum curator, Wang Chunchen. ‘They learn a European model, but a classical model, not a modern one.’ While CAFA’s emphasis on realism has not stopped conceptual art taking root in China, it has, in Wang’s view, undermined abstract art, which is practised by very few painters. ‘The Chinese public misunderstand it, thinking that artists turn to abstract art because they do not have the technique to make realistic paintings.’ In a move to change opinions, CAFA recently mounted a show by Sean Scully RA – the first ever retrospective of a Western abstract artist in China. A series of events on abstraction was staged to coincide with the show, exploring the ideas in Scully’s work and in non-representational art more broadly. Scully sees plenty of symmetry

The RA is not alone in its affiliation with a prestigious art school. Galleries across the globe have similar connections to education, nurturing the next generation of artists. Major examples can be found across the Atlantic, including Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago. Their two schools can respectively count alumni including Ellen Gallagher, Nan Goldin and Cy Twombly, and Georgia O’Keeffe, Joan Mitchell and Jeff Koons Hon RA, all of whom will have learned from looking at the museums’ diverse collections, ranging from ancient art to Impressionism. In 1832, Yale University founded America’s first college art gallery, more than 30 years before art was taught at the Ivy League institution. The Yale School of Art became one of the country’s most in-demand art schools, educating artists such as Richard Serra Hon RA and Michael Craig-Martin RA (see page 38) a stone’s throw from the Yale University Art Gallery (above) and the Yale Center for British Art. The latter owns the best collection of British art outside the UK, and both buildings are elegant structures designed by the American modernist architect Louis Kahn. Art schools often only have galleries dedicated to the work of students, teachers and alumni. One exception is an art school in Frankfurt, the Städelschule, which looks ambitiously outwards with its gallery Portikus, a space for high-profile international artists that is programmed with the involvement of students.

between CAFA and the RA, both of which are led by artists. ‘CAFA has the same grand vision as the RA,’ he says. ‘It has an art school alongside incredible galleries. It’s the only place that has equalled the RA in this respect.’ Is CAFA really the nearest the RA has to a counterpart? The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, established by Michelangelo and co in the 16th century, is still teaching students, but the world-famous Galleria dell’Accademia, established to house its teaching collections, is now administratively separate. The artist-run Académie des Beaux-Arts, against which the Impressionists rebelled, no longer organises the Paris Salon – the annual equivalent to the RA Summer Exhibition – and is more notable for granting awards to artists. The Berlin Akademie der Künste, founded in 1696, has an active artist membership as well as events, exhibitions and an awards programme, but its art school has morphed into the Berlin University of the Arts. CAFA is keen to pursue links with London; this summer, it displays the work of Thomas Heatherwick RA selected by the RA’s Curator of Architecture Kate Goodwin. And Scully sees similarities between today’s booming Beijing and 18th-century London, when the RA was founded. ‘CAFA’s grand vision has been accompanied by a spectacular rise in fortune, something that also came with the Royal Academy. When the RA was born, the wealth of England was staggering, with new houses going up non-stop. London must have looked like Beijing today – a building site.’ New British Inventors: Inside Heatherwick Studio CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, +86 10 6477 1575, www.cafamuseum.org, 4–21 June

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Preview Books

Man for all seasons As Michael Craig-Martin RA co-ordinates this year’s Summer Exhibition, the Curator and Head of the RA Schools eliza bonham carter discovers in a new book what makes this leading artist and teacher tick How welcome it is to hear the voice of the artist. Writing with apparent simplicity in his new book, Michael Craig-Martin RA lays out complex issues with a clear economy of words. This book at its best is close in form to his art. One of the blessed generation, born during the Second World War and riding the crest of progressive politics and the flowering of higher education that followed, Craig-Martin provides in this book a fascinating record of a life in art, from the tail end of high modernism through to the present day. It is not strictly an autobiography; it encompasses some of the great changes in art and art education during the period. Despite ending up deeply embedded within the British art establishment, Craig-Martin –

Irish, but raised and educated in the US – has an international perspective that has allowed him to retain a useful, outsider’s view. His involvement with key moments of the post-war period allows the reader an insight into the world of art from all angles – the studio, the seminar room and the exhibition space. This is not a book to go to if you seek enlightenment on the psychological imperatives of the artists of each moment, as its characters are left as outlines. There are anticlimactic moments when an argument is built only to be left hanging, but do not let this put you off. The section on his studies at Yale is a revelation. Here he describes the last moments of the direct influence that the Bauhaus had on American art teaching, through the courses

designed by Josef Albers, then at Yale but earlier a key contributor to the German art school. This throws light not only on a touchstone of CraigMartin’s own practice, but also on the work of a generation of highly influential artists who went through Yale, including Brice Marden, Eva Hesse and Richard Serra Hon RA. The importance of Bauhaus was that it provided an alternative to the academy as a model for the teaching of art. For centuries the academic system had taught art through drawing from the classical cast and the life model; it was solely focused on the fine arts and held painting at the pinnacle. The Bauhaus, established in 1919 by Walter Gropius, aimed to look forward not back, to develop a new and modern sense of beauty which disregarded the distinction between craft

‘He settles some very English scores in brilliant passages on the distinction between “art” and “skill”’

On Being an Artist by Michael Craig-Martin, Art/Books, hardback £22.50 Michael Craig-Martin RA in his studio, 2014

To read an extract from On Being an Artist, visit http://roy.ac/mcmbook

and the fine arts and where function was the prime concern. Craig-Martin’s life as an artist and teacher embodies that shift in art away from the academic model. His route is Duchamp, Bauhaus and conceptualism (he would argue perceptualism), then Goldsmiths, where he taught an emerging generation of Young British Artists including Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Fiona Rae RA. A key element of the book, of course, is Craig-Martin’s time at Goldsmiths. It’s a publication that is closer to a handbook than a narrative or a thesis. Perhaps in discreet reference to the Essays of Montaigne each chapter, is titled with a repeated ‘On…’ – ‘On Drawing’, ‘On Colour’ etc – giving Craig-Martin the freedom to range across subjects and modes of thinking, from the philosophical to the anecdotal, while also allowing for the aphoristic, as well as extended passages. In ten lines he exposes the wonder of the artifice of line drawing. He settles some very English scores in brilliant passages on the distinction between ‘art’ and ‘skill’, notably in a short chapter, ‘On Life Drawing’. Other high points include sections on Minimalism, which produced, in his words, ‘objects of charged neutrality’. His approach is not unlike that of an artist in the studio, finding the right form for an idea. In doing so Craig-Martin builds a sense of the process and attitude he has brought to making art, as well as a compelling argument for the value of the art school as a model and the vitality of its contribution to the development of new thinking.

38 ra magazine | summer 2015

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The Garden Oil on panel 71 x 91.5cm

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Special focus on architecture

Academy Artists

40 ra magazine | summer 2015

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In the Studio

Grace and symmetry Behind redbrick walls in an old Berlin factory fiona maddocks finds architect Louisa Hutton RA in a calm and spacious haven. Photograph by jule roehr Asked to imagine a former Prussian military uniform factory, you might picture a long building with tall windows, red brickwork, white paint and an air of stern symmetry. Louisa Hutton RA is one half of the international architecture firm, Sauerbruch Hutton, whose Berlin-based practice is housed in precisely such a place. ‘We still sometimes find old brass buttons in between the floorboards,’ Hutton says, ‘which remind us of the building’s extraordinary history.’ Hutton and her husband and partner Matthias Sauerbruch first came to Berlin in 1989 as the Wall came down, ‘an incredibly exciting, euphoric time – when everything seemed possible’. Much has changed since then, the once divided city transforming before their eyes, always ‘raw and messy’ as Hutton puts it, and vibrantly alive. They moved to these premises in 1995, starting with only ‘half of one floor’ and gradually expanding to house a staff of around 90. A stone’s throw from the Brandenburg Gate, symbol of Imperial Prussian pride, the building is one of a family of brick barracks, which have gradually been rebuilt for use by artists, musicians, filmmakers and photographers, as well as architects. Sauerbruch Hutton designed a neighbouring studio and loft for Karin Sander, the conceptual artist. Now the couple has built a house for themselves and others there too. ‘Although this is still inner-city urban Berlin, it is not yet fashionable,’ Hutton notes. ‘But it’s changing fast.’ Elected a Royal Academician last year, Hutton was born in Norwich in 1957 and studied at Bristol University and the Architectural Association in London, learning her craft while working in the mid-1980s with Alison and Peter Smithson (responsible for The Economist building in St James’s, London). Hutton grew up the youngest of four in a farming family on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. She attributes some of her early interest in architecture to her father. ‘He was an architect manqué really, an engineer who had an excellent eye and who loved to design things and get them built.’ In her Berlin studios, any last hint of military rectitude gives way to light-filled, open-plan spaces, abnormally tall doorways and windows, and muted colours in shades of what Hutton calls ‘dirty grey’, ‘purplish grey’ and, in one charming

amalgam, ‘neutral dirty grey’. She herself, tall and supremely elegant dressed in Issey Miyake, graces her surroundings as much as they grace her. Wiry and poised, she never wastes word or gesture but will always thank a staff member, whether for a grand design or a timely cup of coffee, as she strides through the offices. On the ground level, original wood floors and cast-iron columns are retained. On the upper floors, anglepoise lamps crane quirkily over each workstation. Exposed concrete beams, milk-pale Douglas Fir floors and a hushed industry characterise the place, a quiet aided by acoustic panels. The top floor where we meet is calm, minimal and spacious. Sharp angles are softened with curves. A deck-like balcony overlooks trees. Prototype furniture – a low, simple table, an arresting chair winged as if poised for flight – and architectural models take pride of place. Sauerbruch Hutton currently has projects ranging from the public and commercial to residential and ecclesiastical, in London, Paris, Geneva, Helsinki, Venice and several cities in Germany. Her workplace is physically robust and joyfully sustainable. ‘A lot of people are apologetic about having to make buildings sustainable. We celebrate it. And a lot of the features we use are deliberately visible on our buildings, forming an integral part of the design.’ This is true of Sauerbruch Hutton’s Brandhorst Museum, Munich (2009), in which the exterior – conceived to dampen traffic noise acoustically – is composed of 36,000 ceramic rods in 23 colours, changing with the play of light throughout the day. Closer to home, a new polychromatic building in London opposite the Old Bailey displays hallmark curves to echo St Paul’s Cathedral nearby. The connection between architecture and cityscape is a preoccupation Hutton shares with David Chipperfield RA, who also has a studio in Berlin. Hutton is delighted to find herself a member of the Academy. ‘Occasionally in life something surprising and really great happens. Being elected an RA was such an event. I’m looking forward to participating, to sharing ideas with colleagues, to seeing how differently the world works in London and Berlin. And of course it’s good to get out of the office…’ Not, given the haven she works in, that she can really complain.

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Academy Artists

Set in stone Art and architecture combine on a corner of London’s St James’s, where Stephen Cox RA has integrated sculpture into Eric Parry RA’s building. sam phillips reports

West hybrid: Buddhist Gandharan statues that borrowed their ordered naturalism from antique Greek sculpture. Such statues are part of an Indian visual culture that Parry also adores, describing it as ‘an animate world, fantastically pungent and powerful’. Indian sculptors invested their stone with spirituality, says Cox. ‘Hindu, Jain and Buddhist priests believed that within the mountain they could find the living form of gods, and that’s why you find Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma and Buddha excavated into mountain sides.’ This practice expanded to create rock-carved temples, works in which architecture and sculpture are entirely unified. The way Cox’s figure gradually materialises from the rock was also influenced by Michelangelo’s magnificent Taddei Tondo (c.150405), the only sculpture by the master in Britain, on display in the RA Sackler Wing. Adjacent to the relief is an architectural addition by Cox. Three wide blocks of dolerite have been carved with text in tribute to Lutyens and set in a form reminiscent of a Buddhist stupa rail. Above the inscribed stone is Parry’s twostorey overhanging bay, supported by large granite brackets. This ‘jettisoning of the building outwards’, says Parry, is ‘slightly expressionistic, like Czech Cubism’; Cox describes it as a ‘mashrabiya, a kind of Islamic oriel window

p h oto © d i r k L i n d n er . p h oto © BENEDICT JOHNSON

8 St James’s Square by Eric Parry RA, with Stephen Cox RA’s two sculptures: an inscribed rail and a relief figure

Why is the RA an Academy of ‘Arts’ and not ‘Art’? Because of architecture. The visual arts in plural – fine art and architecture – are firm friends at the RA, and artist and architect Members sometimes work together outside the institution. Stroll down towards St James’s Square and you’ll find a spirit-lifting example. On a corner on Duke of York Street a huge sculpted figure emerges from an office building’s grey basalt. The work, Relief: Figure Emerging to E.L. (2014-15), was made by sculptor Stephen Cox, and the building – 8 St James’s Square – was designed by Eric Parry, and this combination is their latest collaboration, in a relationship that goes back more than 20 years. ‘Most architects are interested in art,’ explains Cox when the three of us meet at the site, ‘but they wouldn’t want to integrate it in their buildings. Eric has the confidence and imagination to incorporate others’ art into his work.’ Parry trained as an artist before becoming an architect, and when Cox describes him as ‘a real Renaissance man’, it’s no exaggeration: in the first commercial building he designed – for property tycoon Stuart Lipton – he painted a fresco. Parry tells me he drew inspiration from Florentine palazzi for aspects of 8 St James’s Square, including a loggia-like terrace which, set back from the street, adds to a wonderful variety of depth to the side of the building. This range of recessing is a hallmark of Parry’s work, making it sympathetic at street level, different angles rhythmically catching the eye as one walks by. ‘It’s about sculpting a building, rather than letting a system take over,’

he says. ‘The monumentality of some buildings is a complete affront to society as they’re impossible to engage with.’ He also has a deep love for what he calls ‘the haptic, tectonic quality of materials’. The building’s brick and stone were all hand-tooled by craftsmen, a bulwark against ‘the way that London architecture is going in terms of its fabrication, where elevations are pre-fabricated in factories in Germany or Switzerland as a way of cutting risk.’ Parry explains how much Cox’s work has taught him about materials, ‘in particular the miraculous metamorphoses you can achieve with hard stones such as basalts and granites. When you pick them they can become a light grey, but when you polish them they become jet black. And they can change appearance again with libations and oiling. These are complete miracles that seeing Stephen’s sculptures revealed to me.’ But Cox’s sympathy with such stone was not the only reason Parry commissioned him. Down the small street from the sculpture, Apple Tree Yard once housed the studio of Edwin Lutyens PRA, the architect of New Delhi’s great administrative buildings. For three decades Cox has worked from a studio in the town of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, and the confluence of Indian art and other cultures is his fascination. ‘Lutyens had to create a new order of architecture in New Delhi,’ explains Cox, ‘so he established a hybrid, drawing on both Greek architecture and Buddhist, Mughal and Hindu buildings.’ Cox’s figure, hewn out of an 18-tonne block of rough dolerite, nods to another East-

Stephen Cox and Eric Parry at Apple Tree Yard

through which to gaze onto the street. It has given the building an amazing sculptural quality.’ Cox reveals he is envious of the great scale of Parry’s works; the architect, in turn, says he wishes he had the freedom of his friend. ‘Artists start without a brief and define their own world – they have a set of celestial goals,’ says Parry. ‘There are three things to building: money, time and quality, and quality gets screwed all the time. If I can answer a brief by giving craftsmen the opportunity to finish an exterior, I will. And then art can just lift a building beyond the everyday, to another world of possibilities.’ To see a gallery of images that show the fabrication of Stephen Cox’s sculptures in India, visit http://roy.ac/coxindia

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Academy Artists

Now showing Our guide to the current art and architecture of the Royal Academicians

Sculptors ● Phyllida Barlow’s solo show ‘tryst’ is at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (30 May–30 Aug). She also shows at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (27 June–18 Oct), with a new monograph to coincide ● Ann Christopher shows two sculptures at Withiel House Sculpture Garden, near Truro (until 30 Sep; by appointment only) ● Richard Deacon has two solo shows: ‘This Is Where Ideas Come From’, at Wolfson College, Cambridge (1 July–30 Sep) and ‘On The Other Side’, at Kunstmuseum Winterthur, near Zürich (22 Aug–15 Nov) ● Antony Gormley shows works on paper at Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle (26

June-8 Aug) ● The RA, in collaboration with Terrace Wires, has commissioned Cornelia Parker to create a new sitespecific sculpture at London’s St Pancras International Station. One More Time (2015) is installed from 28 May until November ● Cathie Pilkington takes part in ‘Thirteen Blackbirds look at a Man’ at Chapter, Cardiff (11 July–6 Sep) ● William Tucker has a solo show at the Municipal Museum, Bilbao (9 June–14 Sep) ● Rebecca Warren takes part in ArtZuid 2015, the International Sculpture Route in Amsterdam (until 22 Sep) ● David Chipperfield, Ian Ritchie and Yinka Shonibare have each designed chairs for ‘Re-Work It’, an art project at Selfridges in London to raise funds for the charity Art Room (until 9 June).

● Ted Cullinan’s firm, Cullinan Studio, has begun work on the new £150m National Automotive Innovation Centre at the University of Warwick. Pontifex Wharf, a residential building in Bankside, London, is now complete ● Norman Foster’s firm, Foster + Partners, has unveiled designs for ‘The One’, an 80-storey mixed-use tower in Toronto. At 318m it will be the city’s second tallest building. The firm has broken ground on the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology in Keelung, Taiwan ● Nicholas Grimshaw’s firm is to collaborate with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects on the masterplan for Union Station, Washington DC. The practice has also been awarded the 2015 Medal of Honor by the American Institute of Architects in New York for its part in the revitalisation of the city through projects such as the new Fulton Centre metro interchange ● Zaha Hadid’s practice is to build the new headquarters for Bee’ah (top right), a leading environmental and waste management company, in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates ● Thomas Heatherwick has unveiled plans for Google’s new headquarters in California. His studio is also working on a design for a floating island park, Pier55, on the Hudson River in New York ● Michael Hopkins’ firm is among the final four teams shortlisted to design a new £40m pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Thames at Nine Elms ● Eva Jiřičná’s firm, in conjunction with AI Design, is contributing to a new mixed-use residential development, The Oaks, in Prague ● Farshid Moussavi has been elected a Royal Academician. The buildings she has designed include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, Ohio (centre right), which opened in 2012 ● Richard Rogers’s firm RSHP has completed the new £160m Cancer Centre at Guy’s Hospital in London ● The new £80m Weston Library in Oxford (right), designed by Christopher Wilkinson and Jim Eyre’s firm Wilkinson Eyre, is now open.

Painters and Printmakers ● Frank Bowling shows new work at the

A rendering of the headquarters for Bee’ah in Sharjah, UAE, by Zaha Hadid Architects above Farshid Moussavi’s Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, Ohio right The restored Broad Street entrance to WilkinsonEyre’s new Weston Library, one of the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford top

Triangle Centre, Chelsea School of Arts, London (15–24 July). His show of ‘Map’ paintings is at the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas (until 2 Aug) ● Jeffery Camp, Anthony Eyton and Mali Morris take part in a group show at Kapil Jariwala, London (until 20 June) ● David Hockney has two solo shows at Annely Juda Fine Art, London (until 27 June and 9 July–29 Aug) ● Chantal Joffe’s solo show is at Cheim & Read, New York (until 20 June) ● Jock McFadyen has work in ‘Paintings of People’ at Nottingham Castle (20 June–6 Sep). He and Terry Setch take part in in ‘Reality’ at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (10 July–29 Nov) ● Lisa Milroy shows in ‘Painting in Time’ at The Tetley, Leeds (until 5 July) ● Grayson Perry’s survey show ‘Provincial Punk’ is at Turner Contemporary, Margate (until 13 Sep). His House for Essex, near Wrabness, can be rented through Living Architecture ● Rebecca Salter’s show ‘Along These Lines’ is at Beardsmore Gallery, London (until 6 June) ● Sean Scully’s solo show ‘FigureAbstract’ is at Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (27 June–12 Sep) ● Emma Stibbon’s solo show ‘Ice Limit’ is at the Polar Museum, Cambridge (11 June– 5 Sep) ● Wolfgang Tillmans has a survey show at the National Museum of Art, Osaka (25 July–23 Sep).

r en d er by M I R ©Z a h a H a d i d A r ch i t ects . FARSH I D M O USSAV I /© d e a n k aufm a n n . W I L K I NS O NEYRE ARCH I TECTS/ja m es b r i t ta i n

Architects

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Passage to the Golden Earth A unique voyage exploring the Andaman Islands, Myanmar and the Mergui Archipelago Aboard the Silver Discoverer - 19th November to 2nd December 2016 BANGLADESH

Norman Lewis, regarded by many as one of our greatest travel writers visited Burma some sixty odd years ago and soon after published ‘Golden Earth’. This wonderfully poignant work still resonates today and is essential reading for anyone contemplating a visit to this beautiful and enigmatic land. There is no doubt that for the cultural traveller, Myanmar is the jewel of Southeast Asia and we are delighted to have chartered the 120-passenger Silver Discoverer for this unique voyage which offers the opportunity to explore the country‘s cultural wonders combined with calls into the southern Mergui Archipelago, a pristine collection of islands where tourists are a rarity and the only possible means of exploration is small ship. Our voyage in November is perfectly timed, the weather may be cold at home but will be warm and sunny for our exploration.

Imphal

Bagan

MYANMAR Bago Yangon

With its ancient civilisation, its Buddhist culture, its traditional life-style, golden pagodas and sublime hospitality, ANDAMAN the ‘Golden Land’ of Burma offers a stark contrast to major cities, to Western expectations and to mass SEA tourism. There is no other Asian country with such a vast and varied range of cultural sites and our itinerary ANDAMAN Ritchies Archipelago ISLANDS includes highlights such as bustling Yangon known as the ‘city of Peace’ where we will visit the impressive Mergui Neill Island Archipelago reclining Buddha and the most sacred Golden Pagoda which overlooks the city. Enjoy the sheer beauty of Port Blair Bagan, surrounded by the most significant pagodas and temples and explore the local markets selling fresh fruits, nuts, fish, flowers, wood carvings, fabrics, longyis and rattan products. After our days ashore which will be filled with new impressions and remarkable sights and as the sunlight fades in the early evening and disappears behind a golden pagoda, one can understand why the country is often called “Mystical Myanmar”, a land of beauty and promise.

THAILAND Phuket

Upon leaving Yangon we sail for the rarely visited Mergui Archipelago and end our voyage surrounded by pristine beaches perfect for beachcombing, snorkelling or simply relaxing. Our unusual itinerary will appeal to those looking for something different, incorporating explorations of remote archipelagos with a more expedition focus with a fascinating look at the cultural highlights of Myanmar. Special offer prices per person based on double occupancy start from £6895 for an Explorer Suite and include economy class scheduled air travel, overnight hotel accommodation in Phuket, 11 nights aboard the Silver Discoverer on a full board basis, all drinks whilst onboard, shore excursions, Expedition Team, transfers and all gratuities.

NB. Ports and itinerary subject to change. Travel insurance and visas are not included in the price. All special offers are subject to availability and our current booking conditions apply to all reservations.

Call us today on 020 7752 0000 for your copy of our brochure. Alternatively view or request online at www.noble-caledonia.co.uk

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Grand union

The neo-classical façade of Burlington Gardens, with its 22 statues, will be restored in 2018 for the RA’s 250th birthday

above

h ay es dav i ds o n

Burlington Gardens, the stately building behind Burlington House, is the RA’s second home. As the Academy prepares for its 250th anniversary, John Tusa reveals the plans to unite and revitalise the two buildings, transforming this artist-led institution

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h ay es dav i ds o n

They stand back to back, the Royal Academy’s home of Burlington House, facing Piccadilly, and its partly used Burlington Gardens, facing the West End, nudging Bond Street, stage to RA shows, home to the commercial gallery Pace, and offering its grand spaces for hire. The site they occupy is a perfect rectangle, no intrusions, no awkward angles, no heritage relics needing accommodation. To the east the secluded, exclusive lodgings of Albany; to the west, the luxury boutiques of the Burlington Arcade. Viewed from above, the ‘two Burlingtons’ – House and Gardens – cry out for unity (perhaps), connection (certainly), shared purpose (definitely). But they are back to back; that used to be the problem; now it is the opportunity.

For almost a quarter of a century, since the 1990s, the Royal Academy had known that Burlington Gardens, a splendid former university and civil service headquarters, was available. In 2001, it acquired the freehold and a group of Royal Academicians, including Christopher Le Brun, now RA President, began developing a brief for the building. Now 14 years later, the Academicians have an architect with a scheme for the site, David Chipperfield RA; the capital to fund it, some £44 million of the £50 million necessary funding; and a juicy target date by which to complete it – 2018, the 250th anniversary of the founding of the RA. If the drive to solve the problem of ‘difficult adjacency’ – my phrase – now looks unstoppable, it is worth

reflecting on why the chosen solution – of which more shortly – has taken so long. As I walked around the site with the Chief Executive of the RA, Charles Saumarez Smith, he sighed deeply: ‘There’s a long history to the project. Michael and Patty Hopkins did a good scheme in 2001. It would have filled in the space between the two buildings. It was ambitious, but it would have cost £85 million and that was the moment that big National Lottery funding for such projects was stopping. Then from 2001 to 2007, Sandy Wilson was commissioned to do a masterplan. He suggested connecting the two buildings but not uniting them physically as one. Sandy died in 2007 and his proposal died with him.’ I get the impression that the Wilson plan

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BURLINGTON HOUSE

1 2

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TRANSFORMED ACADEMY IN 2018

2 Schools Project Space

The link to Burlington Gardens begins here with newly revealed spaces showing the RA’s plaster casts of antique statues and other objects from the RA Collection.

Displays and site-specific installations by RA Schools students, an opportunity for the public to see works by an emerging generation of artists.

was not seen as the answer and would not have been adopted had he lived, but that is my interpretation. So seven years from buying the freehold, plans for a solution to this ‘difficult adjacency’ were no further forward. In 2008, Chipperfield was the next big name to be invited by the RA to seize the opportunity of uniting/connecting/ blending the ‘Two Burlingtons’. Interestingly, the initial commission was still to renovate Burlington Gardens by itself. ‘Within a year David came back to us and said the scheme would only work if you connect the two buildings,’ said Saumarez Smith, as we stood in the studios of the RA Schools on the north side of Burlington House and facing the back of Burlington Gardens. And then the clincher, simple but daring: ‘David said, “We will give you ‘front door to front door connection’, which means we must go straight through the Schools!”’

3 Link Bridge

4 Link Gallery

A new bridge unifies the RA, allowing visitors to move between Burlington House and Burlington Gardens for the first time (see image page 51).

Most of us never see the RA Schools students’ studios, don’t know where they are even. Immediately behind the main staircase of Burlington House, with the men’s loos to the right and the Grand Café to the left, there is now a locked door in a blank wall. In future it will be replaced by a short flight of steps. Walk down and you will enter a corridor flanked with objects from the RA Collection, and at its end you find the RA Schools with its great east-west Cast Corridor – a sight in itself – and a gallery of students’ work. Up a short flight of new stairs and you will find yourself in the ‘link bridge’ (page 51), a windowed passageway that takes you over the Schools studios and directly into Burlington Gardens. As the man said, ‘front door to front door connection through the Schools!’ I’ve spent some time on this connection for two reasons. First, the Academy so obviously believes that this is the answer, the ‘big idea’ in

At the end of the Link Bridge is a newly built contemporary art space dedicated to displays and special projects by Royal Academicians.

conceptual terms but an incredibly modest one in architectural terms. Second, because it shows that the Academicians, who Chipperfield – an RA himself – fondly describes as ‘an anarchic group of grumpy artists and architects devoted to quality, purpose and excellence’, did not rush into a solution, were not trapped into a fast decision. This tells you a lot about the Royal Academy as an institution, as an organisation, as a private group of artists serving public purposes. And most importantly, it dawned on me as I walked around the site, the entire project will nudge the ‘Two Burlingtons’ to become a whole. It raises huge questions about what the Royal Academy is and what it might become once the project is complete. Because when you enter the Annenberg Courtyard in front of Burlington House or approach Burlington Gardens from the north, you won’t notice much difference. The front of

dav i d ch i p p er f i el d a r ch i t ec ts

1 Link Vaults

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BURLINGTON GARDENS

dav i d ch i p p er f i el d a r ch i t ec ts

5 Burlington Gardens Galleries

A suite of three day-lit galleries will stage an innovative programme of exhibitions with a focus on living artists and architects.

6 Clore Learning Centre

A door leads to a space engaging everyone in the making of art, whether school children, families, local communities or the general public (see image page 51).

Burlington Gardens will be cleaned and will feature a new terrace, but essentially, the façades of the two buildings will be unchanged. Inside Burlington House the entrance foyers will be far more spacious – that will be nice. The connection to Burlington Gardens will reveal itself – that’s better – and within Burlington Gardens, the second major innovation will reveal itself, the reinstatement of an old lecture theatre on the east side. Other elements in the scheme are valuable: a suite of galleries dedicated to the work of living artists, including Academicians; another to show the work of the Schools; and a third for the RA’s own collections. A Clore Learning Centre and a courtyard between the two buildings for students and staff round off the scheme. But you will not find or experience a ‘grand project’, a radical physical transformation if that is what you expect. I think something far more interesting is going on – a transformation of

7 RA Collection Gallery

8 Lecture Theatre

As well other new spaces, the Burlington Gardens staircase leads to a large gallery presenting artworks and telling stories from the RA Collection.

the institution starting with the Academicians’ clear awareness of what kind of body it is. ‘Form follows function’, of course; the nature of the institution shapes its physical envelope. Idea first; architecture responds. Saumarez Smith sees this very clearly: ‘There is a huge question facing the RA. How will the physical transformation of the RA site both reveal and expand the nature of the Academy?’ Answering such a fundamental question involves understanding what the RA is now, based on its history. He listed some important characteristics: ‘It is old; it is a teaching institution; it is a private institution; it is a professional institution; it is a self-elected body.’ In today’s terms that raises problematic issues. If self-elected, is it therefore undemocratic? Does a private institution have to be democratic? Is it enough, to quote Chipperfield, that it delivers ‘quality, purpose and excellence’? Is that justification more valuable

Next to the richly decorated Senate Rooms is a new 260-seat lecture theatre, for talks, debates, film screenings and concerts (see image page 50).

to society than going through the rotes of managerial ‘accountability’? Quite as important is Saumarez Smith’s reminder of what the Royal Academy is not. ‘The RA is not a museum; it is not a gallery; we don’t have big collections; it is not a European academy dedicated to the preservation of the ancient.’ So what is it? ‘The Royal Academy is an institution involved in contemporary practice.’ This makes the RA an odd fish to categorise: is there another place quite like this in Europe or North America? I can’t think of one. Given its operating purpose is ‘to make, to show, to debate’, only one question follows. Will the Chipperfield plan allow the RA to carry out these activities more fully, more actively, more intensively, more imaginatively? A final question before I moved on: why had the Academy chosen Chipperfield for the project? Saumarez Smith’s reply took me by surprise: ‘David has spent a lot of time working in

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American museums. He ran into the question of how to persuade visitors that art is made. People think it grows on trees, appears on museum walls and exists to be bought and sold. You must insert the idea that art is made. That is what the RA is about; David understands that perfectly.’ The idea is visible when visitors walk above the Schools studios, see the work of students and Academicians, or make art themselves in the Clore Learning Centre (opposite). David Chipperfield’s office in Waterloo is unlike any other architect’s office I have visited. All have been elegant, clean-lined, cool; after all if you cannot design a stylish environment for yourself why should anyone trust you to design theirs? Chipperfield’s is surely intentionally spare,

thrown together, apparently undesigned, a space for working in, improvised even. Perhaps it lets him and his team concentrate on essentials. Of course the ‘front door to front door through connection’ is crucial. ‘With one leap, Jack was free!’ I thought. Importantly in Chipperfield’s view, it is just that, a connection; it does not intrude into or onto gallery space, which he thinks would be intrusive and confusing. But I found his views on the renewed 260-seat lecture theatre (below) in Burlington Gardens revealing. Some wanted it to be a multi-purpose, fully digital, internationally compatible lecture and conference facility. He pointed out that it was prohibitively expensive, it would never earn back its money and missed the point. Which is? ‘It is a lecture theatre for the Royal Academy, for

a l l i m ages dav i d ch i p p er f i el d a r ch i t ec ts

‘ How will the physical transformation of the RA site both reveal and expand the nature of the Academy?’

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opposite page

a l l i m ages dav i d ch i p p er f i el d a r ch i t ec ts

A programme of lectures, debates, film screenings and concerts will take place in the new state-ofthe-art lecture theatre

below The link bridge will provide a new public route between the RA’s two historic buildings bottom The Clore Learning Centre will be a permanent space for the workshops the RA organises for groups including school children, families and local communities

debate, for discussion, for the exchange of ideas. It is not part of a conference venue. It will be a beautiful space.’ In putting those priorities so clearly, Chipperfield and the Academy are – wonderfully I think – flying in the face of current ‘managerialist, business-oriented’ thinking; that unless every space in every institution earns its keep, it cannot be justified. In fact, the lecture theatre will break even financially. But by placing its role at the heart of the RA’s mission, Chipperfield and his fellow Academicians are making sure that the new project will allow the RA’s purposes ‘to make, to show, to debate’ to become a reality. ‘This is not first and foremost a commercial venue; it is the RA’s space. That makes a difference.’ Chipperfield and his team have more than enough on their plates in this project to keep them very busy. What struck me was his strong understanding that, while his proposals will solve physical problems of access, navigation, connection, display and others, these very architectural solutions raise still bigger questions about the very purposes and workings of the Royal Academy. As an organisation the expansion into a larger, integrated space will ask questions of every part of it. How will the Academicians respond to increased activity and responsibility? Will governance need to be adapted or expanded? How much bigger will the roles of President and Chief Executive become? How will curators handle an increased volume of exhibitions? How demanding will the expanded learning activity be? Who will make it a powerhouse of debate and curiosity? How will the Schools seize the opportunity of new awareness from a public passing through their previously secluded space? How will commercial and artistic opportunities be balanced? Is the Academy, old, distinguished as it is, up to the challenge of change? It began with an architectural challenge – how to connect Burlington House with Burlington Gardens. It will end as a question about the very nature of the Royal Academy. Such an apparent reversal of priorities does not worry Chipperfield at all. Form is there, he might say, to serve function, to permit it to develop and grow. What might the public say when they find not a signature piece of architecture but a series of apparently modest interventions? ‘I hope they will say it is continuous, it is not an intrusion. Besides, it is important to do the most with the least.’ In a crowded gathering in the Keeper’s House recently, Christopher Le Brun reflected on the remarkable solidity of Academicians’ support for Chipperfield’s plans. Then he said simply: ‘We always talk of behaving as “One RA”. This scheme means we really must!’ Will the Royal Academy look different when the scheme is finished in 2018? Here and there. Will it feel different? It should. Will it be different? That is the challenge. The RA redevelopment is being generously supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, together with trusts, foundations and individuals. Stories from the Past – Visions of the Future: The Royal Academy and its Buildings Architecture Space, Royal Academy of Arts, 020 7300 8000, www.royalacademy.org.uk, until 20 Sep To see a video of the RA250 plans to transform the RA, visit http://roy.ac/RA250

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Four key figures connected to the RA look forward to a major transformation at the Academy in 2018. Interviews by Eleanor Mills

Picture this TIM MARLOW The RA’s Artistic Director on an increased array of ambitious events and exhibitions

‘The RA is one of the world’s great cultural playgrounds, and in 2018, all of its different parts will be joined – physically and intellectually – into one big creative campus running from Mayfair to Piccadilly. As well as its wonderful existing galleries, new exhibition spaces will show the work of Academicians and students, as well as treasures from the RA Collection. There’s a new lecture theatre and learning centre, while the library and archive will still be here, as will the Schools. The RA was founded by artists, and its independence from the Government is a great strength – this gives us immense creative freedom. In 2018 we are staging a festival across the RA, with events exploring art and architecture and their conversations with other art forms. We’ll devote the whole campus to the Summer Exhibition, and we plan to have one architecture exhibition each year too – remember ‘Richard Rogers’ and ‘Sensing Spaces’? The RA has always been high-profile, energetic and visionary. It’s going to be even more so in 2018.’

‘The RA Schools was my home for three years. As an art school set in a historic art institution in Mayfair, it is unique. The studios are located between Burlington House and Burlington Gardens, so as well as seeing the RA’s shows, we would visit the local galleries too. No other major art school in the UK is free, and you also receive a bursary so you can focus on making work. The course is all-encompassing, from crits, to lectures and seminars in the life drawing room [right] with writers, artists and philosophers, all in this amazing historical setting. My work is photography and film-based so I worked in the editing suite, but you were encouraged to try anything: I made some bronze sculptures in my first year. The diversity of people and media makes a really great dynamic. In 2018 the new Schools Project Space will display student work, and should help broaden the public’s knowledge of the Schools, as will the link between the two buildings, from which people will see the tops of the studios. The studios will remain private though, because they are sacred spaces where artists can experiment.’

a l l p h otos © b en ed i c t J o h ns o n

Julie Born Schwartz The RA Schools alumna on the increased visibility of a special place to study

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Mary Beard The historian on how the treasures in the RA Collection and archive will be revealed

‘I first came across the RA Collection 18 years ago, when my research led me to its marvellous casts, which are taken from original antique sculptures. They have been preserved unusually well because, unlike a lot of other cast collections, they have been in constant use, drawn by generations of RA Schools’ students. Nearly two decades later I’m now sitting on the RA Collection Committee, which has allowed me a much better understanding of the extraordinary range of objects in the collection, from Michelangelo’s iconic Taddei Tondo (150405) and Turner’s painting palette to one of the most eerie works in the collection, George Frampton RA’s sculpture of Lamia, inspired by a Keats poem. I’ve even picked up an original 1788 edition of Plans, Elevations and Sections of Buildings by the architect John Soane RA, from the Academy’s archive – an Aladdin’s cave that holds everything from artists’ notebooks and diaries to great stuff about the Summer Exhibition. The RA Collection has been acquired by artists for artists. That is what makes it so rich and exciting. It includes works made, owned or admired by Academicians, and many have been used to teach RA Schools students. In 2018, the free-entry spaces dedicated to the collection will reveal not only the collection but a hidden artistic and intellectual history.’

CHRISTOPHER LE BRUN PRA The President on the RA’s expanding role as a hub of creative and intellectual debate

a l l p h otos © b en ed i c t J o h ns o n

‘The RA Library is one of the greatest repositories of ideas on art and architecture, and its crown jewels include the Discourses on Art, published in 1797 by the Academy’s founding President, Joshua Reynolds. These theories continue to constitute a substantial intellectual contribution on the part of the Royal Academy to European culture, but we forget they were originally presented by Reynolds as lectures, and that Royal Academicians have long debated art aloud both to their peers and the public. In 2018, a new lecture theatre will make the RA the place to come for debate about visual culture. It will be a beautiful, high, light-filled space designed for speech, for discussion about art and its practice and philosophy. With its semicircle of benched seating, the design follows a classical ideal favouring the human voice and eye contact between the participants. Directly next door will be the Clore Learning Centre. The Royal Academy already runs an extensive programme of practical workshops, so this new studio has tremendous potential in terms of events to inspire and encourage art-makers of all ages. One can imagine a situation where you learn about colour theory in the lecture theatre, then walk next door to the studio, put on an apron and practise the ideas and techniques you have just learnt. At the Academy, after all, we are not just about ideas – we are also practising artists.’

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Co l l ec t i o n o f R o b er t L eh r m a n , co u r t esy o f A i m ee a n d R o b er t L eh r m a n / P h oto T h e R o b er t L eh r m a n Ar t Trus t, co u r t esy o f A i m ee a n d R o b er t L eh r m a n . P h oto g r a p h y: Q u i cks i lv er P h oto gr a p h ers , LLC/ÂŠ T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l Fo u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015

opposite page A Parrot for Juan Gris, 1953-54, by Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell created curious worlds of long ago and far away in his boxes of found objects. Deborah Solomon is enchanted, as the Academy mounts a show of this American pioneer of assemblage art

Such stuff as dreams are made on

Q u i cks i lv er P h oto gr a p h ers , LLC/© T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l F o u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015

Joseph Cornell was an unrepentant homebody, a meek, monkish, well-read man who never spent a night away from home. He is celebrated for boxed assemblages that extract an inexplicable poetry from arrangements of humble objects and images – cork balls, metal springs, reproductions of parakeets and Renaissance portraits. Revered in America as one of the most original artists of the mid-20th century, Cornell remains sorely under-exhibited internationally. That changes this summer, when ‘Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust’ opens at the Academy. The ‘wanderlust’ in the exhibition’s title is presumably intended with sincerity and irony in equal parts. The word, of course, derives from German and denotes a yearning for distant travel, preferably along the trails of craggy alps and primeval forests. But Cornell, who died in 1972 at the age of 69, favoured rambles close to home through the shop-lined streets of New York. For most of his life, he lived with his widowed mother and disabled brother in a narrow, wood-shingled house at 3708 Utopia Parkway in Queens, a residential borough beyond Manhattan. When he confided to feelings of wanderlust in his diaries, which he often did, he was referring to his desire to escape the house for a few hours. On the other hand, Cornell did travel widely in his work. His boxes quietly reference the culture of long-ago European capitals, and allow the past to make itself vividly present. Many of his works were conceived as direct tributes to actresses and ballerinas, both living and dead, who were the subjects of his intense, inevitably unrequited crushes. If his work allowed him to crystallise his wide cultural and scientific

interests, his jaunts to Manhattan were an inextricable part of the process. On a typical outing he scouted for source material, a tall, gaunt man disappearing down the aisles of the nowdefunct bookshops lining Fourth Avenue. He usually stopped for lunch at midtown coffee shops, where he was likely to take pity on a careworn waitress and jot down related notes on his napkin. Returning home to Queens, his top coat grazed with dust, Cornell filed away his notes and trouvailles in his cramped basement studio. Photographs taken by the artist Harry Roseman in the late 1960s offer a moving glimpse of the room, with its cardboard storage boxes heaped to the ceiling and labelled to reveal the artist’s non-deluxe raw materials: ‘tinfoil’ and ‘plastic shells’ and the like. One storage box was marked ‘Caravaggio, etc’, hinting at Cornell’s belief that 17th-century Italian painters are no more precious than the vast et cetera that is day-to-day life. During his lifetime, Cornell’s eccentric habits did not exactly serve to burnish his artistic reputation. In the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, critics dismissed his boxes as ‘toys for adults’, a category near the bottom of established art-world hierarchies. Cornell had to wait for the advent of Pop Art in the 1960s, which returned realism and still-life to avant-garde art, before his achievement was fully recognised; he was given a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1967. Today, in a dramatic reversal, installation and assemblage are ubiquitous; they can seem like the default media for a generation of artists intent on lending their work a caffeinated hit of real life. Cornell’s work has never been more relevant than it is right now.

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‘ His talent lay in alchemising commonly discarded objects into a visually compelling state of being’

Untitled (Pinturicchio Boy), 1942-52; Habitat Group for a Shooting Gallery, 1943; Untitled (M’lle Faretti), 1933; Pharmacy, 1943, all by Joseph Cornell

Cornell’s approach to art might seem to echo, at least partly, the mission of the Royal Academy and Burlington House’s other learned societies, whose existence owes something to the Enlightenment belief that human knowledge can be collected and classified. Cornell, of course, was a collector by temperament, and his boxes represent the systematising of his objects. Indeed, he openly celebrated his curating passions in his so-called series of ‘Museum’ boxes from the late 1940s. Cornell generally worked in series, and Museum (1949), in the RA show, is a wonderfully strange object that at first glance looks like an ordinary wooden box – perhaps for jewellery – with a hinged lid and a keyhole. Inside, 20 little bundles of what appear to be rolled-up strips of text printed in French are arranged in four neat rows. Each little bundle is in fact a container for tiny shells and trinkets and produces intriguing sounds when shaken. The piece reminds us that Cornell expressed the most baffling fantasies with precisely calibrated arrangements of objects. Moreover, he was not collecting what are usually defined as collectibles – objects distinguished by their beauty or rarity or historical importance. Rather, he attached the highest value to objects of little or no intrinsic worth. I emphasise his inexpensive materials because a cursory glance at Cornell’s boxes could lead you to think that he was constructing reliquaries for coveted possessions, when in fact his talent lay in alchemising commonly

discarded objects into a visually compelling state of being. Some of his boxes are less cryptic, and more naturalistic, such as Untitled (Owl Habitat), from the 1940s (page 58). The snowy owl trapped behind a pane of glass is not a fancy piece of taxidermy fit for a natural history diorama, but a mere paper illustration pasted onto plywood. The midnight-blue forest the owl inhabits is contrived from painted bark and lichen. Cornell, of course, was himself a famous night owl. In some ways the owl box can seem as close as he ever came to self-portraiture, with its majestic creature alone in the woods, eyes wide, watching. The box, by the way, happens to have a distinguished provenance. I first stumbled upon it last summer when I visited the artist Jasper Johns Hon RA in his studio in Northwest Connecticut. The box, he explained, was a birthday gift from Leo Castelli, who was his art dealer, and who perhaps recognised affinities between the work of Cornell and the much younger Johns: the appropriation of common objects, the melancholy symbolism. For all his love of classification, Cornell refused to classify himself. He did not see himself as part of any movement, and resisted attempts to link him to various French -isms. Some see him as a belated Symbolist poet, who inherited from Stéphane Mallarmé a devotion to fragmentary forms and veiled meanings. Some view him as a Dadaist, and it is true that he befriended

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b ot to m r ow: Co l l ec t i o n Pau l Sch ä r er / P h oto D o m i n i q u e U l d ry, B er n /© T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l F o u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015 .

from top left

o pp os i t e to p r ow: Gl ens to n e / P h oto T i m N i ghs wa n d er / I m agi n g4Ar t.co m , co u r t esy Gl ens to n e /© T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l Fo u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015 . P u rch as ed w i t h f u n ds f r o m t h e Co f f i n F i n e Ar ts Trus t; N at h a n Em o ry Co f f i n Co l l ect i o n o f t h e D es M o i n es Ar t Cen t er , 1975 . 27/ P h oto D es M o i n es Ar t Cen t er . P h oto g r a p h y: R i ch S a n d ers/© T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l Fo u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015

‘Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust’, curated by Sarah Lea at the RA and Jasper Sharp at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna – to which it travels in the autumn – is, astoundingly, the first museum show of Cornell’s work to be held in England since 1981, and the first ever in Austria. It promises to be an exhibition of exceptional lucidity and coherence, with 80-odd works in various media that share the theme of imaginary travel. In addition to the glass-fronted shadow boxes for which the artist is best known (see opposite), the show will also include over 20 collages; enigmatic objets small enough to fit in your palm; and three of Cornell’s experimental films, including the ingenious collage films that were spliced together by the artist from found commercial footage. Cornell was a relative latecomer to art. Born in Nyack, New York, in 1903, the oldest of four siblings, he was 13 years old when his father’s untimely death saddled him with adult responsibilities. After completing high school, he was obliged to support his mother and siblings and took a job as a textile salesman. Already he was collecting memorabilia on his rounds through lower Manhattan. He started making art after his visits to galleries acquainted him with a new medium – collage. This was around 1931, before he had set up his studio. In the quiet hours after his family had gone to sleep, he would sit at the kitchen table with his scissors and his glue pot and an array of old illustrated books.

opposite page, clockwise

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b ot to m r ow: Co l l ec t i o n Pau l Sch ä r er / P h oto D o m i n i q u e U l d ry, B er n /© T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l Fo u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015 . P r i vat e Co l l ect i o n / P h oto M i ch a el Tr o p e a , Ch i cago/ T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l F o u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015

o pp os i t e to p r ow: Gl ens to n e / P h oto T i m N i ghs wa n d er / I m agi n g4Ar t.co m , co u r t esy Gl ens to n e /© T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l Fo u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015 . P u rch as ed w i t h f u n ds f r o m t h e Co f f i n F i n e Ar ts Trus t; N at h a n Em o ry Co f f i n Co l l ect i o n o f t h e D es M o i n es Ar t Cen t e r , 1975 . 27/ P h oto D es M o i n es Ar t Cen t er . P h oto g r a p h y: R i ch S a n d ers/© T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l F o u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015

arranged plastic lobsters into fantasy ballets decades before Koons revealed a fascination with marine crustacea.) Cornell is seldom given his due in art-history textbooks, which tend to repeat the familiar postwar narrative in which Robert Rauschenberg and his ‘Combines’ (Monogram, 1955-59, opposite right) launched the junk-into-art aesthetic in America. (Put another way, Rauschenberg did for New York what Peter Blake did for London.) Yet Cornell directly inspired Rauschenberg’s early use of found objects. They befriended each other around 1953, when Rauschenberg, then an unknown artist in his twenties, was making ‘hanging fetishes’ and elemental sculptures notable for their accretions of recycled detritus. ‘The only difference between me and Cornell,’ Rauschenberg once told me, ‘is that he put his work behind glass, and mine is out in the world.’ What debt do today’s recyclers owe to Cornell? On any day, making the rounds of the galleries in New York, you might be stopped

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p h oto by l a n ce b r e w er / i m age co u r t esy a n d r e a r os en g a l l ery, n e w yo r k . © R o b er t

Duchamp in the 1930s and shared his affection for the found object. Others point out that Cornell’s primary technique – the juxtaposition of unrelated images and objects – was adopted from orthodox Surrealist practice and obliges him to be remembered as an American Surrealist. Cornell himself rejected the appellation and noted, ‘I do not share in the subconscious and the dream theories of the Surrealists.’ My own feeling is that Cornell is best described as the éminence grise of assemblage – he laid the groundwork for the coming mash-up in late 20th-century art. Too much attention has been lavished on the Francophile in Cornell and not enough has been said about his American qualities. He belongs to the vein of American realism that elevated prosaic objects to art, going back to John F. Peto’s trompe l’oeil paintings in the late 19th century and extending up through Warhol’s soup cans and Jeff Koons Hon RA’s 8ft-tall aluminium lobsters. (Art, I realise, is not a race between two contestants, but Cornell

Co l l ec t i o n Jas p er J o h ns/ P h oto Co l l ect i o n Jas p er J o h ns/© T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l F o u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015 . Drs . S t e v en a n d S a r a N e w m a n / P h oto Co l l ect i o n o f Drs . S t e v en a n d S a r a N e w m a n , Ch i cago, I l l i n o is , USA /© T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l F o u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015

Untitled (Owl Habitat), mid- to late 1940s, by Joseph Cornell above right Untitled (Sagittarius, Scorpio, and Lupus Constellations), c.1934, by Joseph Cornell above

p h oto by l a n ce b r e w er / i m age co u r t esy a n d r e a r os en g a l l ery, n e w yo r k . © R o b er t R aus ch en b er g F o u n dat i o n / DAC S , Lo n d o n / VAGA , N e w Yo r k 2015

Co r n el l M em o r i a l F o u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015 . Drs . S t e v en a n d S a r a N e w m a n / P h oto Co l l ect i o n o f Drs . S t e v en a n d S a r a N e w m a n , Ch i cago, I l l i n o is , USA /© T h e J os ep h a n d R o b er t Co r n el l M em o r i a l F o u n dat i o n / VAGA , NY/ DAC S , Lo n d o n 2015

top right Las Meninas (2Xist), 2013, by Josephine Meckseper above right Monogram, 1955-59, from Robert Rauschenberg’s ‘Combines’ series

‘ Cornell was the éminence grise of assemblage, laying the groundwork for the coming mash-up in late 20th-century art’

in your tracks by an exquisite construction cobbled together by Rachel Harrison, Isa Genzken or Jessica Stockholder, or the sparer, almost fragile cardboard-and-tape creations of Gedi Sibony, or the socially charged brica-brac assembled by Nick Cave. You can even speak of an entire subcategory of artists who put stuff into glass vitrines — Damien Hirst, Mark Dion, David Altmejd and Josephine Meckseper (Las Meninas (2Xist), 2013, top) come to mind. Of course, their work might not seem particularly Cornellian. He worked on an intimate scale, in contrast to the expensively fabricated, elephantine assemblages to be seen in so many galleries today. Interestingly, the found object – deployed by Cornell as a talisman of the past and transfigured so successfully that a dimestore trinket can seem antique – has evolved to become, in contemporary art, an extension of our round-the-clock consumerist present and a critique of the global economy.

At any rate, as ‘Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust’ descends on London and then Vienna, one is reminded that the artist’s work is infinitely better travelled than he was. He loved Europe, so long as he kept a protective distance from it and could create a space large enough in which to dream. He was very much a poet of yearning who seemed to believe that true love is unrequited. Nonetheless, I think we can safely say that if London or Vienna does decide to love him back, that will not ruin the relationship.

Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust The Sackler Wing, Royal Academy of Arts, 020 7300 8000, www.royalacademy. org.uk, 4 July—27 Sep. Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 2009-2016 Season supported by JTI. Supported by The Terra Foundation for American Art. See Events and Lectures page 74 To see video highlights from the Cornell exhibition, visit http://roy.ac/cornell

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RA Magazine’s Guest Editor David Chipperfield RA meets Conrad Shawcross RA in Green Park to talk trees and tetrahedrons, ahead of the sculptor’s spectacular work that greets visitors to the Summer Exhibition. Photograph by Andy Sewell SUMMER 2015 | RA MAGAZINE 61

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THIS PAGE, LEFT

Technical drawing by Conrad Shawcross for his sculpture The Dappled Light of the Sun, 2015, on show in the Annenberg Courtyard for the Summer Exhibition

OPPOSITE PAGE Three Perpetual Chords, by Shawcross, installed in Dulwich Park, London, 2015

use the courtyard, because of the light and human traffic. I’ve called the piece The Dappled Light of the Sun, which doesn’t reflect what the work actually looks like, because in reality it’s quite a hardcore, industrial piece. But I hope beyond this it will be a romantic experience for visitors. At first, it could look like a sort of First World War, antitank barrier, but, on further observation, it will reveal itself as a complex rule-based piece full of feral, chaotic, beautiful, flowing energy, juxtaposed against this very ordered courtyard. DC So is it less about the work, more about the experience that the work generates? CS The piece is very much a response to the order of this classical courtyard. In both its materiality and form the work offers a startling contrast. I hope that it also affects how people move through the courtyard, the way they congregate, the way they see the space, not just the sculpture. I’m not working on a blank canvas, and I’m sure that is the same for you and your work as an architect, David, which is so subtly sensitive to surrounding and pre-existing conditions. But I wouldn’t presume this piece to be as subtle – there is a proper polarisation of the work and the courtyard. DC Well, an artist is expected to provoke, while an architect is not. Artists are licensed by the rest of us to do things on our behalf. But going back to our experience of this work, the way the trees block and reflect light will presumably have a strong role. CS It will. As the title suggests, there will be

dappled light and strong shadows. I am not quite sure how blanket the coverage will be – the sculptures won’t provide any screening from the rain. But they will provide, like real trees, a place to which people might gravitate and then sit. DC There is a tradition of sculpture that does not involve the viewer. Barnett Newman once said sculpture was something ‘you bump into when you stand back to look at a painting’. But your work turns paintings into things that you might bump into when you stand back to look at your sculpture. Your work tries to engage the audience, often by mechanical elements, by the fact that the work moves and fascinates us. It creates empathy with its audience by reaching out, or allowing the audience to reach in. CS With commissions I have become increasingly interested in the way sculpture affects how people navigate space. I’ve made a series of sculptures [Three Perpetual Chords, 2015, opposite] that have been installed in Dulwich Park in south London, to replace a Barbara Hepworth sculpture that was stolen. There wasn’t a playground in the park, so kids would run around the Hepworth, then every time they saw a lamppost they would run around that too – they were making do for the basics of play. So I wanted to create something that could be climbable and immersive, the opposite of a civic sculpture. The works are a series of toroidal loops that represent musical chords – you can climb inside them or monkey along them, you could even meet people inside them. DC So your works are not finite as things

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P H OTO GR A P H BY P H I L I P V I L E . CO U R T ESY CO N R A D S H AWCR OS S A N D V I C TO R I A M I R O, LO N D O N

David Chipperfield The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is obviously a slightly idiosyncratic English event, and like the RA, its tradition is its strength, but it could also be seen as a weakness. What is your attitude towards it? Conrad Shawcross When I was made a Royal Academician last year the courtyard was something I knew I wanted to tackle, and amazingly I have been given this chance for the Summer Exhibition. I’m enjoying responding to this specific environment. DC Was the Summer Show something you visited before you became an Academician? CS I hadn’t come to many. It wasn’t a pilgrimage I made every year as, to me, it didn’t represent the vanguard of contemporary art. DC I think that’s an interesting issue for the Royal Academy. Over time I’ve become very fond of the RA, and realised that while it is an idiosyncratic show, there is something interesting about the way the Summer Exhibition tries to deal with contemporary art. CS Yes, it’s completely of its own – it’s unique, in that it doesn’t take itself that seriously, and it’s eclectic. You have to rate something that has survived and continues to survive, and its uniqueness should be celebrated. DC You’re creating a canopy of metal trees for the courtyard [drawing above]. Did you conceive this work only in the context of the courtyard’s architecture, or did the context of the Summer Exhibition play any role? CS The Summer Show is the best time of year to

CO U R T ESY O F CO N R A D S H AWCR OS S A N D S T RU CT U R E WO R KS H O P

‘The piece will be full of feral, chaotic, beautiful, flowing energy, juxtaposed against this very ordered courtyard’

P H OTO GR A P H BY P H I L I P V I L E . CO U R T ESY CO N R A D S H AWCR OS S A N D V I C TO R I A M I R O, LO N D O N

CO U R T ESY O F CO N R A D S H AWCR OS S A N D S T RU CT U R E WO R KS H O P

in themselves. They are elaborated by engagement and participation. CS Yes, I think my works have this sort of cloak, which is the aesthetic of the machine. They are machines and we have worked carefully to make them feel very authoritative as machines, but they have also been designed with an irrational intent. DC Are you hiding their purpose? CS I like the word cloak because it suggests a playful, intelligent device of concealment towards an end. If you already know something is an artwork you can be quite lazy when you encounter it – you can almost immediately dismiss it. But if you think it’s a machine, you might engage with it in a fuller way. DC My practice designed the Turner Contemporary in Margate, and you produced two pieces for the first show there. There were two objects, one light piece that was moving and one bronze that was static, drilled into our very nice floor [see page 64] – which, of course, is exactly what the floor is there for. I actually thought the static sculpture was very beautiful, and I wondered then whether you would consider presenting the static sculpture alone. It was a more conventional sculpture in a way, but very beautiful for it. CS Yes, I really appreciated your work firsthand during that show. I saw how much thought you gave to the function and needs of the artist. DC This interview is about you. CS But your work has a consideration of function that I have to say is rare. It’s rare to be so thoughtful about the intention of a building. DC Would you like to have been an architect? CS No, I don’t think I have the patience. DC It sounds like you’re treading on our territory already. CS Well, maybe a little bit! But back to Margate, there were actually three of my pieces in the show – there were the two sculptures but also drawings along the wall. The three were completely disparate in their manifest state, but they were actually driven by the same thing, which was a number, the ratio of five to four. So the light piece on the wall rotated five times, but every time it rotated five times it moved in and out four times. The bronze was produced by an algorithm based on the same ratio, and the drawings on the wall, which were quite faint, were created by a pendulum-driven machine, like a harmonograph, that moved according to that ratio. DC Clearly, works such as these have a great beauty. But you use a sort of determinism to achieve them, as if you’re frightened of just doing something for its own sake. CS Well, I don’t like, or do, arbitrary things. I’m not an instinctive artist. DC But there must be arbitrary elements in your work? CS Not arbitrary as such. Art is not necessarily arbitrary. My work has a relationship to science, and actually visual representation in science can be as arbitrary as some art can. The scientific community represents things that will never actually be seen by the naked eye, such as a model of an atom, and the decisions that are made about these representations are quite arbitrary. The physicist will omit some information and the chemist some other – both will create a full model

in their eyes but both may laugh at each other’s depiction. They exaggerate elements and create clout for invisible things, in order to convey what’s important to them. DC Their representations are not quite as ‘scientific’ as the word suggests. CS They are scientific, but we do not consider the role of imagination and artistic impression that is in play. DC How much of your point of departure is nature? Is nature behind your interest in proportions and harmonies? Do you think there is beauty within the natural world that is innate, that is not subjective and personal but somehow to do with a larger order? This is a question that concerned modernists in the last century. CS My works aren’t necessarily meant to be manifestations of beautiful, natural phenomena, because they are not just supposed to be beautiful – they are supposed to create more problems than answers. I am not trying to demonstrate the beauty of fractions. For example, these sculptures in the courtyard could be seen as clouds or crystals rather than trees, and I want to resist calling them anything at all because I don’t want people to come with preconceptions. DC So what was your point of departure? CS The shapes of the canopy are based on a system of tetrahedrons in a cascade of five sizes. There are over 6,000 tetrahedrons in all. There are a number of primary tetrahedrons that form a kind of armature from which the next generations of tetrahedrons bifurcate. One of our rules was

for these shapes to move out in every direction, almost like an explosion. The shapes can’t overlap or touch each other, so they must move out equally in all directions. Another rule has been set to make the branches move upwards towards the light, to let people pass underneath them. DC Do you enjoying giving yourself these rules? CS Yes, and at the very essence of this project is my interest in the tetrahedron itself, in the same way that, say, an artist like Sol LeWitt was interested in the cube. In Greek philosophy, the tetrahedron is the symbol of an idea – the indivisible unit of matter. Two centuries ago scientists believed they had found the indivisible unit of matter, this holy grail, with the atom. But within a generation it had been sub-divided to include the electron, the proton and the neutron, and today it includes quarks. One can put tetrahedrons together to form something called a tetrahelix, a term coined by Buckminster Fuller. It is a continuous triple helical spiral that never repeats itself. The geometry of the tetrahedron is such that it does not tessellate with itself and so it can never join to itself – instead stacks of tetrahedrons have to form these tendril-like branches that keep going radiantly outwards forever. So the tetrahedron shape is fascinating, and it almost creates its own rules for itself. You can’t really control it – it has to go along with its own idiosyncrasies. The shape has almost led our way with this work. DC When I think of your early sculptures

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‘I was always building towers and deconstructing things when I was young’ [see bottom] there was a very strong sense of the hand – the presence of an inventor, like a Heath Robinson. But in this piece for the courtyard, clearly the hand is not there any more. You’ve given over the piece to the logic of the tetrahedron. Does this mark a different phase of your creative life? CS The welds along the edge of each tetrahedron in this work were done by hand. But yes, in my 20s I was immersed more in the making process, making these very handmade rickety machines, sawing down planks of oak, waxing them and stringing them together. DC So that process became part of the aesthetic. CS But I then realised that I wanted to make things better, and that I couldn’t do it all on my own. I was exhausted and I was working too much. This way of working became very demanding, and it has now become a real balance between working like that and delegating. One of the saddest things for me is becoming more of a director of things and people. It is my ideal or vision, but potentially you can lose your hands-on fluency. It’s a real battle, as you risk becoming a bit lazy, and it’s not very good for the brain just to say, ‘I’ve got a problem, can you solve that for me?’ And one of the problems of hiring a welder is that after eight hours a day working for you they weld much better than you – you were once the master of everything, and suddenly you are not. DC And you don’t enjoy the physical interaction in the same way, I expect? CS Yes, some of my happiest, most therapeutic days were spent working at the table, sawing 100 pieces of wood in half or something like that. I could retreat into my own thoughts, and I found that menial work incredibly satisfying. DC Can I go back a few steps and ask how your interest in art began? Your parents are writers, William Shawcross and Marina Warner, so you came from a very literary background. Where did your interest in the visual come from? CS I always thanked my lucky stars that I was dyslexic, so that I couldn’t try to be a writer in my parents’ footsteps. To my mum’s horror I never really picked up a book when I was young. I was always building towers and deconstructing things. I remember being given a gas meter from my grandmother’s house – it was just an old carcass, but it had a great complexity and you could put fifty-pence pieces in it. I was obsessed by it, and I remember being constantly in awe of it when I was three or four, just trying to work it out, but never really succeeding. DC Your parents were always interested in art. CS Yes, completely, so I was always very cultured, but I just wanted to get on and make things. DC Has the literary background fed an interest in narrative? CS Yes, and there is narrative in my work.

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a building designed by David Chipperfield Architects BOTTOM The Nervous Systems, 2003, by Shawcross

P H OTO GR A P H BY DAV I D GR A N D O R GE /CO U R T ESY O F CO N R A D S H AWCR OS S , T U R N ER CO N T EM P O R A RY A N D V I C TO R I A M I R O, LO N D O N . CO U R T ESY O F CO N R A D S H AWCR OS S , T U R N ER CO N T EM P O R A RY A N D V I C TO R I A M I R O, LO N D O N .

BELOW Limit of Everything, 2011, left, and Manifold 5:4, 2011, right, both by Conrad Shawcross, installed in 2011 at Turner Contemporary in Margate,

CO N R A D S H AWCR OS S , T U R N ER CO N T EM P O R A RY A N D V I C TO R I A M I R O, LO N D O N .

BELOW Place Games, 2013, by Bernard Cohen

But I also want there to be no sense of a repetition or similarity. There is a real attempt to make the narratives at Dulwich and the RA and other sites completely different from each other. DC Do you make physical models as part of your process? Or is it more computerised? CS Yes, we do make physical models, and they are very handmade. The edges of the forms in the models are beautifully stitched together. But my finished works are dependent on computer-aided design. For example, the cast-iron elements in the Dulwich Park sculptures get fatter and thinner as they go around, and it wouldn’t be easy to design them without computer technology. I also have a wonderful team, including a structural engineer called Pete Laidler of Structure Workshop who I have worked with for ten years and who engineered The Dappled Light of the Sun. DC You’re now working on a larger scale, which seems to be related to presenting work outdoors. You’re showing work in a more public way. Is that something you wanted to happen? CS Yes, and I get real pleasure from a challenging brief. My largest project to date is a tower I’ve designed for an energy centre in Greenwich, which is part of the redevelopment of Greenwich Peninsula. The brief on paper looked like a bit of a nightmare. I couldn’t solve the problem at first and I became quite determined not to turn down the commission because of precisely that. I think I have now solved it, and it’s a credit to them for letting me take it on. But it has been immensely complicated – sometimes you have these meetings with 30 people around a table, and nobody knows who anyone is. DC So are you enjoying that engagement as opposed to the more solitary role of the artist? CS I enjoy the collaboration, and the commissions provide a stable, guaranteed income. There is the possibility with an exhibition that nothing will sell and you’ll be in famine for the next six months. The commissions can give an income for the next 12 months to live and pay your staff – it can be heartbreaking not to win them, as they do give you stability. In that sense my studio is very similar to an architecture practice.

Summer of colour RA MAGAZINE selects six highlights of this year’s Summer Exhibition 1. Michael Craig-Martin RA

4. Tom Phillips RA

The influential artist and teacher Michael Craig-Martin co-ordinates this year’s show (see page 38). The Academician’s artworks pare down everyday objects to outlines, often in bright colours. For the Summer Show, he paints some galleries in similar hues, including magenta, yellow, turquoise and sky blue, and commissions a colourful work by Jim Lambie that runs up the stairs (see page 91).

For nearly 50 years Tom Phillips has worked on an epic artistic project, A Humument: A Treated Victorial Novel. He has altered every page of an 1892 book, painting, cutting and collaging its pages to create entirely new versions. The changing contents have been published in five editions, and a gallery in the show is now dedicated to this visionary work.

2. Invited artists

Craig-Martin has invited a diverse range of artists over 65 who deserve wider recognition to contribute work, including the painters Bernard Cohen (below) and Rose Hilton (page 11). Younger artists on view include RA Schools alumnus Matthew Darbyshire, who makes intriguing sculptural installations.

Sadly, several Academicians passed away in the year since the last Summer Exhibition, including the painters William Bowyer (page 93) and Ivor Abrahams, and sculptor Geoffrey Clarke, as well as architects Richard MacCormac and Philip Dowson earlier in the year. Displays throughout the Academy’s galleries pay tribute to these important figures.

3. William Kentridge Hon RA

6. Online experience

The celebrated South African artist William Kentridge is known for his politically charged works on paper, including drawings that become material for stop-motion animations. His recent lithographs, linocuts and drawings inspired by trees fill one of the galleries.

For the first time, all works can be viewed via a fully searchable online catalogue on the RA website, available to use from 8 June. Visitors can use their smartphones and tablets to explore the show, following special tours by artists and other experts.

5. Memorial displays

The Dappled Light of the Sun by Conrad Shawcross RA is on show in the Annenberg Courtyard at the RA as part of the Summer Exhibition Royal Academy of Arts, 020 7300 8000, www.royalacademy.org.uk, 8 June–16 Aug. Sponsored by Insight Investment. See Events & Lectures page 74 Conrad Shawcross Victoria Miro Wharf Road, London, 020 7336 8109, www.victoria-miro. com, 10 June–31 July. Shawcross shows his sculpture Manifold at New Art Centre, Salisbury, 01980 862244, www.sculpture.uk.com, until 26 July To watch a video about the making of Conrad Shawcross’s work for the Annenberg Courtyard, visit http://roy.ac/dappled

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Eileen Cooper RA’s figures exude a fluid spontaneity. Laura Gascoigne meets the artist, ahead of her show of drawings at the Academy, while opposite Cooper reveals the secrets of her working process

Line dancing

exhibition, gives the illusion of images unfolding like flowers opening, while laying bare the hesitations, rethinks, shifts of direction and creative toing and froing. ‘Those shifts are why artists love drawing,’ says Cooper, ‘and why the film is intriguing, because you can observe the artist thinking through making.’ Cooper’s iconography revolves around the female figure, seen at different stages in her life as sexual being, mother, nurturer and artist. Archer (2015, opposite) is one of a series of drawings in charcoal and pastel that began with the idea of a woman dressing in the privacy of her room, then – as can happen with her work – took off on another tangent. Serendipity is often involved. The trigger this time was the discovery in a bookshop of a book of photographs of an American dance group, which took her back to the theme of dance that she had celebrated with raw vitality in earlier work. The palette used in Archer and other recent drawings is cooler than her characteristically warm colours, reflecting a more meditative approach. ‘I wanted to explore a colour range that wasn’t too instinctive, to bring in a softness, a layering with just a twinkle of colour coming through.’ The effect is light and breathable, but the figures command the space. That, for Cooper, is the fascination of drawing: ‘A painted line on a canvas needs things around it, but a line on a piece of paper seems to operate on its own.’

S T I L LS CO U R T ESY I TCH F I L M / D I R ECTO R CH A R L I E PAU L / P R O D U CER LU CY PAU L

In an artist’s long career, work tends to pile up. Three years ago Eileen Cooper RA cleared out her old plan chest, uncovering a group of drawings she had made 14 years earlier. At the time she put them in the chest, she had felt unsure about the contrast between the strength of their imagery and the delicacy of the Japanese paper she had used. But looking at them again she was taken by their primal energy. This group of ten exuberant images, since gifted to the RA Collection, forms the core of a 40-year retrospective of Cooper’s drawings at the RA’s Fine Rooms. It coincides with the publication of the first monograph to focus on Cooper, who is the first woman Keeper of the Royal Academy, the Academician responsible for the RA Schools. Cooper’s art is essentially graphic. She draws in series, turning ideas around on paper until their poetic possibilities are thoroughly explored. Sometimes the process yields paintings, sometimes not – the exercise is an end in itself. Part of the pleasure, for Cooper, is experimenting with unfamiliar media that can act as a stimulus for ideas. ‘New materials throw you off balance in a nice way,’ she says. Every medium has its strengths and limitations. ‘Pencil is unforgiving, whereas charcoal, more like paint, is very fluid.’ But unlike paint, where past layers are often only visible under X-ray, charcoal leaves traces on the paper that act on the imagination like visual echoes. Its mobility suits an artist who says she is ‘always striving to get that freshness of movement’. Ink and brush are even more fluid, yet less forgiving than charcoal: ‘Ink is permanent, there is not so much flexibility. You have to limber up, gain confidence and just go for it.’ Recently, filmmaker Charlie Paul set up a camera above Cooper’s work table to spy on her drawing process using time-lapse photography. An excerpt from the film, on show in the

Hide and Seek: Drawings by Eileen Cooper RA, John Madejski Fine Rooms, Royal Academy of Arts, 020 7300 8000, www.royalacademy.org.uk, 29 May–23 Aug. See Events & Lectures page 74. Eileen Cooper Art First, London, 020 7734 0386, www.artfirst.co.uk, 26 May–6 June. Eileen Cooper: Between the Lines by Martin Gayford and Sara Lee, RA Publications, £30. See Readers’ Offers page 88. To watch a video of Cooper’s drawing process, visit http://roy.ac/eileencooper

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1 This drawing started to take shape when

S T I L LS CO U R T ESY I TCH F I L M / D I R ECTO R CH A R L I E PAU L / P R O D U CER LU CY PAU L

I found a photograph of a dancer in a book while I was browsing in a second-hand bookshop. I have adapted her position on the paper and now I’m quickly blocking in the figure in charcoal, thinking less about scale and proportion and more about fitting the image interestingly on the paper.

4 To use the space in the rectangle on the

lower left I introduce a male figure, based on another dancer seen in the book. I move the position of the dancer’s leg, bending it like wire to complement my drawing. The appearance of the male figure is exciting – it adds a whole new layer of meaning.

2 I flesh out the body, aiming for something

more convincing. The strength of the pose appeals to me, how the dancer is grounded but reaching up and out. The way the line describes what the figure is doing and feeling is everything to me – it’s beginning to say what I wanted it to say.

3 The dancer is taking on a personality,

acquiring hair, facial features and a skirt. Her body is becoming bigger and shapelier. One hand is cupped to an ear and the other reaches out. But dissatisfaction is setting in; I’m becoming unhappy with the spaces around her.

5 I clothe the bodies lightly in blue pastel,

adding movement and mystery. The man is now looking at the woman and supporting his weight on his right foot, stabilising the composition. The drawing process involves some dramatic changes, then small adjustments all over the paper until the weight is right.

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Critical issues in art and architecture

Debate

Â© M I CH A EL K I R K H A M

The Question Are we building too many museums?

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Yes… We should focus all of our efforts on opening up existing museums to a much wider public, says STELLA DUFFY We don’t need another museum or another gallery because we don’t fully use those that we already have. Additionally, we have far too many city-centre venues. While many buildings purport to be for all, sharing arts and culture with all, they cannot possibly do so from a static base. Not everyone lives in a city, and of those who do, not all live in London, and many of those who do live in London still don’t feel welcome in the moneyed monoliths that are our major arts institutions. Instead of creating yet more buildings for an elite (if your venue isn’t free to all, if there are still people who do not feel your venue is for them, then yes, it’s for an elite), we need to utilise the spaces we do have properly. Turn our nightempty galleries into dance studios, change foyers into midnight rehearsal spaces, share thousands of offices for free evening classes, or simply offer an hour at a well-lit desk to the would-be writer in the night cleaning team. Currently, too many of our arts institutions use the school visit as their main form of engagement, but a teenager who does not enjoy school will equate both venue and art form with

No… New museums can bring positive change to the places in which they are built, argues KIERAN LONG While there are still more people going to the British Museum than to Alton Towers, and while in the past year London’s V&A (where I work as a curator) had record visitor numbers (3.6 million), it is difficult to argue that the public’s appetite for museums is sated. People want to come. Whatever else they might be, museums are a primary leisure destination today, especially in cities, and urban populations are set to continue to rise for some while longer. I believe museums are so popular because they are public in the best sense: they are accessible, not driven by commerce. They empower people with reliable knowledge and have a sense of authenticity and institutional mission that is rare in public life. Museums are often in beautiful or strange buildings. The things in them are not for sale. These are not common attributes in the city these days. We feel good in places where generations have cared for a collection, where artists, designers, scientists and scholars have been inspired, where social and economic hierarchies are put on hold and cultural ones are in question. Museums are places that are owned by the public,

the schooling they don’t enjoy, and are less likely to ask a parent or guardian to bring them again. Further, if an adult does not feel comfortable in the building, they will not bring their child, and the depressing circle of privileged parents privileging their children continues. Depressing, not least, because it means new blood is not coming into the arts, and the arts are diminished when this happens. I was born in a south London council estate and grew up in a small New Zealand town, two hours from the nearest gallery or museum. My family did not regularly engage with formal arts provision, not least because, as products of the pre-Second World War working class, little about arts venues made my parents feel welcome. Not enough has changed. I first visited the RA only ten years ago, taken by a friend who is a Friend. I had walked past the courtyard many times, yet had no idea it was available to me. The RA is over the road from Fortnum & Mason: how many of their staff regularly use the courtyard, let alone the gallery? How many doing the lowest-paid jobs in galleries and museums feel they own the spaces in which they work? The troubling statistics from the Warwick Commission Report on the future of cultural value tell us that the ‘wealthiest, better educated and least ethnically diverse 8 per cent of the population are most culturally active’. Public engagement must be more than school visits or summer schools for those lucky enough to live near a venue, more than occasional late-night openings.

‘Instead of creating yet more buildings for an elite, we need to utilise the spaces we already have’

and they are loyal to a different set of values than those of the shopping mall or theme park. Of course museums do not inherently possess these qualities. We see the results of the National Lottery culture-building boom of the 1990s and 2000s with its many successes, but also plenty of institutions without a mission, with no clear sense of public duty, and with an offer pitched somewhere between didactic educational experience and theme park. Also, too many museums are obsessed with contemporary fine art, and not enough with the crossovers between artistic production and design, digital, architecture, technology, science, anthropology and history. But there is a new model brewing. One of the pioneers has been Grizedale Arts, based on a farm in Coniston, Cumbria. Under Director Adam Sutherland, it has conducted a wide-ranging enquiry on how art can be useful. Its Ruskinian ethos helps the public to make things and even to make money from their work. But Grizedale also collaborates with world-class artists on useful projects – its Liam Gillickdesigned library in Coniston is a surreal, but also oddly appropriate thing to find in a small town in Cumbria. At a small scale Grizedale has become a rich, multifaceted institution and an impressive profile in terms of curatorial practice. Sutherland asks what can art and craft do for the public at a granular, local level, and he takes the answer seriously. Grizedale alumnus Alistair Hudson has just taken over Middlesbrough

‘Museums have a sense of authenticity and institutional mission that is rare in public life’

Take art to the people instead. Save the money from a single big new build and create dozens of touring exhibitions, travelling to shopping malls, camping sites, rural villages. Wider access is good for the people and good for future arts. I have worked in the arts as a writer and theatre-maker for over 30 years, and I know we are still not making ‘arts for all’. So if you must build, make a Fun Palace when you do. I cofounded the Fun Palaces campaign to promote the widest possible engagement with and access to culture for all people in local communities. Ask the plumbers and electricians working on your building what they’d like to learn, hear, view, enjoy. Invite the cleaners to curate. In our Fun Palaces pilot last year, with 138 venues and locations participating across the UK, tens of thousands joined in. Venues that opened their doors to all, found that 70 per cent were visiting for the first time – because the community were invited to curate, to create, their families and neighbours came to see what they had made. For just one day, these organisations attended to their geographic community, and came alive locally. Sharing the arts more fully with everyone might mean we have to open our doors a little wider than is comfortable – it’s a small price for finally achieving arts for all.

Institute of Modern Art and is set to bring the same sensibility to one of those Lottery-funded buildings that has been struggling for a mission. I await the results with excitement. At the V&A we are beginning the process of designing a new museum for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London, as part of a new cultural quarter. We want that new building to reframe for the digital age the Victorian civic ethos of Albertopolis, the cultural area around London’s Exhibition Road that is home to the V&A. When a museum with the V&A’s resources arrives in a borough such as Newham, it has the potential to make a generational shift in aspiration, education and culture in a place that is ready for it. If we consider the question at the level of individual communities that long for impartial, reliable, civic institutions that aspire to provoke profound artistic, philosophical and political reflections in their audiences, then museums are as essential as bus stops, job centres or town halls to the communities they serve.

Are we building too many museums? To vote in our online poll, visit http://poll.fm/58wa2

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Debate

Tiles of the unexpected

Eduardo Paolozzi’s designs for the mosaics on the Central Line station platforms at Tottenham Court Road, 1982

The London Tube was greeted with ecstatic enthusiasm by Marinetti, the flamboyant leader of the Italian Futurist movement. In 1912, after his first-ever journey on the Underground, he told a reporter that it had been a revelation, giving him exactly what he wanted, ‘not enjoyment, but a totally new idea of motion, of speed’. The experience was so enthralling that he announced: ‘London itself is a Futurist city!’ Since then, plenty of artists have shared Marinetti’s excitement. The first time I met Francis Bacon, in 1971, he took me to lunch in Soho. Rather than hailing a taxi, he insisted we take the Tube and told me: ‘I love shooting through tunnels in a metal cylinder!’ Nine years later, Eduardo Paolozzi RA was delighted when London Transport commissioned him to make extensive mosaic artworks for the platforms and entrance of Tottenham Court Road Station. The outcome, which took six years to complete, was so exuberant that the Royal Academy invited me to curate a special exhibition in 1986 called ‘Eduardo Paolozzi Underground’. The show, and its accompanying book, celebrated a richly coloured tour de force, which Roger de Grey, then RA President, hailed as proof that ‘art can transform our everyday surroundings and need not be restricted to the narrow confines of art galleries.’

He was right. Thousands of passengers had already responded on a daily basis to the mosaics emblazoning walls and ceilings in one of the busiest metropolitan Tube stations. The commuters’ reaction was very important to Paolozzi, who asked himself: ‘What happens when people pass quickly through the station on the train? Will people relate to the metaphors I sought in connection with life above ground – cameras, music shops, saxophones, electronics? These are all in my designs, in addition to an Egyptian panel, because the British Museum is in the neighbourhood.’ Travellers alighting at Tottenham Court Road were confronted by a feast of fiery images, ousting the bleakness of the old platforms. These included robotic faces, as well as a brilliant butterfly which pays tribute to Paolozzi’s memories of an all-night Turkish bath in the nearby Russell Hotel. Moving up from the platforms, passengers were surrounded by mosaics in the station’s rotunda. Here Paolozzi juxtaposed a frowning primitive mask with a comic-strip man running, which he described as an ‘Orwellian commuter’. Although partially obstructed by lighting tubes suspended in front of them, these images had a forceful impact and led the eye to the more abstract

mosaics on the arches at the top of the main escalator. Now, as part of a £400 million redevelopment of the station ahead of the Crossrail scheme, Transport for London has dismantled the arches. The loss is very saddening, and I wish it had not happened. Even though the Paolozzi Foundation agreed with the decision to remove them, the arch mosaics are much missed by many who had grown to love them over the past three decades. At least Hawkins\Brown, the architects responsible for the station’s redevelopment, have incorporated bold new artworks by Daniel Buren for what they describe as ‘a modern, day-lit space there five times as large’. Buren is an artist I have admired ever since he created some large, temporary billboard stripes for an outdoor location in Piccadilly in 1972. Since then, he has transformed major public locations across Europe, including the great courtyard of the Palais Royal in Paris. His Tottenham Court Road artworks, revealed this summer, are emphatic abstractions using severely simplified forms and arresting colours. ‘The final result of what I do is to break boundaries and go further,’ Buren told me. ‘I really like to work with the public situation – museums only attract a portion of the population. The public in the Tube station is absolutely everyone, and there is a constant flux of people running both ways. I want to offer them a beautiful balloon of oxygen for the spirit.’ TfL wants to reassure us about the mosaics, declaring that ‘95 per cent of the mosaics have been saved in their original locations’ across the station as a whole. They are being restored as well, and TfL also claims that a large mosaic panel near the arches at the former Oxford Street entrance has been ‘removed by restoration experts, and safely preserved for redisplay within the station’ once upgrade works are complete in 2016. Those who are dismayed by the loss of the arches will be monitoring this new scheme closely, trying to ensure that TfL honours its promises. The full scheme of artworks by Daniel Buren, commissioned by Transport for London, are unveiled at Tottenham Court Road on 9 June, 020 3054 8128, http://art.tfl.gov.uk

The public art at the new Tottenham Court Road Station has been the focus of fierce debate, as Eduardo Paolozzi RA’s much loved mosaics, which have cheered London’s Tube travellers, have come under threat. RICHARD CORK is dismayed

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1 APRIL - 31 AUGUST2015 2015 1 APRIL - 31 AUGUST

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The Times

“a joy from start to finish” The Telegraph

“Exhilarating, enthralling and outstandingly beautiful. It is also a revelation.” The Observer

THE CLUB WITH A PASSION FOR THE ARTS The Royal Over-Seas League is a unique, not-for-profit, private membership organisation. For over 100 years we have encouraged international friendship and understanding through arts, social, music and humanitarian programmes. With membership benefits including accommodation and dining at our historic clubhouses in Green Park, London and Edinburgh, we offer our members a home away from home. Contact ROSL for more information, quoting RA Magazine for special joining discounts. www.rosl.org.uk +44(0)20 7408 0214 (ext. 214 & 216) info@rosl.org.uk

London: Over-Seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street, London, SW1A 1LR Edinburgh: Over-Seas House, 100 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3AB

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A Royal Academy initiative for 16–18 year olds, curated by a panel including Lisa Milroy Charley Warder, Untitled Anxiety (car park) (detail). Photograph. The Thomas Hardye School, Dorset. Artwork exhibited in A-level Summer Exhibition Online 2014

8 June–16 August 2015 Experience the artworks at alevel.royalacademy.org.uk

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Debate

Short Courses and Practical Classes

results from bold, experimental cuts to subtle, layered pieces. Learning Studio, Burlington House; £360 (printing materials, lunches & wine reception on Saturday provided); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm; suitable for beginners or those with some experience

For full details, visit royalacademy.org.uk/courses

SHORT COURSE Art on Film

Saturdays: 31 Oct and 7, 14, 21 and 28 Nov Professor Ian Christie curates this short course in which he invites Royal Academicians to discuss films that have represented aspects of the visual arts and the lives of artists. Each week students explore a different genre response to the arts, including satire and artist biography, through the screening of a key feature with accompanying shorts, followed by a discussion. Features include Museum Hours (2013) chosen by Mali Morris RA. Reynolds Room, Burlington House; £160 (incl. wine reception); maximum 60 places; 12.30–4pm PR ACTICAL CLASS Introduction to Art Criticism

P H OTO BY R OY M AT T H E WS © R OYA L ACA D EM Y O F A R TS

Life Drawing in the RA Schools’ historic Life Room

PR ACTICAL CLASS

Drawing into Painting

Life Drawing

Painting Set Free

Sat 12 and Sun 13 Sep During this in-depth, two-day painting class, participants will begin the workshop with observational drawings and then move on to explore semi-abstraction in paint. Artist and teacher David Webb leads this class and encourages you to respond in experimental and imaginative ways as you investigate space, rhythm, composition and colour theory. Learning Studio, Burlington House; £360 (painting materials, lunches & wine reception on Saturday provided); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm

Weekends: Sat 26 and Sun 27 Sep; Sat 17 and Sun 18 Oct; Sat 14 and Sun 15 Nov; Sat 12 and Sun 13 Dec This two-day class explores a range of approaches to life drawing and is held in the RA Schools’ historic Life Room. Guided by practising artists, you will broaden your approach to depicting the figure and gain an appreciation of tone and form. During the classes, you will observe and work from both a male and female model. Life Room, Royal Academy Schools; £360 (drawing materials & lunches provided); maximum 18 places; 10.30am–4.30pm

PR ACTICAL CLASS

Watercolour Painting En Plein Air

Soho Street Photography

Sat 10 Oct In this hands-on workshop, learn how to find the image through paint. Working on large canvases, participants will be encouraged to keep their surfaces wet using water-based oil paints to manipulate their shapes with brush strokes. This class is taught by artist Virginia Verran, using her ‘postcard project’ model. Students choose a postcard image to work from and interpret the image through paint on a large scale, responding in experimental and imaginative ways. Learning Studio, Burlington House; £195 (all materials, lunch & refreshments provided, incl. a glass of wine); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm

Mon 14, Tue 15 or Wed 16 Sep These one-day workshops explore the art of painting from nature. Working from vista views of Green Park, students learn methods of capturing natural light, how to mix colours tonally, and techniques for working beyond the studio. Led by artist Michael Collins of the Royal Watercolour Society, the course will increase your confidence in working with watercolour and experimenting in painting the landscape en plein air. Burlington House and Green Park; £195 (painting materials, coffee, lunch & a glass of wine provided); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm; Mon: beginners, Tue: beginners/intermediate, Wed: intermediate

Sat 26 and Sun 27 Sep Capture the buzz of Soho on camera during this two-day practical workshop. Over the weekend you will be taught techniques on how best to approach your subject, as well as a variety of camera functions. Led by professional photographer Roy Matthews, the workshop will include one-to-one tutoring and group critiques. All levels of ability are encouraged and participants should bring a camera, ideally a digital SLR. GA Room, Burlington House; £360 (lunch & refreshments provided, incl. a glass of wine at the end of the second day); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–5.30pm

PR ACTICAL CLASS Chiaroscuro Linocut Printing with Anne Desmet RA

Sat 24 and Sun 25 Oct Participants will learn the Renaissance method of creating, in print, the 3-D illusion of tonal drawings known as ‘chiaroscuro’. The two-day course includes an introduction to historic and contemporary printmakers, from Albrecht Dürer to Claude Flight. Students may bring their own sketches or photographs, or work from the source material provided, to create their own prints. You will learn this technique, which can produce a great range of

Saturdays: 14 and 28 Nov If you are an aspiring art writer for print or blog, this practical class will give you the confidence to respond to art with a critical eye, equipping you with the tools to write with both style and clarity. Led by Sam Phillips, Editor of RA Magazine, this two-day class helps you perfect skills central to art criticism, in particular the description, interpretation and judgement of art. There is a special focus on the RA’s ‘Ai Weiwei’ exhibition. GA Room, Burlington House; £270 (all materials, tea, coffee & lunch provided); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm PR ACTICAL CLASS Wood Engraving with Anne Desmet RA

Sat 28 and Sun 29 Nov You will learn traditional techniques of engraving and printing in this twoday course, which will also introduce the history of artist engravers, from Paul Nash to Gertrude Hermes RA. Anne Desmet will emphasise the diversity of approaches employed in wood engraving, and you will learn to use the full range of specialist engraving tools, and how to print using a press as well as by hand. Learning Studio, Burlington House; £360 (printing materials, lunches & wine reception on Saturday provided); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm; suitable for beginners or those with some experience How to book ● Visit royalacademy.org.uk/

courses, or call 020 7300 5839 ● You can also fax the booking

form overleaf to 020 7300 8023 ● For any queries and further

information about these events, please email events.lectures@ royalacademy.org.uk or call 020 7300 5839

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Debate

Further information can be found at royalacademy.org.uk/events

June FREE LUNCHTIME LECTURE Eileen Cooper RA: Drawn from the Imagination

Mon 8 June Eileen Cooper discusses the role of drawing in her practice with art writer Anna McNay. A book signing of Eileen Cooper: Between the Lines follows. Reynolds Room; 1–2pm; free (pre-booking strongly recommended) ARCHITECTURE EVENT Cultivating Creative Cities

Mon 8 June London is one of the world’s most creative cities, with thriving cultural and technological sectors contributing to the economy. But how do local areas, and cities as a whole, become creative? Can creativity be planned through policy or design? This panel discussion is a keynote debate for the London Festival of Architecture. Geological Society; 6.30–8pm; £12/£6 reductions SUMMER EXHIBITION EVENT

of his new book, On Being An Artist (see page 38) available for purchase. Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only) R A LATE The Other Garden Party

Sat 13 June The quintessential English garden party, a summertime ritual, meets the fantastical world of Alice in Wonderland. Encounter weird and wonderful performances, surreal characters and a brass band. Then venture inside the RA to explore the Summer Exhibition after hours, and descend into our Victorian vaults to discover a Wonderlandinspired world. Burlington House; 7–11pm; £30 (incl. cocktail and entry to the Summer Exhibition)

How to book ● Visit royalacademy.org.uk/

events, or call 020 7300 5839 (option 3). You can also visit the RA Ticket Office, or complete the booking form overleaf and post to ‘Events and Lectures’ or fax 020 7300 8023. ● Booking is strongly advised for lunchtime lectures. Please arrive before 1pm as unclaimed seats will be released at 1pm that day. ● Reductions are available for students, jobseekers and people with disabilities with recognised proof of status. ● RA Friends and carers go free to Access events; pre-booking is advised. Disabled parking spaces and wheelchairs can be reserved on 020 7300 8028.

Fri 19 June Sculptor Conrad Shawcross discusses his courtyard installation for this year’s Summer Exhibition, The Dappled Light of the Sun, and the way his sculptures explore geometry, philosophy, physics and metaphysics (see page 60). Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only) INMOTION AT THE R A Summer Exhibition Tour for Mobility Impaired Visitors

Mon 22 June A tour of the galleries for wheelchair users and mobility impaired visitors. Meet in the Front Hall; 9–11am; £3 SUMMER EXHIBITION EVENT RA and Pin Drop Short Story Award

Fri 26 June Our collaboration with Pin Drop continues with the launch of a special literature award offering a platform for emerging and established writers to showcase their short stories. At this event, the winner of the award will be announced, and their story narrated by a special guest (details on the RA website). Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only)

INMIND AT THE R A Coffee and Conversation for People Living with Dementia

Mondays: 15 June, 20 July, 17 Aug Artist and gallery educators facilitate these sessions for individuals living with early to mid-stages of dementia, and their carers, friends and family members. Fine Rooms; 11am–12.30pm; £3

Michael Craig-Martin RA

Fri 12 June Celebrated artist, influential teacher and this year’s Summer Exhibition Coordinator Michael Craig-Martin joins Tim Marlow to reflect on his career and the recent evolution of the art world. A book signing follows the talk, with copies

Conrad Shawcross RA

EILEEN COOPER EXHIBITION TOUR Meet the Artist: Tour and Discussion with Eileen Cooper RA

Mon 15 June Join printmaker and painter Eileen Cooper for a guided tour of her exhibition ‘Hide and Seek’ (see page 66) and a unique opportunity to learn about her richly diverse practice, in an intimate setting. We conclude with an informal discussion with the artist over refreshments. Reynolds Room; 1–2.30pm; £12/£6 reductions SUMMER EXHIBITION TOUR Summer Exhibition Edits

Thur 18 June and 16 July The Summer Exhibition Edits are afternoon tours in which pacesetters from diverse fields share their personal highlights of the Summer Exhibition. We welcome Semir Zeki, Professor of Neuroesthetics at University College London and author of Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain (18 June) and Dr Jacqueline Riding, art and consultant historian for the film Mr. Turner (16 July). Summer Exhibition; 3–3.30pm; free with exhibition ticket, limited headsets available. Please check our website for further speakers

BIG Maze, 2014, by architect Bjarke Ingels

SUMMER EXHIBITION TALK Inventive Landscapes with Ian Ritchie RA

Fri 26 June Ian Ritchie discusses his theme for this year’s Architecture Room in the Summer Exhibition – ‘Inventive Landscapes’ – and explores a range of works that respond in intriguing ways. Summer Exhibition; 7–7.30pm; free (ticket for the Summer Exhibition required) INTER ACT AT THE R A Summer Exhibition BSL Tour

Sat 27 June An art historian leads a tour of the Summer Exhibition in BSL. Meet in the Front Hall; 2–3pm; £3 ARCHITECTURE EVENT The RA LEGO Architecture Challenge

Sun 28 June Watch four of the UK’s leading architectural practices battle it out to create the greatest work of architecture, using LEGO. Summer Exhibition; 2–4pm; free (ticket for the Summer Exhibition required)

July CORNELL EVENING EVENT Joseph Cornell and the Mind of Creativity

Fri 3 July Joseph Cornell is one of the most famous, yet mystifying, characters in modern American art. Cornell scholar Lynda Roscoe Hartigan explores how recent

studies in creativity and cognition have contributed to understanding the artist’s distinctive constructions, collages and films, using her insight as the founding curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s Joseph Cornell Study Centre. Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £14/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £10 (event only) SUMMER EXHIBITION TALK The Turkishceramics Grand Award for Architecture Prize Winner

Fri 3 July The winner of the Turkishceramics Grand Award for Architecture – awarded to the most outstanding architectural work in the Summer Exhibition – discusses their project. Summer Exhibition; 7–7.30pm; free (ticket for the Summer Exhibition required) SPECIAL EVENT RA Burlington Gardens Festival

Sat 4 July A day packed full of artistic and cultural activities takes place in Burlington Gardens, involving RA artists, architects and RA Schools students. The streets will come alive with interventions, performances, theatrical tours, music and food stalls. Talks and workshops will be held inside the building. Burlington Gardens; 12–6pm; free FREE LUNCHTIME LECTURE An Introduction to ‘Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust’

Mon 6 July Curator Sarah Lea introduces the groundbreaking collage and assemblage

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Public Events and Lectures

SUMMER EXHIBITION EVENT

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Debate Family Fun

RA Talks

FAMILY STUDIOS These drop-in workshops are supported by Jeanne and William Callanan.

New Friends’ Welcome Tours

Sculpture Special

1pm Tue to Fri 3pm Wed to Fri 11.30am Sat Tours are free and last one hour; meet in the Entrance Hall

2pm first Sunday of each month. RA Tours

Sun 14 June Nature into Art

Sun 12 July Spellbinding Treasure

Sun 16 Aug 11am–3pm; free; no booking required SUMMER FAMILY WORKSHOPS Wed and Fri: 24 July; 5, 7, 12, 14 Aug Join us for creative workshops inspired by the Summer Exhibition. 11am–1pm; £15 adult/£5 RA Friends/£3 children 5+ yrs; pre-booking essential

EXHIBITION TOURS 45-minute introductory tours, free with an exhibition ticket Summer Exhibition

7pm Fri (12 June–7 Aug) Summer Exhibition Family Tours

2.30pm Sun (throughout July) Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust

2.30pm Tue, 7pm Fri (7 July–18 Sep) SEN FAMILY WORKSHOP Sun 21 June (2–4pm) and 9 Aug (11am–1pm) Experienced gallery educators lead these creative sessions for families with children with special educational needs. Pre-booking is essential. Meet in the Front Hall; free

art of Joseph Cornell (see page 54). Reynolds Room; 1–2pm; free (pre-booking strongly recommended) INSTUDIO AT THE R A Creative Workshops for Access and Community Groups

Tue 7 July and Tue 25 Aug Workshops for disabled adults or those at risk of exclusion from the arts. GA Room; 2.30–5.30pm; free, please book

CORNELL EVENING EVENT

‘Running Sand’: Cornell, Surrealism and Time

Provocations in Art: Outsider Art in the Art Market

Mon 13 July Professor Dawn Ades considers Joseph Cornell’s relationship with Surrealism, his engagement with the concept of time and the ongoing dialogue in his work between the ephemeral and the eternal. Reynolds Room; 1–2pm; free (pre-booking strongly recommended)

Fri 24 July A panel of experts, including Thomas Roeske, Director of the Prinzhorn Collection, John Maizels, Editor of Raw Vision, and Marc Steen, Director of Pallant House Gallery, considers the journey of Outsider Art after its creation, and the questionable Outsider status of Joseph Cornell and his art. Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only)

CORNELL EVENING EVENT

ANNUAL ARCHITECTURE LECTURE Bjarke Ingels

Fri 10 July John Stezaker, a leading artist in modern photographic collage, discusses with writer Michael Bracewell the relationship between the work of Joseph Cornell and his own practice. Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only) SUMMER EXHIBITION TALK The AKT II Architecture Prize Winner

Fri 10 July The winner of the AKT II Architecture Prize – awarded to an architect aged 35 or under – discusses their project. Summer Exhibition; 7–7.30pm; free (ticket for the Summer Exhibition required) INTOUCH AT THE R A Audio Described Tour and Artmaking Session: Summer Exhibition

Mon 13 July An event for blind and visually impaired visitors, plus an art-making workshop. Meet in the Front Hall; 9am–12pm; £3

September

FREE LUNCHTIME LECTURE

John Stezaker in Conversation with Michael Bracewell

Mon 13 July Bjarke Ingels begins his designs with the question, ‘What is the biggest problem – what is the greatest potential?’ He finds the answer through analysis of everything from local cultures to the ebb and flow of the global economy. The result is an innovative, informationdriven architecture (above), which stands as the material counterpart to the rapidly evolving realities of the 21st century. Summer Exhibition; 6.45–8pm; £18/£9 reductions (incl. drinks reception and private view of the Summer Exhibition) CORNELL EVENING EVENT Peter Blake in Conversation with Tim Marlow

Fri 17 July Peter Blake explains why the work of Joseph Cornell has made such an impact on his approach to art, and what motivated him to create a series of homages to this intriguing artist. Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only)

ONE-TO-ONE ACCESS TOURS Tours for wheelchair users and audiodescriptive talks about our exhibitions and the permanent collection. Call 020 7300 5732 for details

INTER ACT AT THE R A STAGETEXT Supported Talk with BSL Translation: Joseph Cornell

Fri 4 Sep An event for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing visitors – a slide assisted talk about Cornell with speech to text transcription and BSL interpretation. Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £3 R A LATE

August INTOUCH AT THE R A Audio Described Tour and Handling Session: Joseph Cornell

Mon 3 Aug An event for blind and visually impaired visitors, with a handling session. Meet in the Front Hall; 9–11am; £3

Enchanted Cosmos

Sat 5 Sep Magic meets science at this evening event, as we celebrate artist Joseph Cornell’s dual fascination with theatrical performance and the infinite awe of the cosmos. Burlington House; 6.30–10pm; £22 (incl. cocktail and exh entry) R A BOOK CLUB Gabriel Josipovici: ‘Hotel Andromeda’

INPR ACTICE AT THE R A Access and Community Programmes Artistic Presentation

Fri 7 Aug We invite disabled artists and creative people at risk of exclusion from the art world to share their practice in a warm and welcoming environment. Reynolds Room; 6–8pm; free

Fri 11 Sep Join author and playwright Gabriel Josipovici to discuss his novel Hotel Andromeda, which charts the course of Joseph Cornell’s mysterious life and his remarkable ‘shadow boxes’, through the mind of a young art historian. The Saloon; 6.30–8pm; £19 (incl. exh entry), £15 (event only)

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Debate

These events are very popular. We recommend you post the booking form opposite as soon as you receive the magazine. Remaining tickets will be sold online and over the phone from 15 June

Art Deco In Bloomsbury Walking Tour

Thur 23 July and 24 Sep Join us for a guided tour exploring Bloomsbury’s rich Art Deco heritage, including Charles Holden’s iconic Senate House, the former Daimler car hire garage and a reconverted petrol station. We also study buildings by the architects Patrick Hodgkinson and Thomas Cubitt. Our route takes us past the controversial modernist Brunswick Centre, and an Art Nouveau-style loggia, plus Woburn Walk, London’s first pedestrian shopping area. 11am–1pm; £22; Russell Square, WC1

How to book ● Postal bookings open now.

● ●

●

● Frogmore House, Windsor

Packington Hall in Meriden, Warwickshire, which Friends visit on 23 September Rca Bronze Foundry

Deutsche Bank Private Art Collection

Thur 2 July The Royal College of Art played a major role in the birth of modern British sculpture, with Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth among its alumni. Friends visit the RCA’s foundry for a talk and tour, ending with an opportunity to witness a molten bronze pour and learn about the techniques involved. 10.30am–1.15pm or 2.30–5.15pm; £40; 15– 25 Howie Street, SW11

Thur 9 July Friends visit Deutsche Bank to learn about its corporate art collection. We hear about the history and philosophy of the global collection, which includes over 56,000 works, and then explore the London collection, which includes works by Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor RA and Tony Cragg RA. 6.15–7.45pm; £28 (incl. gls wine and nibbles); 1 Great Winchester Street, EC2

Temple Church and Middle Temple Hall

The Barn – Tom Stuart-Smith’s Garden

Fri 3 July and 16 Oct Built by the Knights Templar, Temple Church is one of only three surviving Norman round churches in England. Friends enjoy an introduction to the church by Revd. Robin Griffith Jones, Master of the Temple. Middle Temple Hall is one of the four ancient Inns of Court, and features a fine example of an Elizabethan hammerbeam roof. After a tour of the reception rooms, we finish with lunch in the spectacular Hall. 10am–2pm; £67 (incl. donation to church, two-course lunch, wine, coffee); Temple, EC4

Mon 13 July Tom Stuart-Smith, renowned landscaper and designer of the RA’s Keeper’s House garden, generously invites Friends to visit the private gardens at his home in Hertfordshire once more. Tom’s design practice has an international reputation; he has won eight medals at Chelsea, including three best-in-show awards. The beautiful walled garden next door at Serge Hill will also be open to us, and following an introduction from Tom, guests will be free to explore. To end the visit, Tom’s sister hosts our tea. 12.45–6.15pm; £58 (incl. coach, tea, cake)

Boughton House, Northants

Tue 7 July Considered to be the English Versailles, Boughton is a blend of the intimate and the grand. Its Tudor courtyard is fronted by palatial additions made by the first Duke of Montagu in the 1690s. The house boasts a collection of paintings by artists including El Greco, Batoni and Van Dyck. We tour the Great Hall and State Rooms, and also view Boughton’s temporary exhibition, which celebrates the many Huguenot artworks preserved within the house. 9am–7.30pm; £87 (incl. coach, coffee, lunch, gls wine, tea)

Parham House and Pallant House, West Sussex

Tue 21 July Parham House, described by author Simon Jenkins as ‘a house of magic’, contains rare collections of paintings, furniture and antiquities. Our private tour includes the Great Hall, with mullioned windows overlooking the South Downs, and the Long Gallery. We also visit Pallant House Gallery to enjoy the exhibition ‘Sickert in Dieppe’, with an introduction from the curator. 9am–7.30pm; £87 (incl. coffee, lunch, gls wine, tea)

Tue 28 July The charming Frogmore House has been a favourite royal retreat for more than 300 years. Built in the 17th century, it became a royal property when it was purchased for George III’s wife, Queen Charlotte, in 1792. Friends enjoy a private tour, with champagne, which reveals the royal family’s history at the house. We explore the principal rooms, including one decorated for Queen Charlotte by the renowned 18th-century flower painter Mary Moser RA. 3.45–9pm; £60 (incl. coach, gls champagne) Ditchley Park

Tue 4 Aug Ditchley Park was built in 1722 to a design by James Gibbs, and its interiors richly decorated by William Kent and Henry Flitcroft. The extensive grounds contain features such as the Great Temple by Stiff Leadbetter and a ha-ha by John Louden, and were redesigned by Geoffrey Jellicoe. We explore Ditchley’s interiors, seldom open to the public, and its connections to Winston Churchill. 11.45am–7.15pm; £50 (incl. coach and tea) Thames River Police Museum

●

Post booking form opposite to ‘Events & Lectures’, or fax 020 7300 8023. Friends may purchase a guest ticket to Friends Events. Friends Events booking forms are balloted; please list your choices in preference order. When an event is running on more than one day and/or time and you forget to choose a time, we will select one for you. The excursion coach leaves from outside the RA on Piccadilly. Return times are approximate. There is no discount if you choose to drive instead of travelling by coach. For Friends membership enquiries, call 020 7300 5664 or visit royalacademy.org.uk/ friends For queries about these events, please call 020 7300 5839.

Spitalfields Walking Tour

Mon 10 and Thur 20 Aug Our tour takes us around this curious, closed world of early Georgian terraces and grand 17th-century silk weavers’ houses that mark the fault-line between the City and its neighbouring borough, Tower Hamlets. We learn about the history of the area and visit the gallery Eleven Spitalfields to see the exhibition ‘Hermaoin: Happy Accidents and Lucky Finds’ by artist and filmmaker Amanda Schiff. Schiff tells us about the strong influence of Joseph Cornell’s assemblages (currently on display at the RA) on her practice. 11am–1pm; £26; Commercial Street, E1

Thur 6 Aug This quirky museum is home to an eclectic collection of police uniforms, equipment and documents that relate to the history of the world’s first organised police force, the Thames River Police. Hosted by the museum curator, a retired serving officer, we view the collection and learn how the marine police force began. We also enjoy a view of Cherry Garden pier from where Turner is said to have painted The Fighting Temeraire (1839). 12–1.30pm or 2–3.30pm; £18; Wapping High Street, E1

Tue 11 Aug and 15 Sep Led by one of the Brothers of Charterhouse, our very popular annual tour of this historic palace includes the Courts, Great Hall, Library, Great Chamber and Chapel. Over its 600year history, Charterhouse has been a Tudor mansion and a Jacobean hospital. It is now an almshouse hidden behind a square in lively Clerkenwell. 2.15–4pm; £28 (incl. tea); Charterhouse Square, EC1

Lancaster House

Highgate Cemetery

Fri 7 Aug Dr James Yorke leads Friends on an exclusive tour of Lancaster House, widely considered to be one of the greatest surviving London townhouses. Commissioned in 1825 by the ‘Grand Old’ Duke of York, the exterior was mainly designed by Benjamin Wyatt. We explore the Louis XV interiors, the ornate staircase and the Grand Hall. 11am–12.30pm or 2.30–4pm; £23; Stable Yard, St James’s, SW1

Thur 13 Aug and 17 Sep We return to Highgate Cemetery for a guided tour of the private west section, which includes the atmospheric Lebanon Circle Vaults, Egyptian Avenue and Terrace Catacombs. Opened in 1839, the cemetery has some of the finest funerary architecture in the country and is designated a Grade I-listed park. 11am–1pm; £27 (not recommended for anyone with walking difficulties); Highgate West Cemetery, Swains Lane, N6

Charterhouse

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Friends Events and Excursions

Debate Friends Worldwide Art Tours

Events booking form For Friends Events and Excursions, please list your event choices in preference order.

Bruges and Ghent: Flemish Art and Architecture with Nicola Jennings

Event

Date

7–11 Nov Experience the brilliance of the Flemish School throughout the northern Renaissance with expert art historian Nicola Jennings. This tour also highlights the brilliantly conserved 14th- and 15th-century medieval and Renaissance buildings in Bruges and Ghent. Call 020 7873 5013 or visit coxandkings.co.uk/ra

Clarence House

Mon 17 Aug Friends enjoy a private tour of Clarence House. The building displays much of the Queen’s art collection, including paintings by John Piper, Graham Sutherland and Walter Sickert. We are also treated to a view of the Cornwall Room, hung with 22 watercolours painted by HRH The Prince of Wales. 4.30–6pm; £58; St James’s Palace, SW1 (incl. gls champagne and guidebook) Stratfield Saye, Hampshire

T H E A D O R AT I O N O F T H E M AGI , 15T H CEN T U RY, T H E CH U R CH O F O U R L A DY, B RU GES

Tue 8 Sep Stratfield Saye was given by the nation to the first Duke of Wellington after his victory at Waterloo. Friends enjoy privileged access to the collection of paintings, furniture and personal mementoes. We also view the Wellington exhibition, which includes the first Duke’s magnificent cast-bronze funeral carriage. 9.15am–6.15pm; £84 (incl. coach, coffee, lunch, gls wine, tea, cake). Please note this visit includes a considerable amount of walking. Southbank Centre Architectural and Backstage Tour

Mon 14 Sep Our guided tour explores the history of this world-famous arts centre. We examine its groundbreaking architectural style and learn about the inner workings of the Royal Festival Hall, Hayward Gallery and more. We visit areas normally restricted to the public and may have a chance to step out on the Royal Festival Hall stage. 6–7.30pm; £22; directions with ticket Gorhambury House and Moggerhanger Park, Hertfordshire

Wed 16 Sep Gorhambury was built in the 18th century by Robert Taylor, replacing old Gorhambury House, home to philosopher and writer Francis Bacon. Friends explore the house’s extensive collection, including the Van Somer portraits of Bacon. In the afternoon we visit Moggerhanger Park, a Grade I-listed

Number of Tickets

Cost

Total Cost £

Georgian building designed by John Soane RA in 1792 and widely recognised as the most complete surviving example of Soane’s work. 9am–7pm; £88 (coffee, lunch, gls wine, tea) The Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House

Mon 21 and 28 Sep On this exclusive tour with the Head of Collections, we learn about the history of the Society of Antiquaries and view its beautiful interiors, including the library, which holds over 130,000 books, some dating from the 15th century. We also learn about its collection of objects, ranging from prehistoric and medieval antiquities to items relating to the society’s history. 10.30am–12pm; £28 (incl. coffee); meet in the courtyard of Burlington House

Reductions are available for students, jobseekers and people with disabilities with recognised proof of status. Please indicate your status if relevant Student

Jobseeker

Disabled

Please note that reductions are not available for Friends Events and Excursions Please indicate any dietary or mobility requirements where relevant

Please debit my credit/charge card number (we no longer accept cheques)

Expiry date

Issue number/start date (Switch only)

Signature Title First name

Packington Hall and Charlecote Park

Wed 23 Sep Our tour of Packington Hall with the owner, Lord Aylesford, reveals fine interiors designed by Bonomi in 1772, paintings by Rigaud, grounds landscaped by Capability Brown and a unique classical church. We also visit the National Trust’s Charlecote Park, a Tudor house with a contemporary portrait of Elizabeth I and one of the most important libraries of all the Trust’s properties. Friends will be welcomed by the owner, Sir Edward Fairfax-Lucy. 8.45am–7.30pm; £140 (incl. coffee, lunch, gls wine, tea, cake); places limited Walking Tour of Brunel’s Rotherhithe

Fri 25 and Wed 30 Sep This tour, led by representatives from the Brunel Museum, takes in the rich maritime history of Rotherhithe. It includes a visit to Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Thames Tunnel and its Grand Entrance Hall, a huge chamber half the size of the Globe Theatre. 10.30am–12pm; £22; meet at Bermondsey Tube station, SE1. The entrance to the tunnel is through a low doorway and access is limited.

Surname Address

Postcode

Daytime telephone Friends Membership no. Email address The Royal Academy reserves the right to refuse admission to any event

● Some of the venues we visit occasionally offer tours to the general public. By purchasing a ticket through the RA, you are supporting the Friends’ Events programme and other Learning initiatives and we are grateful for your patronage. ● There is a handling charge of £5 for all refunds. We regret that refunds cannot be made less than 14 days before an event.

● All events are correct at time of publication but are subject to change without notice. ● Send or fax your completed form to the booking address: Events & Lectures Visitor & Friends Experience Team Royal Academy of Arts Piccadilly London W1J 0BD Fax booking line: 020 7300 8023

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SCREAM OF THE ARABS

www.shendaamery.co.uk shenda.amery@btinternet.com

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SHENDA AMERY

Telephone: 020 7834 7013 Mobile: 07552 438464

New Works by Lee Madgwick 21/04/2015

12:11

21 May - 14 June 2015

ADD A SPLASH OF ART Byard Art

Hampstead, London. 11 – 14 June 2015 110 galleries with 1,100 artists affordableartfair.co.uk The Tower Block

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14 King’s Parade Cambridge CB2 1SJ Tel: 01223 464646 info@byardart.co.uk www.byardart.co.uk

23/04/2015 15:59 06/05/2015 11:27

Exhibitions in London and the rest of the UK

Listings Art School Degree Shows THE ART ACADEMY

© BY Z ANTIA HARLOW/COURTESY ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART. © ZIGGY GRUDZINSK AS/COURTESY ROYAL ACADEMY SCHOOLS . © BE A BONAFINI/COURTESY THE SL ADE SCHOOL OF FINE ART. © ZOË DUNN/COURTESY THE RUSKIN SCHOOL OF ART

Mermaid Court, 165A Borough High Street SE1, 020 7407 6969, www.artacademy.org.uk Graduate Show Work by talented emerging artists studying for the Fine Art Diploma, Fine Art Foundation and Certificate courses, 9-13 July. CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON ART SCHOOL

124 Kennington Park Road SE11, 020 7735 2306, www.cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk Degree Show Fine Art Painting and Sculpture, Conservation and Carving in Stone and Wood, 24-28 June. MA Fine Art Show 9-13 Sep. CURWEN & NEW ACADEMY GALLERY

34 Windmill Street W1, 020 7323 4700, www.curwengallery.com Northern Graduates Selected work by graduates from art schools in northern England, 5-26 Aug. ROYAL ACADEMY SCHOOLS

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly W1, 020 7300 5650, www.royalacademy.org.uk/the-ra-schools RA Schools Show Postgraduate final year show, 12-28 June. ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART

Kensington Gore SW7 and Hester Road SW11, 020 7590 4444, www.rca.ac.uk RCA Show Royal College of Art graduate exhibition. Contemporary art and design from postgraduate students, 25 June-5 July (closed 3 July). Open 12–6pm daily.

www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/shows/2015

Undergraduate Degree Show The

annual Slade BA/BFA degree show, showcasing artworks by graduating students. 23-28 May 10am-8pm weekdays, 10am-5pm weekends. Graduate Degree Show The annual Slade MA/MFA degree show, showcasing artworks by graduating students. 11-21 June 10am-8pm weekdays, 10am-5pm weekends.

London Public BARBICAN CENTRE

Silk Street EC2, 020 7638 4141, www.barbican.org.uk

Roman Signer: Slow Movement

Hepworth exhibition in London for almost 50 years, 24 June-25 Oct.

in Barbican Art Gallery. This ‘living exhibition’ will include performances, works and residencies by over 100 artists, 27 June-26 July. DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY

Gallery Road SE21, 020 8693 5254, www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk Ravilious The first major exhibition to survey watercolours by celebrated British artist Eric Ravilious (1903-42), until 31 Aug. Pierre-Paul Prud’hon: Napoleon’s Draughtsman Coinciding with London’s celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, Dulwich presents the first UK exhibition devoted to PierrePaul Prud’hon (1758-1823). The artist was a painter and draughtsman who, through his distinctive and unconventional vision, emerged as one of the most exceptional talents working in post-Revolutionary Paris, 23 June-15 Nov.

Canonbury Square N1, 020 7704 9522, www.estorickcollection.com

SLADE SCHOOL OF FINE ART

TATE BRITAIN

Modigliani: A Unique Artistic Voice

until 28 June. Fausto Pirandello (18991975) 8 July-6 Sep. THE NATIONAL GALLERY

Trafalgar Square WC2, 020 7747 2885, www.nationalgallery.org.uk

Soundscapes: Listening to Paintings

The National Gallery is inviting six sound artists and musicians to each select a painting from the collection and to create new sound work in response to it. Each artist will be given a room in the Sainsbury Wing galleries in which their chosen painting and their musical response will be installed, 8 July-6 Sep.

Hot and Tasty, 2014, by Byzantia Harlow at the Royal College of Art

Millbank SW1, 020 7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk Fighting History This exhibition focuses on the conflict, martyrdom and catastrophe found in history painting from the eighteenth century to the present day, 9 June-13 Sep.

Station to Station: A 30 Day Happening A project by Doug Aitken

The Green Shed, Osney Mead, Oxford, 07715 275576 www.rsa.ox.ac.uk

University College London, Gower St WC1, 020 7679 2313,

2 July-18 Oct.

Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World The first major Barbara

ESTORICK COLLECTION OF MODERN ITALIAN ART

Rebecca Ajulu-Bushell, Laurien Ash, Sonia Bernaciak, Ailis Brennan, Emma D’Arcy, Zoë Dunn (right), Melanie Eckersley, Arieh Frosh, Gala Ioannou, Irina Iordache, Josie King, Joseph Mackay, Mark Mindel, Emma Papworth, Lili Jane Pickett-Palmer, Eleanor Pryer, Jose-Mateo Revillo, Louisa Siem, Julia Sklar, Amy Thellusson, Noëlle Turner-Bridger, Amy Wilson, 20-22 June, 12-6pm.

Wellington: Triumphs, Politics and Passions until 7 June. BP Portrait Award 18 June-20 Sep. Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon

The Curve, until 31 May.

RUSKIN SCHOOL OF ART The Ruskin School of Art Degree Show Work by 22 BFA undergraduates:

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

St Martin’s Place WC2, 020 7306 0055, www.npg.org.uk

TATE MODERN

Bankside SE1, 020 7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk Agnes Martin This is the first retrospective of Martin’s work since 1994. Covering the full breadth of her practice, this extensive exhibition will reveal the artist’s early and little-known experiments with different media, and trace her development from biomorphic abstraction to the mesmerising grid and striped canvases that became her hallmark, 3 June-11 Oct. Sonia Delaunay The first UK retrospective to assess the breadth of Delaunay’s vibrant artistic practice across a wide range of media. It features the groundbreaking paintings, textiles and clothes she made across a 60-year career, as well as the results of her innovative collaborations with poets, choreographers and manufacturers, from Diaghilev to Liberty, until 9 Aug.

The Mirror Reflecting (Part 2), 2015, by Ziggy Grudzinskas at the Royal Academy Schools

V&A

Cromwell Road SW7, 020 7942 2000, www.vam.ac.uk

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

This must-see exhibition is the only major retrospective of McQueen’s fashion design work to be presented in Europe, until 2 Aug. All of this Belongs to You The V&A belongs to all of us. But what does this really mean? Enjoy specially commissioned installations by James Bridle, Natalie Jeremijenko and Jorge Otero-Pailos, until 19 July. What is Luxury? A V&A and Crafts Council Exhibition. See exceptional examples of contemporary design and craftsmanship in this exhibition ranging from finely-crafted exhibits to specially

HOW TO BOOK For inclusion in RA Magazine’s paid Listings section for public and commercial galleries in the UK call 020 7300 5657 or email catherine.cartwright@royalacademy.org.uk. Readers should contact galleries directly for opening times and ticketing queries

Untitled (detail), Degree Shows 2014, by Bea Bonafini at Slade School of Fine Art

Jumper Score (detail), 2015, by Zoë Dunn at the Ruskin School of Art

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commissioned installations, until 27 Sep. Shoes: Pleasure and Pain Explore extremes of footwear from around the globe from ancient Egypt to the most elaborate designs by contemporary makers, 13 June-31 Jan 2016. Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 This

exhibition shows 60 of the earliest and most striking views of Burma and India’s landscape and architecture as captured by Linnaeus Tripe, 24 June-11 Oct. June 1963 (Lilac blue), 1963, by Ben Nicholson at Connaught Brown

London Commercial ALAN CRISTEA

31 & 34 Cork Street W1, 020 7439 1866, www.alancristea.com

Gillian Ayres: New Paintings and Prints until 30 May. Julian Opie: 20112015, 5 June-18 July. Summer Exhibition

Academicians Gillian Ayres, Patrick Caulfield, David Hockney, Allen Jones, Joe Tilson and more, 22 July-12 Sep (closed 15-31 Aug). BANKSIDE GALLERY

48 Hopton Street SE1, 020 7928 7521, www.banksidegallery.com

Dying King, 1963, by Elisabeth Frink RA at Beaux Arts London

Bill Henderson: The Other Side of the Line 10-14 June. Morgan Doyle: Between Silence and Noise 17-28 June. Off the Wall RWS and RE

summer exhibition, 20 July-23 Aug. BEAUX ARTS LONDON

48 Maddox Street W1, 020 7493 1155, www.beauxartslondon.co.uk Elisabeth Frink Solo exhibition, until 20 June. Ray Richardson New works, 25 June-25 July. BONHAMS

Plums on the Bough, 2014, by Diane Urwin, at Mall Galleries

101 New Bond Street W1, 020 7447 7447, www.bonhams.com Modern British and Irish Art Works by major British artists including Dame Elisabeth Frink, CRW Nevinson and Ivon Hitchens, are on view 5-10 June, auction 10 June. 19th Century European, Victorian and British Impressionist Art Presenting works by

Lord Frederic Leighton PRA, Edward Seago, John Atkinson Grimshaw and Sir William Russell Flint RA, viewing 2023 June, auction 23 June. Impressionist and Modern Art Featuring works by Joan MirÓ, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, viewing 19-24 June, auction 24 June. BROWSE & DARBY

19 Cork Street W1, 020 7734 7984, www.browseanddarby.co.uk

Nicholas Rena: After Matisse On the Threshold, 2012, by Monika Veriopoulos, at Piers Feetham Gallery

A series of large bowls, meditations on the colours of the European tradition,

until 5 June. British & French Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture and William Plumptre 10 June-15 July. Matthew Smith (1st floor gallery) A selection of still-lifes and landscapes, predominantly from private collections, 10 June-15 July. CHELSEA ART SOCIETY

Chelsea Old Town Hall, Kings Road SW3, 020 7731 3121, www.chelseaartsociety.org.uk Chelsea Art Society 68th Annual Open Art Exhibition 18-22 June (daily

HIGHGATE CONTEMPORARY ART 26 Highgate High Street N6, 020 8340 7564, www.highgateart.com Gohar Goddard: Words in Forms and Graffitti Goddard’s awareness of

her environment and influence of her surroundings informs every work in this exhibition of serene, calm and colourful paintings, 28 May-21 June. Summer Farrago A vibrant and stimulating mix of gallery artists, introducing new names and work. Displayed over two floors, over 100 paintings will be on show, 25 June-6 Sep.

10am-7pm; Sunday 10am-5pm; last day 10am-2pm) admission free.

LLEWELLYN ALEXANDER

CONNAUGHT BROWN

124–126 The Cut SE1, 020 7620 1322/1324, www.llewellynalexander.com

2 Albemarle Street W1, 020 7408 0362, www.connaughtbrown.co.uk

Not the Royal Academy: A Salon des Refusés Now in its 25th year. This

CURWEN & NEW ACADEMY GALLERY

ever-changing exhibition of work, shows art submitted and refused from the 2015 Summer Exhibition. Oils, watercolours and pastels of all sizes are for sale in this lively gallery on the South Bank. Buyers may take painting at time of purchase, leaving wall space for new work to take its place, 9 June-22 Aug.

Ben Nicholson: Landscape into Abstraction until 18 June.

34 Windmill Street W1, 020 7323 4700, www.curwengallery.com Curwen Auctions Online auction, 8-22 June (live auction, 23 June at 7pm). Animal paintings by Alison Elliott and work by Nicola Lord in the upper gallery, 2-28 July. EAGLE GALLERY / EMH ARTS

159 Farringdon Road EC1, 020 7833 2674, www.emmahilleagle.com Editions Stephen Chambers RA, Denise de Cordova, Dido Crosby, James Fisher, Tom Hammick and Jane Joseph, until 13 June. Whiteout Alexis Harding, Jane Harris, Dan Roach and Trevor Sutton, 25 June-31 July. (Gallery closed for August, re-opening 3 Sep). EAMES FINE ART GALLERY

58 Bermondsey Street SE1, 020 7407 1025, www.eamesfineart.com

Jason Hicklin: Gods of the Earth, Gods of the Sea Exhibiting a magnificent

series of new works from the artist’s recent journey to the Orkney Islands. Hicklin has captured some of the most iconic views of the islands, including the Old Man of Hoy and Scapa Flow. This comprehensive show includes etchings, monotypes, canvases and etched zinc panels, until 7 June. Secret Bid Auction Over 100 original prints by major printmaking artists - register online, 8 July. GREENWICH PRINTMAKERS GALLERY

1A The Market SE10, 020 8858 1569 www.greenwich-printmakers.org.uk Original Artist Prints at affordable prices Olivia Krimpas, 30 June-19 July. Jennifer Jokhoo 21 July-9 Aug. Tammy Mackay 11-30 Aug. Sally Mckay 1-20 Sep.

LONG & RYLE GALLERY

4 John Islip Street SW1, 020 7834 1434, www.longandryle.com Jocelyn Clarke: Small Moon until 12 June. Olympia Art and Antiques Fair Anne Desmet RA, Johnathon Monks, Katharine Morling, Maro Gorky, Melanie Miller, Paul Coldwell, Ramiro Fernandez-Saus RA, Simon Casson and Su Blackwell all show, 18-28 June. MARTYN GREGORY

34 Bury Street SW1, 020 7839 3731, www.martyngregory.com A Foray into the 20th Century

Works by British artists including Edward Bawden, Paul Nash, John Piper, Charles Tunnicliffe and others, until 29 May. Masterpiece London at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. China Trade paintings. Pictures relating to the Far East. 18th and 19th century British oils and watercolours, 25 June1 July. London Art Week 18th and 19th century British watercolours and drawings including David Cox, Peter De Wint, Thomas Gainsborough and others 3-10 July. MALL GALLERIES

The Mall SW1, www.society-women-artists.org.uk

The Society of Women Artists 154th Annual Exhibition An opportunity to

view and purchase works of art in all media by leading professional artists, 5-13 June (10am-5pm daily, closing 3pm 13 June, late opening until 7.30pm on 11 June).

© T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY CO N N AU GH T B R OW N . © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY B E AUX A R TS LO N D O N . © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY T H E S O CI E T Y O F WO M EN A R T IS TS . © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY P I ERS F EE T H A M G A L L ERY

Listings

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AL S G LE

EN SP

LFIEL TA

A M A N DA S C H I F F

DEBORAH STERN ARBS

HERMAION:

SCULPTOR

H A P P Y AC C I D E N T S AND LUCKY FINDS

3 J U LY -

“Primavera”. Bronze. Edition of 9. 11” x 13” x 11½” (28cm x 33cm x 29cm)

28 AUGUST 2015 11 Princelet Street w Spitalfields w E1 6QH www.elevenspitalfields.com w 0207 247 1816

WINTER_14_quarter.indd 1

To view this and other sculptures telephone for appointment in central London Telephone: 020 7262 7104 Email: info@deborah-stern.com Website: www.deborah-stern.com

23/09/2014 16:26

FOR STUNNING PICTURES AND BEAUTIFUL POTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH GOLDMARK GALLERY

Jankel Adler, Man Dancing, 1940’s, pen and ink, £1,950

JANKEL ADLER FROM 27 MAY

64 Belsize Lane, London NW3 5BJ Wednesday - Saturday: 11.00am - 6.00pm, Sunday: noon - 5.00pm (also by appointment outside normal hours) t: 020 7443 5990 e: info@sylvesterfineart.co.uk www.sylvesterfineart.co.uk

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Listings

OSBORNE SAMUEL

23a Bruton Street W1, 020 7493 7939, www.osbornesamuel.com

Henry Moore: Sculpture & Drawings

Blenheim, 1962, by John Plumb at Paisnel Gallery

This exhibition includes several important early works which have never been seen before in public, until 27 June. Masterpiece London at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. Osborne Samuel once again exhibits at Masterpiece London, showing major Modern British paintings and sculpture, 25 June-1 July. PAISNEL GALLERY 9 Bury Street, St James’s SW1 020 7930 9293, www.paisnelgallery.co.uk John Plumb: Retrospective (left) 1020 June (also on view at Gallery 8, 8 Duke Street, St James’s, SW1).

Blakeney, 1962, by Mary Fedden RA at Portland Gallery

Di Bresciani: New Compositions in Colour until 10 July.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON

Burlington House, Piccadilly W1, 020 7479 7080, www.sal.org.uk Magna Carta Through the Ages

26 May-31 July. SYLVESTER FINE ART

PANGOLIN LONDON

90 York Way N1, 020 7520 1480, www.pangolinlondon.com

20th and 21st Century British and European Fine Art This ongoing show

Jon Buck: Coded for Colour until 27 June. Sculptors’ Prints and Drawings 8 July-15 Aug.

includes modern masters such as Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, David Hockey RA, Salvador Dali and Marc Chagall.

PIERS FEETHAM GALLERY

THACKERAY GALLERY

475 Fulham Road SW6, 020 7381 3031, www.piersfeethamgallery.com

18 Thackeray Street W8, 020 7937 5883, www.thackeraygallery.com

Sculpture and ceramics, 13-28 June (weekends only call 01728 452209 for opening times). Elisabeth Vellacott Paintings and drawings, 19 June- 18 July (gallery closed 19 July-31 Aug). PORTLAND GALLERY

8 Bennett Street SW1, 020 7493 1888, www.portlandgallery.com

Mary Fedden RA: Works from the 60s Portland Gallery exclusively

represents the Estate of Mary Fedden and is delighted to be celebrating the centenary of her birth with a selection of works from the 1960s (left), on sale and on loan, 3-24 June. REDFERN GALLERY Durham Wharf, 1962, by Julian Trevelyan at Bohun Gallery

THE ROYAL OVER-SEAS LEAGUE

Over-seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street SW1, 020 7408 0214, www.rosl.org.uk, www.dibresciani.com

64 Belsize Lane NW3, 020 7443 5990, www.sylvesterfineart.com Jankel Adler A selection of works from his final years in Britain, 27 May-14 June. Pablo Picasso A selection of lithographs, etchings and linocuts by the giant of 20th century European art, 17 June-8 July.

Monika Veriopoulos and Alexandra Buhler Drawings and paintings, until 6 June. Aldeburgh Festival Exhibition

London: The Thames from Somerset House Terrace towards Westminster (detail) c.1750-51, by Canaletto at the Holburne Museum

RICHARD GREEN 147 New Bond Street W1, 020 7493 3939, www.richardgreen.com Pre-War Scotland until 10 June. Masterpiece London at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, 25 June-1 July.

20 Cork Street W1, 020 7734 1732, www.redfern-gallery.com Neil Stokoe Paintings from the 60s and 70s, 16 June-5 July. William Gear 19151997: A Centenary Exhibition 7 July6 Aug. Kurt Jackson Forthcoming show (dates unconfirmed at time of printing).

Asfodelo Dreaming: Carey Mortimer

Working with reclaimed materials, including metal and gessoed cloth, Carey also shows outstanding Italianinspired frescoes, until 5 June. Hogweed & Honeysuckle: Michael Honnor

Established artist Michael Honnor has made a new series of paintings inspired by wild flowers, 16-26 June. Summer Show Annual summer show featuring work by gallery artists Gordon Bryce, Joanna Carrington, Vivienne Williams and Judy Buxton, among others, 7-24 July. WADDINGTON CUSTOT GALLERIES

11 Cork Street W1, 020 7851 2200, www.waddingtoncustot.com

Rodin, Brancusi, Moore: Through the Sculptor’s Lens until 11 July.

WIMBLEDON FINE ART

41 Church Road, SW19, 020 8944 6593, www.wimbledonfineart.com John C Brown RWS In association with Judy Stafford Gallery, until 31 May. Australian Aboriginal Art In association with Sarah Jane Holden, 7-21 June.

Rest of UK ARTWAVE WEST

Morcombelake, Dorset, 01297 489746, www.artwavewest.com Four Artists Powerful, expressive paintings by Edward Kelly; liberated optimistic pastel works by Jeannette Hayes; landscapes fused with shadow and luminosity by Paul Denham, and abstract sculptural works echoing natural and organic forms by Lucy Lutyens, 5 June-18 July. Summer Exhibition A selection of work in the ever popular annual show, 24 July-27 Sep. BOHUN GALLERY

15 Reading Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, 01491 576228, www.bohungallery.co.uk Shona Barr The popular Glaswegian artist depicts the dramatic landscapes, flora and fauna of Scotland with daring colour and broad, dynamic brushstrokes, until 6 June. Artists and Music Including John Piper, Mary Fedden RA, Maggi Hambling, Peter Blake, Stanley Spencer, Feliks Topolski, Julian Trevelyan (left), Ceri Richards, Eric Rimmington and Allen Jones RA, 13 June-15 Aug. THE BOWES MUSEUM

Barnard Castle, County Durham, 01833 690606, www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk

Common Grounds: Lace Drawn from the Everyday An installation of light

sensitive drawings by artist Sarah Casey, until 28 June. Yves Saint Laurent: Style is Eternal The first exhibition in the UK to present a comprehensive display of the French designer’s work and life. The show highlights the defining elements of his vision, and the influence it has had on fashion as well as the way we understand womenswear, 11 July-25 Oct. BRIGHTON MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton, 030 0029 0900, www.brighton-hove-museums.org.uk

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

On loan from London’s Natural History Museum, this world-renowned exhibition features 100 awe-inspiring photographs of the natural world, until 6 Sep. BROOK GALLERY

Fore Street, Budleigh Salterton, Devon, 01395 443003, www.brookgallery.co.uk Bruce Mclean until 28 June. All Things Good: Trevor Price and Mychael Barratt 4 July-3 Sep.

CHRIST CHURCH PICTURE GALLERY

Christ Church, St Aldates, Oxford, 01865

© T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY PA IS N EL G A L L ERY. © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY P O R T L A N D G A L L ERY. R OYA L CO L L ECT I O N T RUS T/© H ER M A J ES T Y Q U EEN EL IZ A B E T H I I 2015 . © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY B O H U N G A L L ERY

MARLBOROUGH FINE ART

6 Albemarle Street W1, 020 7629 5161, www.marlboroughfineart.com R. B. Kitaj Retrospective 10 June11 July. Stephen Conroy 15 July-8 Aug. Jonathan Lux Valerie Beston Artists’ Trust Prizewinner 2015, August.

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Listings

OSBORNE SAMUEL

23a Bruton Street W1, 020 7493 7939, www.osbornesamuel.com

Henry Moore: Sculpture & Drawings

Blenheim, 1962, by John Plumb at Paisnel Gallery

Blakeney, 1962, by Mary Fedden RA at Portland Gallery

Di Bresciani: New Compositions in Colour until 10 July.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON

Burlington House, Piccadilly W1, 020 7479 7080, www.sal.org.uk Magna Carta Through the Ages

26 May-31 July. SYLVESTER FINE ART

PANGOLIN LONDON

90 York Way N1, 020 7520 1480, www.pangolinlondon.com

20th and 21st Century British and European Fine Art This ongoing show

Jon Buck: Coded for Colour until 27 June. Sculptors’ Prints and Drawings 8 July-15 Aug.

includes modern masters such as Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, David Hockey RA, Salvador Dali and Marc Chagall.

PIERS FEETHAM GALLERY

THACKERAY GALLERY

475 Fulham Road SW6, 020 7381 3031, www.piersfeethamgallery.com

18 Thackeray Street W8, 020 7937 5883, www.thackeraygallery.com

Sculpture and ceramics, 13-28 June (weekends only call 01728 452209 for opening times). Elisabeth Vellacott Paintings and drawings, 19 June- 18 July (gallery closed 19 July-31 Aug). PORTLAND GALLERY

8 Bennett Street SW1, 020 7493 1888, www.portlandgallery.com

Mary Fedden RA: Works from the 60s Portland Gallery exclusively

THE ROYAL OVER-SEAS LEAGUE

Over-seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street SW1, 020 7408 0214, www.rosl.org.uk, www.dibresciani.com

Monika Veriopoulos and Alexandra Buhler Drawings and paintings, until 6 June. Aldeburgh Festival Exhibition

London: The Thames from Somerset House Terrace towards Westminster (detail) c.1750-51, by Canaletto at the Holburne Museum

RICHARD GREEN 147 New Bond Street W1, 020 7493 3939, www.richardgreen.com Pre-War Scotland until 10 June. Masterpiece London at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, 25 June-1 July.

Asfodelo Dreaming: Carey Mortimer

Working with reclaimed materials, including metal and gessoed cloth, Carey also shows outstanding Italianinspired frescoes, until 5 June. Hogweed & Honeysuckle: Michael Honnor

11 Cork Street W1, 020 7851 2200, www.waddingtoncustot.com

Rodin, Brancusi, Moore: Through the Sculptor’s Lens until 11 July.

WIMBLEDON FINE ART

Rest of UK ARTWAVE WEST

Barnard Castle, County Durham, 01833 690606, www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk

Common Grounds: Lace Drawn from the Everyday An installation of light

Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton, 030 0029 0900, www.brighton-hove-museums.org.uk

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

On loan from London’s Natural History Museum, this world-renowned exhibition features 100 awe-inspiring photographs of the natural world, until 6 Sep. BROOK GALLERY

Fore Street, Budleigh Salterton, Devon, 01395 443003, www.brookgallery.co.uk Bruce Mclean until 28 June. All Things Good: Trevor Price and Mychael Barratt 4 July-3 Sep.

CHRIST CHURCH PICTURE GALLERY

Christ Church, St Aldates, Oxford, 01865

MARLBOROUGH FINE ART

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JILLY SUT TON

SUMMER SCULPTURE 2015

Daiwa Foundation Art Prize 2015 Introducing British artists to Japan 12 June – 17 July Mon – Fri 9.30am – 5.00pm Daiwa Foundation Japan House London NW1

Oliver Beer Julie Brook Mikhail Karikis LEMON STREET GALLERY & WITHIEL SCULPTURE GARDEN

Selected by: Hideki Aoyama Richard Deacon Mami Kataoka Chris Orr RA Jonathan Watkins

lemonstreetgallery.co.uk 01872 275757 13 Lemon Street, Truro, Cornwall TR1 2LS

HANNAH PESCHAR SCULPTURE GARDEN

MARSHALL MURRAY SCULPTURE GARDEN

hannahpescharsculpture.com 01306 627269 Black & White Cottage, Standon Lane, Ockley, Surrey RH5 5QR

marshallmurray.co.uk 01732 459777 Riverhill House, Sevenoaks, Kent TN15 0RR

www.parkerharris.co.uk RING ALL GARDENS FOR OPENING TIMES

EDWARD KELLY | JEANNETTE HAYES PAUL DENHAM | LUCY LUTYENS 5th June – 18th July

Roberto Pagliarulo 17 June - 5 July

Highgate Contemporary Art www.highgateart.com Violet Lilies by Edward Kelly. Acrylic on paper 104cmx137cm

morcombelake | dorset | 01297 489746 | www.artwavewest.com

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26 Highgate High Street, London N6 5JG

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276172, www.chch.ox.ac.uk/gallery

Undisputed Masterpieces: General John Guise’s Swans - Leonardo, Michelangelo, Bellini, Titian 3 June-5 Oct. 250 Reasons for 250 Years 12 June-5 Oct.

CAROLINE WISEMAN AT THE ALDEBURGH BEACH LOOKOUT AND ART HOUSE

GAVAGAN ART

PALLANT HOUSE GALLERY

Town Hall, Market Place, Settle, North Yorkshire, 07799 797961, www.gavaganart.com Visit our new gallery in the centre of the market town of Settle, North Yorkshire.

Katharine Fry, Rebecca Farmer, throughout June. In the ArtHouse includes paintings, prints and drawings by major British artists with works by Royal Academicians including Eileen Cooper, Chris Orr, Nigel Hall, Anthony Green, Alison Wilding, June to Sep.In the Aldeburgh Beach Lookout Saturday lunchtimes during the summer reveal brand new works by artists in residence including Dudley Sutton, Liza Adamczewski, Charlotte Jarvis, Pauline Bickerton and Dave Hanger. See website for full details.

Modern British and Contemporary Art Including work by RAs Norman

9 North Pallant, Chichester, West Sussex, 01243 774557, www.pallant.org.uk Sickert in Dieppe A major exhibition examining how the French seaside town of Dieppe was a formative influence on the career of Walter Sickert, 4 July-4 Oct. St Ives and British Modernism:

DE LA WARR PAVILION Venice, The View from the Painter’s Studio, 1999, by Alan Cotton at the University of Bath

Marina, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex, 01424 229111, www.dlwp.com

Bridget Riley: The Curve Paintings 1961–2014 in gallery 1, 13 June-6 Sep. John Stezaker: Film Works in gallery 2, until 19 July. Alternative History of Graphic Design in gallery 2, 8 Aug-4 Oct.

THE FRY ART GALLERY

Castle Street, Saffron Walden, Essex, 01799 513779, www.fryartgallery.org

The Fry Art Gallery 30th Anniversary Exhibition: From Eric Ravilious to Grayson Perry RA Works from the Fry

Art Gallery Collection, until 25 Oct. Festival, 2012, by Albert Irvin RA at Hayletts Gallery

Sale of Exceptional Prints by 20th Century British Artists includes Patrick

Caulfield RA, Mary Fedden RA, Terry Frost RA, Patrick Heron, Gertrude Hermes, Gertrude Hermes, John Piper, Julian Trevelyan and more, 18-19 July. The Art of Acquisition: The Artist’s Homes Works from the Fry Art Gallery

Collection as well as those loaned from private sources, 25 July-25 Oct.

Sex and Drugs and Earthenware, 1995, by Grayson Perry RA at Turner Contemporary

Hazy, Crazy: Summer Exhibition

Sculpture and works on paper celebrating the season, 17 Aug-4 Sep.

Etchings of East Anglian landscape, and a series inspired by medieval church graffiti, until 13 June. Gone to the Beach Summer show of gallery and invited artists on the theme of the beach, 20 June-22 Aug. Julian Meredith: New Work Giant woodcuts and animal prints, 29 Aug-26 Sep.

31 Crag Path, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 01728 452754, www.carolinewiseman.com

Aldeburgh Festival Exhibition: Painting and Poetry Marguerite Horner, Tendril, 2015, by Eileen Cooper RA at Rabley Drawing Centre

GALLERY PANGOLIN

9 Chalford Ind. Estate, Chalford, Gloucs, 01453 889765, www.gallery-pangolin.com Terence Coventry Recent sculpture and works on paper, 15 June-24 July. Lazy,

Adams, Geoffrey Clarke, John Bellany and Albert Irvin. These temporary exhibitions of contemporary art, show a range of paintings, original prints, sculpture and ceramics, 1 June-1 Sep. HAYLETTS GALLERY

Oakwood House, 2 High Street, Maldon, Essex, 01621 851669, www.haylettsgallery.com Albert Irvin RA Celebrated British artist Albert Irvin (1922–2015), is best known for his exuberant abstract compositions (left). His compelling distinctive and bold screen prints focus on capturing his experience of the world, until 13 June. Photographs by Humphrey Spender (1910–2005) This photographer is

best known for his images documenting 1930s and 40s Britain. Many of the beautiful images in this show have not been displayed before, 20 June-18 July. Summer Mixed Exhibition A broad selection of paintings, original prints, ceramics and sculpture by many gallery and invited artists, 25 July-5 Sep. THE HOLBURNE MUSEUM

Great Pulteney Street, Bath, 01225 388569, www.holburne.org Canaletto: Celebrating Britain

27 June-4 Oct. LEMON STREET GALLERY & WITHIEL SCULPTURE GARDEN 13 Lemon Street, Truro, Cornwall, 01872 275757, www.lemonstreetgallery.co.uk Jilly Sutton: Summer Sculpture 2015

Please ring gallery for specific dates

The George and Ann Dannatt Collection This exhibition explores

one of the Gallery’s most significant donations, which includes unseen works by the St Ives artists from the 1950s-70s, 13 June-20 Sep. Kenneth Rowntree (1915–1997): A Centenary Exhibition

This exhibition marks the centenary of the birth of official war artist Kenneth Rowntree, 22 July-18 Oct. QUERCUS GALLERY

1 Queen Street, Bath, 01225 428211, www.quercusgallery.co.uk Orchestrated Marks A group show that looks across different disciplines, featuring works on paper by Fiona Robinson, prints by Andrew Vass and textiles by Beatwoven, 6 June-4 July. Enclosures Printmaking by Sandra Porter, sculpture and works on paper by John Mitchell and printmaking by Katherine Jones, 11 July-15 Aug. Sound and Vision A collection of vibrant figurative paintings by Richard J. S. Young at Gascoyne Place exhibition space (BA1 1EY), until 30 Aug. RABLEY DRAWING CENTRE Rabley Barn, Mildenhall, Marlborough, Wilts, 01672 511999, www.rableydrawingcentre.com Garden: Eileen Cooper RA New drawings and sculpture (left), until 19 June. ROYAL BIRMINGHAM SOCIETY OF ARTISTS

NORTH HOUSE GALLERY

4 Brook Street, St Paul’s, Birmingham, 0121 236 4353, www.rbsa.org.uk Friends The Friends have been an integral part of the RBSA since the 1900s and this annual exhibition showcases their varied creative practices, 17 June11 July. Portrait Prize With a plethora of prizes to be won by talented portraitists this exhibition also includes a new collaboration with the charity Changing Faces, 16 July-22 Aug.

The Walls, Manningtree, Essex, 01206 392717, www.northhousegallery.co.uk Michael Flint: A Retrospective.

West Bay Road, West Bay, Bridport,

THE GALLERY AT 41

MOMA WALES

41 East Street, Corfe Castle, Dorset, 01929 480095, www.galleryat41.com Purbeck Art Weeks Exhibition A show of Dorset artists inspired by the Isle of Purbeck, includes Richard Price, David Atkins and Moira Purver, until 13 June, and 23-27 June. Summer Exhibition Changing exhibition by contemporary Dorset painters and sculptors including featured artists, 1 July-7 Nov.

Heol Penrallt, Machynlleth, Powys, 01654 703355, www.momawales.org.uk Denis Curry until 3 Sep. Ivor Richards: Marking Time Works in slate, until 27 June. Jeremy Moore: Bird / Land 27 June-19 Sep.

SLADERS YARD

© T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY R A B L E Y D R AW I N G CEN T R E . © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY M ES S U M ’ S/ P H OTO: M I CH EL M U L L ER . © P RU D EN CE CU M I N G AS S O CI AT ES , LO N D O N , P R I VAT E CO L L EC T I O N . © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY H AY L E T TS G A L L ERY. CO U R T ESY T H E A R T IS T A N D V I CTO R I A M I R O, LO N D O N © GR AYS O N P ER RY

Listings

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276172, www.chch.ox.ac.uk/gallery

Undisputed Masterpieces: General John Guise’s Swans - Leonardo, Michelangelo, Bellini, Titian 3 June-5 Oct. 250 Reasons for 250 Years 12 June-5 Oct.

CAROLINE WISEMAN AT THE ALDEBURGH BEACH LOOKOUT AND ART HOUSE

GAVAGAN ART

PALLANT HOUSE GALLERY

Town Hall, Market Place, Settle, North Yorkshire, 07799 797961, www.gavaganart.com Visit our new gallery in the centre of the market town of Settle, North Yorkshire.

Modern British and Contemporary Art Including work by RAs Norman

DE LA WARR PAVILION Venice, The View from the Painter’s Studio, 1999, by Alan Cotton at the University of Bath

Marina, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex, 01424 229111, www.dlwp.com

Bridget Riley: The Curve Paintings 1961–2014 in gallery 1, 13 June-6 Sep. John Stezaker: Film Works in gallery 2, until 19 July. Alternative History of Graphic Design in gallery 2, 8 Aug-4 Oct.

THE FRY ART GALLERY

Castle Street, Saffron Walden, Essex, 01799 513779, www.fryartgallery.org

The Fry Art Gallery 30th Anniversary Exhibition: From Eric Ravilious to Grayson Perry RA Works from the Fry

Art Gallery Collection, until 25 Oct. Festival, 2012, by Albert Irvin RA at Hayletts Gallery

Sale of Exceptional Prints by 20th Century British Artists includes Patrick

Collection as well as those loaned from private sources, 25 July-25 Oct.

Sex and Drugs and Earthenware, 1995, by Grayson Perry RA at Turner Contemporary

Hazy, Crazy: Summer Exhibition

Sculpture and works on paper celebrating the season, 17 Aug-4 Sep.

31 Crag Path, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 01728 452754, www.carolinewiseman.com

Aldeburgh Festival Exhibition: Painting and Poetry Marguerite Horner, Tendril, 2015, by Eileen Cooper RA at Rabley Drawing Centre

GALLERY PANGOLIN

9 Chalford Ind. Estate, Chalford, Gloucs, 01453 889765, www.gallery-pangolin.com Terence Coventry Recent sculpture and works on paper, 15 June-24 July. Lazy,

Great Pulteney Street, Bath, 01225 388569, www.holburne.org Canaletto: Celebrating Britain

27 June-4 Oct. LEMON STREET GALLERY & WITHIEL SCULPTURE GARDEN 13 Lemon Street, Truro, Cornwall, 01872 275757, www.lemonstreetgallery.co.uk Jilly Sutton: Summer Sculpture 2015

Please ring gallery for specific dates

The George and Ann Dannatt Collection This exhibition explores

one of the Gallery’s most significant donations, which includes unseen works by the St Ives artists from the 1950s-70s, 13 June-20 Sep. Kenneth Rowntree (1915–1997): A Centenary Exhibition

This exhibition marks the centenary of the birth of official war artist Kenneth Rowntree, 22 July-18 Oct. QUERCUS GALLERY

NORTH HOUSE GALLERY

The Walls, Manningtree, Essex, 01206 392717, www.northhousegallery.co.uk Michael Flint: A Retrospective.

West Bay Road, West Bay, Bridport,

THE GALLERY AT 41

MOMA WALES

Heol Penrallt, Machynlleth, Powys, 01654 703355, www.momawales.org.uk Denis Curry until 3 Sep. Ivor Richards: Marking Time Works in slate, until 27 June. Jeremy Moore: Bird / Land 27 June-19 Sep.

SLADERS YARD

Listings

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THE ART OF BEDLAM

RICHARD DADD

New exhibition 16 June - 1 November

Technical brilliance, fantasy and “criminal lunacy” make Dadd one of the most compelling artists of the 19th century

Summer Schools at Christie’s Education

LONDON

NEW YORK

Art Business Summer School 15–19 June 2015

Mapping Career Opportunities in the Art World 1–5 June 2015

Photography Now 29 June – 3 July 2015 Agnes Martin – Making the Most of Minimalism 8–9 July 2015

Contemporary Art Summer School 22–26 June 2015

London Art Now 13–17 July 2015 Impressionist Summer School 29 July – 1 August 2015

Find out more at christies.edu

London london@christies.edu +44 (0) 20 7665 4350

New York newyork@christies.edu +1 212 355 1501

Richard Dadd. Bacchanalian Scene (1862). Oil on wood. Private Collection

www.wattsgallery.org.uk

New English Art Club Annual Open Exhibition 2015 18 to 27 June The Mall, London SW1 www.mallgalleries.org.uk

Free entry with this voucher

Image: Julian Bailey NEAC, On the Creek at Lerryn (detail)

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Listings

Dorset, 01308 459511, www.sladersyard.co.uk New paintings of the West Country by Julian Bailey, ceramics by Richard Batterham, furniture by Petter Southall, until 12 July. Tim Nicholson First show of new and archive paintings, with recent work by Daisy Cook, 18 July-13 Sep. THE STANLEY SPENCER GALLERY

High Street, Cookham, Berkshire,01628 471885, www.stanleyspencer.org.uk

The Creative Genius of Stanley Spencer An unprecedented combination

of fine paintings by Spencer, with loans from the permanent Spencer collections of Aberdeen and Leeds City Art galleries. The show exemplifies the extraordinary diversity of Spencer’s output, including passionate spiritual works, floral scenes and the outdoor world, and a moving series of figurative paintings reflecting the artist’s particular joys and anguish. This is an exhibition to captivate everyone, from those already familiar with Spencer’s work to those entering the extraordinary world of the artist for the very first time, until 20 March 2016. THE SUNBURY EMBROIDERY GALLERY

The Walled Garden, Sunbury-on-Thames, 01932 788101, www.sunburyembroidery.org.uk

The Alchemy of Wood Firing: Nic Collins 2-28 June. British Landscapes: John Allen A range of carpets made by

the textile designer will be available in limited editions of three at the gallery, 21 July-30 Aug (the artist is giving a talk on 23 July, please call to book). TATE ST IVES

Porthmeor Beach, St Ives, Cornwall, 01736 796226, www.tate.org.uk/stives

Images Moving Out Onto Space

Nr. Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire 01296 653226, www.waddesdon.org.uk

century chapel, until 6 Sep. Anthony Caro This major exhibition, in partnership with Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle, celebrates and commemorates the extraordinary career of Sir Anthony Caro RA (1924–2013), 18 July-1 Nov.

Rendezvous, Margate, Kent, 01843 233000, www.turnercontemporary.org

Mourning jewellery and works using hair as a symbol of loss, mourning and memory, until 25 Oct. Baron Ferdinand

In this rare exhibition, see Turner prizewinning Perry’s uniquely subversive art from the start of his career in Thatcherite 1980s Britain to now. View an extensive display of Perry’s ceramic pots, alongside early sketchbooks and rarely seen super-8 films, to more recent tapestries and etchings, until 13 Sep.

de Rothschild’s Renaissance Museum

Kirkgate, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, 01845 522 479, www.zillahbellgallery.co.uk

With iconic works by Bryan Wynter, Liliane Lijn, Bridget Riley and Dan Flavin alongside new pieces by Nicolas Deshayes and others, until 27 Sep. TURNER CONTEMPORARY Grayson Perry RA: Provincial Punk

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

The Edge, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, 01225 386777, www.icia.org.uk www.messums.com Alan Cotton: Contours in Colour

Retrospective exhibition, 30 June-12 Sep. UNIVERSITY GALLERY & BARING WING

Northumbria University, Sandyford Road, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, 0191 227 4424, www.northumbria.ac.uk/universitygallery Albert Adams: Paintings and Etchings Born in Johannesburg in

1930, Adams’ powerful paintings are influenced by his experience of growing up in South Africa under apartheid, 30 May-10 July. Chris Steele-Perkins: Korean Comfort Women Portraits of the surviving ‘Korean Comfort Women’; women enslaved by the Japanese Military to work in brothels termed ‘comfort stations’, during World War II, 30 May-10 July. Matisse: Drawing with Scissors (Baring Wing) Picasso and Matisse: Late Works on Paper

(Main Gallery) Separate exhibitions of late works by two of the 20th Century’s

most influencial and celebrated artists, 18 July-11 Sep (closed 31 Aug). WADDESDON MANOR Jane Wildgoose: Beyond All Price

Treasures from the Smoking Room brought out of store and displayed among original furnishings to coincide with the opening of the Waddesdon Bequest at the British Museum, until 25 Oct. Henry Moore: From Paper to Bronze An exceptional exhibition of 100 drawings including bronzes King and Queen and Hill Arches from the Henry Moore Foundation, 17 June-25 Oct. WATTS GALLERY

Down Lane, Compton, Guildford, Surrey, 01483 810235, www.wattsgallery.org.uk

Liberating Fashion: Aesthetic Dress in Victorian Portraits Artists include

G. F. Watts RA, Frederic Leighton PRA, Edward Burne-Jones RA, Lawrence Alma-Tadema RA and James Tissot RA, until 7 June. YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK

West Bretton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, 01924 832631, www.ysp.co.uk Henry Moore: Back to a Land

A fresh perspective on the work of Henry Moore (1898–1986), YSP’s major exhibition of more than 120 works consider the artist’s profound relationship with land, until 6 Sep. Laura de Santillana and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana An exhibition

of elegant sculptural forms by internationally renowned artists Laura de Santillana and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana in YSP’s refurbished 18th

ZILLAH BELL GALLERY Chris Orr RA: New Works and Artist Talk Chris Orr is giving an artist’s talk

to coincide with the launch of his new works, 29 May. Scottish Printmakers Exhibition of prints by acclaimed Scottish printmakers including Elizabeth Blackadder RA, Barbara Rae RA and Phillip Reeves, until 30 June.

Artist’s Websites Joan Doerr Paintings inspired by the

elements’ impact on the environment. www.joandoerr.com Judy Larkin Contemporary organic, abstract and figurative sculpture in alabaster and limestone for interior and garden spaces. www.judylarkinsculpture.com Ulla Plougmand Paintings of unique female forms, landscapes, flowers and, the latest series, ‘My Colourful Cosmos’. www.ulla-art.com Hilary Roodyn Portrait sculptor London. Capturing the personality in her work. www.hilary-roodyn.squarespace.com Sabrina Rowan Hamilton

www.sabrinarowanhamilton.co.uk www.srhprints.com Nicola Slattery Thoughtful, peaceful art created from the imagination www.nicolaslattery.com Jo Whitney Oil paintings of sea, sand and city life. From Venice, Nice, Cornwall and Plymouth. www.jowhitney.co.uk Marjana Wjasnova Symbolic, abstract, spiritual artist. www.wjasnova.com

Fri 5th June: 10.30am - 8.30pm Sat 6th June: 10.30am - 6.30pm Sun 7th June: 10.30am - 5.00pm

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Franco’s founded in 1946, has acquired a brand new sleek interior for 2015. Open all day, the personality of Franco’s evolves from a bustling breakfast to a charged lunch atmosphere with romantic evenings open Monday – Saturday. Our beautifully appointed private dining room with curtained and mirrored walls can accommodate between 16 and 55 guests, providing the ideal setting for a range of private events.

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FRANCO’S RESTAURANT 61 JERMYN STREET, ST JAMES’S LONDON, SW1Y 6LX T 020 7499 2211 WWW.FRANCOSLONDON.COM

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DIPLOMAS IN PORTRAITURE & FIGURATIVE SCULPTURE

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Ticket Offers Art in Action (16-19 July) at Waterperry Gardens, Oxfordshire. Over 180 artists and craftsmen will demonstrate ceramics, jewellery, painting, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, and more. Buy two standard adult tickets online for £25 and save £7, by visiting www.artinaction.org. uk/tickets and entering code RAM5AA. See advertisement on page 36. The Holburne Museum is offering a

discounted rate of £5.50 (reduced from £6.95) for their exhibition 'Canaletto: Celebrating Britain' (27 June-4 Oct). Visit www.holburne.org and see advertisement on page 35.

2-for-1 Tickets Dulwich Picture Gallery 'Ravilious'

(until 31 Aug). Over 80 watercolours by Eric Ravilious. Well known for his iconic work for Wedgwood, Ravilious is widely considered one of the key figures in mid-20th century British design, but he was also one of the finest watercolourists of the century. See advertisement on page 71. Pallant House Gallery ‘Sickert in

Dieppe’ (4 July-4 Oct). This exhibition explores how the picturesque French seaside town of Dieppe proved to be such a formative setting for British painter Walter Sickert (1860–1942). See advertisement on page 22. 20/21 British Art Fair (9-13 Sep) at the

Royal College of Art. The only fair to specialise in British art from the 20th and 21st centuries with a special focus on modern British and post war art, but

Park Place, 1944, by John Piper, from Beaux Arts London, at 20/21 British Art Fair

also featuring work up to the present day. See advertisement on page 42. Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art 'Fausto Pirandello 1899-1975'

(8 July-6 Sep). See advertisement on page 35.

Shopping Cass Art is offering a 10 per cent discount on online shopping before 31 May. Visit www.cassart.co.uk and enter 'RASUMMER' at the checkout. See advertisement on page 89.

The Turner Contemporary is offering a 10 per cent discount in their shop for the duration of 'Grayson Perry: Provincial Punk' (until 13 Sep). See advertisement on page 39.

Eating out Richoux, opposite the Royal

Academy, is offering a 10 per cent discount on breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea or dinner. See advertisement on page 96.

Membership The Royal Over-Seas League, located close to the RA, provides comfortable bedroom accommodation, fine dining and a private garden. ROSL offers readers a discounted joining fee, and pro-rata subscription rates for 2015. For more information visit rosl.org. uk or telephone 020 7408 0214. See advertisement on page 71.

RA Publications The RA Shop is offering an exclusive 10 per cent off the following Royal Academy titles: Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust, £22.50 (rrp £25); A Hebridean Notebook: Norman Ackroyd, £15.25 (rrp £16.95); The Dappled Light of the Sun: Conrad Shawcross, £8.95 (rrp £9.95); Daniel Maclise: The Waterloo Cartoon, £8.95 (rrp £9.95) and Posters: A Century of Summer Exhibitions, £8.95 (rrp £9.95). Available from the RA Shop, online at www.royalacademy.org.uk/shop (Enter RAMAGSUMMER on checkout to claim your discount) or call 0800 634 6341 (10am–5pm, Monday–Friday).

Painting by numbers? We prefer to support artists by name Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, Maggi Hambling, Gerald Laing, Dame Laura Knight, Dame Barbara Hepworth, Edward Seago and Sir Stanley Spencer are just some of the many artists and estates that prefer the personal ACS approach to managing and administering their Artist’s Resale Right. The only numbers we look at are the ones that we ensure you receive for the works of art that you create. We wouldn’t want it any other way – and neither would our artists.

44 (0)345 112 2400 artistscollectingsociety.org.uk

venic e bi en n a l e FOR DISCERNING TRAVELLERS Kirker Holidays has been creating carefully-crafted, tailor-made holidays to Venice for almost 30 years, including a range of more than 20 individually selected hotels. For those planning a visit to the city this year, whether for the Biennale or perhaps to celebrate a personal special occasion, Kirker would be delighted to offer expert advice and an itinerary tailored to your own personal requirements.

Palazzo Sant’Angelo **** Superior

The Sant’Angelo is housed in a grand Venetian palazzo. The building has been lovingly transformed into a charming boutique hotel with just 28 bedrooms, some of which overlook the Grand Canal. All the rooms are decorated in a rich, traditional Venetian style. 4 nights for the price of 3 for Sunday - Monday arrivals from 1 May 4 July and 27 August onwards - price from £898, saving £145 All Kirker holidays to Venice include flights, water taxi transfers, accommodation with breakfast, entrance tickets to the Doge’s Palace, Accademia or the Guggenheim, Kirker Guide Notes and the services of the Kirker Concierge.

Speak to an expert or request a brochure:

020 7593 2283 quote code XRA www.kirkerholidays.com

Readers’ Offers

Readers’ offers are open to all RA Magazine readers when they show a copy of this magazine

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MA in the History of Art: the Renaissance to Modernism October 2015 – September 2016 A one-year programme of ten evening seminars and an individual researchproject, offering an overview of Western art from the Renaissance to the late 20th century, with lectures by a series of internationally acclaimed art historians, artists, and gallerists.

Examination is by a research dissertation, on an approved art history topic chosen by the student, of not less than 20,000 words.

Lecturers for 2015/16 include:

Course enquiries and applications: Claire Prendergast, Humanities Research Institute, University of Buckingham Tel. 01280 820204 or via email to the Course Director, Michael Prodger: michael.prodger@buckingham.ac.uk

• • • •

Martin Kemp MaryAnne Stevens Xavier Bray Martin Gayford

Each seminar takes place in central London and is followed by a dinner during which participants can engage in a general discussion with the guest speaker.

Others wishing to attend the seminars, but not intending to take the MA degree, may join the course as Associate Students at a reduced fee.

THE UNIVERSITY OF

BUCKINGHAM

LONDON PROGRAMMES

The University of Buckingham is ranked in the élite top sixteen of the 120 British Universities: The Guardian Universities League Table 2012-13

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Share your love of the RA with a young person today. Young Friends membership (16-25 years) starts at just ÂŁ45

royalacademy.org.uk/giftmembership 020 7300 5664

Yinka Shonibare MBE RA, New York Toy Painting (detail), 2012. Emulsion, Dutch wax printed cotton, wire, toys, 250 x 620 x 16 cm. Photo: Stephen White ÂŠ The Artist / DACS, London / Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York and Shanghai

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The latest developments in and around the RA

Academy News Poster painting © T H E ES TAT E O F J O H N B R AT BY/ B R I D GEM A N I M AGES . P H OTO R A /J O H N H A M M O N D/© R OYA L ACA D EM Y O F A R TS , LO N D O N . © J I M L A M B I E , CO U R T ESY S A D I E CO L ES H Q , LO N D O N

This excerpt from a new book by MARK POMEROY, the RA’s archivist, tells a colourful tale of the Summer Exhibition

John Bratby RA’s 1966 Summer Exhibition poster for the RA

Trading places This summer, visitors to the RA may well notice that something has changed at the Academy’s front hall. The ceilings and walls will be completely bare, as richly decorative 18th-century paintings by Angelica Kauffman, Benjamin West, Sebastiano Ricci and William Kent move offsite temporarily, to allow for the RA’s major redevelopment

In 1966 the Royal Academy Council decided that the Summer Exhibition should have a poster designed by an Academician each year, and that year Edward Bawden tentatively agreed to undertake the task. So began an annual game of deadlines, whereby an artwork was commissioned in January, to be painted, designed as a poster, adjudged and printed in time for the start of a promotional campaign in May. Bawden almost immediately wrote to decline the job, ‘I explained to Sir Charles [Wheeler PRA] that I had heavy commitments and did not wish to make a promise to undertake the design.’ John Bratby stepped in and, with Gordon House supplying the graphic design, created a dramatic and colourful poster [left], marking a complete break with tradition. Bratby’s design stands at the head of a grand sequence of posters from some of Britain’s most famous artists. In the wider world of promotional design the specialist commercial artist had already been pushed to the periphery but the Academy, in typical fashion, swam

against the tide. It showcased the creative possibilities of artistic collaboration, with all the risks this entailed. When, in 1973, the young Associate Academician Anthony Green submitted his design the Council unanimously applauded it. What happened next was quite unexpected, as Green himself explains: ‘Ken Tanner phoned me up and said, “We’ve got a problem. London Underground are refusing to accept the poster because of their fear of graffiti.” Basically they didn’t want sex on the tube. I said to Ken, “Look, tell them that in 24 hours I can produce an overprint of a ball gown on the young lady, so that nobody can be offended.” So I rushed home with a bit of tracing paper, from the proofs drew a quickie overcolour sketch in French ultramarine, and that was it. So, as it happened, you came into London on the Overground and the nude poster was on the station platforms; you dived down below stairs and suddenly she’s got a dress on.’ Posters: A Century of Summer Exhibitions at the RA by Mark Pomeroy, RA Publications, £9.95

project. The bronze statues of Thomas Gainsborough and J.M.W. Turner at the top of the stairs are also being moved for safekeeping and will return in 2017-18. Meanwhile, all eyes will be drawn to the main staircase as Jim Lambie transforms the steps leading up to the Main Galleries with his characteristic bright stripes (Zobop, 2003, right), giving a contemporary twist to a historic entrance.

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Academy News

In memoriam Albert Irvin RA BASIL BEATTIE RA remembers a leading abstract painter

Robert Clatworthy RA GEORGE NEWSON recalls the Geometry of Fear sculptor I first met Robert Clatworthy through the photographer Douglas Glass. Bob was living nearby in East Sussex and his family and mine became good friends. He was lively company at social gatherings, as he was with colleagues and friends in London where he taught at the Royal College of Art and Central St Martins, among others. Bob had early success in the art world as part of the Geometry of Fear group of sculptors in the 1950s. His powerful and energetic work often depicted atavistic animals, his fingermarks imprinted in heavily textured surfaces. But fashion changed to favour abstraction, and Bob did not conform. His marriage broke up in the 1970s and he moved to a remote hillside in South Wales with his new wife, becoming reclusive and concentrating entirely on his own

vision. I saw little of him after that, until 12 years ago, when I spent an excellent day with him. As a composer myself, I was delighted to find he had a passion for music. He had been listening to Miles Davis and Bartók’s string quartets: quite a contrast. As a boy Bob took violin lessons and was undecided about which road to take: art or music? Fortunately he chose the path of sculpture. He rose early to work in his studio practising the piano in the afternoon, before relaxing and going early to bed – a routine essential to his output. Towards the end of his career, Bob veered away from sculpture after developing an allergy to his working materials. Instead he drew and painted portraits and figures of unnamed people. The art world has lost a great talent, who deserves to be, and will become, better known.

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Gallery in London in 2012. But one of my most memorable reflections, and a typical example of Bert’s wit, was the way he described the importance of music to painting, which for him was the realisation that it was possible to say what it felt like to be a human being without having to paint noses and feet. I’ve long admired Bert’s terrific energy, his passion and his determination to develop his painterly language, which is most spectacularly experienced in his huge canvases. These expansive, colourful and optimistic works rarely conjure up dark thoughts. They seem overwhelmingly to be celebrations of being alive and a true reflection of Bert’s spirit. His wit and his warm genial manner always made it a pleasure to be in his company. I will greatly miss him. PHOTO © E AMONN MCCABE . R OYA L ACA D EM Y O F A R TS , LO N D O N /© T H E L E W I NS K I A R CH I V E / B R I D GEM A N I M AGES

I first met Bert as a colleague when we both joined the staff at Goldsmiths College in the early 1960s. He became a very dear and close friend. We shared many interests and enthusiasms, often born from our own practice as artists. I remember there was much talk about a lot of the work we saw coming from America in the early ’60s. Often a day of discussing work by students would be followed by a visit to an exhibition in town, then further talk and nourishment in an adjacent bar, or a favourite watering hole like the Queen’s Elm in Fulham Road – sadly no longer in existence. Bert had an extensive knowledge of classical music and often referred to its links to painting. An example of this was when he made reference to Beethoven’s Fidelio as the title for his exhibition at Gimpel Fils

News in brief

William Bowyer RA MICK ROONEY RA pays tribute to the en plein air painter William Bowyer RA was the epitome of an English painter. His name, along with Stringer, Arrowsmith and Fletcher, is a seminal reminder of English history. Born in Staffordshire in 1926, he was conscripted into the coal mines during the Second World War as one of the Bevin Boys, who only recently have been honoured with a service decoration. Of that time of his life, William merely said, ‘That was alright’, and moved on. The post-war world brought the bleak tenderness of the ‘Kitchen Sink School’. At the Royal College of Art, Bowyer learned that subject, content, brushwork and the living paint mattered. Later, he became Head of Painting at Maidstone College of Art, but in 1981 Bowyer escaped the rigours of teaching to pursue the daily task and joy of creating pictures.

In his Chiswick studio he developed his en plein air pictures, and as soon as one seemed finished, he moved on, always thinking of the next work. Summers spent in Walberswick, Suffolk, offered other light and motifs. Latterly, when he had a mobility scooter, he would head for the shore loaded with equipment (a mechanised Cézanne on his way to work). Bowyer had a lifelong love of cricket and his cricket paintings had a vibrancy that was never clichéd, never dwelling in nostalgia. His portraits captured the shape, action, tension, individuality and monumentality of his subjects. His life’s work attests to a most certain nowness and directness. Somehow his passing is just that – still moving forward, still wreathed in the fuming halo of a fine cigar – ‘that’ll be alright’.

LIFT ACCESS Essential lift maintenance is taking place from 6 July to 14 September, affecting access to the RA’s upper floors. Visit http://roy.ac/lift for details or follow @RA_Visiting on Twitter. EARLY CLOSURES The John Madejski Fine Rooms close all day on 3 June, and the Main Galleries from 1pm, for the set up of the Summer Exhibition Preview Party. Gallery III of the Main Galleries closes at 4pm on 13 July. RA WEBSITE WINS AWARD The RA website has won a ‘Best of the Web’ award at the Museums and the Web annual conference in Chicago. The award is for a longestablished organisation that has shown commitment to excellence online, including adapting to new opportunities in technology. Other shortlisted competitors included the Design Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Van Gogh Museum and Harvard Art Museum. SUMMER IN STYLE An attractive lightweight scarf (below) is printed with an image of Ken Howard RA’s painting S. Giorgio, Midday Light and is available exclusively from the RA Shop, priced at £48. Visit http://roy.ac/ shophowardscarf for details.

THE BIG SING The RA Choir will take part in an evening of singing at the RA in the Annenberg Courtyard on 5 June (6-8pm). Other staff choirs joining them include those from Debenhams, Channel 4, AON Benfield and BNP Paribas. All of the choirs sing Summertime in unison at 7pm. The event is free to attend.

PHOTO © E AMONN MCCABE . R OYA L ACA D EM Y O F A R TS , LO N D O N /© T H E L E W I NS K I A R CH I V E / B R I D GEM A N I M AGES

Academy News

AMERICAN ASSOCIATES In June the American Associates embark on their annual trip to London where they visit Winfield House, as well as make a trip to the Turner Contemporary, Margate. In autumn they meet artists Sean Scully RA and Richard Long RA, and attend exhibition viewings, studio visits and more. For information on how to become an AARAT patron or to get involved, email info@aarat.org.

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Let art be your legacy Protect the future of the Royal Academy with a gift in your will. For nearly 250 years, the Royal Academy has given art lovers a sense of wonder; artists the chance to create. Together weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been absorbed in past masterpieces and inspired by future marvels. With a gift in your will, you could help the Royal Academy to make, debate and exhibit art in the years to come. To find out more, please contact Matthew Watters on 020 7300 5677 or email legacies@royalacademy.org.uk

The Royal Academy Trust is a registered charity with Charity Number 1067270. Image ÂŠ Benedict Johnson

Restaurant & Shopping Guide The RA Magazine’s directory of places to eat and shop around the Academy. This is an advertisement feature. To advertise please call Irene Michaelides on 020 7300 5675 or email irene.michaelides@royalacademy.org.uk RESTAURANTS SHOPS

near the Royal Academy it is as popular with local residents as it is with hotel guests. Offering British cuisine tempered with international touches of chef Ben Kelliher, to include a pre-theatre menu and traditional afternoon tea served daily.

5 11

35 Charles Street W1, 020 7491 2622 www.chesterfieldmayfair.com

6 2

4 7 9

15 8

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1 1 7

Please note: not drawn to scale

Restaurants 1

AL DUCA

Serving modern Italian cuisine, Al Duca focuses heavily on bringing out the very best elements of what is one of the most acclaimed gastronomic regions of the world. The menu at Al Duca emphasises the use of simple fresh ingredients skilfully combined to bring out the best of a wide range of traditional dishes offered both in classic style and with a new twist, all following Pulze’s ethos to offer reasonably priced good Italian food. Now serving breakfast. 4-5 Duke of York Street SW1, 020 7839 3090 www.alduca-restaurant.co.uk

tea – in tandem with an inspiring gallery visit, to meet friends, or whenever you need to escape the frenetic pace of the West End. 6 Burlington Gardens W1, www.ateliercafe.com 3

7820 www.thebalconlondon.com

7734 4756 www.bentleys.org

45 Park Lane, Mayfair, W1, 020 7493 4554 www.dorchestercollection.com

BRASSERIE ZEDEL

A large, bustling, grand and elegant Parisian brasserie with an authentic 1930s interior, Brasserie Zedel is perfectly located for The Royal Academy, just off Piccadilly Circus. Described by renowned French chef Pierre Koffman as “the only real brasserie in London”, it is open from 11.30am to midnight, 7 days a week and serves great French food at remarkably low prices, with 2-course prix fixe menus starting at £8.75. 20 Sherwood Street W1, 020 7734 4888 www.brasseriezedel.com

ATELIER CAFE

A studio café where food and drink of outstanding provenance is served in the light, airy surrounds of the Royal Academy’s Burlington Gardens building. Bellini on the terrace, breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, a glass of wine, or afternoon

We have private dining facilities to seat up to 60 guests and run regular cookery schools.11-15 Swallow Street W1, 020

THE BALCON

The Balcon is an all day dining destination combining innovation with French and British traditions. Perfect for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it is also ideal for an afternoon tea or a tasty plate of charcuterie. Flooded with natural daylight and separated by silk curtains, giving the opportunity to enjoy the atmosphere of the restaurant, The Balcon has its own private dining room seating up to 16 guests. Opening Hours: Monday-Saturday 6.30am-11pm Sunday 7am-10pm 8 Pall Mall SW1, 020 7389

4 BENTLEY’S OYSTER BAR AND GRILL

Hidden just around the corner from the RA, a local resting place for weary art lovers and gourmands for over 98 years. Trading from Midday to Midnight, Champagne and native oysters, traditional fish and chips or for those who care not for the mollusc beautiful lamb or a simple slab of steak. A best of British menu, designed by the incorrigible, controversial and twice Michelin awarded Chef Richard Corrigan.

CUT AT 45 PARK LANE

Created by internationally-acclaimed chef founder Wolfgang Puck, CUT at 45 Park Lane is a modern American steak restaurant, and his debut restaurant in Europe. Enjoy delectable prime beef, succulent pan-roasted lobster, sautéed fresh fish and seasonal salads. Outstanding cuisine is accompanied by an exceptional wine list of over 600 wines, featuring one of the largest selections of American wines in the UK. Breakfasts are another highlight and on Sunday’s relax with brunch as you listen to live jazz.

FRANCO’S

Franco’s has been serving the community and visitors to St James’s from early morning to late night for over 60 years. Franco’s beautiful private dining room can be used as one open space or divided into two more intimate rooms. Accommodating up to 16 guests in the ‘Wine cellar’ and up to 30 guests in the larger semi-private ‘Mirror room ‘or 55 should you wish to take the entire space. We have a beautiful festive menu available and once again we will be offering a range of exciting wine packages to compliment parties of 10 and over.

61 Jermyn Street SW1, 020 7499 2211 www.francoslondon.com 6

BUTLERS RESTAURANT

Butlers home of “the best Dover Sole in London”. A warm and intimate restaurant offering elegant dining, delicious food and impeccable service. Located in the heart of London’s most exclusive district, Mayfair,

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Restaurant & Shopping Guide 9 THE GRILL AT THE DORCHESTER

An iconic Mayfair restaurant, The Grill at The Dorchester has been transformed for a new culinary chapter. In keeping with this original concept, Alain Ducasse’s protégé Christophe Marleix has created new seasonal menus. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner; the delicious dishes range from grill favourites alongside the restaurant’s signature blue lobster chowder and an extensive sweet soufflé menu – the first of its kind in London.

the Italian classics, cooked using authentic ingredients to recipes passed down through the generations of Italians. There is an extensive wine list and an unrivalled collection of grappas. Open Mon-Thu: 12– 3pm, 6.30–10.30pm Friday/Sat: 12–3pm, 6.30–11pm Sun: 12.30–9.30pm 35 Willow Place SW1, 020 7834 5778 www.ristorantegustoso.co.uk

77 Berwick Street W1, 020 7437 8568 www.maharanisoho.com 12

The Dorchester, Park Lane, W1,020 7317 6531 www.dorchestercollection.com

MAHARANI SOHO

Open all day and situated in the heart of Soho this family run restaurant established 42 years ago offers the best cuisine that the north and south of India has to offer, with our own little twist. All our dishes are cooked fresh to order, using free-range meat and locally sourced vegetables. We offer a special set lunch menu at £6.95 which runs to 5pm, or you

10 GUSTOSO RISTORANTE & ENOTECA

can choose from our mouth watering à la carte menu which offers excellence without pretension, leading us to be counted as one of the best Indian restaurants in London. To avoid disappointment it is best to make a reservation. Last order 11.30pm.

QUAGLINO’S

Quaglino’s is a legendary hot spot with a glamorous Art Deco inspired restaurant and two stunning bars. The menu, designed by Executive Head Chef Mickael Weiss, is a perfect canon of European classics, with a nod towards Middle Eastern spicing; all made using the highest quality British ingredients. The bars boast an iconic cocktail list, serving tipples with a taste of the past and an extensive wine list, with a balanced mix of Old and New World beauties. From 10pm the restaurant transforms into an entertainment mecca, showcasing music icons, renowned DJ’s and our resident house bands. Quaglino’s is open Monday to Saturday, for lunch and dinner, with the bars open until late Monday to Saturday. Late bar food is also available on Friday and Saturday. 16 Bury Street SW1, 020 7930 6767 www.quaglinos-restaurant.co.uk

Ristorante Gustoso is moments from Westminster Cathedral and Victoria Station. Gustoso is the ideal place to unwind after work, with friends or to enjoy a little romance. Cocktails are professionally served from the well stocked bar and the menu is based around

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Enjoy another another work work of of art art at at Richoux Richoux Enjoy Justopposite opposite the the Royal Royal Academy Just Academyin inPiccadilly Piccadilly

Open week Openseven seven days days a week Breakfast, morning coffee, coffee,lunch, lunch, Breakfast, morning afternoon afternoontea tea&&dinner dinner

SARTORIA

Sartoria is an elegant Milanese-style Italian restaurant located on the corner of Savile Row and New Burlington Street, behind the Royal Academy of Arts. Head Chef Lukas Pfaff creates refined yet uncomplicated Italian food and showcases a different regional special menu each month, and Head Sommelier Michael Simms is on hand to recommend the perfect Italian wine. Quiet confidence in the kitchen is complimented by warm, friendly and attentive service, whilst the stylish bar is a fashionable spot for a light lunch, an espresso or classic Negroni. Sartoria is open for lunch Monday to Friday and for dinner Monday to Saturday. 20 Savile Row W1, 020 7534 7000 www.sartoria-restaurant.co.uk

a truly memorable party and a range of exciting wine packages for 10 guests and over, our private dining room is an ideal venue for any occasion. Wiltons ‘’Jimmy Marks Room’’ offers guests an exceptional, discreet environment in which to welcome friends, family or colleagues for a truly memorable meal. 55 Jermyn Street SW1, 020 7629 9955 www.wiltons.co.uk 15

THE WOLSELEY

A café-restaurant in the grand European tradition and located just a few minutes’ walk from The Royal Academy, The Wolseley is open all day from 7am for breakfast right through until midnight. Its all-day menu means it is possible to eat formally or casually at any time, whether a full three course meal or just a coffee and cake. Whilst booking in advance is advised, tables are always held back for walk-ins on the day. 160 Piccadilly W1, 020 7499 6996 www.thewolseley.com

Shopping 1

CASS ART

Established in 1984, Cass Art is the UK’s leading art materials supplier. They stock the world’s best art brands at guaranteed lowest prices, and all the staff are artists so that they can provide expert advice instore. The Charing Cross shop next to the National Gallery has been an art store for over 116 years, and Cass Art now has nine shops across the UK, with five in London.

LONDON: 13 Charing Cross Road, 66-67 Colebrooke Row, 58-62 Heath Street, 24 Berwick Street, 220 Kensington High Street, KINGSTON: 103 Clarence Street, BRISTOL: 43-45 Park Street, LIVERPOOL: 18 School Lane, GLASGOW: 63-67 Queen Street, www.cassart.co.uk

10% of the the RA RA magazine magazine 10% discount discount for for readers readers of Maximum 6 customers dining

Kindly show your RA membership card at any of the following Richoux Kindly show your RA membership card at any of the following Richoux 172PICCADILLY, Piccadilly, W1J 020 7493 74932204 2204 172 W1J 9EJ 9EJ • 020 41a South AUDLEY Audley Street, W1K 2PS 0207629 7629 5228 5228 41A SOUTH STREET,Mayfair, MAYFAIR, W1K 2PS• 020 Brompton ROAD, Road, KNIGHTSBRIDGE, Knightsbridge, SW3 1ER 0207584 75848300 8300 8686 BROMPTON SW3 1ER• 020 Circus ROAD, Road, ST St JOHN’S John’s Wood, 0207483 7483 4001 4001 3 3CIRCUS WOOD,NW8 NW86NX 6NX• 020

•

www.richoux.co.uk www.richoux.co.uk

• • •

WILTONS

Our exceptionally appointed ‘’Jimmy Marks Room’’ accommodates up to 20 guests for a seated meal and up to 40 guests for a drinks reception and the whole restaurant is available for private hire. Offering a selection of traditional menus for

EMMETT

Founded in 1992, Emmett London create shirts to the very highest traditional standard; upholding the Jermyn Street tradition whilst imbuing a decidedly european sense of levity and freshness. Shirts are made using only the very finest

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cloths available, sourced from italy and switzerland and are all offered in limited runs of only 25. Emmett also provide a full tailoring service in shirts, suits, jackets and trousers with everything expertly fitted and made by hand. Emmett shirts are available at Jermyn Street, the Kings Road, Eldon Street and Selfridges. 112 Jermyn Street W1, 020 7925 1299 www.emmettlondon.com

Courses C ur we n Print S t ud y C e nt re

EXCELLENCE IS A FINE ART Courses for artists of all abilities and ages

2015 available 3 GIEVES & HAWKES 2015Printmaking Printmaking brochure brochure out now Gieves & Hawkes has been located at No. 1 Savile Row, a short stroll from Burlington curwenprintstudy.co.uk 01223 892380 enquires@curwenprintstudy.co.uk House, for over 100 years. With a tradition of military and fine bespoke handwork, the firm has enjoyed the continuous patronage Curwen Studio_proof.indd 1 of royal families both at home and abroad over three centuries. Today No 1 Savile Row houses the company’s bespoke workshops, Private Tailoring suites and flagship ‘ready to wear’ store selling stylish British menswear. Do pay us a visit. No.1 Savile Row W1, 020 7432 6403 www.gievesandhawkes.com

Painting Workshops Learn about all aspects of drawing & painting with artist Patrice Lombardi Weekend and day courses available The Gallery Sail Loft Wivenhoe Essex pl@rwbpl.com 07780 917800 www.rwbpl.com

GRANTA

Granta 131: The Map Is Not the Territory is out now. Featuring John Ashbery, Jesse Ball, Anne Carson, Jon Fosse, Janine di Giovanni, Kathryn Maris, China Miéville, Ian Teh, Ludmila Ulitskaya and more. Subscribe to Granta, the magazine of new writing, for just £32 and receive this issue as a free gift. Visit granta.com/subscribe and enter the promotion code “RA131”. V I E W T H E F I L M AT: W W W. G I E V E S A N D H AW K E S. C O M

RICHARD OGDEN

In Medieval times signet rings were used to seal and authenticate letters and documents, using crests taken from family heraldic shields. The impression these rings made when pressed into wax seals would represent the authority of the wearer, a tradition which continued well into the 20th century. Nowadays signet rings are often presented to celebrate a 21st birthday or a graduation. We keep a copy of Fairbairn’s Book of Crests at our premises and can help you find your own family crest. 28 Burlington Arcade W1, 020 7493 9136 www.richardogden.com

Weekend Art Courses

with Nicola Slattery learn to paint with acrylic, discover printmaking, create art from imagination. 01986 788853 www.nicolaslattery.com Proof for RA Magazine pub. 17 November

Art Workshops, Dorset

Held in Artwave West on the Jurassic Coast. Package option to stay in Hix Town House, Lyme Regis also available. 01297 489746 www.artwavewest.com

Art Courses in Andover, Hampshire

Drawing, Painting & Sculpture Top tutors, beautiful countryside www.quiddityfineart.co.uk 07717 833999

DEVON/EXMOOR COURSES Painting weeks and short breaks “One of the best holidays I’ve ever had” Spacious light studio & 4* accommodation Wonderful landscapes and gardens to visit Small groups, all abilities welcome Individual attentive tuition

Catherine Stott tel: 01398 332094

LIFE PAINTING AND DRAWING with Rachel Clark Highly recommended. Small classes. Week/Weekend/Saturday/Private Tuition t: 07528 674389 www.rachelclark.com

Nadia_Waterfield_proof.indd 1

Classified Brecon Beacons

Art Course weekends, weekdays near Hay-on-Wye

Life classes, portrait, landscape, still-life, monoprinting, colour, spacious studio, rural surroundings, professional tuition, excellent food. Tel: 01874 711 212

www.artcourseswales.com

Buy and Sell Edward Bawden Books, Ariel poems, biography, tribute, catalogues for sale by elderly Bawden – lover to younger similar. t: 020 8452 1715

South of France

Villa for rent Lorgues, 1 hr Nice, sleeps 8. 4 beds 3 1/2 baths. Pool, availablity in July/August/Sept All details: 01367 252749 diannecarnegie@gmail.com

France: Menton

2 bedroom house in grounds of 1860’s town villa; pool, beautiful views of sea and old town. Charming courtyard with lemon trees; Easy walk to covered market, sea, train and bus station. Off street parking available. t: 07900 916729 pattiebarwick@gmail.com www.mentonsejour.com

We are always pleased to buy good quality second-hand & older books for our shop. Aardvark Books Manor Farm, Brampton Bryan, Dianne Carnegie_proof.indd 1 Shropshire, SY7 0DH Menton Town Centre Email: aardvaark@btconnect.com Sleeps 12. Enjoy the eclectic 19/03/2015 16:21 art www.aardvark-books.com collection and interior design of this restored 1860’s villa and separate House and Gallery for Sale guest house situated just above Rural North Herefordshire. Lovely town centre, 5 mins walk to shops village house, orig. C15th cruck house and beaches. Beautiful garden with panoramic views across the bay and & forge with 50m/sq self-contained over the old town. Lovely pool area art gallery/studio attached. 4 beds, 3 with shower and shady places to reception rooms, historic features, 50m sit and read. Secluded dining area gdn to open fields w/studio. £340,000 on front terrace or in shady citrus 020 8878 5196 cjm@macforge.plus.com tree courtyard. Enjoy versatility of 2 houses one site. Ideal for Proof for RAon Magazine Radda in Chianti for Sale 2 families. Off street parking for 2 pub. 17 November Beautifully restored historic towncars. Now booking Summer 2016. house with a balcony €160,000 info@ t: 07900 916729 casintoscana.com +39-335-43.88.89 pattiebarwick@gmail.com www.mentonsejour.com

Holidays

Tuscan art and landscape

Find Donatello, Piero, Burri minutes from our splendid villa. Flexible rates. Pool, gardens, views, walks, wildlife. 020 7059 0278 www.lafoce.co.uk

Portugal, Algarve. Elegant town house. Private flowerfilled garden, large pool and terraces, 4 bedrooms, stunning sea views. Easy walk to sea, town, restaurants, transport and Marina.

St Ives old town

Enjoy this stylish, airy apartment close to beaches and art school. Sleeps 2. Recent refurb now with Wifi, www.fifteenthedigey.co.uk

Venice Centre

Self-catering apartments in charming 15th C palazzetto, sleep 2/5. www.valleycastle.com

Italy: Spoleto, Umbria

t: 09799905959 www.casajuno.co.uk

Foundries

FINE ART FOUNDRY LTD

Fine Art Bronze Casting Beautiful studio flat w/balcony, sleeps 1/2, Welding – Patina Specialists separate kitchen, historical residence, Ceramic Shell town centre. Large painting studio Contact: AB or Jerry 1 Fawe Street, Belinda_Horley_proof.indd 1 (optional). Contact Cristina on London E14 6PD 07950 141489 cristinamarignoli@gmail.com t: 020 7515 8052 f: 020 7987 7339

Venice

Two spacious, luxury flats in a scenic, peaceful location. Great local food, shops & restaurants. Easy access to Art Biennale sites. www.ourflatsinvenice.co.uk

To advertise here please call Irene Michaelides on 020 7300 5675 irene.michaelides@royalacademy.org.uk 12/05/2015 12:01

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Proof for RA Magazine pub. 26 May

Courses C ur we n Print S t ud y C e nt re

EXCELLENCE IS A FINE ART Courses for artists of all abilities and ages

GRANTA

RICHARD OGDEN

Weekend Art Courses

with Nicola Slattery learn to paint with acrylic, discover printmaking, create art from imagination. 01986 788853 www.nicolaslattery.com Proof for RA Magazine pub. 17 November

Art Workshops, Dorset

Held in Artwave West on the Jurassic Coast. Package option to stay in Hix Town House, Lyme Regis also available. 01297 489746 www.artwavewest.com

Art Courses in Andover, Hampshire

Drawing, Painting & Sculpture Top tutors, beautiful countryside www.quiddityfineart.co.uk 07717 833999

Catherine Stott tel: 01398 332094

LIFE PAINTING AND DRAWING with Rachel Clark Highly recommended. Small classes. Week/Weekend/Saturday/Private Tuition t: 07528 674389 www.rachelclark.com

Nadia_Waterfield_proof.indd 1

Classified Brecon Beacons

South of France

Art Course weekends, weekdays near Hay-on-Wye

Villa for rent Lorgues, 1 hr Nice, sleeps 8. 4 beds 3 1/2 baths. Pool, availablity in July/August/Sept

Life classes, portrait, landscape, still-life, monoprinting, colour, spacious studio, rural surroundings, professional tuition, excellent food. Tel: 01874 711 212

All details: 01367 252749 diannecarnegie@gmail.com

www.artcourseswales.com

Buy and Sell

France: Menton

Edward Bawden Books, Ariel poems, biography, tribute, catalogues for sale by elderly Bawden – lover to younger similar. t: 020 8452 1715 We are always pleased to buy good quality second-hand & older books for our shop. Aardvark Books Manor Farm, Brampton Bryan, Shropshire, SY7 0DH Email: aardvaark@btconnect.com www.aardvark-books.com

Menton Town Centre

House and Gallery for Sale Rural North Herefordshire. Lovely village house, orig. C15th cruck house & forge with 50m/sq self-contained art gallery/studio attached. 4 beds, 3 reception rooms, historic features, 50m gdn to open fields w/studio. £340,000 020 8878 5196 cjm@macforge.plus.com Radda in Chianti for Sale

Beautifully restored historic townhouse with a balcony €160,000 info@ casintoscana.com +39-335-43.88.89

Holidays Tuscan art and landscape

Find Donatello, Piero, Burri minutes from our splendid villa. Flexible rates. Pool, gardens, views, walks, wildlife. 020 7059 0278 www.lafoce.co.uk

Sleeps 12. Enjoy the eclectic 19/03/2015 16:21 art collection and interior design of this restored 1860’s villa and separate guest house situated just above town centre, 5 mins walk to shops and beaches. Beautiful garden with panoramic views across the bay and over the old town. Lovely pool area with shower and shady places to sit and read. Secluded dining area on front terrace or in shady citrus tree courtyard. Enjoy versatility of 2 houses one site. Ideal for Proof for RAon Magazine 2 families. Off street parking for 2 pub. 17 November cars. Now booking Summer 2016. t: 07900 916729 pattiebarwick@gmail.com www.mentonsejour.com

Portugal, Algarve. Elegant town house. Private flowerfilled garden, large pool and terraces, 4 bedrooms, stunning sea views. Easy walk to sea, town, restaurants, transport and Marina.

St Ives old town

Enjoy this stylish, airy apartment close to beaches and art school. Sleeps 2. Recent refurb now with Wifi, www.fifteenthedigey.co.uk

Venice Centre

Self-catering apartments in charming 15th C palazzetto, sleep 2/5. www.valleycastle.com

Italy: Spoleto, Umbria

t: 09799905959 www.casajuno.co.uk

Foundries

FINE ART FOUNDRY LTD

Venice

Two spacious, luxury flats in a scenic, peaceful location. Great local food, shops & restaurants. Easy access to Art Biennale sites. www.ourflatsinvenice.co.uk

To advertise here please call Irene Michaelides on 020 7300 5675 irene.michaelides@royalacademy.org.uk 01/10/2014 12:25

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Short Story

Glass Addition

First the rail began to migrate from the city early, a species response to a changing climate, and then rail ceased migrating altogether, instead infiltrating, by a variety of means, some of them ingenious, many mysterious, our institution. In order to prevent warping and delamination, the corrosion of metals and weeping of glass, the yellowing of paper and the movement of salts, our sophisticated air-handling units keep the temperature between 68 and 72 degrees at all times, an environment in which these birds apparently thrive. ‘Thrive’ might not be the appropriate term: within the museum walls, their typically plaintive whistling gave way to a highpitched chatter in which more than one patron detected a hint of mockery. While the museum boasts a Winter Pool, the birds had little access to water, although water scenes exerted their pull, as well as certain canvases in the modern wing, most notably No. 61 (Rust and Blue), whose purity as a work of abstraction has thereby suffered literally and figuratively. Just as actors in the early 19th century were known, in the event of a small theatre fire, to incorporate the flames into their performances, thereby preventing panic from

spreading through the audience, so the modern museum can best assimilate challenges to its authority by re-describing them as installations. Thus we convinced a well-known artist to become the author, after the fact, of the infestation, to treat the birds as living readymades (the dead were passed over in silence); instead of finding ourselves mocked in the mainstream press, the artist in question was praised in the relevant journals for his sly synthesis of eco-art and institutional critique. This bought us time, but little else, and our bluff – stated prominently in the ‘exhibition’ materials – that the birds would ultimately be released, made us hesitate to fumigate or spray with starlicide, although we floated the idea of a simulated ‘extinction event’ as a contemporary happening. By this point we were convinced that recently installed solar tiles were a primary point of ingress, but the embarrassment of reopening a project that was already shamefully overbudget made our president reluctant to authorise aggressive structural repair. Instead, we were told that a single weekend of extreme temperatures would likely cause the rail to flee;

we would make sure there were various points of exit. For reasons that were never explained in layperson’s terms, the ornithologist we consulted suggested, then oversaw, one day of heat followed by one of cold. Those that did not flee were swept from the floor on Monday, and by the time the museum opened the following day, visitors could enjoy a silent atrium. But we who know what means were used to expel the rail know that 48 hours of extreme temperature accelerated, however imperceptibly, the ageing of our collection, altered, however subtly, the fates of certain varnished surfaces; we know that the temporal medium in which the collection exists – and the medium of the museum is time as much as it is space – now differs slightly from those institutions whose sophisticated air-handling units maintain the standard conditions. A change in weather patterns, in migratory patterns, in gallery temperature, in the internal stresses of hygroscopic materials – sometimes I think even the span of a normal happy life may fall far short of the time needed to arrive at the contemporary.

I NS TA L L AT I O N V I E W O F S EL EC T I O NS F R O M T H E P ER M A N EN T CO L L ECT I O N , 10 F EB RUA RY 2013–11 M A R CH 2013 AT M O CA GR A N D AV EN U E , CO U R T ESY O F T H E M US EU M O F CO N T EM P O R A RY A R T, LOS A N GEL ES , P H OTO BY B R I A N F O R R ES T

by BEN LERNER. For this special issue of RA Magazine, the American novelist has written a piece of fiction in response to contemporary museums

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Art Tours Worldwide 2015 Art • Archaeology • Architecture • Music Cox & Kings is the travel partner for the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) and our programme of small-group tours has been specially created with the Friends of the RA in mind, although they are open to everyone. The 2015 collection focuses on the art, architecture, archaeology and music of many of the world’s most culturally-rich destinations. The tours are accompanied by expert lecturers who help to design the itineraries, give talks along the way and, in many cases, open doors that would normally be closed to the general public.

2015 Highlights India: Mughal Art & Architecture with Diana Driscoll SAVE £200 31 Oct – 10 nights now from £3,045

Spain: The Art of Madrid & Toledo with Dr Colin Bailey SAVE £125 9 Nov – 4 nights now from £1,120 Ravenna: Mosaics & Marble with Dr Sally Dormer SAVE £100 19 Nov – 3 nights now from £945 Laos & Cambodia: Temples & Treasures with Denise Heywood SAVE £250 19 Nov – 10 nights now from £3,495 Greece: Journey through the Ancient World with Dr Stephen Kershaw SAVE £200 21 Nov – 9 nights now from £2,195

For reservations, please call

020 7873 5013

For detailed itineraries and prices, please request a copy of the 2015 RA Worldwide Art Tours brochure by calling 0844 576 5518 quoting reference RAARTS, or visit www.coxandkings.co.uk/ra ATOL 2815 ABTA V2999

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goldmark Orange Street, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ

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Olive Wootton, Minotaur Bellowing, bronze, ed 6, 2015, 53.5 inches high, ÂŁ22,000