RA Magazine Autumn 2015

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS MAGAZINE NUMBER 128 AUTUMN 2015 AI WEIWEI JEAN-ETIENNE LIOTARD EDMUND DE WAAL THE WATERLOO CARTOON CHRIS WILKINSON RA

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS MAGAZINE NO. 128 / AUTUMN 2015 / £4.95

Ai Weiwei Here and now

Jean-Etienne Liotard Pioneer in pastel

Edmund de Waal The nature of white

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Lynn Chadwick draughtsman The first major exhibition to focus on Chadwick’s mastery of line

26th September - 6th November

GALLERY PANGOLIN CHALFORD - GLOS - GL6 8NT 01453 889765 gallery@pangolin-editions.com www.gallery-pangolin.com Study for Seasons 1958

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8 September - 17 October

LYNN CHADWICK GEOFFREY CLARKE

23 October - 28 November

PANGOLIN LONDON, Kings Place, N1 9AG Tel: 020 7520 1480 www.pangolinlondon.com IMAGES: Carl Plackman, Bachelor of Arts, 1977, Mixed Media; Geoffrey Clarke, Man, 1954, Iron

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Hugh Buchanan paints the John Murray Archive Austen, Byron, Conan Doyle, Etc...

18 September – 10 October

John Martin Gallery

In association with the National Library of Scotland

38 Albemarle Street London, W1S 4 JG

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Hugh Buchanan Scott’s Review of Childe Harold watercolour on paper, 15 x 22 inches, 38 x 56 cm

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Oliver Barratt Oliver Beer Andrew Burton Thomas Heatherwick Emma Hope Matt Humphrey Celia Pym Richard Reid Sophie Roet Simon Starling sevenoaksschool.org/making-it

Open to the public on Sunday 6, 13 and 20 September 2015, 11am-4pm.

The Space, Sevenoaks School, Sevenoaks TN13 1HU. Admission free.

Sevenoaks is 30 minutes by train from London Charing Cross.

Private views available by appointment – see sevenoaksschool.org/making-it for details.

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Ken Howard OBE RA Daffodils and Camellias, 2015 Signed; titled on the reverse Oil on canvas: 24 × 20 in / 61 × 50.8 cm Price: £15,000

Recent paintings by Ken Howard can be viewed at Richard Green and online R ICH AR D GR EEN IS THE SOLE WOR LDW IDE AGENT FOR K EN HOWAR D 147 NEW BOND STR EET, LONDON W1S 2TS TELEPHONE: +44 (0)20 7493 3939

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2 ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON W1S 4HD TEL +44 2074080362 ar t@connaughtbrown.co.uk www.connaughtbrown.co.uk Caught in the Mirror, 2015, Oil on gesso board, 12 1/8 x 12 1/8 in, 30.5 x 30.5 cm

Royal Academicians at the Fosse Gallery John Wragg, David Mach, Barbara Rae CBE , Ken Howard OBE , Mick Rooney, Hughie O’ Donoghue David Remfry MBE , Olwyn Bowey, Gus Cummins

From Monday 5th October until Saturday 25th October www.fossegallery.com 01451 831319 John Wragg, Girl in Red Dress, oil on canvas, 27 x 27 inches

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MICHAEL VAUGHAN paintings exhibition 23 sept – 2 oct 2015 mon – fri 10 am – 6.30 pm sat 10 am – 2 pm catalogue available

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Terry Frost Centenary Exhibition 8 October - 7 November 2015

‘… it was more than simple and playfully suggestive optical illusions that he was after: from the moment of his very earliest achieved abstract paintings he was concerned with the creation of a sensation in the viewer of a something closely akin to the experience of nature.’ Mel Gooding, January 2012

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Royal Academy of Arts Magazine No. 128 / Autumn 2015

Contents 45

Doubting Thomas ‘Inspiration is a cliché in everyone’s head. It’s what we think happens to people who develop ideas’ THOMAS HEATHERWICK RA

Features 54

Ai of the tiger Sam Phillips meets Ai Weiwei in his Beijing studio, ahead of his landmark RA retrospective

64

Wandering star Christopher Baker appraises the extraordinary pastel portraits of Jean-Etienne Liotard

70

white: a project by Edmund de Waal The artist and writer explains his obsession with the colour, ahead of his Academy project

75

The Waterloo Cartoon A poem by Owen Sheers

79

Thoughts on paper Hand drawing endures for the architect Chris Wilkinson RA, says Hugh Pearman

70

white: a project by Edmund de Waal ‘There are artists who have used white as a way of abstracting, of understanding the structure of the world through the removal of the extraneous, and others for whom it is a form of exploration of the spiritual’ EDMUND DE WAAL

Regulars 11 15 17 22

Preview UK including Giacometti and Auerbach, Goya, M.C. Escher, and other art around the country 35 Preview International Artists paired in European exhibitions 39 Preview Books Julian Barnes; art novels; Benjamin West PRA 42

Academy Artists Sonia Lawson RA’s studio; the creative process of Thomas Heatherwick RA; Anne Desmet RA; Sean Scully RA’s chapel art; RA Schools diary; alumni Eddie Peake and Prem Sahib

82

Debate Is it essential to see a painting in the flesh?; Ma Jian on freedom of expression in China; Ai Weiwei’s architecture; events at the RA

85

Freedom cry ‘When there are things that cannot be said, or written about, or debated, then no meaningful expression is possible’ MA JIAN

Exhibition Diary Editorial Contributors and Competition

94 Listings 104 Readers’ Offers 106 Academy News

Chris Orr RA as Treasurer; Mali Morris RA’s collaborations; offsite projects; landscape art 114 Short Story

‘The Interpretation of Roads’ by A.L. Kennedy

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David Inshaw New Paintings 16 September to 1 October 2015 David Inshaw b.1943 Pink House, East Cliff, West Bay, 2014 Oil on canvas·24 x 24 inches·60.9 x 60.9 cm

The Fine Art Society 148 New Bond Street London w 1 s 2 jt For sales enquiries contact Robert Upstone ru@faslondon.com Telephone 020 7629 5116 www.faslondon.com

What’s on at the Royal Academy this autumn

M US EU M OS K A R R EI N H A R T, W I N T ER T H U R , I N V. 278 . R O D O L P H E D U N K I , GEN E VA ; ACQ U I R ED 1935/ P H OTO S I K- IS E A . P H OTO GR A P H Y: P H I L I P P H I T Z .

CO U R T ESY O F A I W EI W EI S T U D I O/ I M AGE CO U R T ESY A I W EI W EI /© A I W EI W EI

Exhibition Diary

Surveillance Camera, 2010, by Ai Weiwei Hon RA

Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust The Sackler Wing until 27 September

Discover the magical world of American artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) in this enchanting exhibition. Cornell’s imagination stretched far and wide, finding form in objects gathered from the beach and bric-a-brac shops, which he assembled in poetic ‘shadow boxes’ and collages.

2009-2016 Season supported by JTI. Supported

by The Terra Foundation for American Art

Jean-Etienne Liotard The Sackler Wing 24 October to 31 January 2016

Julie de Thellusson-Ployard, 1760, by Jean-Etienne Liotard

Ai Weiwei Main Galleries 19 September to 13 December

Celebrating the brave, provocative and visionary works of Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei, this wide-ranging retrospective includes new pieces in which traditional Chinese materials are transformed into spectacular sculptures.

Supported by David Morris: The London Jeweller Supported by Lisson Gallery Friends Preview Days Wed 16 Sep, 10am-8.30pm Thur 17 Sep, 10am-6pm Fri 18 Sep, 10am-6pm

Daniel Maclise: The Waterloo Cartoon Weston Rooms 2 September to 3 January 2016

To coincide with the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo this year, Daniel Maclise’s drawing depicting the Duke of Wellington meeting his Prussian ally Field Marshal Blücher goes on show. Made in preparation for the Irish artist’s water-glass wall painting in the Palace of Westminster, this newly restored, rarely seen treasure from the Royal Academy’s art collection is over 13 metres wide and one of the largest cartoons in the United Kingdom.

The RA presents the first UK show devoted to the 18th-century Swiss artist Jean-Etienne Liotard, an exceptional portraitist in demand at noble courts across Europe. The exhibition reveals an innovative pastellist, whose exquisite works in the medium, as well as oils, drawings and miniatures, were created in jewel-like colours inspired by sojourns in Constantinople.

2009-2016 Season supported by JTI Supported by The Cockayne Foundation Supported by The Pictet Group Friends Preview Days Wed 21 Oct, 10am-8.30pm Thur 22 Oct, 10am-6pm Fri 23 Oct, 10am-6pm

Continued on page 12

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Exhibition Diary

Library and Print Room 26 September to 3 January 2016

The RA’s atmospheric Library and Print Room is the setting for a site-specific project curated by Edmund de Waal. Fascinated since childhood by the colour white, the celebrated ceramicist presents in these dark spaces objects ranging from classical statues and Meissen porcelain to contemporary art.

This event has timed half-hour tickets Friends tickets £5 To book tickets call 020 7300 5635 or visit http://roy.ac/deWaal

The Keeper’s House until 22 October

Thirty years of sketches and watercolours by Chris Wilkinson RA, offering a window into the acclaimed architect’s creative process. The exhibition coincides with the publication of The Sketchbooks of Chris Wilkinson (RA Publications).

Purchase prints and works on paper by some of the country’s leading sculptors, including RAs such as Antony Gormley and Alison Wilding.

The Architecture Space 26 September to 13 December

In Caochangdi, Beijing, Ai Weiwei Hon RA has designed buildings that, by using local materials on a modest scale, resist the large-scale urban expansion characteristic of Chinese cities today. This display focuses on nine Caochangdi buildings, looking at their relevance to China and to the discipline of architecture more broadly.

Opening hours Royal Academy of Arts

Tue-Fri 10am-4pm; Sat-Sun 10am-6pm; closed Mon

The John Madejski Fine Rooms 3 September to 14 February 2016

Caochangdi: The Studio and the Community

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD 020 7300 8000; www.royalacademy.org.uk

24 Sep (11am-6pm) and 25 Sep (10am-10pm)

Works on Paper

by Sculptors

Discover the past and future of the RA’s buildings, a palimpsest of architectural interest that spans four centuries, from the inception of Burlington House as a 17th-century town-palace to 21st-century plans to transform the site.

2015 architecture programme supported by Turkishceramics

Visitor information

Sat-Thur 10am-6pm (last entry 5.30pm), Fri 10am-10pm (last entry 9.30pm)

Thinking Through Drawing: Chris Wilkinson RA

The Architecture Space until 20 September

RA Friends enjoy free entry to exhibitions, with a family guest, and all-day access to the Keeper’s House. Friends also view shows before the public at Preview Days and receive RA Magazine. Call 020 7300 5664, visit royalacademy.org.uk/friends or follow @friendsofthera on Twitter

Thur-Sun, 10am–5pm (last entry 5.30pm) Fri 10am-10pm (last entry 9.30pm) Friends Preview Days

Stories from the Past – Visions of the Future: The RA and its Buildings

Friends benefits

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).

Between the Land and the Sea The Keeper’s House 29 October to 21 April 2016

Coordinated by Barbara Rae RA, this selling exhibition focuses on the rich responses of contemporary painters and printmakers to the landscape, coastline and sea.

Diana Armfield RA and Bernard Dunstan RA The Keeper’s House 29 October to 21 April 2016

An exhibition exploring the figurative paintings of two Senior Academicians, focusing on landscapes, still lifes and interior portraits.

John Madejski Fine Rooms

The Keeper’s House: Sir Hugh Casson Room and Belle Shenkman Room Friends

and Patrons have access from 10am, general public from 4pm. Mon-Thur 10am-6pm; Fri 10am-10pm; Sat-Sun 10am-6pm The Shenkman Bar Mon-Sat 10am-11.30pm; Sun 10am-6pm The Keeper’s House Restaurant Mon-Sat 12-11.30pm (to book call 020 7300 5881) RA Shop

Closes at 6.15pm Sat-Thur; 10.15pm Fri

RA Grand Café

Sat-Thur 10am-5.30pm; Fri 10am-9.30pm Essential lift maintenance is taking place until 14 September affecting access to upper floors.

Visit http://roy.ac/lift for details.

Access See pages 90-91. 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

Coming soon Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse Main Galleries 30 January to 20 April 2016

This major exhibition examines the role of gardens in the works of Monet and artists including Manet, Morisot, Van Gogh and Klee.

Sponsored by BNY Mellon, Partner of the Royal Academy of Arts Friends Preview Days Wed 27 Jan, 10am-8.30pm Thur 28 Jan, 10am-6pm Fri 29 Jan, 10am-6pm

P H OTO: B EN M CK EE

white: a project by Edmund de Waal

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17 St George Street, London W1S 1FJ

David Hockney, Early Drawings Friday 25 September – Friday 23 October 2015

020 7042 3233

An exhibition of drawings from the 1960s and 1970s.

Fully illustrated catalogue available.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH PAUL KASMIN GALLERY, NEW YORK.

waterman.co.uk

CELIA © David Hockney

Sotheby’s at Chatsworth: 10th Anniversary Exhibition 14 September – 25 October 2015 DAME BARBARA HEPWORTH Sea Form (Atlantic), 1964

Enquiries +44 (0)20 7293 6342 simon.stock@sothebys.com © BOWNESS Chatsworth House Trust is a registered charity No 511149 dedicated to the long term preservation of Chatsworth.

Introducing this issue

Editorial

Installation view of Very Yao, 2009-14, by Ai Weiwei Hon RA, at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, 2014

I M AGE CO U R T ESY O F A I W EI W EI /© A I W EI W EI

Life cycles We had a tough choice when it came to this issue’s cover, ahead of Ai Weiwei’s retrospective at the RA. Should we reproduce a portrait of the Chinese artist or one of his works?

The image of Ai – on magazine covers, social media and, after his incarceration by the Chinese authorities in 2011, national newspapers and television – is more widely known than his conceptually rich and technically ambitious art, because his bravery as a man, as an activist for human rights in China, is exceptional in itself.

But as co-curator Adrian Locke explains in my profile of Ai this issue (page 54), the fact that coverage has been ‘more about him than about what he makes’ means the RA should redress the balance, revealing to British audiences why, even before he became such a famous thorn in the side of the Chinese authorities, his restlessly inventive work marked him out as remarkable.

Yet can one even differentiate between Ai’s life and art? Or indeed any artist’s life and work?

‘Art tends to float free of biography,’ writes Julian Barnes in a collection of essays reviewed in this issue (page 39). Perhaps Jean-Etienne Liotard can be a test case. The RA stages the first UK survey of the 18th-century Swiss portraitist, a figure largely unknown in Britain, whose fragile works rarely travel. Without reading about this

artist, visit the show and wonder at the way he renders flesh and cloth in precise, sparkling pastel. Then return home reading Christopher Baker’s discussion of the man in this magazine (page 64). What is gained from reading about Liotard’s life, and what, if anything, is lost? In our Debate section, the poet Sam Riviere suggests that ‘a painting is visible only to the extent that it complements your existing knowledge’ (page 82).

In the Academy’s Library and Print Room, the artist and writer Edmund de Waal curates a sitespecific project in which works, including many from the RA Collection, are shown without wall labels. The art-historical context of the objects and the lives of their makers are secondary factors for De Waal, the primary being their colour: white. The ceramicist introduces the project, and his aesthetic obsession with white, in these pages (page 70). ‘White is a staging post to look at the world from. White is not neutral; it forces other colours to reveal themselves.’

Sam Riviere’s scepticism contrasts with the attitude of Emyr Williams (page 82), the artist with whom he debates the question: is it essential to see a painting in the flesh? ‘We often return to seemingly familiar works only to discover new and unforeseen qualities in them,’ Williams writes. ‘This regeneration can only happen when our eyes apprehend the surface. The surface: that magical membrane, the point at which the paint stops and the air begins.’

Williams worries about the way artworks are more easily apprehended on screen rather than in person. In light of his argument, it is interesting that a poem by Owen Sheers – a response to Daniel Maclise’s drawing commemorating the Battle of Waterloo – describes the experience of viewing the image online (page 75). ‘I spread my fingers / and watch the image bloom across the screen, / the cross-hatch drawing closer,’ it begins.

Halfway through the poem, Sheers describes checking his Facebook page, scrolling through ‘the posts to find the last from Dan / It’s 6 years today it reads, since I lost my legs in Afghanistan.’

Two lines later: ‘A fingertip, and I’m back at Waterloo / with that trumpeter, / still lying at the charger’s hooves.’ Art is always connected, to lives and life past or present, in the flesh or from afar.

— SAM PHILLIPS, EDITOR

EDITORIAL Publisher Nick Tite Editor Sam Phillips Assistant Editors Anna Coatman and

Eleanor Mills

Design and Art Direction Design by S-T Sub-Editor Gill Crabbe Editorial Intern Carys Frankland Editorial Advisers Richard Cork,

Anne Desmet RA, Tom Holland, Fiona Maddocks, Mali Morris RA, Eric Parry RA, Charles Saumarez Smith, Mark Seaman, 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

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Kim Jenner 020 7300 5658; kim.jenner@royalacademy.org.uk Production Manager Sarah Bolwell Listings Editor Charlotte Burgess 020 7300 5657; charlotte.burgess@ 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 2 September 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.

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ANNA GILLESPIE New Works 3 September - 3 October 2015

BEAUX ARTS 48 Maddox Street, London W1S 1AY T: +44 (0) 20 7493 1155 www.beauxartslondon.co.uk info@beauxartslondon.co.uk

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Who’s who in this issue

Contributors CHRISTOPHER BAKER is Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

PATRICK BARKHAM is a natural history writer

for the Guardian and author of Coastlines: The Story of Our Shore (Granta).

ALEX BELLOS writes about mathematics.

Snowflake, Seashell, Star: Colouring Adventures in Numberland (Canongate) is out this September.

CAROLINE BUGLER is a freelance editor and writer specialising in the visual arts.

RICHARD CORK is a critic. His recent book, Face To Face: Interviews with Artists (Tate), includes conversations with several Academicians.

EDMUND DE WAAL is an artist and writer. His new book The White Road: a pilgrimage of sorts (Chatto & Windus) is published this September.

EDMUND FAWCETT is a journalist and writer.

His book Liberalism: The Life of an Idea (Princeton) is out in paperback in September.

CHRIS FITE-WASSILAK is a writer, critic and curator. He is currently working on a book for the Copy Press series, ‘Common Intellectual’.

LAURA GASCOIGNE is a freelance art critic who writes for the Tablet and the Spectator.

MARTIN GAYFORD is Art Critic of the Spectator.

KATE GOODWIN is Head of Architecture and Drue Heinz Curator of Architecture at the RA. LOYD GROSSMAN is Chairman of the Churches Conservation Trust and Deputy Chairman of the Royal Drawing School.

ANNA MCNAY is Deputy Editor at State media and Arts Editor for DIVA magazine.

JOSEPHINE NEW is a writer who also works

for Phaidon Press.

HUGH PEARMAN is Architecture Critic of the Sunday Times and Editor of the RIBA Journal.

ANNA HUIX is a photographer. Her work has featured in the New York Times and Monocle.

SAM RIVIERE is a poet. His collections include Kim Kardashian’s Marriage (Faber & Faber).

A.L. KENNEDY is an award-winning novelist and short story writer.

CAROL SACHS is a photographer. Her work has appeared in Condé Nast Traveller and Vogue.

ALASTAIR LEVY is an artist, photographer and writer based in London.

REBECCA SALTER RA is a printmaker and painter. Rebecca Salter: Into the Light of Things is published by Yale.

FIONA MADDOCKS is Classical Music Critic

for the Observer.

MA JIAN is a writer. His novels include Beijing Coma and The Dark Road (Chatto & Windus).

OWEN SHEERS writes poetry, novels and plays.

His new novel is I Saw a Man (Faber & Faber).

AMY SHERLOCK is Reviews Editor of frieze.

MARY MACLEAN is an artist and Tutor at the Royal Academy Schools.

IAN WARRELL is curator of ‘Ruskin’s Turners’ at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum (until 4 Oct).

ADAM MCCAULEY is an illustrator whose clients include Time and the New York Times.

EMYR WILLIAMS is a painter. He leads a practical course at the RA, Understanding Colour (20–21 Feb 2016; visit http://roy.ac/classes).

ALICE MCCANN is a journalist and critic for publications including the Independent.

SIMON WILSON is an art historian.

NAME THE ARTIST COMPETITION 04

REBECCA SALTER RA explains why she was drawn to one of her favourite paintings (right). Name the artist and you could win two RA catalogues ‘Walking past a Bond Street gallery many years ago, a work by this artist caught my eye and I became a fan. The name was unfamiliar to me and, pre-internet, it was not easy to uncover more information.

I am still not quite sure why I was so drawn to the work but I suspect it was partly the powerful and rather disturbing emptiness of the composition. Rather than being a slightly romantic, even inviting, ‘nocturne’, this work offers an aching absence and the eerie, unsettling silence of the deep night.

Did the obsessive rendering of these lonely nightscapes perhaps go some way towards soothing the artist’s battle with insomnia?’

TO ENTER

Send the name of the artist to reply.ramagazine@royalacademy.org.uk or: RA Magazine, Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD, by Friday 18 September 2015. Please include your contact details. Three correct entries chosen at random receive the books that accompany the RA’s Joseph Cornell and Waterloo Cartoon shows. For full terms and conditions, visit http://roy.ac/catcomp COMPETITION 03

Last issue David Chipperfield RA chose a photograph of Yorkshire’s Rievaulx Abbey.

AUTUMN 2015 | RA MAGAZINE 17

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YVONNE CROSSLEY RWA NEW WORK 9 - 26 September 2015, 11am - 5pm Opening Event Saturday 5 September 2 - 5pm

The Old Chapel Walford Nr Leintwardine (8 miles west of Ludlow) Shropshire SY7 0JT Tel: 01547 540454 // ycrossley@thedrawinggallery.com www.thedrawinggallery.com

nicky philipps TR AV E L S W I T H M Y PA I N TB OX

7 th –30 th o ct 2015

susie philipps F LO W E R S & S T IL L L IF E

25 th nov–23 rd dec 2015

34 Duke Street, St James’s • london SW1Y 6DF 020 7839 2792 • rosie@fineartcommissions.com www.fineartcommissions.com

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Visit us at Stand 19 20/21 British Art Fair Royal College of Art 9-13 September 2015

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Pedro RodrĂ­guez Garrido

24th October - 13th November LONDON PREVIEW : 21st October

Cityscapes

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Phone for details: 020 75804360

Catalogues available - full exhibitions on website

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THE ACA DEMICIANS’ ROOM

A CLUB FOR ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS The Academicians’ Room is the Royal Academy’s private members club for artists and art lovers. It’s a place to feel at home; a place to come together in a club setting designed exclusively for our members.

Join and enjoy the company of this special artistic community.

For more information please contact the membership team: academiciansroom@raarts.org.uk 020 7300 5920 royalacademy.org.uk/academiciansroom keepershouse.org.uk

Main image artwork: Stephen Farthing RA, DRONE ON THE RANGE, acrylic, 200 x 159 x 3 cm © the artist Photographs: Benedict Johnson, © Royal Academy of Arts, London

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M.C. Escher

14 Oct 2015 17 Jan 2016

The Amazing World of

SUPPORTED BY:

M C Escher, Bond of Union,, 1956, Collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, the Hague, the Netherlands © The M.C. Escher Company B.V. -Baarn-the Netherlands. All rights reserved. www.mcescher.com

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What’s new this autumn in London, the UK and abroad

Preview

Head of E.O.W II, 1961, by Frank Auerbach

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P R I VAT E CO L L ECT I O N . TAT E , LO N D O N 2015/© T H E ES TAT E O F A L B ER TO GI ACO M E T T I (FO N DAT I O N GI ACO M E T T I , PA R IS A N D A DAGP, PA R IS) 2015

Annette IV, 1962, by Alberto Giacometti

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Hard-won images

P R I VAT E CO L L ECT I O N . TAT E , LO N D O N 2015/© T H E ES TAT E O F A L B ER TO GI ACO M E T T I (F O N DAT I O N GI ACO M E T T I , PA R IS A N D A DAGP, PA R IS) 2015

The intensely wrought paintings of Frank Auerback find their match in Giacometti’s sculptures, as two shows reveal, says SIMON WILSON In May 2015 a bronze by Alberto Giacometti, one of the six casts that exist of his life-size figure Man Pointing of 1947, was sold at auction for £91 million, an auction record for sculpture.

Fifty years earlier, in 1965, a group of Tate curators had sat down with Giacometti in the gallery’s famous restaurant. The artist was in town for his great Tate retrospective that year.

The gallery had scraped together £20,000 to buy work by him and drawn up a list of choices.

The artist was presented with the question, ‘How many of these can we have for the money?’

His reply was ‘All of them, and for £10,000, and I will give you one more too’. The eight sculptures and two paintings by Giacometti thus acquired joined several works already in the Tate collection. One of these was one of the other casts of Man Pointing,, which had been bought in 1949 for £250. The whole group, including some subsequent additions, now constitutes a priceless national asset.

Many of them, including Annette IV (1962; right) – although not Man Pointing – will be on view in a new exhibition of Giacometti at the National Portrait Gallery, alongside rare loans from abroad. The show’s curator, Paul Moorhouse, rightly remarks that the artist is one of the giants of 20th-century art. Yet this was far from obvious in his time, when many critics and curators thought that abstraction had made figurative art irrelevant. Tate’s early support of Giacometti was bold – hence his generosity.

Now, we see more clearly how significant was that strand of European art in the post-Second World War period, when artists like Giacometti reinvented the human figure to express the profound trauma of the war and the doubts about the human condition that it raised. Giacometti’s often unnaturally emaciated, deeply pitted bronze figures, possess a vivid human presence, their fragmented facial features revealing a tortured human soul peering out at us.

Oddly perhaps, it was in Britain that appeared the counterpart in painting to Giacometti’s sculpture – the high emotion and baroque bravura

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of the work of Francis Bacon, and the quiet, thoughtful and intense art of Frank Auerbach, who at the age of 84 is now the subject of a retrospective at Tate Britain.

Indeed, there are uncanny similarities of personality and practice between Giacometti and Auerbach. Hermit-like existence; obsessive working, day in, day out; signature surfaces worked and reworked to the point of tortured excess; near-pathological inability to declare a work finished. Giacometti’s dealer famously resorted to going round to his studio and simply carrying off a piece.

Auerbach, working directly from the model or the motif, repeatedly scrapes down the canvas and starts again, often over months, or even years, until finally a version appears that he is satisfied with. From the dense layers of highly wrought paint emerges what the art historian Richard Morphet memorably dubbed ‘the hard-won image’, either of another human existence somehow blended with that of the artist himself, as in Head of E.O.W II (1961; opposite) or, in the case of Auerbach’s cityscapes, of an urban landscape reflecting the disorienting experience of life in the metropolitan environment.

The Auerbach exhibition is of exceptional interest because its curator, Catherine Lampert, is both an art historian and a former director of the Whitechapel Gallery, as well as one of the artist’s lifelong models, having sat for him almost every week for 37 years. It will be fascinating to see how the collaboration between artist and curator inspires the selection and setting of the show.

Giacometti: Pure Presence National Portrait Gallery, London, 020 7306 0055, www.npg.org. uk, 15 Oct–10 Jan 2016 Frank Auerbach Tate Britain, London, 020 7887 8888, www.tate.org. uk, 9 Oct–13 March 2016 Frank Auerbach: Speaking and Painting by Catherine Lampert, Thames & Hudson, £19.95 hardback To listen to a podcast of Frank Auerbach in conversation with Tim Marlow, visit http://roy.ac/auerbach

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Chair with Flowers Oil on canvas 91.4 × 91.4 cm

Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery

20 Park Walk London SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk www.jonathancooper.co.uk

Nicholas Turner LIGHTHOUSE

17 September – 3 October 2015 View exhibition catalogue online at jonathancooper.co.uk A colour catalogue is available on request

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P R ES EN T ED BY S I R GEO R GE D O N A L DS O N , 19 04/© N AT I O N A L G A L L ERY, LO N D O N . GEM EEN T EM US EU M D EN H A AG /© T H E M .C . ES CH ER CO M PA N Y B .V. - B A A R N -T H E N E T H ER L A N DS . A L L R I GH TS R ES ER V ED. W W W. M CES CH ER .CO M

An honest face As the first show of Goya’s portraiture opens, CAROLINE BUGLER considers three ways the Spanish master broke the genre’s boundaries PSYCHOLOGICAL INSIGHT

Francisco de Goya captured the likenesses of a wide range of sitters, from friends who shared his enlightened views to authoritarian figures such as the tyrannical Spanish King Ferdinand VII. While he painted many people in positions of power, he was generally more interested in the person than the role they occupied. After the artist became deaf in 1793 he could no longer hear what his subjects said, but he still managed to convey a sense of both their inner lives and the personality they wished to project to the world. In his portrait of Andrés del Peral (before 1798; right), the slightly imperious side-long gaze conveys the intelligence and pride of a well-paid gilder, art collector and colleague.

NATURALISM

The artist was not afraid to reveal what he saw before him. Although he did occasionally alter some of his sitters’ features so that they appeared more pleasing, many of his likenesses seem extraordinarily unflattering to modern eyes. One French visitor who saw the group portrait The Family of Charles IV (1800) in the

Prado in the 1830s remarked that the Spanish royals looked like a family of grocers who had won the lottery. Goya’s approach was honest but not cruel, and he showed particular empathy in his portrayal of friends, children and the elderly.

His portrait of Peral faithfully records the way the left side of the gilder’s face droops, perhaps suggesting that he had suffered a stroke.

INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUE

Going against a prevailing tendency in official portraiture for highly finished surfaces, Goya frequently opted for a looser manner of working that allows viewers space to complete the painting with their eyes and minds. Peral’s waistcoat, composed of white and grey lines, is painted in an impressionistic manner, the blue brocaded flowers that decorate it suggested by controlled flicks of the brush. Goya was an astute observer of the way that light falls on cloth, and was adept at rendering the sparkle and shimmer of costume details such as jewels, buttons and decorations.

Goya: The Portraits National Gallery, London, 020 7747 2885, www.nationalgallery.org.uk, 7 Oct–10 Jan 2016

Day and Night, 1938, by M.C. Escher

Illusions of reality Mathematician ALEX BELLOS marvels at Dutch artist M.C. Escher’s exploration of infinity and paradox, as his works on paper come to the UK The aim of science is to explain reality.

Mathematics, on the other hand, is more subversive and creative. It takes reality as its starting point and transports us to magical, abstract worlds.

Escher’s art epitomises the playfulness and sense of wonder that drives mathematicians, and

it contains some very interesting mathematics.

With maths you start with a list of concepts and rules and explore the consequences, pushing the original ideas to their limits. With drawing tessellations the rule is that a single tile shape must be repeated until it covers the page, leaving no gaps or overlaps. Escher added a

Don Andrés del Peral, before 1798, by Francisco de Goya

constraint that the tile shape had to be interesting figuratively. With more constraints, more creativity is required, and in his case the results, in works such as the woodcut Day and Night (1938; left), were beautiful and provocative.

Escher was inspired by both ancient Islamic geometric design and academic mathematics, studying the 17 types of symmetry – known as ‘wallpaper groups’ – that describe how a single tile can tessellate a plane. He corresponded with two of the 20th-century’s greatest mathematicians, H.S.M. Coxeter and Roger Penrose. Coxeter introduced him to the ideas that led to his ‘Circle Limit’ series of 1958-60: tessellations in which the tiles start large in the centre of a disc and shrink to infinitely small at the edges. Penrose played a more important role in Escher’s visual illusions: the never-ending staircase in the lithograph Ascending and Descending (1960) was inspired by a drawing by Penrose in a psychology journal.

Mathematics is the applied art of logical deduction. Yet often logic leads you to illogic.

Paradoxes are both bewildering and exhilarating, as they force us to question our assumptions.

Mathematicians love Escher because he is reinterpreting these deep ideas with wit and joy.

The Amazing World of M.C. Escher Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 0131 624 6200, www.nationalgalleries.org, until 27 Sep, then Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 020 8693 5254, www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk, 14 Oct–17 Jan 2016

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Are you sitting comfortably?

Charles and Ray Eames contributed much more to art and design than their iconic chairs, as a Barbican exhibition reveals, says CHRIS FITE-WASSILAK There was no signature style, no instantly recognisable ‘look’ to their work, but Ray and Charles Eames remain among the most influential American designers of the 20th century. Chances are you have already encountered the Eames’s remarkably proliferated work whether you’ve known it or not, relaxing in one of their understated but comfortable chairs.

Visitors to ‘The World of Charles and Ray Eames’ at the Barbican can immerse themselves in the restless and playful energy that defined the couple’s 40-year career. The show includes not just the furniture for which they are best

known, but the range of products, objects, films, photographs and archival materials that evidence their approach to design.

Charles, a trained architect who never received his degree, met Ray, an abstract painter, at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan; both viewed their design work as extensions of their respective fields. Together, they were enthusiastic and tireless experimenters, constantly modelling, photographing, prototyping. Design, for them, was a changing set of solutions, in their words, ‘a plan for arranging elements in such a way as to best accomplish a particular purpose’.

INSPIRED BY EAMES

Nicolas Deshayes ‘British Art Show 8’, Leeds City Art Gallery (9 Oct–10 Jan 2016; see page 32)

From mass-production techniques to furniture trends, young artists today are drawing on product design Eloise Hawser ICA, London (until 6 Sep)

Eloise Hawser’s methods – such as 3D-scanning her father, or creating textile patterns from a steel-rolling shutter – result in sculptures that seem like prototypes for unknown products.

A pile of laptops made from cast concrete, 3D-printed loafers and swathes of cloth have featured in her exhibitions, and the artist lets us draw our own conclusions from the quiet associations between them.

The undulating surfaces of Nicholas Deshayes’ wall-based works give them the appearance of rocks or rough water. But their organic sense is undermined by their resolute artifice: their aluminium frames contain semi-transparent sheets of vacuum-formed plastic, or large polystyrene blocks that have odd landscapes cut into their façades. The synthetic materials we take for granted are here transformed into unsettling designs for the future.

Matthew Darbyshire Manchester Art Gallery (25 Sep–10 Jan 2016)

RA Schools alumnus Matthew Darbyshire considers the history of design and the sometimes

The World of Charles and Ray Eames Barbican Art Gallery, London, 020 7638 4141, www.barbican.org.uk, 21 Oct–14 Feb 2016

Blades House, 2007, by Matthew Darbyshire

overlooked forms design takes. He creates fictional sitting rooms (above) crowded with objects, from Windsor chairs to multi-coloured versions of classical sculptures. His juxtaposition of artefacts, remakes and replicas makes the style choices of the centuries seem like temporary veneers.

© E A M ES O F F I CE L LC . CO U R T ESY O F G AS WO R KS

Charles Eames relaxes in the famous Eames Lounge and Ottoman, for an advertisement in 1956

The Eames Office that they established in Los Angeles in 1943 was a circus of activity, aiming to use mass-production techniques to provide highquality but affordable furniture to America’s then rapidly growing middle class. It soon expanded to include products such as toys and even splints for the US army, and brought their free-wheeling manner of working to unlikely clients such as IBM and the US government.

It was primarily Charles who was credited for their work; appearing on Today show to promote a new chair, the hostess asks Ray, ‘So how do you support your husband in his work?’ ‘Well, mostly by the extreme testing of the materials,’ she jokes.

Perhaps more important than the physical output was their commitment to contextualising their approach: their lectures, exhibition design and films became prominent. Remarkably, at the height of the Cold War, their film Glimpses of the USA (1959) was shown at the American National Exhibition in Moscow in a seven-screen installation, showing scenes from across the US to stress a commonality with the Russian audience: ‘We see the same stars each night… and from the sky it would be difficult to distinguish the Russian city from the American city.’

It is this concern for mutual understanding and accessibility that shapes much of the Eames approach: materials and methods to reach a large audience. Given the elite status of the furniture designs that are still in production, how much they achieved that accessibility is debatable.

Showing elsewhere around the UK are a young set of contemporary artists, such as Magali Reus (page 32) and RA Schools alumni Matthew Darbyshire (below) and Natalie Dray, who are embracing design, industrial materials and the Eames’s model of mass-production to consider our relationship with our surroundings today.

This is just one aspect of the considerable legacy that the pair have left to both art and design.

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Margaret Green NEAC, 1925–2003

Post-war Holiday, Seaton Carew Beach, near Hartlepool

Margaret Green studied initially at the Hartlepool School of Art before continuing at the Royal College of Art during its wartime relocation to the Lake District.

There, she met her lifelong partner Lionel Bulmer. Margaret may have painted this particular work around 1947, just before she and Lionel left the RCA for London, where they established teaching posts, shared studios and exhibited regularly at the RA and the NEAC. Messum’s exclusively represent the Artists’ Studio Estate and this exhibition includes forty of their works.

Catalogue £15 inc p&p

oil on canvas 90 x 120 cms 353⁄8 x 471⁄4 ins

MessuM’s www.messums.com

Exhibition 25th November – 24th December 2015

Messum's RA Mag. 10.7.15 REVISED DATE (Margaret Green).indd 1

28 Cork Street, London W1S 3NG Telephone: +44 (0)20 7437 5545

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EXHIBITION PROGRAMME

SYBIL ANDREWS 24 SEPTEMBER – 8 OCTOBER 2015

LINOCUTS A major exhibition of linocuts including many of the most memorable images, from throughout her long career.

A new publication: Sybil Andrews ‘A Complete Catalogue’ published by Lund Humphries in association with Osborne Samuel will be launched during the exhibition.

Sledgehammers, 1933, Linocut, 20.2 x 22.8 cm

EILEEN GRAY 12 OCTOBER – 7 NOVEMBER 2015

THE PRIVATE PAINTER An exhibition of rare paintings, drawings and photographs for sale for the first time in England by the Irish artist, who was also a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture and design of the early 20th Century.

Also launching a new publication: Eileen Gray ‘The Private Painter’ published by Lund Humphries in association with Osborne Samuel.

Marine d’abord (Study for Rug), 1926/29, Gouache on paper, 11.5 x 22.5 cm

For further information about these exhibitions please contact the gallery or email bchhohan@osbornesamuel.com

23a Bruton Street

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London

W1J 6QG

T: 020 7493 7939

info@osbornesamuel.com

www.osbornesamuel.com

04/08/2015 11:55

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Artists in residence Art lovers are increasingly fascinated by the historic houses that Britain’s great artists once occupied. IAN WARRELL reports on plans to open more doors onto the lives of three artists who are household names There are a number of special houses in Britain where you can stand exactly where some of our finest artists lived and worked. But these evocative portals for the imagination are rarer than you might think. Many artists’ houses have long since been destroyed, and studios have often been redeveloped for other uses, particularly in London, where respectability has tended to devour the bohemian world it has succeeded. So while places linked to our great 18th- and 19th-century artists exist within walking distance of the Royal Academy, the most evocative places survive outside the city.

For example, J.M.W. Turner RA’s notoriously shambolic gallery on Queen Anne Street in the

West End is no more, but his picturesque villa at Twickenham still exists. Sandycombe Lodge was conceived as a riverside retreat for Turner and his father, and was built to the artist’s own design – a unique example of his architectural ambitions (aided by his familiarity with the works of his friend, John Soane RA). It is now somewhat dilapidated, but over the past two years an appeal has raised funds to restore the building. A final £180,000 is needed to meet the target of £2.4m.

Houses of Sandycombe Lodge’s kind have generally fallen outside the remit of organisations such as English Heritage or the National Trust because they do not always preserve the original interiors, and seldom come with the necessary

CO U R T ESY T U R N ER ’ S H O US E , T W I CK EN H A M . CO U R T ESY S OT H EBY ’ S

W. B. Cooke’s engraving of Turner’s Sandycombe Lodge, with later colouring, after Havell’s drawing of c.1814

Open air art Dating back to 1555, the expansive grounds of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire have undergone many transformations over the past 460 years, their schemes ranging from formal Elizabethan gardens to the naturalistic modern park seen today, with its sweeping lawns, wild flowers and woodland areas. Whatever their incarnation, these stunning surroundings have always been at the cutting-edge of landscape design.

Over the last decade, Chatsworth has continued this tradition for innovation by hosting Sotheby’s ‘Beyond Limits’, an open-air exhibition of sculpture (14 Sep–25 Oct; 020 7293 5716). RA Artistic Director Tim Marlow has guest-curated

endowment to guarantee their longer security.

Consequently other uses have to be considered to generate the backing of key funders like the Heritage Lottery Fund.

But this need not be a bad thing. Sandycombe, for instance, already attracts groups who are allowed to paint in the large central sitting room that may have doubled as Turner’s suburban studio. There is also space for temporary exhibitions of works by contemporary artists.

Thomas Gainsborough RA’s childhood home at Sudbury is already open to the public every day of the week. However, to complement its charms, there are ambitious plans to construct new galleries in a neighbouring building. As well as permitting far more of the existing collection to be displayed, there will be spaces for larger shows to attract regular visitors, including a viewing gallery that looks out over the water meadows of Sudbury’s landscape.

Meanwhile, a campaign to purchase the quaintly thatched cottage at Felpham, near Bognor Regis, where William Blake lived for three years from 1800, has been approaching its target of £495,000. It was here that Blake wrote much of Jerusalem, as well as being wrongly charged for sedition.

The residence of such a beacon of nonconformity and defiance cannot be so neatly packaged as those of Turner and Gainsborough.

Even so, the plans for the building have the same aspiration to ensure that the artist’s workspace remains a place of creativity, as well as a refuge for those outside the mainstream.

Turner’s House Twickenham, www.turnerintwickenham. org.uk, open in summer months 2-5pm on the first Saturday of the month, until 3 October. An auction in aid of the Turner’s House Trust appeal is at Dreweatts, Donnington Priory, Newbury, 01635 553553, 25 Nov Gainsborough’s House Sudbury, Suffolk, 01787 372958, www.gainsborough.org. For details of tickets for the Gainsborough’s House/NADFAS prize draw to win a painting by Maggi Hambling, visit www.nadfas.org.uk from 2 Sep Blake’s Cottage Felpham, West Sussex, www.thebigblakeproject.org.uk. A poetry evening in aid of the project to restore the cottage is at Waterstones, Piccadilly, on 19 Sep, www.blakescottage.eventbrite.co.uk

this year’s show, which takes the relationship between modern British sculpture and landscape as its theme. It includes in the breathtaking outdoor setting a roll-call of the country’s most celebrated sculptors, from leading modernists such as Barbara Hepworth (Three Obliques (Walk In), 1969; right) to contemporary artists, including Sarah Lucas and Antony Gormley RA. Chatsworth also stages ‘Art Out Loud’ (18–20 Sep; 01246 565300), the first literary festival dedicated exclusively to talks by artists, curators and art writers. Among the speakers are Tim Marlow on Ai Weiwei and Grayson Perry RA, who discusses the way ideas are passed like Chinese whispers between artists around the globe. Anna Coatman

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Preview UK Edwards’ powerful and polemical abstract steel sculptures – both freestanding and relief – often incorporate chains and overt political references. ‘[He] is one of Looking for something unusual at the October the best American sculptors,’ wrote Michael Brenson in the New York art fairs? Head for Frieze Masters’ Spotlight Times in 1988. ‘He is also one of section, says ANNA MCNAY the least known.’ His reputation has been increasing since autumn 2011, however, when he was included in the group exhibition, ‘Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980’ at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Kim, who is a former senior curator at the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis, now resides in Los Angeles and was previously Director of the gallery at the city’s REDCAT art centre, so Edwards’ inclusion is a sign of her new perspective on Spotlight.

The two Pop artists on show are Keiichi Tanaami (at Tokyo gallery Nanzuka) and Wanda Pimentel (at Anita Schwartz Galeria de Arte, Rio de Janeiro), both of whom Stella-Sawicka describes as legends in their local context but little known globally.

Tanaami’s psychedelic art (P.B. Grand Prix 02, 1968; left) ranges across painting, printmaking, drawing and animation. His images of rainbows, distorted cartoon characters and religious iconography draw on influences as diverse as his memories of the Great Tokyo Air Raid of 1945, Japanese P.B.Grand Prix 02, 1968, by Keiichi Tanaami Neo-Dadaism, Andy Warhol, his stint as the first art director of the Where in London can you step from 1960s Japanese edition of Playboy, and the hallucinations Japanese psychedelia to post-war American he suffered following a near fatal pulmonary abstraction to apartheid-era South African oedema in 1981. photography in just a few paces? The everPimentel’s take on Pop manifests as acrylic popular Spotlight section of Frieze Masters. and oil paintings that from a distance could be Running concurrently with its contemporary mistaken for prints, with images of window art sister Frieze London, Frieze Masters offers frames and doors left ajar that are metaphors for a present-day lens on historical art and, in imprisonment. The Brazilian is one of only three Spotlight, 15 galleries present solo exhibitions women being shown, alongside the Romanian by a diverse range of 20th-century artists who Ana Lupas (at P420, Bologna) – whose work have been overlooked and deserve reassessment. sits at the intersection of tapestry, sculpture and Spotlight’s new curator Clara M. Kim has architecture – and the Japanese-Brazilian abstract been proactive in approaching galleries whose sculptor and painter Tomie Ohtake (at Galeria artists fit the bill. Two particular trends she has Nara Roesler, São Paulo). noted this year are global Pop art (coinciding with In previous years, artists shown in Spotlight Tate Modern’s exhibition ‘The World Goes Pop’) have gone on to enjoy significant reconsideration and African American artists. Jo Stella-Sawicka, globally. Whether or not this will be the case Frieze’s Artistic Director, describes this African for this year’s artists remains to be seen, but the American focus as something that is ‘going to Spotlight section nevertheless offers some eyebe seen more and more in museums’. Two firstopening art in its own right, different from the time Frieze Masters galleries, Stephen Friedman familiar roll call of masters elsewhere in the fair.

Gallery from London and Alexander Gray Spotlight is on view at Frieze Masters Regent’s Park, Associates from New York, present the sculptor London, 020 3372 6111, www.friezemasters.com, Melvin Edwards and the abstract painter Jack 14-18 Oct The World Goes Pop Tate Modern, London, Whitten respectively.

020 7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk, 17 Sep–24 Jan 2016

Open season HARRIET BAKER selects several London spaces opening up for art ‘Painting is acting purely, you can’t hide anything,’ John Hoyland RA (1934-2011) told Damien Hirst in a conversation published in the Autumn 2009 issue of this magazine. ‘You can’t pretend to be a tough guy if you’re not.’

Hirst admired Hoyland’s attitude as much as his unflinching approach to colour and scale. So it is not surprising that the younger artist has chosen paintings by this leading figure in abstraction to open his Newport Street Gallery in London’s Vauxhall (8 Oct–3 April 2016; 020 3141 9320). The six-space gallery presents exhibitions from Hirst’s collection of modern and contemporary art. Also in Vauxhall, Gasworks – a hub of studios and exhibition spaces that promotes emerging artists – reopens (24 Sep) after a £2.1 million project to purchase and redevelop its home (020 7587 5202).

On Mayfair’s Grosvenor Hill, Gagosian Gallery opens its third London space with an exhibition of Cy Twombly, including previously unseen works from the American artist’s highly gestural series of abstracts, ‘Bacchus’ (8 Oct–12 Dec; 020 7495 1500). Nearby on Albermarle Street, Tornabuoni Art, whose international galleries focus on post-war Italian art, opens a London outpost with a twofloor exhibition of work by the father of Spatialism, Lucio Fontana, best known for his signature punctured canvases (8 Oct–5 Dec; 020 7629 2172).

To read a transcript of the conversation between Hirst and Hoyland published in the Autumn 2009 issue of RA Magazine, visit http://roy.ac/hirsthoyland

Damien Hirst and John Hoyland RA in 2009

©K EI I CH I TA N A A M I /CO U R T ESY O F T H E A R T IS T A N D N A N Z U K A . P H OTO GR A P H BY J I L L I A N ED ELS T EI N , CA M ER A P R ES S LO N D O N

Frieze Masters goes Pop

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artists working in the country. The eighth edition embarks on its tour at Leeds Art Gallery, taking our digital age as its theme. Among the notable names is Anthea Hamilton, whose work has included Let’s Go! (2013), a theatrical environment in which Japanese dance-dramas are enacted (2).

collectively known as the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle – to honour the late artist, presenting exhibitions that showcase works from 60 years of Caro’s career, including his sprightly steel sculptures painted in eye-popping colours, such as Aurora (2000–03) (4).

1. ‘Going Public’ Various venues, Sheffield (16 Sep–12 Dec)

3. Centre of Ceramic Art York Art Gallery

5. Bob and Roberta Smith RA Yorkshire Sculpture Park (5 Sep–3 Jan 2016)

‘Going Public’ peeks into the contemporary collections of Europe’s leading art patrons, sharing their works across five Sheffield venues.

The initiative includes an exhibition at the Graves Gallery of rarely seen artworks by the godfather of conceptual art Marcel Duchamp, on loan from Berlin-based Egidio Marzona’s collection, while in Sheffield Cathedral, Dan Flavin’s shrine of fluorescent tubes ‘monument’ for V. Tatlin (1969– 70) (1) is on view besides installations by Sarah Lucas, Jake and Dinos Chapman, and Maurizio Cattelan, drawn from Turin’s Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection.

Celebrated annually on 1 August, Yorkshire Day was marked this year with the reopening of York Art Gallery after an extensive redevelopment.

The roof space of this imposing Victorian building has been transformed into the Centre of Ceramic Art, two expansive new rooms showing star pieces of British studio ceramics by Bernard Leach and Lucie Rie. You can also see the latest developments in ceramics, such as Merete Rasmussen’s Yellow Open Form (2010), in which an acid-yellow strip chases itself into infinity (3).

The National Arts Education Archive at Yorkshire Sculpture Park traces the development of arts education in the UK. The park enlists Bob and Roberta Smith RA this autumn to celebrate the archive’s 30th anniversary, staging a show of the Academician’s characteristically rousing banners and signs emblazoned with pro-art slogans (Art Makes Children Powerful, 2013 (5))

2. ‘British Art Show 8’ Leeds Art Gallery (9 Oct–10 Jan 2016)

Anthony Caro RA was a studio assistant to the Yorkshire-born Henry Moore before his own reputation developed as Britain’s most admired abstract sculptor. The Henry Moore Institute teams up with Leeds Art Gallery, Hepworth Wakefield and Yorkshire Sculpture Park –

The county hosts some outstanding shows this autumn, says JOSEPHINE NEW

The British Art Show is the biggest travelling exhibition of contemporary art in the UK – it takes place once every five years and is widely recognised as an arbiter of the most exciting

4. ‘Caro in Yorkshire’ Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle (until 1 Nov)

6. Magali Reus Hepworth Wakefield (until 11 Oct)

The young Dutch artist Magali Reus cites Anthony Caro as an important influence.

As the British sculptor’s machine-like metal works go on display at Hepworth Wakefield to coincide with ‘Caro in Yorkshire’, Reus presents her unsettling sculptures, which assume the aesthetics of product and industrial design, often appearing like odd instruments whose purpose is yet to be defined (Leaves (Peat, March), 2015 (6)).

© T H E A R T IS T A N D DAC S , LO N D O N . CO U R T ESY T H E A R T IS T A N D B LO O M B ER G S PACE / P H OTO BY S T EP H A N I E R OS E WO O D. © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY YO R K A R T G A L L ERY. CO U R T ESY O F B A R FO R D S CU L P T U R ES LT D. CO U R T ESY T H E A R T IS T A N D H A L ES G A L L ERY. © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY H EP WO R T H WA K EF I EL D

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John Bellany CBE RA

27 Sept –1 Nov Richmond Hill Gallery 26 Richmond Hill TW10 6QX 020 8940 5152 info@therichmondhillgallery.com www.therichmondhillgallery.com

Image: Voyage Oil on canvas 172.5x152.5cms

Barbara Rae CBE RA RE

15 Nov – 24 Jan Richmond Hill Gallery 26 Richmond Hill TW10 6QX 020 8940 5152 info@therichmondhillgallery.com www.therichmondhillgallery.com

Image: Pasture at Ceide Mixed media on paper 103cms x 97cms

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MODERN BRITISH AND IRISH ART

Wednesday 18 November, at 3pm New Bond Street, London

PAUL NASH (BRITISH, 1889-1946) Chestnut Waters signed and dated ‘Paul Nash/1922’ (lower right) pencil, chalk and watercolour 38.8 x 57.8 cm. (15 x 22 in.)

Sold for £57,500, 10 June 2015

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

CLOSING DATE Friday 9 October ENQUIRIES +44 (0) 20 7468 8297 britart@bonhams.com

Preview International

Parallel lives This autumn sees enticing pairings of great artists in several European shows. MARTIN GAYFORD reports

M US ÉE D ’ O RS AY, PA R IS . M U N CH M US EU M , OS LO. L EN B ACH H AUS A N D KU NS T B AU, M U N I CH . L EO P O L D, P R I VAT E CO L L EC T I O N . P R I VAT E CO L L ECT I O N , LO N D O N /©B I L D R ECH T, V I EN N A 2015 .

VAN GOGH & MUNCH

1 Starry Night over the Rhône, 1888, by Van Gogh 2 Starry Night, by Edvard Munch, 1922-24 3 Rose Garden, 1920, by Paul Klee 4 Impression III (Concert), 1911, by Wassily Kandinsky 5 Sitting Nude Man Turned to the Right, 1918, by Egon Schiele 6 How I Sat, 2014,

by Tracey Emin RA

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Of course, we don’t know what would have happened had Van Gogh (1853-90) lived on into old age instead of dying at 37. But the case of Edvard Munch (1863-1944) provides some clues. The parallels between the two are striking.

Both came from Northern Europe, and were brought up in a strongly religious atmosphere – Van Gogh’s father was a clergyman, Munch’s a pious doctor. Each went south, was affected by contemporary French art, and developed a powerfully distinctive style charged with angst.

At that point their two stories diverge. Munch, who was 10 years younger, survived mental crises and lived on, famous and financially secure, until he was 80. Are the affinities between the two great painters visual as well as biographical? The thesis is tested by a pioneering exhibition that shows Munch and Van Gogh side by side, travelling from Oslo’s Munch Museum (until 6 Sep) to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (25 Sep–17 Jan 2016).

SCHIELE & EMIN

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‘I am human, I love death and love life,’ declared Egon Schiele in 1910 in a text entitled Self-portrait. He used pen and paper to write it, but perhaps if he had been working 80 years later he would have employed neon instead.

That’s the kind of thought provoked by ‘Where I Want to Go’, a joint exhibition of Schiele and Tracey Emin RA at the Leopold Museum, Vienna (until 14 Sep).

This is, obviously, not a case of two artists who belonged to the same period or movement, but of what Goethe called an ‘elective affinity’.

Schiele (1890-1918) has always been a hero and a model to Emin, and there are indeed qualities they share in common, particularly the intense self-revelation and explicit sexuality of their imagery. So perhaps, in a later age, Schiele would have become a media star and, like Emin, written his thoughts in light on the gallery wall.

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KLEE & KANDINSKY

Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky were colleagues and – for some years – next-door neighbours. In the late 1920s and early 30s, they both taught at the Bauhaus in Dessau and lived side by side in houses designed by Walter Gropius. But though there were many similarities between these two masters of modernist abstraction, they were by no means identical – as a show at the Lenbachhaus, Munich, aims to make clear (21 Oct–24 Jan 2016).

For one thing, their careers were out of sync. Klee (1879-1940) was the younger of the two by 13 years. His art, whimsical and small scale, was at its peak in those Bauhaus years.

Kandinsky’s breakthrough had come earlier, before the First World War. It was then that he made the leap into non-figurative art (even if figures, buildings and landscapes are hidden in his paintings of that period). The two men were rivals as well as friends.

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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 tour collection focuses on the art, architecture and archaeology 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 late availability OMAN: Land of Frankincense

08-16 Nov 2015 with Dr Konstantine Politis

BARCELONA: Gaudi’s Masterworks

14-18 Nov 2015 with Dr Colin Bailey

RAVENNA: Mosaics & Marble

19-22 Nov 2015 with Dr Sally Dormer

LAOS & CAMBODIA: Temples & Treasures

19 Nov-01 Dec 2015 with Denise Heywood

MOORISH SPAIN: Land of Caliphs, Knights and Poets 21-28 Nov 2015 with Dr George Manginis

GREECE: Journey through the Ancient World 21-30 Nov 2015 with Dr Steve Kershaw

2016-17 highlights Europe NEW CÔTE D’AZUR: Modern Art of the French Riviera 04-07 Oct 2016 with Gerald Deslandes 21-24 Mar 2017 with Gerald Deslandes

MADRID & TOLEDO: From El Greco to Picasso

07-11 Nov 2016 with Dr Colin Bailey

NEW BARCELONA & BILBAO: From Gaudí to the Guggenheim 12-17 Nov 2016 with Dr Colin Bailey

ANDALUSIA: Land of Moors, Knights & Poets

09-15 Apr 2016 with Dr Nicola Jennings 19-25 Nov 2016 with Dr George Manginis 01-07 Apr 2017 with Dr George Manginis

NEW LISBON & SINTRA: Portuguese Palaces & Art

03-06 Oct 2016 with Dr Anne Anderson 27-30 Mar 2017 with Dr Anne Anderson

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Worldwide Art Tours

Art • Archaeology • Architecture

BAY OF NAPLES: Pompeii & Herculaneum

12-18 Mar 2016 with Dr Nigel Spivey 11-17 Mar 2017 with Dr Steve Kershaw

JORDAN: Crusaders, Traders & Raiders

ST PETERSBURG: Pictures & Palaces

NEW EGYPT: In the Footsteps of the Pharaohs

13-22 Jun 2016 with John Osborne 03-12 Oct 2016 with Rowena Loverance 15-24 May 2017 with John Osborne

SICILY: Crossroads of the Mediterranean 04-12 Apr 2016 with Richard Stemp 10-18 Oct 2017 with Richard Wallace 10-18 Apr 2017 with Richard Stemp

21-26 Feb 2016 with Dr Colin Bailey 08-13 May 2016 with Dr Colin Bailey 24-29 Jul 2016 with Andrew Spira 25-30 Sep 2016 with Andrew Spira 07-12 May 2017 with Dr Colin Bailey

PUGLIA & BASILICATA: Italy’s Undiscovered South

04-10 Apr 2016 with Dr Colin Bailey 31 Oct-06 Nov 2016 with Dr Colin Bailey 03-09 Apr 2017 with Dr Colin Bailey

ALBANIA & MACEDONIA: Cradle of the Balkans

23 Sep-02 Oct 2016 with Dr William Taylor

NEW ROME: From Romans to the Renaissance

GREECE: Journey through the Ancient World

04-08 Apr 2016 with Dr Nigel Spivey 03-07 Apr 2017 with Dr Nigel Spivey

14-23 May 2016 with Dr Steve Kershaw 19-28 Nov 2016 with Dr Konstantine Politis 13-22 May 2017 with Dr Steve Kershaw

FLORENCE: Patronage & Palaces

19-24 Apr 2016 with Siân Walters 25-30 Oct 2016 with Helen Oakden 09-14 May 2017 with Siân Walters

NEW CRETE: Minoans, Venetians & Ottomans

07-14 May 2016 with Dr Konstantine Politis 19-26 Nov 2016 with Dr Steve Kershaw 06-13 May 2017 with Dr Konstantine Politis

UMBRIA: Soul of the Renaissance

06-12 June 2016 with Richard Stemp

ISTANBUL: Byzantine & Ottoman Treasures

RAVENNA: Mosaics & Marble

11-16 Apr 2016 with Dr William Taylor 17-22 Oct 2016 with Dr William Taylor 10-15 Apr 2017 with Dr William Taylor

07-10 Apr 2016 with Rowena Loverance 24-27 Nov 2016 with Dr Sally Dormer 06-09 Apr 2017 with Rowena Loverance

ARMENIA & GEORGIA: Treasures of the Caucasus

NEW VENICE: Splendours of the Renaissance

16-26 May 2016 with Dr William Taylor

08-11 Nov 2016 with Richard Stemp 14-17 Mar 2017 with Siân Walters

BRUGES & GHENT: Flemish Art & Architecture

19-23 Mar 2016 with Dr Sophie Oosterwijk 15-19 Oct 2016 with Dr Sophie Oosterwijk 18-22 Mar 2017 with Dr Sophie Oosterwijk

NEW MOROCCO: Kasbahs, Palaces & the Sahara 11-22 Mar 2016 with Diana Driscoll 04-15 Nov 2016 with Diana Driscoll 10-21 Mar 2017 with Diana Driscoll

Asia & the Americas NEW INDIA: Treasures of the Punjab & ‘Little Tibet’ 27 Mar-09 Apr 2016 with Jasleen Kandhari 09-22 Oct 2016 with Jasleen Kandhari 26 Feb-11 Mar 2017 with Jasleen Kandhari

CHINA: In the Tracks of the Emperors

14-24 Sep 2016 with Malcolm McNeill

NEW JAPAN: Jewels of Culture & Craft

01-12 Nov 2016 with Suzanne Perrin 28 Mar-08 Apr 2017 with Suzanne Perrin

LAOS & CAMBODIA: Temples & Treasures

UZBEKISTAN: The Golden Road to Samarkand

MEXICO: Maya, Murals & Conquistadors

23-31 Oct 2016 with Chris Bradley

19-28 Sep 2016 with John Osborne 24 Apr-03 May 2017 with Rowena Loverance

04-13 Nov 2016 with Jocelyn Gohary 24 Mar-02 Apr 2017 with Jocelyn Gohary

30 Jan-11 Feb 2016 with Denise Heywood 19 Nov-01 Dec 2016 with Denise Heywood 04-16 Feb 2017 with Denise Heywood 18-30 Nov 2017 with Denise Heywood

OMAN: Land of Frankincense

21-24 Jul 2016 with Dr Anne Anderson

14-21 May 2016 with Dr Neil Faulkner 17-24 Sep 2016 with Dr Neil Faulkner 13-20 May 2017 with Dr Neil Faulkner

Central Asia, Arabia & North Africa 16-27 Sep 2016 with Diana Driscoll

COPENHAGEN: Danish Art & Design

NEW BULGARIA: Balkan & Thracian Treasures

ROMANIA: Mountains, Monasteries & Medieval Cities

JERUSALEM: The Golden City

30 Oct-05 Nov 2016 with Dr Konstantine Politis

11-24 Jan 2016 with Prof Nicholas Saunders 17-30 Oct 2016 with Chloë Sayer 09-22 Jan 2017 with Prof Nicholas Saunders

NEW PERU: Pre-Columbian & Colonial Treasures 11-25 Apr 2016 with David Drew 03-17 Oct 2016 with Dr Frank Meddens 27 Mar-10 Apr 2017 with David Drew

Please note that tour dates and lecturers are subject to change.

For reservations, please call 020 3773 1419 For detailed itineraries and prices, please request a copy of the 2016-17 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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29/07/2015 11:45

30th SEPTEMBER - 16th OCTOBER 2015

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PANTER & HALL 11- 12 PALL MALL . LONDON . SW1Y 5LU TELEPHONE +44(0)20 7399 9999 enquiries@panterandhall.com www.panterandhall.com

LLEWELLYN ALEXANDER

124-126 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LN (opposite The Old Vic Theatre) 020 7620 1322/1324 gallery@LlewellynAlexander.com Tuesday – Saturday

10am – 7.30pm

For more pictures and prices see www.LlewellynAlexander.com

John Yardley RI 27 October – 18 November 2015 John Yardley “Sussex Jazz Kings in Brittany” Watercolour 14 x 20 ins 356 x 508 mm

Pamela Kay “Poppies at Clos Normande, Giverny” Oil on board 14 x 18 ins 356 x 457 mm Robert E. Wells “Floating Market, Venice” Oil on canvas 36 x 36 ins 914 x 914 mm

Pamela Kay NEAC RWS RBA MA RCA Robert E. Wells RBA

29 September – 21 October 2015

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10/08/2015 12:25

Preview Books

The Raft of the Medusa, 1819, by Théodore Géricault

More than meets the eye

P H OTO © R M N - GR A N D PA L A IS (M US ÉE D U LO U V R E)/ DA N I EL A R N AU D E T. P H OT0: L I T T L E R ED PA N DA

In his new book of essays Julian Barnes offers insightful lessons in how to look at – and read about – art, writes EDMUND FAWCETT In Keeping an Eye Open, a collection of welltailored essays written at various times from 1989 to 2013, the British novelist Julian Barnes focuses on artists he loves and admires. All but five of the 17 he writes about were either French or worked in France. The two oldest, Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, were born before the 19th century, the youngest, Georges Braque, in 1882.

Each was in one way or another a figurative painter. It always made sense to ask of their work, ‘What’s this a picture of?’ It’s a question Barnes is very good at, especially when the answers aren’t obvious.

Take Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa (1819; above). It is obviously a picture of castaways or shipwreck survivors. You can tell that by looking.

A marvellous essay in Barnes’s A History of the SHELF LIFE

CARYS FRANKLAND brings together tales of art and anguish ‘This canvas has witnessed greatness and atrocity, passion and hatred. If only it could speak.’ The painting is Antoine Watteau’s long-lost masterpiece, The Improbability of Love, the fictional work at the heart of Hannah Rothschild’s book of the same name (Bloomsbury, £12.99), one of several new novels to mine art’s long-standing affiliations with intrigue, emotion and human frailty.

Philip Kazan’s historical novel The Painter of Souls (Orion, £13.99) takes us to Renaissance Florence where Filippo Lippi’s ambition to become the greatest painter of his

World in 10½ Chapters, reprinted here, reminded readers how much more could be learned about the painting than just by looking. His essay described the historic loss of an unseaworthy French ship, the political row that followed, the artist’s own decision to say something big about the calamity in paint and the artistic choices he then faced. After much reading and several false starts, Géricault settled on one vivid scene from a drawn-out maritime drama and then worked out how to show that scene to greatest effect.

On finishing Barnes’s fact-filled chapter you think, ‘Now I know what it’s a picture of.’

Barnes senses when to press such questions, and when to stop. He has an eye for particulars and an English distrust of speculation. If he has a visual hunch but no supporting facts, he nudges

us to see it his way with an undogmatic ‘perhaps’.

Barnes praises the late critic David Sylvester for that instructive kind of ‘perhapsiness’.

Barnes is nagged by two larger doubts.

Can any writer’s words add to what is there to see when we look at art? More than once he mentions painters’ common contempt for art writing but braves the scorn and keeps going.

Some works cry out for words, some works repel them. Barnes tends to write about the first kind.

A related worry is how far artists’ lives bear on their art. Although Barnes writes that ‘Art tends to float free of biography,’ he also sees biography’s appeal. The essay on Delacroix celebrates a re-edition, in 2010, of his complete Journals.

Those on Cézanne, Bonnard, Braque and Lucian Freud are really expansive reviews of artists’ biographies. A strict line here would be ‘working life, yes; personal life, no’. The dull truth is that artists’ lives, like everyone’s, involve grind and persistence. Few are temperamental celebrities with Bohemian sex lives. Barnes salutes dullness but finds room for the excitements.

Barnes’s non-French artists include René Magritte, his own English friend Howard Hodgkin and the American Claes Oldenburg.

The stand-out among these tail-end pieces is on Freud – a masterly display of how to let air out of a big reputation without a hiss.

Though Barnes loves painting, he doesn’t make a doctrine of his love. The piece on Ron Mueck’s work in the RA’s Sensation exhibition (1997) shows guarded openness to postpainterly art. Most art is bad and always was, Barnes writes. We shouldn’t judge art now, he suggests, more strictly than we judge past art.

Keeping an Eye Open brims with palatable maxims of the kind. Read through or cherrypicked, it offers sage lessons in keeping an eye out for art and an ear open for what’s written about it.

Keeping an Eye Open: Essays on Art by Julian Barnes, £16.99 softback, Jonathan Cape To listen to Julian Barnes discussing Manet, visit http://roy.ac/barnesmanet

time requires that he must first overcome a life of forgery and gambling by seeking refuge in God. Marta Maretich’s The Merchants of Light (Nine Elms, £9.99) blends the real-life story of Venetian painter Giambattista Tiepolo with the fictional narrative of a man whose mission is to rescue Tiepolo’s frescoes from the ravages of the First World War. Also seamlessly merging fact and fiction, Priya Parmar’s Vanessa and her Sister (Bloomsbury, £11.99) spotlights the enigmatic painter Vanessa Bell, revealing her complex relationship with her famed sibling Virginia Woolf through entries from Bell’s fictional diary.

William Boyd, in Sweet Caress (Bloomsbury, £12.99), documents the life of the remarkable photographer Amory Clay through journal extracts and black-and-white shots, leaving us almost convinced that his protagonist is real.

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Preview Books

A very contemporary artist

The Death of General Wolfe, 1770, by Benjamin West PRA

Benjamin West’s trajectory was steep. Born to a modest family close to the Western frontier of Pennsylvania in 1738, he was – thanks to rich Philadelphia patrons – the first American artist to embark on the Grand Tour of Italy, after which he arrived in London aged 24. A mere five years later, he was with the greatest artists in the land, petitioning George III to create the Royal Academy. By the time of his death in 1820, he had been President of the Royal Academy for more than 25 years and was the most famous artist in the English speaking world, but within a generation, West was derided and heading towards the critical obscurity from which he has only recently emerged.

Certainly West’s rapid change of status from outsider to Establishment grandee roused some hostility, but perhaps more importantly West was just too hard to place. He had neither the relaxed elegance of Thomas Gainsborough RA nor the swagger and intellectual pretensions of Joshua Reynolds PRA. And his work, so revolutionary within the context of the 18th century, did not fit into the narrative of the rise of ‘modern’ art. Yet more than any other artist of his time, West gave visual expression to what it meant to be modern.

Early 18th-century Europe was torn

apart by a bitter intellectual war that Jonathan Swift called ‘The Battle of the Books’, but is more often known as the ‘Quarrel Between the Ancients and the Moderns’. While it may seem trivial to our minds, the dispute, which revolved around whether it was possible to equal or even surpass the artistic and intellectual achievements of the Greeks and Romans, was a major crisis of confidence in an 18th-century world that was bewildered by multiple social, political and economic revolutions. In a time when classical models of art and literature were venerated, it took some boldness to proclaim as James Boswell did: ‘I do sincerely think that this age is better than ancient times.’

The problem of reconciling optimism about the present with reverence for the past was particularly acute for 18th-century artists who aspired to excel in the most elevated genre of art, history painting, which took its subject matter from the Bible, mythology and the ancient world: subject matter with which artists themselves, and more importantly the public, were becoming bored. William Hogarth was not alone in wishing that painting might ‘be made more entertaining and more useful than the eternal blazonry, and tedious repetition of hackneyed, beaten subjects, either from the Scriptures, or the old ridiculous

stories of heathen gods.’ It was West’s particular genius to use the exalted visual language of history painting to celebrate a contemporary event in The Death of General Wolfe (left), the popular hit of the 1771 Royal Academy exhibition and subsequently one of the most widely reproduced images of the century.

The death of General James Wolfe, killed at the moment of British victory over the French at the Battle of Quebec in 1759, was a particularly emotive subject.

Even 12 years after his death, Wolfe remained the military hero and Imperial martyr par excellence.

His death had already been painted and exhibited twice, first by George Romney and secondly by Edward Penny. But West raised the death of the young officer from the mere depiction of a current event to the status of a universal drama by choosing to paint it in the traditional form of a lamentation over the dead Christ. In one spectacular artistic coup, West unequivocally stated that the events of the present were as laudable and inspirational as any from the Biblical, ancient or mythological past.

The effect was electrifying. In spite of the reservations of many – Reynolds warned West that his effort to paint Wolfe’s death as a contemporary event would cause ‘repulse or ridicule’ – Wolfe was a triumph with a public who were no longer prepared to keep looking over their shoulders to the past for examples of greatness. If being modern is, in the phrase of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, ‘the will to “heroize” the present’, then Wolfe was a giant step on the road to modernity.

But West was no one-trick pony. It takes more than a handsome face and an agreeable manner to get from the back woods of Pennsylvania to the State Rooms of Windsor Castle. Throughout his career West was a restless innovator: as a young man at the forefront of Neo-classicism and as an old man working in the language of the Romantics. Reconsidering Wolfe and his many other achievements, it’s time to honour the second President of the Royal Academy.

Benjamin West and the Struggle to be Modern

by Loyd Grossman, £35 hardback, is published by Merrell on 8 Oct

T R A NS F ER F R O M T H E CA N A D I A N WA R M EM O R I A LS , 1921 (GI F T O F T H E 2N D D U K E O F W ES T M I NS T ER , EN GL A N D, 1918)/ N AT I O N A L G A L L ERY O F CA N A DA , OT TAWA / P H OTO © N AT I O N A L G A L L ERY O F CA N A DA

As his biography of Benjamin West PRA is published, LOYD GROSSMAN reveals how this founding member of the Academy broke with the past like no other artist of his era

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The RA’s painters, printmakers, sculptors, architects and art students

P H OTO © A N N A H U I X

Academy Artists

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In the Studio

Getting back to business Despite various challenges, including a leaking roof, Sonia Lawson RA is keen to return to her garden studio, says FIONA MADDOCKS. Photograph by ANNA HUIX Pointing up at the renewed rafters and down to a stack of rescued canvases, Sonia Lawson RA describes how a leaking roof recently put her studio out of action for several weeks. She is poised to start work there again. Nestling to the side of her roomy, red-brick Edwardian house in Leighton Buzzard, surrounded by rambling roses and a large enclosed garden, the studio has been her private domain for four-and-a-half decades.

The wooden structure is engagingly ramshackle. You can see the sky – the light is mainly from roof lights – but not the garden, unless you crane your neck. Every object has a purpose – brushes, stretchers, little sacks of pigment waiting to be mixed up like bags of icing sugar, tiny bottles marked ‘soapy water’, empty ice-cream cartons, pencils, a book on Celtic art – but there are no other distractions.

‘We had been in the house a couple of years,’ she recalls. ‘I persuaded my husband, Charlie [Congo], to build it for me. I had been working in the attic but bringing big canvases up and down was difficult. I just wanted somewhere that was all mine.’ Trespassers have never been encouraged. ‘Back in the early days, friends of my husband’ – a businessman with a plastics factory in nearby Bletchley – ‘were curious, but I said to Charlie, “I’m not a performing seal and I don’t want people gawping at me.”

So this is perfect.’

Acts of god, to use that startling home insurance term, are hardly unknown to Lawson.

A house fire once forced her, her husband and daughter to move elsewhere for two years. Now, aged 81, she has been living with Parkinson’s disease for 15 years, her mobility restricted, her spirit far from extinguished by the extra challenges this presents. She has continued to paint but the last five years have been particularly hard. ‘I’ll have to find new strategies, perhaps work on a smaller scale.’ She knows it will be ‘very difficult and slightly different’. She has an exhibition shortly in Harrogate, and a new monograph by Nicholas Usherwood, Sonia Lawson: Passions and Alarms, has been published.

Lawson grew up, an only child of the artists Fred Lawson and Muriel Metcalfe, in the Yorkshire Dales, surrounded by a lively artistic circle, among them the poet James Kirkup and the novelist J.B. Priestley. At first she learned chiefly from her parents’ example. ‘At school I

won all the art prizes but my teachers said, “This is all very well but you can’t earn a living with it.”

I thought, I’ll show them that I can.’ Lawson went to Doncaster School of Art in 1951, and four years later to the Royal College of Art. She recalls that while all the men dressed soberly in grey trousers and pullovers, the women were more radical and adventurous, prepared to wear ‘funny clothes’ – from boiler suits to boas. ‘At Doncaster I was, I think, the only girl. The numbers were better at the RCA. But attitudes were still narrow.

I remember Carel Weight, who taught painting there, saying to me, “Do you think a woman can be a good painter?” And when you walked upstairs you’d get remarks like “I see skirts have gone up this year”. But it was all quite harmless.’

Wartime memories have surfaced powerfully in her work over the years. The garrison town of Catterick Camp was near her Wensleydale home. ‘My early childhood was an era of great division. The women were at home, while most of the men were at war.’ She gestures to a vivid, violent canvas, Northern Garrison (1986), with a powerful female figure in blue with flowing dark hair that might be Lawson herself, presiding over all like Liberty or Britannia. The work pulsates with influences and ideas, from the international – Mexican murals and Munch – to the domestic, from history to myth.

These qualities are also visible in the jewelled Night in a Private Garden (2010; seen behind Lawson, left) and in the bold androgyny of Dietrich (1984; seen alongside her, left). With good reason she has coined the term ‘compressionism’ for her work, which bestrides abstraction and narrative with ease. ‘Above all it’s about handling paint. I love the plastic way one can mix it, cover a blank canvas, score it in different ways. It’s your own private medium, your trademark.’

Against odds – including several falls and a broken arm – Lawson, still yearns to work, and has a gleam in her eye. ‘What do they say… the spirit is willing? Yes, I will try. It’s my job.’

Sonia Lawson: Paintings, Passions and Alarms Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, 01423 556188, www.harrogate.gov.uk/mercerartgallery, 14 Nov– 7 Feb 2016 Sonia Lawson: Passions and Alarms

by Nicholas Usherwood, Sansom & Co, £30 To see more images of Sonia Lawson’s paintings, visit http://roy.ac/lawson

AUTUMN 2015 | RA MAGAZINE 43

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Basil ALKAZZI

Elizabeth BLACKADDER

David HOCKNEY

Elisabeth FRINK

& others

Collectors of Contemporary American & British Art

W.J.Occhiuzzo

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Basil Alkazzi

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Trinity House . .

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The Cotswolds

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Edward Noott 16th - 30th September 2015 Both exhibitions to be held at: 50 Maddox Street London, W1S 1AY REFLECTIONS ON THE MASTERS

Alex Cree 14th October - 14th November 2015 For more information about the exhibitions please contact Trinity House using the details below •

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• T: +44 (0) 207 499 8958

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10/08/2015 12:25

Academy Artists Epiphany

Thomas Heatherwick RA at his Kings Cross studio, with raised-relief maps from around the world on the wall

Doubting Thomas

P H OTO © A L AS TA I R L E V Y

Thomas Heatherwick RA delights in discovering his ideas don’t work – it’s all part of a process of elimination that results in his extraordinary designs, as SAM PHILLIPS finds out. Photograph by ALASTAIR LEVY Thomas Heatherwick’s creations draw gasps.

Flaming copper flowers converged to form his 2012 London Olympic Cauldron; his bridge over Paddington Basin curls up from one end like a caterpillar, transforming into a tight octagonal sculpture to allow canal traffic to pass by; the surface of his 2010 World Expo pavilion appeared as a porcupine, 60,000 silvery spines blowing around in the Shanghai breeze.

So unexpected are his structures that Heatherwick has always appealed to my clichéd idea of a genius: a man possessed of wild imagination, whose objects, artworks and

buildings take me by such surprise that, surely, the ideas for them must have taken him too by surprise, arriving in a moment of revelation, or even a dream. Yet when I meet the designer Academician in his busy Kings Cross studio for the last in this series about artists’ epiphanies, he argues against any romantic view of his working process, and the idea of epiphanies in general.

‘I deliberately, stubbornly oppose the notion of revelation,’ he says firmly, but kindly. ‘It has become popular in our time because people want to believe in inspiration and genius, as there is less confidence in religious divinity. Even the

word “inspiration” has an onomatopoeic quality that we enjoy – it sounds in the ear like a sudden flash of revelation. But inspiration is a cliché in everyone’s head. It’s what we think happens to people who develop ideas.’

Heatherwick instead practises a gradual process of elimination, in which a series of ‘incremental realisations narrows down options, layer after layer, closing in on a final direction for a project, whether that’s designing an architectural masterplan or a detail of a balustrade.’ The process is propelled by what he calls ‘strategic worrying’, productive anxiety at every stage of design that prevents him and his team from ‘jumping to assumptions or getting stuck with patterns of inherited thought’.

It is the elimination of an option that he relishes. ‘When we realise something isn’t going to work, then there’s a jolt of excitement at that rejection, an excitement at the clarity of knowing what we shouldn’t do,’ he explains.

‘What we do in the end is often what’s left when we have eliminated all the other things we have considered doing. It’s like panning for gold.’

Over 170 architects, designers and makers are hard at work in the office and workshop spaces around us, surrounded by Heatherwick-designed furniture, sleek surfaces brimming with books, prototypes and models, and some eccentric interior elements, including a wall covered by raised-relief maps (left).

The studio has been growing fast. Its work is the subject of two touring exhibitions – a show in Asia curated by RA Architecture Curator Kate Goodwin, and another in the US. Major commissions are also in the pipeline, such as a joint-design project for Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, and London’s Garden Bridge, the controversial Thames crossing covered with grasses, plants and trees. ‘The hero of that project is the garden, not the bridge, so we decided to design a structure that would hold up the garden and then get out the way.’ That decision prompted the project’s particular process of elimination, leading to the rejection of any suspension columns or cables that might distract from the horticulture, which means that if the project goes ahead, the 2,500 square metres of planting will be supported from below.

Before I leave, I ask whether Heatherwick, given his multidisciplinary work, is enjoying how artists and architects come together at the RA. But it seems that, again, I have got him wrong. ‘I don’t see what I do as multidisciplinary – I see it as one discipline, the discipline of ideas,’ he counters. ‘Ideas can ossify if they are chopped up into different fields such as art, design and architecture. There is such an energy and momentum at the Royal Academy the moment, and I think there will be less distinction between everyone’s activities in the future.’

Inside Heatherwick Studio PMQ, Hong Kong, www.pmq.org.hk, +852 2870 2335, 5–23 Sep To watch videos from Inside Heatherwick Studio, visit http://roy.ac/heatherwickvids

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Academy Artists

Time is of the essence Anne Desmet RA is known for her prints and collages exploring space and time. But in her new show she combines these with objects in unusual and playful ways, says LAURA GASCOIGNE

Palmyra, Approaching Storm, 2015, collaged print on ceramic bowl, by Anne Desmet RA

Time has always played a central role in Desmet’s art. As a student on a Rome Scholarship in 1989 she became fascinated by the compressed layering of the city’s history, with Roman catacombs below ground and Baroque domes above, and her own architectural capriccios traverse time and space. In the clock face collage Moonlit Afternoon (2015), the colonnade of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral insinuates itself

among the Roman ruins. The bright blue sky in the background was printed from a piece of reclaimed lino, the indentation of a chair leg supplying the white disc of the moon – another piece of satisfying serendipity, and a mark of the passage of time.

Anne Desmet RA: Time Sequences Long & Ryle, London, 020 7834 1434, www.longandryle.com, 15 Oct–13 Nov

Homage to Catalonia From its heavenly height up in the mountains above Barcelona, the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat has been central, since the 9th century, to the spiritual life of Catalonia. Now its church of Santa Cecília has opened up to the transcendent abstract art of Sean Scully RA, inviting the Irish-born painter, who has worked in the city for over 20 years, to install works permanently inside its Romanesque walls. As well as six large oils, he has painted frescoes and produced stained-glass windows, crosses, chandeliers and a retrochoir: a total work of art in synthesis with the sacred space.

To watch a video of Sean Scully in conversation with Tim Marlow in Venice, visit http://roy.ac/scullyvenice

Sean Scully RA’s work at the chapel of St Cecília at Monserrat monastery, near Barcelona

© A N N E D ES M E T. P H OTO © R AÜ L M A I GÍ / M US EU M O F M O N TS ER R AT

One might not expect an exhibition of prints to include works made from antique timepieces.

But Anne Desmet RA’s new London solo show, ‘Time Sequences’, includes a work made using an antique mantel clock sourced from a friend’s former horological repair business. On the face is a collaged scene of Roman ruins, with a popup tableau of arches and palm trees inside. And another series of collages, ‘Constructed Space’, is framed behind convex discs of clock glass.

Besides being a master printmaker, Desmet is also a magpie – a hoarder of roof slates, seashells and pebbles on which she mounts the miniature cut-outs she makes from recycled fragments of old prints. Recently she has been collecting small ceramic bowls into which she collages printed images, playing games with perspective. In the roundel Palmyra, Approaching Storm (2015; right) the ceramic glazes add atmosphere, appearing like heavy clouds hanging over the columns.

In her collages, Desmet courts serendipity; in her prints, she is more deliberate. Her command of different print techniques is mind-boggling: her ‘Brooklyn Bridge’ series combines wood engraving, linocut and stencil to convey effects of weather on this familiar landmark, as seen in Snow Light and Blizzard (both 2015). Intricacy of scale is part of her magic: glimpses of architecture in the wood-engraving Skylines (London), from 2013, look like thumbprints pressed onto the paper.

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Córdoba, the Mezquita, steel engraving c. 1850.

Martin Randall Travel is Britain’s leading specialist in cultural tours, with around 250 cultural tours for small groups in Britain, continental Europe, the Middle East, India, China, Japan and the Americas. We also run four to five all-inclusive music festivals per year, a dozen music and history weekends, and about a hundred London Days.

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Academy Artists

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

Painters and Printmakers ● Diana Armfield and Ken Howard

are donating work to a Prince’s Trust charitable auction at the Assembly Rooms, Bath (8 Oct; www.princes-trust. org.uk) ● Frank Bowling shows ‘Poured Paintings’ at Hales Gallery, London (11 Sep–24 Oct) ● Stephen Chambers’ solo show, ‘Pickpocket – and Other Recent Paintings’, is at Atelier Rose & Gray, Hale, Cheshire (20 Oct–29 Nov). He shows works with those of Ivon Hitchens at Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester (18 Sep–31 Oct) ● Tacita Dean, Chantal Joffe and Eva Rothschild take part in ‘Then For Now’ at the Delfina Foundation, London

(9 Oct–14 Nov) ● Anthony Green takes part in a group show at Albany Gallery, Cardiff (10 Sep–3 Oct) ● David Hockney shows early drawings at Offer Waterman Gallery, London (25 Sep–23 Oct) ● Chantal Joffe has a two-person show, ‘Friendship Portraits’, with Ishbel Myerscough at the National Portrait Gallery, London (until 28 Sep) ● Christopher Le Brun’s solo show show, ‘Colour: Rugs, Prints, Paintings, Sculpture’, is at Colnaghi, London (7 Oct–6 Nov). He also participates in ‘Don’t Shoot the Painter: Paintings from the UBS Art Collection’ at Villa Reale, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan (until 4 Oct) ● Mali Morris and David Mach show in ‘Twentieth’ at A.P.T. Gallery, London (19 Sep–11 Oct). Morris and Jennifer Durrant take part in ‘Stockwell

Depot 1967-79’ at the University of Greenwich Galleries, London (until 12 Sep) ● Hughie O’Donoghue shows in ‘In Residence’ at Six Fitzroy Square, London (1–31 Oct) ● Philip Sutton’s ‘Woodcuts 1960s-70s’ is at Great Fosters, Egham (6 Oct–15 Jan 2016) ● Wolfgang Tillmans has won the 2015 Hasselblad Foundation Photography Award ● Joe Tilson contributes to ‘The World Goes Pop’ at Tate Modern, London (17 Sep– 24 Jan 2016) ● Anthony Whishaw shows work (above right) in ‘The Bright Field’ at OBS Gallery, Tonbridge (19 Sep– 15 Nov) ● The Fosse Gallery, in Stowon-the-Wold, shows work by Barbara Rae, Ken Howard, Hughie O’Donoghue, Mick Rooney, Gus Cummins, Olwyn Bowey, John Wragg (top), David Remfry and David Mach (5–24 Oct).

Sculptors ● Richard Deacon has a solo show at

Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (until 15 Nov) ● Antony Gormley’s ‘Land’ is on view at five UK Landmark Trust sites (until May 2016). He shows works on paper at the Atkinson, Sefton, Merseyside (5 Sep–15 Nov), and has shows at Forte di Belvedere, Florence (until 27 Sep), and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg (until 31 Oct) ● Anish Kapoor shows work at the Palace of Versailles (until 1 Nov) ● Cornelia Parker has a solo show at Alan Cristea, London (12 Oct–7 Nov) and takes part in ‘Periodic Tales: The Art of the Elements’

at Compton Verney, Warks (3 Oct–13 Dec) ● New RA Peter Randall-Page has a solo show at Galerie Scheffel, Bad Homberg, Germany (5 Sep–10 Oct), and at the nearby English Church (5 Sep– 4 Oct). His frieze, Theme and Variation, for the façade of the new Bramall Music Building at Birmingham University, is unveiled in October ● Eva Rothschild takes part in ‘Sculpture in the Close’ at Jesus College, Cambridge (until 27 Sep) ● Richard Long has a major retrospective including new work at the Arnolfini, Bristol (until 15 Nov; top left).

Architects ● A shopping centre and roof garden designed by Norman Foster and Spencer de Grey’s firm Foster +

Partners has opened at London’s Canary Wharf Crossrail Station. The firm is also designing Cardiff Interchange, the city’s central bus station ● Zaha Hadid’s firm is designing a residential complex for Esfera in Monterrey, Mexico. Its Investcorp building for the Middle East Centre at St Antony’s College, Oxford University, is now complete. Hadid has a retrospecive show at the State Hermitage, St Petersburg (until 27 Sep) ● Michael Manser’s firm, The Manser Practice, has published a book on its residential architecture (above left), Manser Houses (£25) ● Context: Architecture and the Genius of Place, by Eric Parry, has been published by Wiley (£27.99).

CO U R T ESY O F J O H N W R AGG . CO L L ECT I O N O F T H E A R T IS T/ P H OTO: EM I LY GL AS S . CO U R T ESY O F R I CH A R D LO N G . H U F TO N+CR OW

LEFT Is That the Waiter We Saw Last Night?, 2015,

by John Wragg, on show at the Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold BELOW Summer Field, 1981-82, by Anthony Whishaw, at OBS Gallery, Tonbridge BELOW LEFT A Circle in Antarctica, 2012, by Richard Long, who shows at the Arnolfini, Bristol BOTTOM LEFT House for a Yachtsman, 2014, a holiday home on the Isle of Wight, designed by Manser Architects, from the book Manser Houses

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Illustration from The Foreign Tour of Brown, Jones & Robinson, 1854.

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Bust of Annette by Alberto Giacometti, 1954. Private Collection © Alberto Giacometti Estate, ACS/DACS, 2015

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Academy Artists RA Schools

In two minds

SCHOOLS DIARY

CO U R T ESY G A L L ER I A LO R CA N O ’ N EI L L . CO U R T ESY T H E A R T IS T A N D S O U T H A R D R EI D/ P H OTO GU Y A R CH A R D. P H OTO B EN ED I CT J O H NS O N

Ahead of their solo shows this autumn, RA Schools alumni and artistic collaborators Eddie Peake and Prem Sahib describe the thought and themes behind each other’s works. Interviews by AMY SHERLOCK

PREM SAHIB ON EDDIE PEAKE

EDDIE PEAKE ON PREM SAHIB

‘Eddie works across disciplines – painting, performance, sculpture, music videos – in a way that doesn’t ever feel self-conscious about being “multidisciplinary”. I remember one of his earliest performances from our final year at The Slade. He was collaborating with the artist Sam Hacking; she was dressed in a fox costume and Eddie was in his normal clothes. The performance involved them struggling to swap outfits without getting undressed. It was awkward to watch, but totally captivating – as though one person was emerging from the anonymity of costume, of characterisation, while the other disappeared into it.

‘Both Eddie and I are interested in the experience of sexuality and how that plays out in the context of a social group, but I’m always moved by how his work confronts the viewer directly. At the opening of his recent show at Galleria Lorcan O’Neill in Rome, a female performer read a monologue that slipped between gritty Italian slang and a parody of aristocratic English – in and out of comprehension – while performing stereotypically male gestures.

She also spoke about her erection. Eddie had managed to communicate something about the way that human subjectivity is multiple – we all contain different genders, languages and characters. It was incredibly powerful.’

‘Prem has always seemed to invest a lot of time, energy and thought into a relatively small number of works. I’ve always been jealous of his ability to create things that are at once minimal and elaborate: immaculate and beautiful, but with dramatic backstories. His aesthetic draws heavily on the environs and interiors of saunas, techno clubs, leather bars and public toilets that might be co-opted for covert gay sex. There is a highdesign element to his work, which is subverted by the charged narratives – often personal, autobiographical and sexual – at play.

DJ and club culture and dance music are part of both of our personal histories and a common inspiration. We collaborate regularly with the artist George Henry Longly for our clubnight, Anal House Meltdown. For the first event, at Vogue Fabrics in London in 2011, Prem and I staged a performance called Darkroom. The audience were in a blacked-out room with a group of men making sounds, who were exposed for a split second by a short blast of light. I think we share an interest in venues where the distinction between public and private can be a bit blurred, and where sex and sexuality can be performed as a form of spectacle.’

Prem Sahib Institute of Contemporary Art, London, www.ica.org.uk, 020 7930 3647, 24 Sep–15 Nov Stick to Your Guns, 2011, by Eddie Peake BUMP Club Night, installation view, 10 Aug 2013,

by Prem Sahib

ABOVE LEFT

Eddie Peake: The Forever Loop Barbican, London, www.barbican.org.uk, 020 7638 8891, 9 Oct–10 Jan 2016

ABOVE

Tutor MARY MACLEAN explains how students are selected for the Royal Academy Schools

In January we look through hundreds of applications for entry to the RA Schools, a process provoking long and inquiring discussions among the staff as we try to pinpoint why a selection should be made in favour of somebody. Our dialogue is heightened when candidates arrive with their work for interview. A little tension runs throughout – for them as apprehensive individuals focusing on communicating a compelling account of their practice, and for us as apparently seasoned interviewers, but uncertain, on the edge of our seats and wanting to soak up all that is being presented to us.

Applicants show themselves so differently.

What is it we want to see? Over the weeks such diverse explorations unfold – from questioning whether any material is really flat at all, to a critical reflexivity towards the political-economic lived experience. Or the development of manual thought through a personal logic of making. Or the spur of music as a departure point that might engage a wider social agenda. This year 14 applicants have been selected.

Autumn term sees the first year studio space amalgamated into the overall studio provision (above). Now first year students work alongside students from the second and third years of the programme in a shared working space that allows an interwoven process of discussion and learning across the whole cohort. In sparring, disagreeing, inventing, comparing, upholding and abandoning, students can pursue a span of singularities that are forever subject to transformation.

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MA in theHistory of Art:

theRenaissance to Modernism October 2015 – September 2016

A one-year, London-based, programme of ten evening seminars and an individual research-project, 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.

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.

Lecturers for 2015/16 include: 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 expert on the issues raised by the seminar.

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

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 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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Above images: Friends Week 2015, Royal Academy of Arts London © Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photo: Benedict Johnson; Ai Weiwei, Coloured Vases, 2015.

Neolithic vases (5000-3000 BC) with industrial paint, dimensions variable. Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio. Image courtesy Ai Weiwei © Ai Weiwei

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Fearless and uncompromising, Ai Weiwei’s art challenges cultural values, confronts injustices and pushes materials to their limit. Sam Phillips travelled to Ai’s Beijing studio as the artist prepared to mount a show at the RA that he was not expecting to be able to attend. Photograph by Harry Pearce

Ai of the tiger It’s spring in Ai Weiwei’s Beijing studio.

Assistants are bringing plants out of hibernation, working as a group to manoeuvre large bamboos and ferns into a bright internal courtyard.

Stepping inside, the artist leads Tim Marlow, the RA’s Artistic Director, and I through a deep studio space full of both flora and artworks.

Ceramic vases, some more than two millennia old, sit in grids on the floor, surrounded by white plastic containers filled with paint in every colour of the rainbow. Soon the pots will be covered in the bright yellows, reds, pinks and purples, and a selection sent to London, to form a work for the artist’s expansive RA retrospective this autumn (Coloured Vases, 2015; see page 91). Opposite the vats of paint, overlooked by greenery and flanked by a bank of video screens, sits a metre-wide wooden cube, formed from honey-toned huali, from which luxury Chinese furniture has been made since the Ming period (Treasure Box, 2014).

The cube’s sides are crafted from small parallelograms of wood in different shades, which create cube patterns across the surface: the cube appears to be wittily comprised of cubes. But some of the parallelograms are missing, hinting at internal spaces, and Ai asks an assistant to remove one of the sides (see page 56). Intricate modular shelves are revealed, set in an irregular pattern traditional of Chinese cabinets, and the cube deconstructs further, the top half removed to disclose a cylindrical core. The work is three in one: a metric structure that echoes post-war American Minimalism; a giant Rubik’s Cube that plays with traditions of trompe-l’oeil; and a functional piece of furniture, its seamless joinery in highly polished hardwood emblematic of Chinese craft.

Such multiple identities characterise the artist as much as they do his artworks. Ai is a global superstar, but both as an artist and an activist. His ever-broadening output – which, as visitors to the RA will discover, ranges magnificently from small-scale ceramics to large-scale sculptures, from videos,

photographs, books, wallpaper and furniture to performances, installations and architecture – has become indivisible from his politics, in particular his campaign for human rights, transparency and justice in his homeland. The most powerful manifestation of his activism was the ‘Citizens Investigation’ he led in 2009 to publish the names of more than 5,000 students who perished, due to shoddy school construction, in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

It’s my first visit to his studio, Marlow’s third – as one of the show’s curators, he has scheduled an in-depth interview with Ai for the exhibition catalogue. Co-curator Adrian Locke has made the journey from London twice to Caochangdi, this corner of the Chinese capital where Ai has lived and worked for 15 years (see page 86).

‘This studio feels like a refuge,’ says Marlow.

‘I love the fact there’s an allotment here, tucked away, and then this open courtyard, the faint aroma of cats, the delicious aroma of food being cooked as lunchtime approaches, and the discrete sense of activity, as people catalogue and research materials, and make technical explorations, alongside the mass of administration that takes place, necessary for every successful artist.’

When the artist designed this elegant, greybrick studio in 1999, Caochangdi was a village on the outskirts of the city whose farmers leased land to companies and individuals. A new work for the Academy’s exhibition – a lawn of grass rendered in marble – relates tangentially to the area’s history (Cao, 2015; see detail page 57).

‘Caochangdi means “grass field”,’ Ai explains.

‘During the Qing Dynasty [1644-1912], this grass field was used to feed the emperors’ horses.

In Chinese poetry and literature, cao, or grass, is a frequently used reference to the common people, the masses. Grass is a force of nature, wild and everlasting. I thought it would be interesting, and a bit ironic, to create a monument of this common thing.’ In 1755, the Qianlong emperor commissioned a boat to be made from marble, an imitation of which sits on the lake in the city’s

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Summer Palace. Ai sources marble today from the Fangshan imperial quarries, the material hand-carved not only into grass but objects such as sofas and surveillance cameras (see page 11).

Ai was soon joined in Caochangdi by fellow artists as well as designers and galleries, many of whom commissioned the artist to create their buildings in the same understated fashion as his own. Today the area is a tranquil, low-rise cultural hub in the city’s expanding suburbs, or what a government mural nearby proclaims as ‘Caochangdi Art Zone’ (underneath this text run the words ‘Art, Harmony, Joy, Justice, Abundance, Peace’). In 2011, the year Ai’s studio in Shanghai was bulldozed by the authorities, a campaign had to be mobilised to prevent Caochangdi’s demolition. The artist fabricates his largest works – huge chandeliers, accumulations of chairs, reconstructions of trees – in other sites across Beijing, including an enormous former tractor factory, the location he chose for his photoshoot for the RA (see pages 54 and 55).

Curators, collectors, journalists, academics and students from across the world have been visiting Ai in Caochangdi for over a decade. However, since 2011 the number of visits has increased, after the Chinese government withheld Ai’s passport following his detention for 81 days in a secret prison. ‘I cannot travel and this is an undesirable condition for any individual,’ Ai tells us. ‘The situation I am in is not unique to myself. In China, there is a large population that cannot travel, either for economic or political reasons. I feel privileged to share this condition with these others, whose rights have never fully been what they should be.

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Four views of Treasure Box, 2014, a cube sculpture made from rare huali wood OPPOSITE PAGE Detail of Cao, 2015, a sculpture of grass made from 770 pieces of marble

A L L I M AGES CO U R T ESY O F A I W EI W EI S T U D I O/ I M AGE CO U R T ESY A I W EI W EI /© A I W EI W EI

Ai Weiwei photographed in one of his studios in Beijing in April 2015

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of quality. Ai is misunderstood in Britain to some extent, because people who know his name do not always know his art. They know him as an activist, and rightly, of course – after his detention he had massive exposure here: magazine covers, newspapers, television. That coverage, though, was more about him than about what he makes, and this exhibition is a chance for us to understand him as an artist.’

But as our morning in Beijing turns to afternoon, we are given a grim reminder of Ai’s particular circumstances as a dissident. As we plan to head out to a restaurant, Ai is contacted by the local police force – he has to report to the police station. He explains that happens regularly, perhaps once a week without warning, ‘a kind of psychological torture’ that sometimes involves going for a walk with one of the policemen, who will use the time to try to persuade Ai to stay off politics. For the years directly after his imprisonment, it was worse.

‘I was then under tight surveillance by the secret police,’ he says. ‘They tapped my phones, they followed my car, they followed me even when I went to dinner or when I took my son to the park. One day, I caught a person who was hiding behind a bush and taking photographs of me. I grabbed the memory card from his camera. When I returned home and plugged the memory card into my computer, I was shocked by what appeared on my screen. It not only contained images of the restaurants I was in during the previous days, but also images of my son’s stroller. That image has stayed in my mind and it is indicative of how authoritarian states try

to manage their control of individuals. Even the details of a child’s stroller are in their records.’

Ai Lao, the artist’s six-year-old son, now lives in Berlin. In May, two months after our visit to Caochangdi, Lao accepted an Amnesty International award in the city on his father’s behalf. Marble Stroller (2015), a replica of Lao’s pushchair, hand-cut from marble, travels to the Academy. ******* If Marble Stroller has a connection to Ai’s son, it finds an echo in another new work, Remains (2015), which concerns Ai’s father and, more broadly, the context into which Ai was born and raised.

Ai Qing was one of China’s pioneers of modern poetry, renowned for his powers of description and a social conscience that led him to the Maoist revolutionary cause; by the time the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, he was a cadre in the government, and consulted on literary matters by Mao. But by 1957, when his son Weiwei was born, Ai Qing had gone from literary celebrity to enemy of the state, as Mao’s early encouragement of free expression was replaced by a campaign against ‘Rightists’ – intellectuals whose work could be deemed critical of the government. Ai Qing and his young family were exiled from Beijing and, in 1960, sent to a remote settlement in Xinjiang, in the Gobi Desert of northwest China.

‘Remains is a work in porcelain replicating a set of bones,’ Ai explains. ‘A year ago, I was brought

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‘This is not a new condition for me. When I was growing up, my father, the poet Ai Qing, was in exile for almost 20 years. Our family never thought about travelling or leaving our small unit, and it made our lives unbearable. Today is very different. I still have the internet and I can still manage to organise exhibitions with established institutions. In today’s condition, I do not think that anybody can stop the exchange of ideas.’

As Ai was not going to be able to fly to London, Locke sent him a short film last year that showed the spaces in the Academy in which he would be working. ‘The film did communicate the grandeur of the Main Galleries, but they were full of the Anselm Kiefer paintings that were on display at the time,’ says Locke. ‘Nevertheless, Ai was able to use the footage and some architectural plans to figure out quickly and exactly where each work would go. Some artists are insecure about what to do and can’t make up their mind.

Ai has an innate understanding of space: he could imagine the volume of each gallery and project a vision for each without hesitation.’

The challenge has been less geographical distance, more the need to do justice to the variety of work in his career, in what will be his first major survey show in a UK public institution.

‘Ai works on such a huge range of scales, from small pieces to spectacular works that have employed hundreds of artisans and labourers,’ continues Locke. ‘The exhibition aims to represent his great ambition over the last 20 years, without losing a sense of the very fine detail of his works, their subtleties, and his amazingly close control

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Coca-Cola Vase, 2014, a Han Dynasty vase with paint OPPOSITE PAGE He Xie (detail), 2011, an installation comprising 3,000 porcelain crabs THIS PAGE

these remnants and told that they had belonged to a group accused of being so-called “Rightists”.

My father and thousands of other intellectuals were severely punished during 1957’s AntiRightist campaign, the effects of which are still felt to this day. Thousands more lost their lives; the direct cause of death for many was hunger, as a result of famine. This was a part of the severe life conditions in the desert regions of northwest China, where they were exiled. It is a part of modern Chinese history and still has a direct impact on today’s political landscape. I had my craftsmen in Jingdezhen replicate the bones to memorialise this historic event. My father once wrote, “I do not believe archaeologists… After a thousand years, if they discovered a set of bones – my bones – how could they know my bones had burned in the flames of the 21st century?”’

In Xinjiang, Ai’s father endured hard labour, forced to clean public toilets, and his family of five had to survive in a small subterranean shed, sharing a bed in a 12-square-metre-large space prone to rats. But in 1976, the year of Mao’s death, Ai Qing and his family were allowed to resettle in Beijing, and the poet was rehabilitated almost as quickly as he had been damned two decades earlier. Soon his verses were being taught in schools. In 1978 his son Weiwei enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy, the closest thing that the city had to an art school.

‘Weiwei’s work has a very different aesthetic from his father’s, of course,’ says Greg Hilty, the

Curatorial Director of Lisson Gallery, which represents the artist in London. ‘But his father’s persecution and his own childhood have been a huge influence. It has helped him to act fearlessly.

On one level he is cultural aristocracy – the son of a great man of letters and a friend of Mao’s – and on the other hand he has seen the depths, having grown up in a very compromised situation. So he has seen all sides and, in a sense, has nothing to prove and nothing to lose. He just does what he thinks is right. It’s not like a cliché of a naïve rock star or artist who meddles in politics. Because of his family history he knows how China works, and feels deeply about the issues he writes about, speaks about and makes art about.’

After Mao’s death, aspiring artists such as Ai Weiwei were finding their feet in a culture in which avant-garde art had been suppressed for decades, with Socialist Realism the only acceptable form. In 1979, Ai became a principle member of a bold group of painters known as the Stars, who set about testing the boundaries of post-Mao society. Their canvases were in the vein of European Post-Impressionist art, and privileged personal expression over Party ideals.

Although the subject of official criticism, the group was able to stage influential exhibitions, drawing large crowds. But Ai – like his father, who studied painting in Paris as a young man – believed that he would have to leave China in order to develop further, and in 1981 he travelled to America.

From the few art books that could be found in China, Ai had soaked up Cézanne, Van Gogh and Munch. In New York, he fed on Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol, artists of ideas rather than emotions. During the early 1980s, he replaced his sketchbook with a camera, taking thousands of photographs of himself, his friends and the streets of Manhattan, and then threw away his paintbrushes, working with found objects, producing Duchampian ‘readymade’ sculptures by combining everyday objects. The earliest work in the RA show is Ai’s fond portrait of Duchamp, a clothes hanger deftly bent to resemble the French artist’s profile (Hanging Man, 1985).

If this work declared that Ai’s hopes were hung on conceptual art, then Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo (1994) – one of the first significant pieces he completed on his return to China after his father fell ill in 1993 – was the signpost for his singular direction of travel. Here the readymade is not a mass-produced modern item but a ceramic dating back to China’s first long-lasting imperial dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), and it has been painted by Ai with the serif script of one of the brand’s most closely associated with capitalism. ‘The Coca-Cola logo is a clear announcement of property, and of cultural and political identity,’ Ai has commented, ‘but it’s also a clear sign to stop thinking. It’s full of ignorance, but it’s also a redefinition.’

Is this work telling us that authentic Chinese culture has been blighted by Western capitalism?

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‘Signifiers of Chinese culture are, in Ai’s hands, carefully recalibrated, their meanings made molten, fluid and open for interpretation’

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****** While other contemporary Chinese artists also use traditional materials for modern ends, none has been able to pose such complex questions so succinctly. ‘Ai has carved himself a place which is unique to him,’ explains Uli Sigg, the world’s foremost collector of contemporary Chinese art (see page 94) and a long-time friend of Ai’s.

‘His work is very focused on the dramatic clash between tradition and consumerism, as well as tradition and the industrial culture that has recently so overpowered China.’ Bikes, once so ubiquitous on the nation’s streets, are stacked in spectacular chandeliers (Very Yao, 2009-14; see cover); gymnastic parallel bars, seen in every Chinese school, are compacted with wood from dismantled Qing temples (Kippe, 2006); a ton

of black tea leaves, sourced from the famous tea-growing province of Yunnan, is compressed into a tight cube (Ton of Tea, 2008). Signifiers of Chinese culture are, in Ai’s hands, carefully recalibrated, their meanings made molten, fluid and open for interpretation.

‘There’s a lightness of touch to these works, even humour, as well as great knowledge and great clarity,’ says Hilty. The knowledge comes from Ai’s experience as a collector of Chinese art and antiques, who works closely with artisans to fabricate works in relation to, and often from, his acquisitions, helping to preserve traditional forms of craft in the process. ‘Collecting and creating are probably the most related acts,’ Ai claims, when I ask him about his two loves. ‘In some instances, there may be no separation at all. Both require reason, aesthetic judgement and choice. Those decisions reflect the attitude or character of a person who either collects or creates.’

While knowledge about antiquities can be acquired, the clarity Hilty mentions is something more ingrained, according to Sigg.

‘Ai is a brilliant individual who probably would succeed in many disciplines, not just in art, because he has a very clear and sharp mind, and he can express himself in a very precise way,’ he says. ‘The way he is wired is very creative, allowing him to come up with things that we wouldn’t. He’s a kind of contrarian in my mind – he puts everything on its head in a very strange process that produces a surprising result.

‘And, of course, this contrarian side is seen in his activism, which is uncompromising and very much to do with his personality, which is authentic in its expression. He is the most daring and aggressive artist in the stand against official China. He is not the only artist who does political work, but other Chinese artists are subtle in their subversion, or avoid directly speaking out. In his directness and fearlessness he is set apart.’

Ai’s activism matured in 2008 in response to two events, the Sichuan earthquake and the Beijing Olympics. Although he had collaborated with the Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron on the National Stadium, nicknamed the Bird’s Nest, the distance between the government’s proud rhetoric in the run-up to the Olympics and the continued lack of human rights led him to boycott the Games publicly.

Since 2005 he had been avidly blogging, sharing his life with thousands of readers through text and images and, increasingly, facilitating artworks through the internet; in 2007, for example, he used his blog to organise Fairytale, a performance work in which 1,001 Chinese citizens descended on the Documenta 12 art festival in Kassel, Germany. But by 2008 his blog turned its attention to condemning what he saw as the sham Olympic celebrations, and by 2009 the blog was shut down, after it mobilised volunteers to name the victims of the Sichuan earthquake.

In August of that year, in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, Ai was beaten by police and then held in a hotel room to prevent him from

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Or does it suggest that tropes of that culture, such as ancient urns, are in many ways the same as Western brands? In Han China, ceramics were as commonplace as Coca-Cola bottles.

Is it about vandalism, and if so, does it relate to the Cultural Revolution, when ancient artefacts were vandalised en masse? And is the urn still as valuable when painted by Ai, or is it now more valuable? A recent version of the work (Coca-Cola Vase, 2014; page 58) is presented in the RA show alongside the paint-covered pots I saw in his studio. Why has Ai chosen continually to mark such ceramics with paint for the last 20 years? Is this series of artworks itself now mass-produced?

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BELOW Installation view of Straight, 2008-12, steel reinforcing bars reclaimed from buildings collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake; and on the wall The names of the student earthquake victims found by the Citizens’ Investigation, 2008-11

‘The thousands of rods had once held up buildings, before being twisted and mangled in the force of the quake… Ai has said the materials are history, stories, blood tears and labour’

attending the trial of Tan Zuoren, a fellow activist also investigating the collapse of school buildings during the earthquake. Four weeks later, while in Munich, the artist had to undergo surgery for a cerebral haemorrhage that can be linked to the beating.

The largest gallery in the RA exhibition focuses on Ai’s art in response to Sichuan. As well as displaying the names of the students who died, and photographs of the destruction the earthquake wrought, the artist has installed Straight (2008-12; below), a monumental floorbased sculpture formed from 90 tons of steel rebars found at the site. The thousands of rods had once held up buildings, before being twisted and mangled in the force of the quake. Ai employed labourers to straighten them by hand by striking each one up to 200 times. These have been aligned across the gallery in a shape like a giant seismogram. He has said that the materials for this sculpture are ‘history, individual stories, blood, tears and labour’.

Ai’s beating in Chengdu not only convinced him of the powerlessness of Chinese citizens. It emboldened him to make his own experiences the subject of his art. A smartphone snap of Ai and musician Zuoxiao Zuzhou in an elevator with Chengdu police quickly became one of the artist’s most widely reproduced photographs, while the brain scan that showed his haemorrhage was used as powerful pictorial material, painted on editions of porcelain plates. Before his Shanghai studio was demolished in January 2011, he threw a party

where hundreds of guests fed on of river crabs (their name in Chinese being a homonym for ‘harmony’, a word often used by the government).

Ai was put under house arrest in Beijing and prevented from attending, but a video was made and is shown in the RA show, alongside an accumulation of porcelain crustacea (He Xie, 2011; see page 59).

And it was later in 2011, while his installation Sunflower Seeds was still drawing crowds to Tate Modern, when Ai disappeared. There was no explanation for his detention that April, and no explanation for his release on bail in June. While he was detained, the RA elected Ai an Honorary Royal Academician, in solidarity. In November, after a closed hearing, the company that Ai was associated with – Fake Design – was imposed with a bill of RMB 12m for unsubstantiated tax evasion charges. His many supporters donated cash of RMB 9m, leaving notes at his door in Caochangdi, allowing him to appeal. The appeal went ahead, but Ai was not allowed to attend, and Fake Design was closed down by the authorities.

His experiences while being detained are the subject of S.A.C.R.E.D (2011-13). This work appears as six shoulder-height iron cuboids, as if a paean to austere Minimalism. But through apertures, one can see dioramas inside each cuboid that stage different situations that Ai had to endure. The artist and his guards are replicated in fibreglass, in miniature (see page 62). ‘One reason why the outsides of these boxes are minimal is that Ai never saw the place

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outside the room in which he was imprisoned – he only saw the inside,’ explains Hilty. ‘He saw the room in hyper-detail and remembered it, as the room was the nature of his existence during those 81 days. Recreating that detail six times, but to have the outside empty, is a powerful psychological statement.

‘People think maybe he’s placing himself here as Jesus, or some other martyr. He isn’t.

He’s an everyman and he’s been in this situation.

However well known and important an artist he may seem, at that moment he was hugely vulnerable. He has conveyed that, and he has turned it into an existential study.’

Although detention was intended to clip Ai’s wings, the publicity it brought boosted his reputation further. To mimic the surveillance cameras outside his Caochangdi studio, he set up four of his own in his Beijing home after his release, broadcasting live online – the site received 5 million hits in two days before the government shut it down (WeiweiCam, 2012).

He became the world’s most active artist on social media, his Instagram and Twitter posts vaulting over the ‘Great Firewall of China’, the country’s sophisticated online censorship structure.

Most significantly, he continued to make art at an increasing rate, to show abroad but also this year for several summer exhibitions in Beijing, his first solo shows in China. ‘He lives to make art,’ says Hilty. ‘He has a strong moral compass, and he is very sure that he is able to represent people who don’t have a voice, but he is an artist above all – and his drive is to make art. Some people have seen his art as calculating, but it’s

not – it’s driven by a real compulsion to make new things, new forms that take culture forward, and get them out into the world.’

The Chinese public, just like the British public, needs to see his works in person if they are to go beyond their preconceptions. ‘The internet community in China has some understanding about what Ai is doing because of social media,’ says Sigg. ‘But they lack knowledge about the art he makes, as in China it hasn’t been easy for him to show work in public. The majority in China are badly informed about who he is and his role.

The government and the state-controlled media have succeeded in discrediting his image – their accusations of tax fraud did have an effect, although those claims were never substantiated.’

‘Some young people in China are willing to sacrifice freedoms for prosperity,’ suggests Locke.

‘The country’s boom has given access to jobs, apartments, restaurants, holidays and so on, and they see censorship and other injustices as a quid pro quo. In that context, Ai might seem a bit of a maverick. They might think, “We’re living so much better than our parents did.” But then there are many others who see him as someone who can represent them when they can’t represent themselves, someone who has the audacity, confidence and international profile to challenge the status quo on their behalf.’ ****** In the run-up to the Beijing exhibitions, I email Ai from London with questions about his hopes for the future. ‘I hope my effort will be a part

of making young people’s lives better, to give them hope and to support the activities of future generations,’ replies Ai, adding that he remains ‘full of optimism’ for both himself and China.

‘The young people in China are, more than ever, experiencing a life in the new, globalized world. They have experienced much better life conditions and have more freedom than ever before. I think that will grow rapidly.’

In June, Marlow travels back to Beijing to see Ai’s exhibitions. ‘They do feel like a step forward,’ he tells me on his return. ‘When I first visited Ai, we went to see the Bird’s Nest Stadium, and his name wasn’t mentioned in connection with it – it was like he had been written out of history. Now his name is all over the 798 Art District, where he has an exhibition across Galleria Continua and Tang Contemporary Art Center, and there are articles about the shows published in China’s media. You think, “There’s a change here.”’

At the show’s centre was Ai’s largest readymade so far: a 400-year-old Ming temple that he disassembled and then rebuilt across the two adjacent galleries. Each gallery contains half the temple, with the two halves connected through the party wall – the viewer can only comprehend one section at a time. While not as explicitly political as Straight and S.A.C.R.E.D, the temple, in Marlow’s words, ‘makes very strong points about the decimation of the cultural fabric of Chinese society… it’s a very effective, very dramatic piece of archaeology, but a work of intellectual as much as physical archaeology.’

On the 22 July, six weeks after the Beijing shows opened, my first email of the day has ‘Fwd: Great news from BJ!’ as its subject. It is an email from Hilty with no text, just an attachment. An image pops up of Ai holding a passport, the words ‘People’s Republic of China’ inscribed in gold on its burgundy cover. Logging on to Instagram, the image is there again, alongside hundreds of congratulations in Chinese and in English. Later that day we discover that Ai will come to London during the installation of his exhibition.

Only the day before, The Guardian reported that over 200 Chinese citizens, including lawyers and human rights campaigners, had been detained in the previous fortnight. ‘The Chinese authorities are not softening their attitude to artists and dissidents,’ says Marlow. ‘Ai Weiwei poses them a particular problem, a case that they have to deal with specifically, and the returning of his passport is only part of that rapprochement.’

Ai’s passport was returned to him as arbitrarily as it had been withheld. At the time of going to press, it is not known whether he will have problems returning to China after travelling abroad – other activists, including novelist Ma Jian (see page 85), have found themselves barred from re-entering the country. What is certain is that, unlike the steel rebars spread out on the Royal Academy floor, Ai Weiwei cannot be bent into shape.

Ai Weiwei Main Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts, London, www.royalacademy.org.uk, 020 7300 8000, 19 Sep–13 Dec. Supported by David Morris: The London Jeweller. Supported by Lisson Gallery. See Events & Lectures page 90 To watch videos about the Ai Weiwei exhibition, visit http://roy.ac/aiweiwei

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LEFT Detail of S.A.C.R.E.D, 2011-13

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The Swiss artist Jean-Etienne Liotard was one of the great portraitists of the Enlightenment, yet his work has rarely gone on show in the UK. As the Academy celebrates this pioneer of the pastel medium, Christopher Baker introduces the idiosyncratic Orientalist whose travels through the courts of Europe and beyond resulted in works of exceptional delicacy

Wandering star When in 1753 the artist Jean-Etienne Liotard arrived in London, Joshua Reynolds took a dim view of both his work and appearance.

The British painter considered that there was ‘something of the Quack’ about Liotard, that his behaviour was the ‘very essence of Imposture’ and, worst of all, that ‘his pictures are just what ladies do when they paint for amusement’. You can almost hear the sniff of disapproval.

Who was this upstart and why did the future President of the Royal Academy consider him so unsavoury? Liotard was certainly an exotic creature, and then, as now, a testing figure to categorise. He was born in 1702 in Geneva, when it was an independent republic, and trained there and in Paris, becoming one of the outstanding creators of portraits of the 18th century. He spent four years in Constantinople (1738-42) and subsequently enjoyed considerable success, exploiting his potent reputation as an Orientalist painter, working at the courts of Vienna, Paris and London, as well as finding lucrative employment in many other cities.

Reynolds’ damning comments were in part

based on professional rivalry, as Liotard was soon to do well in Britain, charging substantial sums for his work and securing royal commissions. He had developed as a marketing ploy an intriguing image, wearing a long gown and red hat acquired in the Levant and sporting a splendid beard (Self-portrait in Profile, 1753; opposite). These attributes fascinated patrons and seemed to have fuelled Reynolds’ disdain. Perhaps above all, what troubled the British artist was that Liotard excelled at using pastels – an art form associated with domestic settings and continental fashion, which could be dismissed, Reynolds thought, to the realm of female diversions.

Pastels in fact have an illustrious history.

They require great technical skill to master and were very much the medium of the moment.

Renaissance artists such as Leonardo and Barocci had experimented with them and by the mid18th century they were especially in vogue in France. One commentator noted in 1746 that they had been ‘embraced… with a frenzy’ by the exhibition-going public in Paris. Artists such as Maurice Quentin de La Tour could employ

them to create portraits of great immediacy and naturalism, with high-key colours, sparkling highlights and accurately rendered, gorgeous fashions. These were all achievements Liotard was to match in his own distinctive manner.

Shaped into sticks, pastels consist of pure powdered pigments combined with a filler, such as plaster of Paris, and a binder, like gum arabic. The pigments can provide an artist with a wide-ranging palette and the sticks were manufactured with varying degrees of hardness, allowing for broadly applied or more detailed linear work. Liotard used pastels on paper and vellum (made of calf skin), which provided an especially smooth support, creating images of an intimate size of dazzling audacity. The medium was especially well suited to the career he carved out for himself as a travelling artist, because ‘dry-colours’ or crayons, as pastels were called, could be easily transported in a small box and were applied relatively quickly – not requiring all the paraphernalia and time demanded by oils.

Liotard would have bought his pastels ready made from an artists’ supplier. There

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Marianne Liotard Holding a Doll, c.1775

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the two men may have extended the process as they found each other genial company and dined together. The result is a quizzical character study, dominated by the rich, sonorous blue of Garrick’s coat, which seems to have been one of Liotard’s favourite pigments. The portrait is also typical of the artist’s work in the way he candidly focuses on essentials, setting his subject before a neutral backdrop.

This approach contributed to the extraordinary directness and immediacy conveyed by his portraits, notably those of children, such as his study of his feisty daughter Marie-AnneFrançoise, who was depicted with twinkling eyes and an emphatic gesture (Marianne Liotard Holding a Doll, c.1775; below). She was the youngest of Liotard’s five children and her eldest brother wrote of this delightful work that ‘with her finger she makes the sign to keep silent, her doll being asleep’. The doll and child wear complementary clothes and are both rendered with an unerring intensity and conviction.

The same sense of uncanny veracity was applied in 1754 when Liotard depicted the family of Augusta, Princess of Wales, the mother of King George III. Among the portraits he made for this commission that of Princess Louisa Anne

perhaps stands out as the most endearing (page 68). It depicts with arresting charm the five-yearold princess, capturing her wide-eyed curiosity and frailty; in poor health all her life, she died of tuberculosis shortly after her 19th birthday.

Liotard emphasised his sitter’s youth by placing her in an oversized chair, and her vulnerability, as she wears a dress that is too large for her that slips down.

This ability to surpass what might ordinarily have been achieved with pastels was carried over to still life and genre or everyday life studies

by Liotard, such as his outstanding L’Ecriture of 1752 (opposite). A large work on six sheets of

‘His feisty daughter is shown with twinkling eyes and an emphatic gesture – with her finger she makes the sign to keep silent’

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T H E T RUS T EES O F T H E CH ATS WO R T H S E T T L EM EN T, CH ATS WO R T H H O US E /GI F T O F T H E 3R D E A R L O F B U R L I N GTO N , 176 0/ P H OTO © D E VO NS H I R E CO L L ECT I O N , CH ATS WO R T H / R EP R O D U CED BY P ER M IS S I O N O F CH ATS WO R T H S E T T L EM EN T. KU NS T H IS TO R IS CH ES M US EU M , V I EN N A / P H OTO © S CH LOS S S CH Ö N B RU N N KU LT U R- U N D B E T R I EB S GES . m . b . H . P H OTO GR A P H Y: ED G A R K N A ACK

were a number who produced them in various European cities following different recipes, but it was generally agreed that the finest were manufactured in Lausanne by BernardAugustin Stoupan.

Liotard could meticulously refine his work with Stoupan’s pastels, layering and gently mixing or suffusing colours and textures by rubbing on the surface of the image with his fingers, a cloth or stump of paper. In expert hands the medium is capable of recording the subtleties of the bloom of flesh, as well as various textures of costume, such as the sheen of silk, nap of velvet, or tactile appeal of fur trimmings, and so conveying a sense of a direct encounter with the subject (Portrait of Julie de Thellusson-Ployard, 1760; page 11).

We can glimpse a sitting with the artist through the eyes and pen of the English actormanager David Garrick, who was portrayed

by Liotard in Paris in 1751 (opposite top).

Garrick recorded his meeting with ‘Leotarde’ in his journal, pronouncing the portraits he saw in the studio ‘very like’. On 14 June he sat for his portrait; this initial visit was followed by five additional sessions the same week as the portrait was completed. Whether all Liotard’s sitters had to submit to this number of encounters is unclear;

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‘He depicts with arresting charm the five-year-old princess, capturing her wide-eyed curiosity and frailty’ S CH Ö N B RU N N PA L ACE , V I EN N A I N V. AC 55012 / P H OTO © S CH LOS S S CH Ö N B RU N N KU LT U R- U N D B E T R I EB S GES . m . b . H . P H OTO GR A P H Y: ED G A R K N A ACK

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OPPOSITE PAGE Princess Louisa Anne, 1754 THIS PAGE, RIGHT Suzanne Curchod, c.1761

joined paper, it represents a nod of respect to the genre paintings of Jean-Siméon Chardin, whose work Liotard would have seen from the 1730s in Paris.

However, above all it encompasses a spellbinding range of effects. The models are two of Liotard’s relatives: the boy slyly glances at the writer’s manuscript, while shielding the light of a candle, which glows through his pudgy fingers. Its flame can melt the shiny sealing wax, the application of which will complete work on the document on the desk. Meanwhile, a diamond sparkles on the ring worn by the man as he casually rests his elbow on the cloth made of the most exquisite patterned silk. Highlights such as the light glinting on the ring were achieved by the building up of gouache or paste made of pastel, which stands proud of the surface of the paper and literally catches the light.

A work of this ambition and refinement begs questions about how it has survived in such an excellent state. There were various methods of ‘fixing’ pastels in the 18th century through the gentle spraying of chemicals across the surface of a work and Liotard was certainly familiar with the claims made for them, although it remains unclear which of these he applied. Just as important was the issue of protecting pastels with glass – at this period expensive hand-blown glass – to ensure preservation quickly.

Pastels such as L’Ecriture or his portrait of Suzanne Curchod (c.1761; above) are almost a manifesto for the medium, and provide irrefutable evidence that it could confidently compete with oil. In his treatise on art, which was published in 1781, Liotard advocated the

importance of not loosely applying pastels in the form of ‘touches’; he sought to ensure the process of application was unseen and the illusion of reality or resemblance was paramount.

This approach was at odds with the feathery, ethereal pastel portraits popularised by the 18th-century Venetian artist Rosalba Carriera with which Liotard’s works were sometimes compared. It chimed, though, with wider cultural developments, as he was living through a period of unprecedented observation and recording of all manner of natural and manmade phenomena.

Scientists and artists were studying the material world with greater precision than ever before and received knowledge and opinions were set aside in favour of direct experience: empiricism was in the ascendant and Liotard brought this approach to his art.

This tactic created a particular set of problems, however, for a maker of portraits, as flattery was often a key requirement in this genre.

Liotard arrived in his mature works at a neat synthesis: his obsessive rendering of ravishing clothes conveyed the cosmopolitan status and wealth of his subjects, while his ‘warts and all’ approach celebrated the individuality of his sitters. His patrons appear to have been completely untroubled by the fact that he did not shy away from large noses or double chins. This was probably chiefly because his works were for private consumption, rather than being public and propagandist. They were hung in cabinets and picture closets, salons and withdrawing rooms and sometimes travelled with. They mirrored their sitters, rather than setting out to project on to or for them a sycophantic ‘improved’

image, and consequently in some instances seem remarkably modern.

As such Liotard’s art draws on the verisimilitude associated with Dutch 17th-century painting (which he admired and collected) but combines this with the sensuality of French Rococo works, where an elegance and obsessive interest in details of fashion and modish deportment comes to the fore. The mix gets richer still because he applied this approach to a wide range of subjects in terms of geographical and social spread. Sober Genevan citizens, English Grand Tourists, exiled Jacobites, diplomats, princes and progressive thinkers all submitted to his scrutiny. They were no doubt drawn to the exotic spectacle he personally presented following his sojourn in Constantinople, which Reynolds found so distasteful, but also to the startling candour he offered which was unlike anything else on the market. It all contributed to the myths that built up around the artist. Lord Chesterfield memorably reported in 1755 on the contemporary taste among English women for cosmetics and claimed perhaps mischievously that Liotard ‘refused a fine woman [who was presumably heavily made up] to draw her picture [because] he never copied any body’s works but his own and God Almighty’s.’

Jean-Etienne Liotard The Sackler Wing, Royal Academy of Arts, London, www.royalacademy.org.uk, 020 7300 8000, 24 Oct–31 Jan 2016. 2009-2016 Season supported by JTI. Supported by The Cockayne Foundation. Supported by The Pictet Group.

See Events and Lectures page 90.

To find out more about the exhibition, visit http://roy.ac/liotard

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white a project by Edmund de Waal

My project white at the Royal Academy looks very hard at what white means. It is an interweaving of words and books with sculpture, paintings and photographs.

White is aura. White is a staging post to look at the world from. White is not neutral; it forces other colours to reveal themselves. It moralises – it is clean when nothing else is clean, it is light when most things are heavy. It is about impossibility. Think of Moby Dick and Captain Ahab, the question crying out, ‘What is this thing of whiteness?’ White is a place to begin and a place to end.

I have spent my life thinking about white.

My very first pot, thrown on a potter’s wheel as a child, was white. Forty-five years later, I am still making white pots, porcelain vessels. For the past six years I have been travelling to the places

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in the world where porcelain was discovered and desired, researching and writing a book called The White Road about the cost of this obsession with white. On my journey I have dreamed of the images and objects that matter to me most. Some of them are included in my project at the RA. It is not an exhibition in a white cube gallery. It is an intervention in the Library and Print Room, whose interiors were designed

by H.T. Cadbury-Brown RA almost three decades ago. They are reached from the sculpture gallery in the Sackler Wing. At one end of the gallery is Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo (c.1504-05). At the other, a modest door to the Library and Print Room, often walked past unseen. These rooms were first added to the top of Burlington House when the RA moved here in 1868 to house the collection of

white marble sculptures and casts. My project brings this early history home.

There are objects from the RA Collection that embody memory: a beautiful bust of Ippolita Maria Sforza, a plaster taken from the original 15th-century marble, destroyed in the bombing of Berlin (see page 72); a torso of Europa made in the fourth century BC, a study of flowing cloth over a body; the 1841 death mask of Francis Chantrey RA and the life mask of Thomas Banks RA, from 1790; the porcelain watercolour palette owned by J.M.W. Turner RA, a stormy sky of colours on a white ground. These rooms are archive, reliquary, store room, memory palace and lumber room for the Academy. There is a 19th-century elephant folio of white pages, completely empty. There is a stack of redundant mounts, kept for 200 years, waiting.

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Twohandled beaker, c.1720, from Meissen, Germany, by Johann Friedrich Böttger THIS PAGE, RIGHT Bust of a woman, possibly Ippolita Maria Sforza, c.1473, after Francesco Laurana BELOW a mind of winter, 2015, by Edmund de Waal

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© R ACH EL W H I T ER E A D/CO U R T ESY G AGOS I A N G A L L ERY. CO L L EC T I O N O F T H E A R T IS T

This project endeavours to look at white as both object and experience.

Visitors come into the dramatic, dark spaces of the Print Room and see an early Cy Twombly painted bronze, glowing in front of them. There are vitrines with manuscripts, poems and ripostes around white – the white pages of Tristram Shandy, Samuel Beckett, the silent score for John Cage’s 4’33”, Rachel Whiteread’s plaster sculpture FOLDED (opposite), a lithograph from Josef Albers’ 1966 ‘White Line Square’ series. A beautiful Robert Ryman painting from 1998, a vortex of repeated white markings, hangs at eye level, demanding you give it time. There are also small works that capture the difficulties of white: a Malevich drawing, early photographs and photogenic drawings from the mid-19th century, a Renaissance grisaille on enamel illustrating the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, an ivory netsuke of a hare. And, crucially for me, one of the first pieces of white porcelain made in the West, a delicate cup from Meissen (page 70).

Stepping from the Print Room into the Library itself, one sees that some of the books on the shelves have been displaced by a drawing, a sculpture or a vitrine. A Morandi still life of vessels on a table top takes the place of a run of periodicals. Up high is the fragment of a 12th-century corbel head of a saint. Malevich’s Suprematist Teapot – intensely, angrily pure – sits on a shelf. A marble lantern by Ai Weiwei Hon RA is juxtaposed with a porcelain table

by Amanda Levete Architects: weight and weightlessness. High above is a new work by Garry Fabian Miller, open clear light (2014-15;

P R E V I O US S P R E A D: CO L L ECT I O N O F ED M U N D D E WA A L / P H OTO GR A P H ER I A N S K ELTO N . T H IS PAGE: P H OTO © R OYA L ACA D EM Y O F A R TS , LO N D O N . © ED M U N D D E WA A L , P H OTO GR A P H ER: M I K E B RU CE

PREVIOUS SPREAD

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P R E V I O US S P R E A D: CO L L ECT I O N O F ED M U N D D E WA A L / P H OTO GR A P H ER I A N S K ELTO N . T H IS PAGE: P H OTO © R OYA L ACA D EM Y O F A R TS , LO N D O N . © ED M U N D D E WA A L , P H OTO GR A P H ER: M I K E B RU CE

LEFT FOLDED, 2004,

by Rachel Whiteread BELOW open clear light, 2014-15,

by Garry Fabian Miller

left). I have made a couple of vitrines of porcelain to sit near particular books I love, including reminding, trying to remind (2015).

This is a project bringing together objects from the collection as well as from further afield.

Held in a working library, it is a quiet journey of discovery through and up and around the spaces.

It is intended as an unexpected journey through things that displace the world through white.

Many artists have explored white. There are those for whom it is central and those for whom it has been a moment of symbolic, critical disjuncture.

There are artists who have used white as a way of abstracting, of understanding the structure of the world through the removal of the extraneous, and others for whom it is a form of exploration of the spiritual. All these are different journeys into white, different explorations of what white does to the world around it.

This is not about minimalism, or rounding up the people who have made things in white, but about something much harder and fiercer.

There is nothing whiter than a white page, nothing quieter than a library. But as in the score of John Cage, when in silence we are compelled to listen hard to what happens when we stop moving, we look harder when we see white.

Because white is a place to start again. white: a project by Edmund de Waal Library and Print Room, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 26 Sep– 3 Jan 2016. All tickets to this event are timed Friends tickets £5. See page 12 for more details. To book tickets call 0207 300 5635 or visit http://roy.ac/deWaal The White Road: a pilgrimage of sorts by Edmund de Waal is published 24 Sep, Chatto & Windus, £20, hardback

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SMALL SHIP CRUISING WITH NOBLE CALEDONIA

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lectures by our two onboard guest speakers, we reach Odessa, the historic city founded by Catherine the Great at the mouth of the great River Dnieper, following which we arrive in Constanta, Romania, an ancient metropolis and Romania’s largest sea port. Finally we reach Nessebur, a delightful Bulgarian town with a fascinating history before our cruises ends where it all began, in the captivating city of Istanbul.

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As the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo is marked across the country, the Academy displays of one of its most treasured artworks, the newly restored 13-metre Waterloo Cartoon by Daniel Maclise RA. In the following pages Owen Sheers considers its significance in the context of war art and writes a poem in response to this extraordinary drawing

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The Waterloo Cartoon I spread my fingers and watch the image bloom across the screen, the cross-hatch drawing closer,

I shrink the window.

Check my Facebook page, scroll the posts to find the last from Dan.

Where men, though dead, are fully whole.

Where ruin, that signature of war, remains unsigned across their flesh, their bone.

to bring me eye-to-eye with a Prussian Hussar in panel two, his wary stare beneath his czapska

It’s 6 years today it reads, since I lost my legs in Afghanistan. Went to Manchester.

Thanks Phil, Grant, for making a shit day good.

No sugarloaf stumps.

No entrails purpling the pale.

No lance’s puncture, or sabre’s bloody furrow.

fixed on the hands that couple this piece at just off-centre.

A fingertip, and I’m back at Waterloo with that trumpeter, still lying at the charger’s hooves.

No grapeshot gaping sores.

Just this drawing he’s been woken to – a preparation for a painting,

I stroke the pad and travel the faces, the braids, through a congress of horses,

And again, it’s the eyes that have it, cast back in suspicion, distrustful of this dream world he’s been woken to –

and in its completion in the palace where the ayes still have it, for all our future wars.

their bridles double-reined, past one dark-welled eye, and down Wellington’s stirupped boot

this scene he’s sure he knew, but now made strange, off-centre, an unnatural panorama.

to where a trumpeter lies as draped as his flag, prone against the wheel of an undone canon.

A place of no blood, where weapons kill and wound but leave no mark.

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Cartoon for The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher After the Battle of Waterloo,1858-59 OPENING PAGE Detail from the cartoon that shows a fallen trumpeter, seen in the seventh of the ten panels

© R OYA L AC A D EM Y O F A R TS , LO N D O N / P H OTO GR A P H ER P RU D EN CE CU M I N G AS S O CI AT ES L I M I T ED

THIS SPREAD

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he Waterloo Cartoon is an epic chalk drawing more than 13 metres in width and over 3 metres in height, created by Daniel Maclise in preparation for his water-glass wall painting in the Palace of Westminster, The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo (1861). To mark the bicentenary of the battle, the RA has undertaken extensive conservation of the ten panelled-work, and this autumn brings it out of decades of storage for presentation in the Academy’s Weston Rooms.

This is no ordinary cartoon, but also, as curator Annette Wickham describes it, a ‘calling card’ designed to impress Westminster’s Fine Art Commissioners. Maclise’s hope was that in delivering a work of such high detail and finish, the cartoon would pave the way not just for the painting it pre-shadows, but also for his longer term aspirations to embark upon a cycle of paintings in the Royal Gallery. These would illustrate what the Commissioners in 1847 described as the ‘military history and glory of the country’.

It is this secondary purpose that fuels the work’s fascinating dialogue between documentary precision and the artistic representation of its composition. Maclise painstakingly researched the weapons, uniforms and tools of Waterloo, often obtaining originals to draw from life in his studio. In his composition, however, and with the Commissioners’ permission to deviate from ‘strict history’, he took a more imaginative approach to the broader scene.

The meeting leaders, who in reality were probably almost alone, are surrounded by men at arms, with a background of skirmishes and a foreground of dead and wounded soldiers. And it is here, as in so much art of conflict, that the drawing’s formal pattern – documentary detail of the specific, combined with a compositional poetic licence – begins to loosen. Besides a single ‘Petit Screw’ tourniquet, the dead and dying are unmarked. As such, rather than belonging to the precise details of the battle in which they lie, they become instead part of the cartoon’s symbolic scene-setting.

Waterloo, we know, was a particularly bloody engagement, rife with amputation and gore. And yet, while the weapons in the cartoon are portrayed faithfully, what they did to human and horse flesh is not. This subjective blurring of the artistic gaze, this coyness in the face of the truths of war – where its ruin may be shown on a building but not on a body – marks an ongoing societal tension between our desire to remember and our reluctance to remember in full. It is with this tension in mind, and its contribution to humanity’s most persistent failure, that I wrote the poem opposite in response to Maclise’s work.

Daniel Maclise: The Waterloo Cartoon Weston Rooms, Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, www.royalacademy.org.uk, 020 7300 8000, 2 Sep–3 Jan 2016. See Events and Lectures page 90 To explore the Waterloo Cartoon in detail with our interactive online feature, visit http://roy.ac/maclise

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Chris Wilkinson RA has continued to value hand drawing in an age where digital software prevails in architectural offices. Hugh Pearman meets him as a show opens at the RA to accompany the publication of his sketchbooks

A L L I M AGES I N T H IS A R T I CL E: P H OTO R OYA L ACA D EM Y O F A R TS/ P H OTO GR A P H Y J O H N B O D K I N , DAW K I NS CO LO U R /© CH R IS W I L K I NS O N R A

Thoughts on paper

Concept drawings for the Crown Sydney Hotel (due for completion in 2019), from a 2013 sketchbook by Chris Wilkinson RA

‘These are OK,’ says Chris Wilkinson RA, looking at a sheaf of watercolours, ‘but they’re just a response to a site. You wouldn’t hang them on the wall.’ Well, actually you would, and they have, at the Royal Academy, not to mention putting others in glass cases and also publishing them in a book. But Wilkinson’s point is that in ‘Thinking Through Drawing’, his show in the Academy’s Fine Rooms, he is not presenting works of art. He is an architect, he says, and though fascinated by art and a keen drawer, he

thinks and sees like an architect. That’s different.

‘Look at this one,’ he says, pulling out a 12-inch square of thick Italian paper. It’s of a church in Lucca. ‘As an architect you have to get the proportions right,’ explains the man whose UK designs include Portsmouth’s Mary Rose Museum, a Maggie’s Centre in Oxford and the masterplan for the Dyson Headquarters in Malmesbury. He says it almost sorrowfully, as if bound to a sacred vow. ‘An artist wouldn’t care about that so much, they would be more

concerned about the overall feel.’ And indeed, you could say that the church in question is depicted with slight over-exactitude, almost as if Wilkinson had refined the vertical perspective in his head. In other examples his style is looser, but he is right: an architect sees differently and depicts differently from artists. There is more emphasis on the direct communication of the idea. And people, when present in these works, are subservient to the buildings, handy devices to show a sense of scale.

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LEFT Sketches for the restaurant terrace and waterfront of the Crown Sydney Hotel, due for completion in 2019 BELOW LEFT Sketch for King’s Cross Gasholders, London, due for completion in 2016

‘Here you get, in a few sketches, a complete building from empty site through to practical construction suggestions’

By and large, most of Wilkinson’s sketches are not necessarily about him sitting down to capture a scene for the sake of it. One landscape watercolour, for instance, is of the Barangaroo harbour redevelopment area in Sydney, Australia, where his firm has designed a skyscraper that houses the Crown Sydney Hotel. He had just arrived, he said, was dead tired but didn’t want to crash out. So he went to the site of his building, got out his HB pencil, his usual A4 sketch pad and his little watercolour box with its collapsible brushes, and off he went. Drawing the waterside site was the prelude to drawing the building, a stepped, curving skyscraper.

Later sketches show him working with the plan form of the tower – starting off with the idea of a rippling Alvar Aalto vase extruded upwards, then dropping that in favour of a biomorphic spiralling tri-lobed plan (page 79), and culminating in details of a white marble ‘veil’ to the tower’s podium, with particulars of how the individual piece of marble would be clamped

together with post-tensioned rods. Most of the drawings have a sparing colour wash applied, to distinguish various areas or to emphasise particular elements and uses. So here you get, in a few sketches, a complete building from empty site through to practical construction suggestions.

He’s not a copious sketcher, he says, recalling his young days in the studio of Norman Foster RA who could, he says, consume a whole sketchbook at a sitting, drawing at speed, ripping pages out as he went, leaving a literal paper trail of ideas. He admires that facility, but he ‘wouldn’t claim to be so dynamic as that’, because for him ‘drawing is a more contemplative process’.

The exhibition will be in two sections: ‘Drawing what I think’ and ‘Drawing what I see’.

It shows some 20 black-covered A4 sketchbooks dating back to his first sizeable project in the mid1990s, the Stratford Market Depot on the thennew Jubilee Line. So it’s roughly one sketchbook per year. His notebooks accompanying these drop down a size to A5. Then there is the special 12inch square Italian paper used when he is drawing for pleasure, and an abstract work to show how far he pushes his interest in paint and colour.

It’s strange in a way that Wilkinson is still so wedded to the hand drawing, given that his firm – now Wilkinson Eyre – were pioneers in the 1990s of the seductive computer rendering, working with Alan Davidson of visualisation experts Hayes Davidson. In consequence, Wilkinson’s early buildings looked ‘real’ long before they were built, which gave him an edge at a time when such seemingly perfect visualisations were rare. But although his 200-strong office is today as fully computerised as you would expect (Rhino Grasshopper being its software of choice), Wilkinson himself thinks that the hand drawing brings something else to the party – that old architectural business of drawing plans, sections, elevations and projections, in which all the parts of the buildings relate to all the others in a considered way, rather than just falling into place.

So many of these sketches represent the process of architectural thought, stages along the way rather than finished items.

Some architects, it is rumoured, like to dash off a ‘concept sketch’ of a building after it has been finished, as if to demonstrate some Eureka moment. Wilkinson looks shocked at the idea.

Rarely, he does go back to a completed building of his to draw it. ‘It’s an odd thing for an architect to do because all the memories, the struggles, come back. It’s not unpleasant, but not as satisfying as you might think.’

For Wilkinson, the strength of the drawing lies in the way it is part of his thought process.

The marks on the paper are towards another goal, are not the goal in themselves. These, then, are fascinating by-products. And yes, you would hang them on the wall.

Thinking Through Drawing: Chris Wilkinson RA John Madjeski Fine Rooms, Royal Academy of Arts, www.royalacademy.org.uk, 020 7300 8000, 3 Sep–14 Feb 2016 The Sketchbooks of Chris Wilkinson by Chris Wilkinson, RA Publications, £16.95.

See Readers’ Offers page 104 To see more images from the exhibition ‘Thinking Through Drawing: Chris Wilkinson RA’, visit http://roy.ac/wilkinsondraw

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Catto Gallery - Clive Mccartney Ad w200mm x h131mm_Final 07/07/2015 20:30 Page 1

AN EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY

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Light and Movement, Grand Central, 84 x 59 cm Acrylic on Board

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above and below 2 October – 7 November

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Catto Gallery - Clive Mccartney Ad w200mm x h131mm_Final 07/07/2015 20:30 Page 1

AN EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY

CLIVE McCARTNEY 10TH – 29TH SEPTEMBER 2015

CATTO GALLERY

100 Heath Street • Hampstead • London NW3 1DP Tel: +44 (0)20 7435 6660 • www.cattogallery.co.uk • art@cattogallery.co.uk Opening times: 10am - 6pm Mon - Sat 12.30pm - 6pm • Sunday • and by appointment Catalogue available on request

Light and Movement, Grand Central, 84 x 59 cm Acrylic on Board

AMY ALBRIGHT

STUART ROBERTSON

above and below 2 October – 7 November

St Pauls watercolour, gouache, collage 26 x 20cm

RECENT PAINTINGS LONDON - PARIS - DELHI

1 – 24 October 2015 PIERS FEETHAM GALLERY artwave west | morecombelake | dorset | DT6 6DY www.artwavewest.com | 01297 489746

475 Fulham Road, London SW6 1HL 020 7381 3031 www.piersfeethamgallery.com Tues-Fri 10-6; Sat 10-1

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Critical issues in art and architecture

Debate

I L LUS T R AT I O N A DA M M CCAU L E Y

The Question Is it essential to see a painting in the flesh?

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I L LUS T R AT I O N A DA M M CCAU L E Y

Yes… Paintings can only reveal themselves if we commune with them in person, argues artist EMYR WILLIAMS Joan Miró once said of Courbet’s painting A Burial at Ornans (1849-50), ‘You can feel its power with your back turned to it.’ As a schoolboy this remark had intrigued me, my sole reference for the Courbet being a small reproduction in a book.

It was only when I saw the painting as an art student that I realised what had so overwhelmed Miró: the mourners are life-size. The sheer scale and ambition of this work is staggering.

Conversely, the jewel-like qualities of a small Manet flower painting are dazzling in their modesty. A few years ago I had a visceral need to see and feel the scale of the huge Delacroix works in the Louvre. No other experience of them would do; I simply had to go to Paris.

If you have ever watched a person looking at a painting, it is noticeable how mobile they are, often shifting their weight, or tilting their heads, as if attempting to locate something.

Active looking is very physical, yet more paintings are probably seen nowadays digitally than ‘in the flesh’. For many, the convenience of a screen image suffices. Apologists will argue, convincingly, that our interaction with the virtual is an inevitable point on the trajectory of

No… Our preconceptions prevent us from truly seeing an artwork, even when we stand before it, says poet SAM RIVIERE Last year I visited New York for the first time, a city synonymous with its galleries. Over a long, rainy Saturday in the Met, I was struck by one painting: Caravaggio’s The Holy Family with the Infant St John the Baptist (1602-04), and spent a while trying to work out why. At first it was Mary’s oddly averted gaze, but then, I thought, it was her age. Joseph is an old man, she looks about 12. What was that about? And was it the painting ‘itself’ I was responding to, or rather its deviation from my ‘Children’s Bible’ image, in which Mary and Joseph looked like my Mum and Dad, freaked out by parenthood in their late 20s? I had to admit it was also possible that I was misreading the work completely. How much additional knowledge did I need to assure myself that my interpretation was, let’s say, not incorrect?

I had the familiar feeling that I was ‘reading’ the painting, not ‘seeing’ the painting.

This was a continuation of an argument I have been having with myself for some time: that despite having gone to art school, and apparently made art, I often remain sceptical about its effects. I’ve stood before work at private views, wondering what the acceptable amount of time

our developing human intelligence and culture.

Indeed, virtual realities are vitally useful in numerous disciplines – surgery springs to mind immediately. But is there a dehumanizing flipside to this technological revolution? Are we disconnecting ourselves from the handmade? Are thousands of years of evolution culminating in our opposing thumbs’ ability to screen swipe?

I believe a painting cannot fulfil itself as ‘Art’ unless one really sees it in person. Reproductions can be an enticing reference or an aide-memoir, yet the electricity of the encounter is missing.

A real painting possesses an inherent plasticity formed through human endeavour; it provides us with a haptic sensation of constructed space.

Furthermore, we often return to seemingly familiar works only to discover new and unforeseen qualities in them. This regeneration can only happen when our eyes apprehend the surface. The surface: that magical membrane, the point at which the paint stops and the air begins.

In this digital age, painters can ask themselves a simple, significant question: what can I achieve in this medium that I cannot do more effectively in another? As an abstract painter I now feel an urgency to make highly spatial paintings through a very specific control of colour and surface. Colour for me is completely dependent upon surface to make it both physically and emotionally expressive. I am always astonished at how a seemingly innocuous material such as paint achieves such amazing outcomes when handled sensitively. The ‘coloured glues’ of paint,

is to stay there, before, with that turning half-step indicating both reluctance and saturation, moving on. This feeling intensifies in large galleries, where it’s coupled with the battle not to continually refer to the text next to the pictures. I suspect I still spend more time reading in galleries than ‘seeing’. The Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz can be my guide here. He wrote in his Diary (1953-69) how the apples and sunflowers of Cézanne and Van Gogh leave an ‘enormous gap’ in our understanding of them, only compensated for by their biographies. ‘If the word had not conveyed their lives to us,’ he added, ‘there’s not much we could do with their self-portraits.’

New York’s Museum of Modern Art, with its avant-garde work from the 20th century, is less overwhelmingly historical than the Met, but when I visited it, I felt even closer to Gombrowicz’s cynicism. Its visitors ranged blindly through the rooms, each I suppose hunting for some singular scrap of meaning.

A tiny percentage is able to appreciate the significance of most of these works, yet everyone who goes to New York goes there. What exactly is it selling? Come in, Witold: ‘You err in thinking that the paintings themselves are a revelation and that is why people look at them…

Just the opposite has happened.’

At the Frick Collection I wanted to see The Polish Rider (c.1655, often attributed to Rembrandt), because of a poem by Frank O’Hara: ‘I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world / except possibly for the Polish Rider

‘Reproductions can be an aide-memoir… yet the electricity of the encounter is missing’

when viewed in reality rather than reproduction, can conjure up wonderful luminous spaces that condense and amplify the sensations we have of seeing and perceiving the world.

A painting for me should aspire to these heightened states of visual stimulation, rather than display itself as a form of entertainment or rely on extrinsic narratives, which other media can employ more readily. Painting needs to seek out more profound visual territory to explore. In any quest to advance painting, artists can learn illuminating lessons from the past. Matisse’s phosphorescent Vence interiors; Cézanne’s revolutionary landscapes; Constable’s daring spatial structures; Titian’s unerringly inventive compositions: all these feel more relevant than ever when seen in the flesh.

Great paintings like these provide a communion that is timeless. The transmitted backlight of a screen or the glossily inked page of a magazine homogenizes our spatial perceptions and transforms ‘looking’ into ‘reading’. To engage fully with a painting, we need to see its space… in its space. If we forsake opportunities to absorb ourselves in art in this way, we will surely erode one of the more remarkable abilities of our species.

‘I’ve stood before work at private views, wondering what the acceptable amount of time is to stay there’ occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick’ – itself a hymn of life over art, where portraits become ‘just paint / you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them’. I had a sad time, mainly since no-one was there being garrulous and legendary, least of all Frank O’ Hara, and the fact that so little is known about the painting just made it easier to incorporate into my selfish New York micro-narrative. This story isn’t really about the painting at all – what interpretation could be more facile than that?

In order to ‘see’ The Polish Rider, I had to know it already from online image searches and O’Hara’s poem. Maybe I was simply recognising the painting rather than ‘seeing’ it, as if from my approach it was somehow hidden by its own image. Maybe ‘seeing’ a painting is really a way of providing evidence for the frameworks of meaning we already have in our heads. Maybe no ‘essential’ seeing is even available, and a painting is visible only to the extent that it complements your existing knowledge – a kind of accessory.

Is it essential to see a painting in the flesh?

Visit http://roy.ac/intheflesh to vote in our online poll. Last issue’s debate asked: are we building too many museums? Our poll found that 55 per cent of readers said ‘Yes’, 44 per cent ‘No’

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Debate

Freedom cry MA JIAN is renowned for his novels exploring subjects censored in China, where his books are banned, and he has been barred from entering the Chinese mainland. Ahead of Ai Weiwei’s RA retrospective, we asked the writer about his admiration for the artist, and about the limits of free expression in China

Free Speech Puzzle, 2014, by Ai Weiwei Hon RA. Each porcelain piece is inscribed with ‘Free Speech’ in Chinese script

CO U R T ESY O F A I W EI W EI S T U D I O/ I M AGE CO U R T ESY A I W EI W EI /© A I W EI W EI

What do you most admire about Ai Weiwei as an artist?

I admire his courage, integrity, determination and social conscience. The work of his that I most admire is Sunflower Seeds (2010). That expanse of small, hard, identical-looking grey seeds in Tate Modern’s austere Turbine Hall was able to conjure images in my mind of beautiful fields of yellow sunflowers in China’s remote grasslands. It conveyed the painful distance that exists between reality and the ideal. This in itself is deeply political. But so is the idea the seeds conveyed of the power of the crowd; how, when nameless individuals gather together in great numbers, they create a new entity of invincible strength.

I saw that mass of seeds as a call to arms.

When Weiwei was ‘disappeared’ by the government, in a fit of rage I printed off hundreds of black-and-white photographs of him with the message ‘Free Ai Weiwei’, took them to Tate, and with my five-year-old daughter and some artist friends of mine, scattered them all over the seeds so that the whole of the Turbine Hall was covered by his image. It looked beautiful. The security guards let them stay there for five minutes before clearing them away.

Ai is a conceptual artist. How would you characterise the way he opens up ideas in his work?

Ai Weiwei seems to be able to enter into the essence of concrete, wood, porcelain, furniture and discarded objects, and transform them and bring them to life. After the Chinese government tried to restrict reporting of the Sichuan earthquake, Weiwei travelled to the site, collected the names of more than 5,300 school children who had died in the tragedy, and turned their discarded schoolbags into a work of art. In doing so, he resurrected not only the earthquake but its victims. This struck me as a profoundly humane and courageous work of art.

Is there any meaningful freedom of expression in China? Where does the line lie with the Chinese state, and how far can one go before it is crossed? How does Ai cross this line?

You can say what you like in China today, but you cannot question the rule of the Communist Party, its version of history, or create works of art or literature that touch on subjects the government deems taboo. And when there are things that cannot be said, or written about,

or debated, then no meaningful expression is possible. No-one feels free to speak their mind, or create what they want, as there will always exist a tiny voice inside their head that will whisper: ‘Are you sure you can say that? Isn’t that subject out of bounds?’ Even calling for free expression in China is a crime. Ai crosses the line just by being who he is. He crosses the line as soon as he wakes up and opens his eyes.

Ai Weiwei is an anomaly. Most other Chinese artists and writers of his generation know how to play the system. They are able to work within the boundaries, publish and exhibit their more subversive works abroad while being careful not to cross the political lines at home. In so doing, they take advantage of all the privileges bestowed on approved, or semi-approved artists. Like Ai Weiwei’s half-brother, the state-sanctioned painter Ai Xuan, they argue that art should not concern itself with politics, that it should be a pure expression of the human condition uncorrupted by any political message. This ignores the reality that in a police state like China, where the people have suffered decades of political turmoil and extreme tragedy, it is impossible to divorce art from politics. Politics is in the very air that you breathe. But it is a convenient argument to push for artists who benefit socially and financially from the political compromises they make with the state.

Ai Weiwei sees through these false arguments and political games. Ever since his work on the design of the Bird’s Nest stadium, he has clearly distanced himself from the Chinese state. But most Chinese artists and writers are still trapped inside their velvet-lined cages, too comfortable in their confined surroundings to find the strength to cry out. The only confrontational words they can muster are to denounce those like Weiwei who have dared to fly from their cage.

Is Ai misunderstood by the Chinese public and why?

After more than 60 years of Communist rule, terror of politics courses through the Chinese people’s bloodstream. This fear is passed down from one generation to the next. It’s fear not only of the brutal regime itself, but of those who dare to oppose it. Dissidents are viewed as both mad and dangerous. The public fear that dissidence might somehow be contagious; deeper down, no doubt, they feel shame that they don’t have the same courage to speak out against injustices.

So they ostracise and ridicule those who step out of line, accuse them of craving international Continued on page 86

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Debate fame or trying to make money by ‘sucking up to the West’.

The official newspapers accuse Ai Weiwei of being ‘unconventional’, which is an insult in a culture that glorifies conformity. The implication is that Weiwei is not ‘one of us’, that he disregards the national character, is too free-spirited, self-centred. They distort and censor his persona and views as ruthlessly as they censor the media and internet. But Weiwei is not fighting a selfish battle for his own right to free expression. He is fighting for the freedom of speech and creative expression of every Chinese citizen.

Courtyard 104, Urs Meile Gallery Ateliers and Exhibition Space, Caochangdi, Beijing, designed by Ai Weiwei Hon RA

I would imagine that for Weiwei there are no boundaries: his life, work and politics are indivisible. Once you step out of the mainstream in China and demand the right to express freely your opposition to it, every aspect of your life becomes political. You are immediately labelled a ‘traitor’ by the very people whose basic rights you are passionately fighting for.

Although Weiwei’s father, the poet Ai Qing, was exiled for more than 20 years under Mao’s rule, he was later brought back into the fold and enjoyed all the privileges of the elite. Weiwei could have lived the easy, comfortable life of a ‘red princeling’, but in his heart he is a rebel, and so chose the more difficult path. When he returned to China after 12 years in America, he soon realised that without freedom of speech and expression, any meaningful artistic creation was impossible. So his fight for free speech and personal liberties has always been integral to his artistic mission. Of all his generation of privileged princelings, Ai Weiwei has travelled the furthest. While party leaders recited the poetry of Communist hero Ai Qing, his son was imprisoned, placed under house arrest and beaten.

Today, Weiwei is still heavily censored at home. In China, any artist who explicitly calls for free expression inevitably ends up being silenced.

But Weiwei continues to create and to speak out.

The struggle for basic human rights is part of his daily life.

Weiwei has made his life into a work of art, and himself into the central character of his play. He has documented his own arrest, beating and forced ‘disappearance’; he has filmed the destruction of his Shanghai studio and has transformed his tax fine into an internet ‘happening’. In protest against the government’s refusal to grant him a passport, he placed a bunch of flowers outside his home every day. He has succeeded in turning all efforts to silence him into opportunities to spread his views across the globe. He has used his persecution as the material and inspiration for his art in a way that is always humorous, ironic, subversive. Out of acts of oppression, he has created works of art that celebrate the freedom of the human soul.

Translated by Flora Drew The Dark Road by Ma Jian, translated by Flora Drew, Vintage, softback, £8.99

Human scale KATE GOODWIN, RA Architecture Curator, discovers Ai Weiwei’s alternative vision for Beijing buildings With China claiming 14 cities with populations over 5 million, the scale of its development is almost unfathomable. One of China’s main tourist websites states: ‘Feel the buzz of urbanization in the fastest developing country in the history of the planet.’ The size and speed of change is alluring, but can be disconcerting.

On my first visit almost a decade ago, Beijing was one great building site, amplified by the approaching Olympic Games. All about there were cranes in the sky, heralding the future. It was also a time when the hutongs – historic neighbourhoods of narrow alleyways and streets – were being razed to the ground, demolishing entire communities overnight in the drive to modernise. Buildings of all shapes and sizes were emerging, which looked spectacular, but often contributed little more than a novel form to the skyline.

On my trip to Beijing this year, I spent an afternoon walking through Caochangdi, where Ai Weiwei built his studio in 1999. At that time it was a village on the outskirts of Beijing, but was soon to be engulfed as the city grew. Ai designed many of the galleries, studios and houses in Caochangdi (above), using local building skills and materials.

Ai’s engagement with architecture can be traced not to formal study, but to personal experience. When he was a child, his family were exiled to Xinjiang, where their home was a small underground pit. Even then, Ai

‘I was struck by the complexity and the simple beauty of Ai’s buildings in Caochangdi’

understood the importance of space – he dug deeper into the earthen floor to get better headheight and learnt how to bring in natural light.

I was struck by the complexity and the simple beauty of Ai’s buildings in Caochangdi.

Walls surround both open and enclosed spaces, which expand or contract, offering different voids and vistas. Natural light is brought in from above or the side to create different atmospheres. Each building has a modest and human scale, but also a powerful presence that makes it compelling and memorable.

Caochangdi’s growing reputation has drawn visitors from around the world. Its population of rural migrants and artists is also rapidly changing. In 2010 it was under threat of demolition – now there are more coffee shops, a sign of gentrification, and local residents fear they may not be able to afford to stay.

This echoes what is happening across China – an economic shift from a reliance on the export industry to the internal consumer market fuelled by an urban elite. In 2013 the government announced plans to integrate 70 per cent of the country’s population – 900 million people – into city-living by 2025.

The implications for the physical landscape and social structures of China are far-reaching.

The scale of China’s ambition is reflected in its conception of a new mega-city that will cover 82,000 square miles and bring together Beijing, the port of Tianjin and the hinterlands of Hebei. Once complete, the mega-city will have a population of 130 million people.

As I looked out of my hotel window across China’s capital, I could not quite reconcile the scale of the planned mega-city with Caochangdi. How could a meaningful built environment be created with a true sense of humanity given the scale and speed of development? Are architects given the chance to bring their spatial sensibilities to such projects, and can they really have any impact in such a fast-changing world?

Caochangdi: The Studio and the Community RA Architecture Space, 26 Sep–13 Dec

CO U R T ESY O F A I W EI W EI S T U D I O/ I M AGE CO U R T ESY A I W EI W EI /© A I W EI W EI

Where are the boundaries between Weiwei’s life, work and politics?

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Meet the definitive

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On Display

Mark Rothko

Henrietta Maria and the Materials of Magnificence Erin Griffey

From the Inside Out Christopher Rothko

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The People’s Galleries Art Museums and Exhibitions in Britain, 1800–1914 Giles Waterfield

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NATIONAL OPEN ART

Winter Exhibition 15

Royal College of Art London 21 October - 1 November 2015

discovering different original new

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.

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Self portrait (Adelaide Road), Sir Stanley Spencer Private Collection / Bridgeman Images © Artist’s Estate

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Debate

Short Courses and Practical Classes For full details visit royalacademy.org.uk/courses

Practical Classes

Short Courses

Drawing into Painting

Art on Film

Sat 12 and Sun 13 Sep During this in-depth, two-day painting class, participants will explore still life and interiors, beginning with observational drawings and moving to working in paint. Examining space, composition and colour theory, artist David Webb will encourage participants to respond in experimental, expressive and imaginative ways.

Learning Studio, Burlington House; £360 (painting materials, lunches and wine reception on Saturday provided); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm

Saturdays: 31 Oct and 7, 14, 21 and 28 Nov Professor Ian Christie curates this short course in which he invites leading Royal Academicians Phyllida Barlow, Timothy Hyman, Jock McFadyen and Mali Morris to choose films that get under the skin of art and film. Each week we will explore a different genre response to the arts through the screening of a key feature with accompanying shorts, followed by a discussion with Christie and an RA. Features will include Museum Hours (2013) and Rembrandt (1936). Reynolds Room; £160 (incl. wine reception); maximum 60 places; 12.30–4pm

Watercolour En Plein Air

Mon 14, Tue 15 or Wed 16 Sep These one-day workshops, led by artist Michael Collins of the Royal Watercolour Society, explore the art of painting from nature outdoors. Working from vista views of Hyde Park, students will learn methods of capturing natural light and how to mix colours tonally, increasing their confidence in experimenting with watercolours beyond the studio.

Learning Studio and Hyde Park; £195 (painting materials, coffee, lunch, gls wine provided); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm; Mon 14: beginner, Tue 15: beginner to intermediate, Wed 16: intermediate Soho Street Photography

Life Drawing Life Room, Royal Academy Schools; £360 (drawing materials and lunches provided); maximum 18 places; 10.30am–4.30pm Life Drawing: The Figure and its Relationship to Space

P H OTO BY R OY M AT T H E WS

Sat 26 and Sun 27 Sep Artist Francis Bowyer (tutor at the Royal Academy Schools) leads this twoday course where participants have the opportunity to work from both male and female life models, exploring the male figure with reference to movement, space and structure, and thinking about the influence of tone, shadow and light on the female form.

Life Drawing: From Life to Alive

Sat 17 and Sun 18 Oct Within this class, students will explore how, through intense observation and instinctive use of materials, a model’s physical presence can be enhanced within their drawings. By capturing a series of quick and more sustained poses, students

will gain confidence through creative drawing strategies. This class is led by artist Jeanette Barnes.

Life Drawing: From Structure to Style

Sat 14 and Sun 15 Nov Led by the President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Robin-Lee Hall, this weekend course covers the traditional foundation blocks of life drawing, followed by a more expressive response to the figure. Day one will focus on volume, structure, measurement and tone, and day two will explore materials, mark-making and movement.

Life Drawing: Movement

Sat 12 and Sun 13 Dec Join Francis Bowyer for an opportunity to explore a wide range of approaches to drawing from both the male and female form on the move, in this two-day course held in the RA Schools’ historic Life Room. Students will broaden their methods of depicting the figure in movement, and will gain an appreciation of tone and form.

Introduction to Art Criticism

Saturdays: 14 and 28 Nov If you are an aspiring art writer, this two-day class will give you the confidence to respond to art with a critical eye, equipping you with tools to write with both style and clarity, for either print or online. Led by Sam Phillips, Editor of RA Magazine, the class will help you perfect skills central to art criticism, in particular the description, interpretation and judgement of art. There will be a special focus on the RA’s ‘Ai Weiwei’ exhibition.

GA Room; £270 (all materials, tea, coffee and lunch provided); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm

Printmaking Workshops

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, plus a variety of camera functions. Led by professional photographer Roy Matthews, this course will provide you with the essential skills and techniques needed to catch street images successfully, using the vibrancy of Soho and the surrounding areas to record London life.

GA Room; £360 (lunch and refreshments provided, incl. gls wine at the end of day 2); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–5.30pm

Learning Studio; £360 (materials, lunches and wine reception on Saturday provided); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm; suitable for beginners or those with some experience Chiaroscuro Linocut Printing with Anne Desmet RA

Painting Set Free

Sat 10 Oct or Sat 14 Nov Working on large canvases or large sheets of watercolour paper, participants will be encouraged to keep their surfaces wet using oil paints thinned with a drying medium to manipulate shapes with brush strokes, and to find the image through paint. This class is taught by artist Virginia Verran, using her ‘postcard project’ model. Participants will choose a postcard image to work from and interpret the image through paint on a large scale, while responding in experimental and imaginative ways.

Learning Studio; £195 (all materials, lunch and refreshments provided, incl. gls of wine at the end of the day); maximum 15 places; 10.30am–4.30pm

Sat 24 and Sun 25 Oct Participants will learn the Renaissance methods of creating, in print, the threedimensional illusions of tonal drawings known as ‘chiaroscuro’. The course will include an introduction to printmakers from Albrecht Dürer to Claude Flight.

Students may bring their own sketches or photographs, or work from source material provided. Discover this print technique that produces a range of results, from bold cuts to subtle layers.

Wood Engraving with Anne Desmet RA

Sat 28 and Sun 29 Nov In this two-day course led by Anne Desmet RA, you will learn traditional techniques of engraving and printing end-grain wood. 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 by hand, without a press.

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

September R A LATES Enchanted Cosmos

Sat 5 Sep Magic meets science at this evening celebrating artist Joseph Cornell’s dual fascination with theatre and the cosmos.

Burlington House; 6.30–10pm; £22

MACLISE FREE TALK An Introduction to ‘The Waterloo Cartoon’

Mon 14 Sep Curator Annette Wickham explores the story behind Daniel Maclise’s epic drawing.

Reynolds Room; 1–2pm; free ARCHITECTURE EVENT Open House at the RA

INSTUDIO AT THE R A Creative Workshops for Access and Community Groups

Tue 8 Sep and 17 Nov Free workshops for groups working with disabled adults or adults at risk of exclusion from the arts.

Learning Studio; 2.30–5.30pm; free R A BOOK CLUB Gabriel Josipovici: ‘Hotel Andromeda’

Fri 11 Sep Author Gabriel Josipovici leads this book club on his novel Hotel Andromeda, which charts the course of Joseph Cornell’s mysterious life.

The Saloon; 6.30–8pm; £19 (incl. exh entry), £15 (event only) AFTERNOON EVENT William Kentridge Hon RA

Sat 12 Sep Internationally acclaimed artist William Kentridge joins Tim Marlow to discuss his diverse artistic practice, which encompasses films, drawings, theatre and opera productions.

Reynolds Room; 3–4pm; £12/£6 reductions 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 free talks. Please arrive promptly as unclaimed seats will be released at the start of the talk. ● 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.

Sat 19–Sun 20 Sep Enjoy a range of activities for all ages as you explore our buildings’ four centuries of architecture.

Please see our website for details

group between 1979 and 1983.

Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only) INMIND AT THE R A

London-based fine art students and recent graduates who have created responses to Ai Weiwei’s blog posts.

Main Galleries; 3–3.15pm; free with exh entry

Coffee and Conversation for People Living with Dementia

AI WEIWEI EVENING EVENT

Mondays: 28 Sep, 26 Oct, 23 Nov 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

Sat 19 and Tue 22 Sep Join curator Kate Goodwin as she discusses how drawing has been an integral part of the creative process of architect Chris Wilkinson RA. Tennant Gallery; 3–3.30pm; free with exh entry

Patrik Schumacher

AI WEIWEI FREE TALK

Mon 28 Sep Patrik Schumacher, one of architecture’s foremost designers and director of Zaha Hadid Architects, reflects on the issues that ‘burden’ contemporary architecture.

Geological Society; 6.30–8pm; £12/£6 reductions

Ai Weiwei, Social Media and Online Activism

October R A SCHOOLS EVENT Lynn Hershmann Leeson in Conversation with Kathy Noble

Thur 1 Oct Filmmaker Lynn Hershmann Leeson discusses with curator Kathy Noble the role of women in art. Supported by the David Lean Foundation.

Swedenborg House, 20–21 Bloomsbury Way; 6.30–8.30pm; £7/£4/free

INMOTION AT THE R A Cornell Exhibition Tour for Mobility Impaired Visitors

Mon 21 Sep A tour of ‘Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust’ for wheelchair users.

Meet in the Front Hall; 9–11am; £3 AI WEIWEI FREE TALK An Introduction to Ai Weiwei

Mon 21 Sep Curator Adrian Locke introduces ‘Ai Weiwei’ and explains how this revolutionary artist has used his work to comment on Chinese society.

Reynolds Room; 1–2pm; free ARCHITECTURE EVENT Jürgen Mayer H

Mon 21 Sep In this lecture, German architect Jürgen Mayer H reflects on the potential for architecture to act as a conduit for freedom through interactivity.

Geological Society; 6.30–7.45pm; £12/£6 reductions AI WEIWEI EVENING EVENT The ‘Stars’ (Xing Xing): The Origins of Contemporary Chinese Art

Fri 25 Sep Artists Qu Lei Lei and Li Shuang join journalist Barnaby Martin to discuss their experiences during the Cultural Revolution, and their involvement with Ai Weiwei in the avant-garde ‘Stars’

Fri 9 Oct The RA and Pin Drop invite you for an evening of short fiction and storytelling inspired by the ‘Ai Weiwei’ exhibition.

Please check our website for more details.

Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only)

ARCHITECTURE EVENT

CUR ATOR’S TOUR Thinking through Drawing: Chris Wilkinson RA

An Evening of Short Stories

AI WEIWEI EVENING EVENT Provocations in Art: The Readymade and Destruction in Art

Fri 2 Oct Join artists Christian Marclay and Cornelia Parker RA and historians Professor Dario Gamboni and Dr Richard Clay for a discussion on the impact of the ‘readymade’ and the intention behind the destructive processes in art’s creation and display.

Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £25/£15 reductions (incl. exh entry), £20 (event only) INMOTION AT THE R A Ai Weiwei Exhibition Tour for Mobility Impaired Visitors

Mon 5 Oct A tour of ‘Ai Weiwei’ for wheelchair users and mobility impaired visitors.

Meet in the Front Hall; 9–11am; £3

Sat 10 Oct Art historian Dr Ros Holmes discusses Ai Weiwei’s prolific use of social media and explores the artist’s creative and often humorous presence online.

Reynolds Room; 3–4pm; free INTOUCH AT THE R A Audio Described Tour and Handling Session

Mon 12 Oct An event for blind and partially sighted visitors around the ‘Waterloo Cartoon’.

Meet in the Front Hall; 9–11am; £3 ARCHITECTURE EVENT Dialogue: Chris Wilkinson RA

Fri 16 Oct Chris Wilkinson appears in a special evening of conversation.

Reynolds Room; 6.30–8pm; £12/£6 reductions INTER ACT AT THE R A The Waterloo Cartoon BSL Tour

Sat 17 Oct An art historian leads a tour of the ‘Waterloo Cartoon’ in BSL. Meet in the Front Hall; 2–3pm; £3 AI WEIWEI ROUNDTABLE Jen Harvie: Performance of the Artist

Sat 17 Oct Join Jen Harvie, Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance at Queen Mary University, for a discussion exploring the political impact of Ai Weiwei’s performative acts.

General Assembly Room; 3–4.15pm; £5 AI WEIWEI FREE TALK The Stuff of Chinese Art

ARCHITECTURE EVENT Dialogues

Mon 5 Oct An event which sees two practitioners from different creative disciplines reflect on the relationship between their fields.

Royal Society of Chemistry; 6.30–8pm; £12/£6 reductions AI WEIWEI SPECIAL EVENTS Performative Acts

Thur: 8 Oct to 12 Nov Encounter unique performances by

Mon 19 Oct Professor Craig Clunas examines the role of materials in the art of Ai Weiwei.

Reynolds Room; 1–2pm; free AI WEIWEI EVENING EVENT Ai Weiwei and Architecture

Mon 19 Oct In this panel discussion, speakers reflect on the role of architecture in shaping Ai Weiwei’s work.

Geological Society; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only)

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Public Events

Debate Family Fun

Tours

FAMILY STUDIOS These drop-in workshops are supported

by Jeanne and William Callanan.

R A TOURS Discover the art, architecture and history of the RA during these free one-hour tours.

12 noon Tue to Sun; meet in the Front Hall. Please note these may be subject to change at short notice.

Building Stories

Sun 20 Sep The Big Draw at the RA

Sundays 4 and 18 Oct You Make Me

OPEN SATURDAYS Discover the RA’s architectural heritage while exploring our historic John Madejski Fine Rooms.

Saturdays, drop in between 1–4pm

Sundays 1 and 15 Nov 11am–3pm; free; no booking required Coloured Vases, 2015, by Ai Weiwei

R A LATES Digital (Dis)Connections

Sat 24 Oct We delve into the possibilities, promises and treachery of digital technologies.

Burlington House; 6.30–10pm; £22 ARCHITECTURE EVENT Spaces of Freedom

Mon 26 Oct We consider whether spaces of freedom, typically seen as synonymous with public spaces where freedom of assembly and expression are inherent rights, still exist.

Geological Society; 6.30–7.45pm; £12/£6 reductions INPR ACTICE AT THE R A

P R I VAT E CO L L EC T I O N , CO L L ECT I O N O F L IS A A N D DA N N Y GO L D B ER G / I M AGE CO U R T ESY A I W EI W EI /© A I W EI W EI

Access and Community Programmes Artistic Presentation

Fri 30 Oct We invite disabled artists and creative people at risk of exclusion from the art world to share their practice.

Learning Studio; 6–8.30pm; free

November INTOUCH AT THE R A Audio Described Tour and Handling Session: Ai Weiwei

Mon 2 Nov An event for blind and partially sighted visitors.

Meet in the Front Hall; 9–11am; £3 LIOTARD FREE TALK The Brilliant and Eccentric Jean-Etienne Liotard

Mon 2 Nov Curator MaryAnne Stevens introduces the work of Jean-Etienne Liotard.

Reynolds Room; 1–2pm; free ARCHITECTURE EVENT Tony Fretton and Ellis Woodman on James Gowan

Mon 2 Nov Tony Fretton and Ellis Woodman discuss the powerful contribution of James Gowan to British architecture.

Geological Society; 6.30–8pm; £12/£6 reductions LIOTARD EVENING EVENT The Pursuit of Truth: Dress and Textiles in the work of Jean-Etienne Liotard

Fri 6 Nov From Liotard’s extensive travels in Europe came some of the most beautiful images of costume in the history of art. Dress historian Aileen Ribeiro and curator MaryAnne Stevens examine the depiction of textiles in his work.

Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only) SPECIAL EVENT Edmund de Waal and Aurora Orchestra

Mon 9 Nov Join us for an evening exploring the meaning of white, with artist and writer Edmund de Waal joining forces with Aurora Orchestra in a commission of new work by composer Martin Suckling.

De Waal’s new book, The White Road, will be on sale following the event.

Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £25/£20 reductions ARCHITECTURE EVENT Architectural Ethics

Mon 9 Nov Architecture is fundamentally a public art, but we ask is it time to reassess its responsibilities beyond those to the client, and to the broader public good?

Geological Society; 6.30–8pm; £12/£6 reductions INTER ACT AT THE R A STAGETEXT Supported Talk with BSL Translation: Ai Weiwei

Fri 13 Nov A slide-assisted talk about ‘Ai Weiwei’ with speech to text transcription and BSL interpretation.

Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £3

CREATIVE FAMILY WORKSHOPS Tue 27 and Thur 29 Oct During half term, be inspired by the art of Ai Weiwei in a workshop that combines an interactive exhibition tour with a creative hands-on session.

Learning Studio; 10:15am–1pm; £15/£5 Friends/£3 children 6+ yrs; prebooking essential

Curators’ Gallery Talks on collection

displays are at 3pm on the first Tuesday of every month.

EXHIBITION TOURS Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust

2.30pm Tue, 7pm Fri (until 18 Sep) Ai Weiwei

SEN FAMILY WORKSHOPS Sun 11 Oct Experienced gallery educators lead these creative sessions for children with special educational needs and their families. Places are limited and must be booked on events.lectures@ royalacademy.org.uk or 020 7300 5839.

Learning Studio; 11am–1pm; free

2.30pm Wed, 7pm Fri (23 Sep–4 Dec) Jean-Etienne Liotard

2.30pm Tue, 7pm Fri (27 Oct–22 Jan) 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

LIOTARD EVENING EVENT

AI WEIWEI ROUNDTABLE

The Evolution and Conservation of Pastel Painting

Ben Vickers: Virtual Resistance

Fri 20 Nov Find out about the development of pastel in the 18th century, with Tate conservator Rosie Freemantle.

Reynolds Room; 6.30–7.30pm; £16/£7 reductions (incl. exh entry), £12 (event only)

INMOTION AT THE R A

AI WEIWEI ROUNDTABLE Maurizio Marinelli: Rewritten Histories

Liotard Exhibition Tour for Mobility Impaired Visitors

Sat 21 Nov Join Professor Maurizio Marinelli, Senior Lecturer in East Asian History, University of Sussex, to discuss Ai Weiwei’s contribution to the rewriting of China’s urban history.

General Assembly Room; 3–4.15pm; £5

Mon 30 Nov A tour of ‘Jean-Etienne Liotard’ for wheelchair users.

Meet in the Front Hall; 9–11am; £3 ARCHITECTURE FREE TALK Nicholas Hawksmoor: The Man and The Myth

ARCHITECTURE EVENT Reinier de Graaf

LIOTARD FREE TALK Liotard in London: Patrons and Pastels

Mon 16 Nov Curator William Hauptman examines Liotard’s astonishing portrait work created while he was in London, and his connections with the Royal Academy.

Reynolds Room; 1–2pm; free

Sat 28 Nov Ben Vickers, activist and Curator of Digital at the Serpentine Gallery, examines the potential of emergent digital platforms as channels for decentralisation and resistance.

The Saloon; 3–4.15pm; £5

Mon 23 Nov Reiner de Graaf is a partner of OMA’s architectural practice. In this lecture, he considers architecture’s social and economic role in today’s globalised world.

Geological Society; 6.30–7.45pm; £12/£6 reductions

Mon 30 Nov Owen Hopkins discusses the career of British architect Nicholas Hawksmoor and shows how, over their history, Hawksmoor’s buildings have been ignored, altered and celebrated.

Reynolds Room; 1–2pm; free ARCHITECTURE EVENT

ARCHITECTURE EVENT

Farshid Moussavi RA

ARCHITECTURE EVENT

Symposium: Freedom and Creativity

Urban Jigsaw Open ‘Crit’

Sat 28 Nov This multidisciplinary symposium examines the interfaces between political, philosophical and creative concepts of freedom.

RA Schools; 11am–6pm; £24/£12 reductions

Mon 30 Nov Architect and newly elected RA Farshid Moussavi examines the role of architecture as an active agent in shaping the culture of everyday life.

Geological Society; 6.30–7.45pm; £12/£6 reductions

Mon 16 Nov Earlier this year, we invited architects to suggest uses for London’s brownfield sites. See the proposals being developed.

Hugh Casson Room; 6.30–8pm; free

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Tue 27 and Wed 28 Oct The Royal Court Theatre is Britain’s leading company dedicated to new work by national and international writers. It has launched the careers of numerous playwrights such as Harold Pinter and Carol Churchill, and was the scene of premieres of plays by Samuel Beckett. But by 1994, this iconic theatre was in a state of disrepair, and Haworth Tompkins Architects were tasked with radically redeveloping the building.

Friends enjoy a talk on its architecture, followed by a backstage tour.

11am–1pm; £27 (incl. coffee); meet at Royal Court Theare, Sloane Square, SW3 The Reform Club

The Italian Garden at Penhurst Place, Tonbridge, which Friends visit on 8 December Art and Architecture Tour of the House of Lords

Thur 24 Sep We begin our tour of the House of Lords at the Norman Porch, traditionally the route used for the sovereign to enter the Palace of Westminster. Friends visit the Queen’s Robing Room, Prince’s Chamber, Lords’ Chamber, Peers’ Lobby, Central Lobby and St Stephen’s Hall. We also visit the Royal Gallery, which features two murals by Daniel Maclise RA (see page 75) and a temporary exhibition marking the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

We finish with a glass of champagne and a visit to the historic Westminster Hall.

5–7.15pm; £58 (incl. champagne, nibbles); directions with ticket British Library

Tue 13 and 20 Oct The British Library is one of the world’s largest research libraries, holding over 150 million items. We discover the architectural inspiration behind this iconic building, and hear about how the ever-expanding collection is managed.

By special arrangement, we also tour the library’s conservation studio and view the painstaking work being undertaken to preserve the nation’s rarest books.

1.15–3.30pm or 2.30–4.45pm (both days); £32; meet at information desk at the British Library, Euston Road, NW1 West Norwood Cemetery

Wed 14 Oct and Thur 5 Nov As one of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemeteries in London, West Norwood is a site of major historical, architectural and ecological interest, with some of the finest sepulchral monuments in the city.

Set within 42 acres, the cemetery opened in 1833 and was the first to be designed

in the Gothic Revival style by architect William Tite. Our tour includes the Grade II-listed St Stephen’s Chapel in the Greek Section, where the wealth of the local 19th-century Greek merchant community is evident from the elaborate and extraordinary sculptures found here.

11am–1pm; £16; meet at cemetery’s main entrance, directions with ticket Lamport Hall and St Mary the Virgin, Northants

Wed 21 Oct Originally a Tudor manor house, Lamport Hall is situated in the heart of the Northamptonshire countryside.

Classically designed by John Webb in 1655, it was the home of the Isham family for over four centuries. We view an outstanding collection of furniture, books and paintings, with portraits by Van Dyck, Kneller and Lely. Friends visit the church of St Mary the Virgin in Wellingborough, designed by Ninian Comper in 1906 and one of the most beautiful churches of the 20th century.

9am–7.30pm; £84 (incl. coach, coffee, lunch, gls wine, tea) Royal Hospital Chelsea

Fri 23 Oct By popular demand, we return to the Royal Hospital Chelsea to reveal the public and private side of this historic building. Led by the ‘men in scarlet’, otherwise known as the Chelsea pensioners, we tour the State Apartments and learn about the work of Wren, Adam, Soane and Vanbrugh. We also see works

by Van Dyck and Lely and visit the Great Hall, chapel and museum.

10.30am–12.30pm or 1.30–3.30pm; £28 (incl. coffee in the morning or a cream tea in the afternoon); meet at Chelsea Gate, Royal Hospital Chelsea, SW3

Wed 28 Oct and 11 Nov Widely regarded as one of the finest Victorian buildings in the country, this palatial masterpiece by Charles Barry has remained largely unchanged since it opened in 1841. We privately tour the Library, Drawing Room and Card Room and learn about the club’s flamboyant interiors, which were inspired by Italian Renaissance architecture and feature a magnificent atrium, gilded ceilings and multi-coloured mosaic floor.

10.30am–12.15pm; £30 (incl. coffee); dress code applies; meet at 104 Pall Mall, SW1Y Harrow School

Wed 4 Nov Founded in 1572, Harrow School is one of England’s most prestigious public schools. Our guided tour includes the Fourth Form Room (one of the best-preserved 17th-century classrooms in Britain), the chapel, the Old Speech Room Gallery and the Vaughan Library.

We see work by George Gilbert Scott RA and learn about Harrow’s former students, which include Lord Byron, Winston Churchill and Benedict Cumberbatch.

12.45–6.30pm; £53 (incl. coach, tea, cakes, sandwiches). This tour involves a considerable amount of walking.

HSBC Corporate Art Collection

Mon 9 Nov HSBC’s art collection reflects the changes made throughout the company’s history, from its establishment in the Far East through to its acquisition of Midland Bank in 1992. Friends enjoy a talk on the scope of the collection, which is rich in both Chinese and British art, focusing in particular on nine extraordinary paintings by Lowry.

We then explore the rest of the collection, which includes works by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Walter Sickert.

6.30–8pm; £30 (incl. gls wine, nibbles); meet at 8 Canada Sq, E14 Sands Films

Tue 10 and 17 Nov Housed in a former granary on the banks of the Thames in Rotherhithe, Sands Films is one of the UK’s leading

How to book ● Postal bookings open now. Post

● ●

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the 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 and 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 www.royalacademy.org. uk/friends For queries about these events, please call 020 7300 5839.

period costumiers and film studios.

Sands has created costumes for films and TV programmes such as Bright Star, Les Misérables and most recently, Wolf Hall.

Managing Director Olivier Stockman leads our tour of the studios, cinema, theatre and costume workshops. We also visit the Rotherhithe Picture Library, housed in the studios, which contains a wealth of history about this area.

11am–1.15pm; £28 (incl. coffee); meet at 82 St Marychurch Street, SE16 Barbican Architectural Walking Tour

Wed 18 and 25 Nov Friends explore the Barbican Centre, and discover the fascinating history behind its construction (including just how much concrete was used). Walking along the Centre’s ‘highwalks’, we learn more about the design and influence of the Barbican, along with surprising discoveries.

11am–12.30pm; £26; meet at Advance Ticket Desk, Level G, Barbican Centre, Silk St, EC2 All Saints Church

Fri 20 Nov All Saints Church is a stunning example of Victorian Gothic architecture. The church was designed in 1850 by the architect William Butterfield, and was beloved by literary figures such as John Ruskin and John Betjeman. In January 2014, All Saints was chosen by Simon Thurley, then head of English Heritage, as one of the ten buildings that have changed the face of Britain. The interior is noted for its polychromatic brickwork and High Gothic interior – a true hidden gem in the streets of central London.

Friends enjoy a talk and tour with Alan Moses, vicar of All Saints.

11am–12pm or 3–4pm; £16; meet at All Saints Church, Margaret Street, W1

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T H E A L H A M B R A , GR A N A DA , S PA I N

These events are generally very popular. We recommend you post your booking form in as soon as you receive the magazine.

Remaining tickets will be sold online and over the phone from 21 September.

The Royal Court Theatre

I M AGE CO U R T ESY P EN H US T P L ACE G A R D ENS

Friends Events and Excursions

Friends Worldwide Art Tours Moorish Spain: Land of Caliphs, Knights and Poets

21–28 Nov 2015 Travel to Andalusia with Dr George

Manginis to discover the legacies of a rich Roman province, a powerful Visigothic kingdom, and the many Islamic emirates and caliphates that ruled from the 8th to the 10th century.

For more information on Friends Worldwide Art Tours call 020 7873 5013 or visit coxandkings.co.uk/ra

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

Event

Date

Number of Tickets

Cost

Total Cost £ 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 & Excursions Please indicate any dietary requirements where relevant The Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford

Mon 23 Nov Founded in 1949, the Higgins Art Gallery houses one of the best collections of fine and decorative arts from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Our private tour includes watercolours by Turner and Burne-Jones, as well as a fine print collection with works by Rembrandt, Whistler and Picasso. Victoria Partridge, Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art, shows us the gallery’s extraordinary collection of works by Edward Bawden RA, which clearly demonstrates his influence on 20th-century art across his seven-decade career as an artist, ceramicdesigner and printmaker.

9am–7pm; £85 (incl. coach, coffee, lunch, tea) Westminster Archives

T H E A L H A M B R A , GR A N A DA , S PA I N

I M AGE CO U R T ESY P EN H US T P L ACE G A R D ENS

Debate

Wed 2 and Thur 10 Dec The City of Westminster Archive Centre houses an extensive collection relating to Westminster’s past and present. We see a number of important items on our fascinating tour, including watercolours

by Paul Sandby RA and Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, a marriage register from 1816 at St Martin-in-the-Fields signed by John Constable RA, 18th-century Gillows furniture sketchbooks, rare prints and 19th-century Liberty Arts and Crafts catalogues.

2–3.30pm; £17 (incl. tea); meet at 10 St Ann’s Street, SW1 Penhurst Place, Kent

Tue 8 Dec Our festive tour this year takes us to the magnificent Penshurst Place, home to kings and noblemen for over 650 years.

The house has belonged to the Sidney family since 1341 and they warmly welcome us for our private visit. Friends

learn about the history of the family and the house, tour the magnificent Baron’s Hall, State Rooms and buttery, and enjoy specialist tours of the furniture, porcelain and needlework. Lunch will be served in the Sunderland Room, with its mullioned windows, part-panelled walls and views across the garden. Fires will be lit and the house decorated for Christmas.

9am–7.30pm; £90 (incl. coffee, coach, festive lunch, wine, tea) Christmas Carols

Wed 16 Dec Please join us for our Christmas Carols evening at St James’s Church, Piccadilly, with festive readings by Royal Academicians and special guests, favourite carols for us all to sing and additional choral splendour from the chamber choir Vivamus. We begin the festivities with a drinks reception in the John Madjeski Fine Rooms at the RA. 6.30–7.30pm (drinks reception), 7.45–9pm (carol service); reception and carol service £35; carol service only £20 Overnight Tour to Herefordshire and Worcestershire

Mon 13–Thur 16 June 2016 Save the date for this four-day tour which will include Hereford and Worcester Cathedrals and Roy Strong’s stunning Laskett Gardens, one of the largest private formal gardens created in England since 1945. We have arranged a special visit to the Worcester Porcelain Museum with an introduction from the Director and a demonstration by a master potter, and we also privately visit Eastnor Castle. Friends will stay at the stunning Bank House Hotel, nestled in the heart of the Worcestershire countryside.

To request further details, please call Sue Stamp on 020 7300 5811

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

Expiry date

Issue number/start date (Switch only)

Signature Title First name 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 7 300 8023

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Exhibitions in London and the rest of the UK

Listings

Asian autumn From exquisite Indian fabrics to Korean ink paintings, Asian art is all around, says SARAH BOLWELL As the Ai Weiwei retrospective arrives at the Royal Academy this autumn, a great wave of Asian art crashes over the British Isles. The Whitworth in Manchester tells the story of Chinese art from 1970 to the present day through highlights from the M+ Sigg Collection, the most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world (until 20 Sep). Pivotal examples of the country’s recent painting, sculpture, video, digital art, performance and photography (On the Wall Shenzhen (I), 2002 by Weng Fen, above) are chronologically arranged, and provide, for anyone readying themselves for the RA show, an opportunity to understand Ai’s work within the context of the wider Chinese contemporary art scene.

At London’s ICA, Chinese artist Zhang Ding creates an installation related to Bruce Lee,

the actor and martial artist whose Hollywood tenure saw the osmosis of Eastern culture into Western cinema. Transforming the gallery into what he calls ‘mutating sound sculpture’, Ding will cover the space with mirrors – influenced by the final scene in Lee’s film Enter the Dragon (1973) – to create a confusing environment, heightened by a series of performances by invited artists (12–25 October). The art fair Frieze London in 2014 saw Japanese duo United Brothers and the Green Tea Gallery serve ‘radioactive’ broth to visitors in their project, ‘Does This Soup Taste Ambivalent?’.

This year’s edition of Frieze will yield some equally tasty Asian artistic treats. One artist not to miss is Beijing-based Guan Xiao, who makes sculptural landscapes with video and LED screens; she presents work at Antenna Space, a

Shanghai gallery who shows at the fair for the first time (14–17 Oct).

Pace dedicates the ground floor of its gallery in the RA’s Burlington Gardens building to key works by the Korean artist Lee Ufan (18 Sep–24 Oct), one of the major figures of the minimalist movement Mono-ha (‘Object School’) in Japan in the 1960s, and a pioneer of monochromatic painting. The exhibition focuses on his abstract works from the 1970s and 80s, experimental ink paintings that boldly broke with the prevailing trends of figuration and realism in Korean art of the time.

The V&A shifts the focus south with a festival of events dedicated to India. The museum has one of the largest collections of Indian artifacts outside of India, and highlights of its programme include the glittering jewelled swords in ‘Bejewelled Treasures: The Al Thani Collection’ (21 Nov–28 March 2016); ‘Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma 1852-60’, featuring fascinating early photographs of the region (until 11 Oct); ‘The Fabric of India’, which displays sumptuous

textiles from 17th- and 18th-century silks and cottons (wall hanging from Gujarat, c.1700, above) to contemporary fashions (3 Oct–10 Jan 2016).

Asian Art in London brings together the major global Asian art dealers in a week of talks, gallery open evenings and selling exhibitions (5–14 Nov). Both Christie’s and Sotheby’s will be staging major Chinese auctions, while Mayfair dealer Eskenazi shows recent paintings by Liu Dan – arguably the greatest living master working in traditional Chinese ink painting. This is the artist’s first solo

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BARBICAN CENTRE

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

Light Echoes: Aaron Koblin and Ben Tricklebank The Curve, until 6 Sep. Eddie Peake: The Forever Loop 9 Oct 2015-10 Jan 2016. The World of Charles and Ray Eames 21 Oct 2015-14 Feb

2016.

BRITISH MUSEUM

Great Russell Street WC1, 020 7323 8299, www.britishmuseum.org Celts: Art and Identity 24 Sep 2015-31 Jan 2016.

DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY

Gallery Road SE21, 020 8693 5254, www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk 14 Oct 2015-17 Jan 2016.

Cromwell Road SW7, 020 7942 2000, www.vam.ac.uk What is Luxury? Until 27 Sep. Shoes: Pleasure and Pain Over 200 pairs of the most extreme shoes, from historic designs to the latest innovations, until 31 Jan 2016. Captain

More than Meets the Eye: New Research on the Estorick Collection cotton appliqué wall hanging (detail), made in Gujarat for the Western market, c.1700, at the V&A ABOVE On the Wall Shenzhen (I), 2002,

by Weng Fen, at the Whitworth OPPOSITE inlaid bronze vase, Tokyo, c.1900, at Macolm Fairley, during Asian Art in London ABOVE OPPOSITE

show in Europe and has been four years in the planning. Superb Asian ceramics can be seen at galleries including Malcolm Fairley in St James’s, which displays Japanese examples decorated with enamel, lacquer and metal (inlaid bronze vase from Tokyo, c.1900, opposite).

Asian art is often defined by contrasts – light and shade, opulence and simplicity, spirituality and technical skill, and, in the case of Ai Weiwei, the political and the personal. ‘Asian Art in London’, together with the many other exhibitions across the country, celebrates this rich artistic diversity.

23 Sep-20 Dec.

A.P.T GALLERY

Bankside SE1, 020 7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk Agnes Martin Renowned for her subtle, evocative canvases marked out in pencil grids and pale colour washes, until 11 Oct. The EY Exhibiton: The World Goes Pop This exhibition reveals how artists around the world engaged with the spirit of Pop, from Latin America to Asia, and from Europe to the Middle East, 17 Sep 2015-24 Jan 2016. Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture 11 Nov 2015-3 Apr 2016.

V&A

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

31 & 34 Cork Street W1, 020 7439 1866, www.alancristea.com Cornelia Parker 12 Oct-14 Nov. Prints by Sculptors 12 Nov-23 Dec.

TATE MODERN

The Amazing World of M.C Escher

ESTORICK COLLECTION OF MODERN ITALIAN ART

ALAN CRISTEA

figure of the international modern art movement, until 25 Oct. Frank Auerbach (b 1931, Berlin) A major exhibition of around 70 paintings and drawings from the 1950s to the present day, 9 Oct 2015-Feb 2016.

open show established by the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, 15-27 Sep. Watercolour Journeys: RWS Autumn Exhibition 2-31 Oct. The Masters: Relief Prints This year’s exhibition will be dedicated to relief printmaking in all its forms. Curated by Angie Lewin RE, 3-15 Nov.

Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860 Over 60

BEAUX ARTS LONDON

Trafalgar Square WC2, 020 77472885, www.nationalgallery.org.uk Goya: The Portraits Sainsbury Wing.

Admission charge, 7 Oct 2015-10 Jan 2016.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

London Commercial

St Martin’s Place WC2, 020 7306 0055, www.npg.org.uk Giacometti: Pure Presence The first major exhibition to focus on Giacometti’s portraits, includes important paintings, sculpture and drawings, 15 Oct 2015-10 Jan 2016. Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015 12 Nov 2015-21 Feb 2016.

TATE BRITAIN

Millbank SW1, 020 7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk Fighting History British history painting through the ages, from 18th century history paintings by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) and Benjamin West (1738-1820) to 20th century and contemporary pieces by Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) and Jeremy Deller (b.1966) until 13 Sep. Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World An exhibition of work by

Barbara Hepworth (1903-75), a leading

BANKSIDE GALLERY

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

National Original Print Exhibiton An

striking views of Indian and Burmese landscapes and architecture, until 11 Oct. The Fabric of India Explores India’s handmade textiles from the third to the twenty-first century, 3 Oct 2015-10 Jan 2016.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY

Harold Wharf, 6 Creekside SE8, 020 8694 8344, aptstudios.org TWENTIETH An exhibition of recent work by artist-members and trustees, past and present, of the ‘Art in Perpetuity Trust’ to celebrate the charity’s twentieth anniversary, open Thurs-Sun, 12-5pm, 19 Sep-11 Oct. A.P.T Open Studios 2015 Fri 25 Sep, 6 -9pm; Sat 26 Sep, 2-6pm; Sun 27 Sep, 2-6pm.

ABBOTT AND HOLDER

48 Maddox Street W1, 020 7493 1155, www.beauxartslondon.co.uk

Terry Frost: Centenary Exhibition

Exhibition to coincide with those at Leeds Art Gallery the Newlyn Gallery and the Exchange Gallery, 8 Oct-7 Nov. Anna Gillespie: New Works An exhibition of bronze sculptures, originally created from wood, nuts, seeds and other natural/found objects, 3 Sep-3 Oct.

30 Museum Street WC, 020 7637 3981, www.abbottandholder.co.uk

Twentieth Century Watercolours and Drawings 6pm Thurs 17 Sep-17 Oct. Brian Stonehouse MBE (1918-1998)

WWII SOE secret agent and American Vogue fashion illustrator, 6pm 29 Oct23 Dec. ‘Lists’ Introducing 100 New Works to Stock First Wednesday of every month at www.abbottandholder. co.uk. Email gallery@abbottandholder. co.uk to receive email alerts.

© T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY A DA M G A L L ERY

London Public

ADAM GALLERY

13 John Street, Bath, 01225 480 406, www.adamgallery.com

Pedro Rodriguez Garrido: Cityscapes

26 Sep-16 Oct (London preview at The Troubadour Gallery SW5, 22 Sep). Dan Parry-Jones: Lifeseen 24 Oct-13 Nov (London preview at The Troubadour Gallery SW5, 21 Oct).

Essaouira Street, 2015, by Dan Parry-Jones at Adam Gallery

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 charlotte.burgess@royalacademy.org.uk. Readers should contact galleries directly for opening times and ticketing queries

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BEN URI GALLERY & MUSEUM

108a Boundary Road, St John’s Wood NW8, 020 7604 3991, www.benuri.org

Out of Chaos; Ben Uri: 100 Years in London Includes Auerbach, Bohm,

Head on Black, 2015, by Shani Rhys James at Connaught Brown

Bomberg, Chagall, Epstein, Kossoff and Soutine. At Inigo Rooms, Somerset House, Cultural Institute at King’s College London, WC2. Free entry. Daily 12-6pm, late Thur 8.30pm, until 13 Dec. Rothenstein’s Relevance The work of Sir William Rothenstein (1872–1945) and his circle, including Freedman, Gertler, Kramer, Rutherston, Wolmark and others. Free entry. Tues-Fri 10am5.30pm; Sat, Sun 11am-5pm; Mon 1-5.30pm. 10 Sep 2015-10 Jan 2016.

BONHAMS

Eaton Hall, 2014, by Ed Kluz, at John Martin Gallery

101 New Bond Street W1, 020 7447 7447, www.bonhams.com The South African Sale Features works by the country’s most sought-after masters: Irma Stern, Anton van Wouw, J.H. Pierneef and Gerard Sekoto, Sale 9 Sep; Viewing 6-9 Sep. Zero vs Gutai Exhibition A unseen private collection of masterpieces from two dynamic approaches to contemporary art; coinciding with Frieze London, 1120 Oct. Africa Now: Contemporary Africa Bonhams’ first auction entirely devoted to contemporary African art. Featuring artists from across the continent including El Anatsui, Cheri Samba, Aboudia and Goncalo Mabunda, Sale: 15 Oct; Viewing: 11-15 Oct. CONNAUGHT BROWN

The New Baby, 2015, by Anita Klein at Eames Fine Art

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

Shani Rhys James: Caught in the Mirror 10 Sep-2 Oct. AFRO 6 Sep-7

Nov. CURWEN & NEW ACADEMY GALLERY

34 Windmill Street W1, 020 7323 4700, www.curwengallery.com Yanko Tihov & Nadia Tsakova 3-30 Sep. Bill Pryde In the upper gallery, 3-30 Sep. Henry Walsh 7-28 Oct. Lee Sellers In the upper gallery, 7-28 Oct. Printmaking Now Featuring Mark Hearld, Andrew Ingamells, Susie Perring, Henrik Simonsen, 4-25 Nov. Jonathan Gibbs: Wood Engravings, Drawings & Paintings In the upper

gallery, 4-25 Nov. THE CYNTHIA CORBETT GALLERY Autumn in New York, 2012, by Dganit Blechner, at The Linda Blackstone Gallery

15 Claremont Lodge, 15 The Downs, Wimbledon SW20, 020 8947 6782, www.thecynthiacorbettgallery.com Texas Contemporary George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas 1-4

Oct. Young Masters: Dialogues Sphinx Fine Art, 125 Kensington Church Street W8 12-24 Oct. Lluis Barba: Travellers in Time & Young Masters Focus on New Work and online Paddle8 Auction 109 Norfolk Street, LES, NY, 0002 4-22 Nov.

30th Anniversary of The Linda Blackstone Gallery, 11 Sep. Affordable Art Fair, Battersea Park, London, 21-25 Oct. Affordable Art Fair, Singapore, 12-15 Nov.

EAMES FINE ART GALLERY

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

58 Bermondsey Street SE1, 020 7407 1025, www.eamesfineart.com Norman Ackroyd RA: Work in Progress, County Kerry New work

from Ackroyd’s latest journey to Ireland, 2 Sep-3 Oct. Anita Klein: Full Circle Klein depicts her life and family in paintings and original prints.

This exhibition marks a new chapter in her life as she welcomes her first grandchild, 11 Nov-6 Dec.Bridget Riley: Screenprints 7 Oct-8 Nov. THE FINE ART SOCIETY

148 New Bond Street W1S, 020 76295116, www.faslondon.com David Inshaw: New Paintings 16 Sep-1 Oct. THE GALLERY IN THE CRYPT

St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square WC2, 020 7766 1100, www.smitf.org/ www.carolineleaf.com Playing with Perception: an exhibition of paintings by Caroline Leaf Showcases Leaf’s

bold evolution from award-winning animation artist and filmmaker to painter. The paintings and works on paper offer abstract and organic spaces to enter and contemplate, 20-31 Oct. GREENWICH PRINTMAKERS GALLERY

1A The Market SE10, 020 8858 1569 www.greenwich-printmakers.org.uk Sally McKay 1 Sep-20 Sep. Elaine Marshall 22 Sep-11 Oct. Sandra Millar 13 Oct-1 Nov. Martin Mossop 3 Nov22 Nov. JOHN MARTIN GALLERY 38 Albemarle Street W1S, 020 7499 1314, www.jmlondon.com Hugh Buchanan Paints the John Murray Archive 18 Sep-10 Oct. Ed Kluz: Monument 15 Oct-7 Nov.

JONATHAN CLARK FINE ART 18 Park Walk SW10, 020 7351 3555, www.jcfa.co.uk Michael Vaughan: Paintings 23 Sep20 Oct. THE LINDA BLACKSTONE GALLERY

The Studio at Little Stafford, 23 Oaklands Road N20, 07808 612913, www.lindablackstone.com

LLEWELLYN ALEXANDER Society of Feline Artists – Annual London Show 2015 Now in its 20th year, until 18 Sep. Pamela Kay ARCA RWS RBA NEAC and Robert Wells RBA Paintings of the French

countryside and Monet’s garden at Giverny by Pamela Kay alongside new pictures of London, Yorkshire, Sussex and Italy by Robert Wells, 29 Sep-21 Oct. John Yardley RI: One Man Show Featuring Venice, Vienna, Oxford and Seville as well as English rural scenes and still lifes, 27 Oct-18 Nov. LONG & RYLE GALLERY

4 John Islip Street SW1, 020 7834 1434, www.longandryle.com Su Blackwell: Dwelling Private View 16 Sep. 17 Sep-9 Oct. Anne Desmet RA: Time Sequences 15 Oct-13 Nov. Private View: 14 Oct. MALL GALLERIES: FEDERATION OF BRITISH ARTISTS

The Mall SW1, 020 7930 6844, www.mallgalleries.org.uk

Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 10am-5pm (closes

1pm on final day) 14-25 Oct. The Natural Eye: Society of Wildlife Artists Annual Exhibition 10am-5pm

(closes 1pm on final day) 29 Oct-8 Nov. MARLBOROUGH FINE ART

6 Albemarle Street W1, 020 7629 5161, www.marlboroughfineart.com Jonathan Lux The Valerie Beston Artist’s Trust Prizewinner 2015, 9 Sep-12 Oct. Avigdor Arikha Works on paper, 17 Sep-17 Oct. Frank Auerbach Recent work, 23 Oct-21 Nov. MESSUMS

28 Cork Street W1S, 020 7437 5545, www.messums.com Margaret Green NEAC 25 Nov-24 Dec. OFFER WATERMAN

17 St George Street W1S, 020 70423233, www.waterman.co.uk

David Hockney RA: Early Drawings

25 Sep-23 Oct. OSBORNE SAMUEL

23a Bruton Street W1, 020 7493 7939, www.osbornesamuel.com George Dannatt and Friends This exhibition will also include works

© 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 E A M ES F I N E A R T. © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY J O H N M A R T I N G A L L ERY. © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY T H E L I N DA B L ACKS TO N E G A L L ERY

Listings

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DEBORAH STERN ARBS .

EXHIBITIONS CORPORATE SOURCING CONSULTANCY

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To view this and other sculptures telephone for appointment in central London Telephone: 020 7262 7104 EXETER: 1 Barnfield Crescent, Exeter EX1 1QT BUDLEIGH: Fore Street, Budleigh Salterton EX9 6NH

Email: info@deborah-stern.com Website: www.deborah-stern.com

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Daniel Libeskind, Denise Scott Brown, Nieto Sobejano and Philip Treacy, 17 Sep 2015-23 Jan 2016.

STUDIO_LEIGH

4 Garden Walk EC1, 07776 241 242, www.studioleigh.com Studio_Leigh Launch Private view: 24 Sep. Features the work of 28 Londonbased emerging artists including Harry Burden, 25 Sep-6 Nov.

Plackman’s oeuvre encompassed sculpture, drawings, installation and photographs, 9 Sep-17 Oct. Lynn Chadwick/Geoffrey Clarke Compares and contrasts two of the most important Modern British sculptors of the twentieth century. They first showed together at the 1952 Venice Biennale, 23 Oct-28 Nov.

SYLVESTER FINE ART

64 Belsize Lane NW3, 020 7443 5990, www.sylvesterfineart.com Original Artists’ Posters 9-27 Sep. 20th and 21st Century British and European Fine Art Including modern

20 Park Walk SW10, 020 7351 0410, www.jonathancooper.co.uk Nicholas Turner: Lighthouse 17 Sep30 Oct.

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

PIERS FEETHAM GALLERY

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

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

Stuart Robertson Recent Paintings: London - Paris - Delhi 1-24 Oct. John James: Edgelands Paintings of the

Thames and Kent Marshes 5-28 Nov. REDFERN GALLERY 20 Cork Street W1, 020 7734 1732, www.redfern-gallery.com

Kurt Jackson: A Cornish Bestiary 22 Sep-17 Oct. Danny Markey: The Night Paintings 22 Sep-17 Oct. Ffiona Lewis: New Work 20 Oct-7 Nov.

Cosmos with Palm at Heligan, 2015,

by Louis Turpin at Bohun Gallery

Childhood Recollections: Memory in Design Zaha Hadid RA, Kengo Kuma,

PANGOLIN LONDON

PARK WALK GALLERY

Portrait of Yves Saint Laurent, 1964, at The Bowes Museum

ROCA LONDON GALLERY Station Court, Townmead Road, SW6, 020 7610 9503, www.rocalondongallery.com

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

Carl Plackman: Obscure Territories

Tantris 5, 1970, by George Dannatt at Osborne Samuel

THE RICHMOND HILL GALLERY 26 Richmond Hill TW10, 020 8940 5152, www.therichmondhillgallery.com John Bellany CBE RA 27 Sep-1 Nov. Barbara Rae CBE RA RE 15 Nov 201524 Jan 2015.

RICHARD GREEN 147 New Bond Street W1, 020 7493 3939, www.richardgreen.com Frieze Masters Stand E2, 14-18 Oct. Old Master Paintings Including works

by Jan and Pieter Brueghel The Younger, Jacob Isaacsz van Ruisdael and Aert van der Neer, alongside Impressionist works by Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro at 147 New Bond Street, Sep-Oct. Modern & Post-War British Art Works by Henry Moore, William, Ben & Winifred Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, John Piper, Christopher Wood, L.S. Lowry at 33 New Bond Street, Sep–Oct.

THACKERAY GALLERY Ralph Freeman: Another Place to be New work exploring rhythm, line

and curve, culminating in a symphony of colour, light and abstract form, 8-25 Sep. Anthony Garratt: Bigger than Me The power of landscape captured in monumental form, 6-23 Oct. Ethel Walker: Sky & City Scottish landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes of London and New York, 3-20 Nov. TRIBAL ART LONDON

The Mall Galleries, The Mall, SW1, www.tribalartlondon.com Collectors’ Private View: 2 Sep, 1-5pm.

Opening Hours: 2 Sep, 6-9pm; 3 Sep, 10.30am-9pm; 4 Sep, 10.30am-7pm; 5 Sep, 10.30am-6pm.

WADDINGTON CUSTOT GALLERIES

11 Cork Street W1, 020 7851 2200, www.waddingtoncustot.com Peter Blake: People An exhibition of new and never previously exhibited portraits, 18 Nov-23 Dec. WIMBLEDON FINE ART

41 Church Road, SW19, 020 8944 6593, www.wimbledonfineart.com

Sam Lock: Exhibition of New Paintings 13-27 Sep. Jack Morrocco Solo Exhibition In association with

Stafford Gallery www.staffordgallery. co.uk 4-18 Oct. Michel Maly: Solo Exhibition 1-15 Nov.

Rest of UK ARTWAVE WEST

Morcombelake, Dorset, 01297 489746, www.artwavewest.com Summer Exhibition The annual mixed show featuring eight artists continues with a late addition of new paintings by Elisa McLeod, 1-26 Sep. Amy Albright: Above and Below 2 Oct-7 Nov. Autumn Exhibition featuring Louise McClary A diverse show featuring

Heather Duncan, Suchi Chidambaram and Martin Goold, alongside McClary’s new heartfelt paintings celebrating the land, 13 Nov-19 Dec. BEAUX ARTS BATH 12-13 York Street, Bath, 00441225464850, www.beauxartsbath.co.uk Martin Greenland Stunning landscape visions in oil by John Moores and prizewinner Martin Greenland, 7 Sep-3 Oct. Beth Carter New sculptures, 7 Sep-3 Oct. Akash Bhatt New urban landscapes from India and New York, 12 Oct-7 Nov. Akiko Hirai New ceramics, 12 Oct-7 Nov. BOHUN GALLERY

15 Reading Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, 01491 576228, www.bohungallery.co.uk

Louis Turpin: The Passion for Gardens Continues Turpin celebrates

some of the most important gardens in the British Isles, 5 Sep-3 Oct. Eleanor Fein: New Paintings

Beautifully observed objects and characters blur the boundaries between fantasy and reality in these enigmatic paintings, 10 Oct-31 Oct. THE BOWES MUSEUM

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

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, until 25 Oct. New Light Contemporary artwork in the North, a selling exhibition, 17 Oct 2015-7 Feb 2016.

BRIGHTON MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton, 030 0029 0900, www.brighton-hove-museums.org.uk Pierdom Simon Roberts’ photographs of Britain’s piers, 3 Oct 2015-21 Feb 2016.

© T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY B E AUX A R TS B AT H . © OS B O R N E S A M U EL . © F O U N DAT I O N P I ER R E B ER GÉ-Y V ES S A I N T L AU R EN T/ M AU R I CE H O GEN B O O M . © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY B O H U N G A L L ERY

Red Squirrel (Dovedale Walk), 2015,

by Martin Greenland at Beaux Arts Bath

collected by Dannatt of his friends and fellow artists John Wells, Terry Frost RA, Alexander Mackenzie, Denis Mitchell and Paul Mount, 7-19 Sep. Sybil Andrews: Linocuts A major exhibition of linocuts. A new publication, Sybil Andrews: A Complete Catalogue, will be launched during the exhibition, 24 Sep-8 Oct Eileen Gray: The Private Painter Rare paintings, drawings and photographs for sale for the first time in England by this Irish artist. Also launching a new publication, Eileen Gray: The Private Painter, 12 Oct-7 Nov.

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TWENTIETH An exhibition of recent work by Artist-members and Trustees, past and present, of the Art in Perpetuity Trust to celebrate the Charity’s twentieth anniversary of nurturing, supporting and exhibiting fine art from its studio and gallery complex in Deptford, South East London

PHILIP SUTTON RA ‘Woodcuts 1960s - 1970s’

A P T GALLERY 19 September to 11 October 2015 Exhibition open Thursday to Sunday from 12noon to 5pm

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6 October 2015 - 15 January 2016 Great Fosters

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Finding: Isolated Images A series of

exhibitions exploring light, colour and atmosphere in work by three Dorset artists working in oil, pastel, watercolour and mixed media, 13-30 Oct

John Duffin: Night & The City 3 Dec 2015-10 Jan 2016. Norman Ackroyd CBE RA Apr 2016.

CHRIST CHURCH PICTURE GALLERY

Standing Man, 1961, by Lynn Chadwick at Gallery Pangolin

Christ Church, St Aldates, Oxford, 01865 276172, www.chch.ox.ac.uk/gallery Undisputed Masterpieces General John Guise’s Swans - Leonardo, Michelangelo, Titian, until 5 Oct. A View of Venice An exploration of a rare and unknown panorama of Venice from the late 16th century, 15 Oct 201525 Jan 2016. Printing Ideas and Ideas for Printing Select examples of Venetian printing culture, 15 Oct 2015-8 Feb 2016.

CAROLINE WISEMAN AT THE ALDEBURGH BEACH LOOKOUT AND ART HOUSE

Time Heals, 2015, by Joan Doerr at the Open Eye Gallery

31 Crag Path, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 01728 452754, www.carolinewiseman.com Eileen Cooper RA Recent works inspired by Aldeburgh, plus book launch and talk, 5 Sep. Autumn Exhibition Mixed show of works by major British artists including many RAs in the ArtHouse (by appointment) 19 Sep. Regine Bartsch Responses to the uniqueness of Aldeburgh. Mixed show in the Art House (by appointment), 17 Oct.

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Summer Exhibition

Sculpture and works on paper celebrating the summer season, until 11 Sep. Lynn Chadwick: Draughtsman The first major exhibition to focus on Chadwick’s mastery of line, 26 Sep-6 Nov. HAYLETTS GALLERY

Oakwood House, 2 High Street, Maldon, Essex, 01621 851669, www.haylettsgallery.com Chris Wenlock Landscapes and buildings rich with colour, pattern and texture, 12 Sep-10 Oct. Tessa Spenser Pryse RBA Vibrant oil and watercolour paintings recording journeys through France, the Scottish Highlands, Switzerland, Venice, Essex and Suffolk, 17 Oct-14 Nov. Glynn Thomas RE Etchings depicting London, Venice and East Anglia, 21 Nov-23 Dec. THE HOLBURNE MUSEUM

DE LA WARR PAVILION

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

Murmuration: a new work by Laura Ellen Bacon Site-specific willow

and established practices will work with collaborators to produce paintings, drawings, objects and other art actions in the space, 26 Sep-29 Nov. 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. The Art of Acquisition The Artist’s Homes Works from the Fry Art Gallery Collection as well as private loans, until 25 Oct. Annual Exhibition and Sale Works from artists and illustrators from around the British Isles 7-8 Nov.

THE GALLERY AT 41

41 East Street, Corfe Castle, Dorset, 01929 480095, www.galleryat41.com Body Double-Double Body, 2015,

by Harry Burden at Studio_Leigh

9 Chalford Ind. Estate, Chalford, Gloucs, 01453 889765, www.gallery-pangolin.com

Great Pulteney Street, Bath, 01225 388569, www.holburne.org Canaletto: Celebrating Britain See Britain through Venetian eyes in this celebration of British architecture and scenery by Italy’s greatest eighteenthcentury artist, £8.50, until 4 Oct.

In The Realm of Others Project Artworks Artists with complex needs

Tiger’s Head from the Throne of Tipu Sultan, Gold, c.1750-1800 at the Holburne Museum

GALLERY PANGOLIN

Judy Tate: The Colour of my Views 25 Aug-12 Sep. Felicity House PS: Home and Away 23 Sep-10 Oct. Vicky

installation inspired by starlings in flight, both in and outside the museum, free, until 4 Oct. Gold: an exhibition from the Royal Collection 60 exquisite works from the Early Bronze Age to the twentieth century, £8.50, 24 Oct 2015-24 Jan 2016. Nahoko Kojima An intricate three-dimensional sculpture hand-cut from a single sheet of paper, free, 24 Oct 2015-24 Jan 2016.

MANX MUSEUM

Kingswood Grove, Douglas, Isle of Man, 01624 648000, www.manxnationalheritage.im

Secret Treasures: Modern British & Irish Art Isle of Man Arts Council and

Manx National Heritage are hosting an exhibition by leading artists drawn from Isle of Man private collections. Curated

by Christie’s, this exhibition will enable a wider audience to share these usually hidden treasures, 17 Oct-28 Nov. MOMA WALES

Heol Penrallt, Machynlleth, Powys, 01654 703355, www.momawales.org.uk

Barrie Cook: Selected Works 19702015 12 Sep-7 Nov. Geoff Ogden (19291997) 19 Sep-14 Nov. Helen Baines: The Way I See It 26 Sep-21 Nov.

NORTH HOUSE GALLERY

The Walls, Manningtree, Essex, 01206 392717, www.northhousegallery.co.uk Julian Meredith: Fin, River, Swift

Huge woodcuts of whales and fish alongside direct prints of animals and birds, until 26 Sep. Thomas Robinson Landscapes, portrait heads and ‘Greek Street’ - a series based on Piero della Francesca’s ‘Flagellation’, 3-31 Oct. Jason Hicklin RE: Orkney Etchings and monotypes, 7-28 Nov. THE OPEN EYE GALLERY

34 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh, 0131 557 1020, www.openeyegallery.co.uk Joan Doerr: Recent Work Powerful, expressive abstract paintings inspired by the Edinburgh landscape, 9-23 Nov. RABLEY DRAWING CENTRE Rabley Barn, Mildenhall, Marlborough, Wilts, 01672 511999, www.rableydrawingcentre.com Alan Bond & Helen Barff Sculpture and drawings of building and organic forms from the Wiltshire landscapeAeroplane hangars and felt sticks are constructed and deconstructed creating re-purposed spaces, 21 Sep-31 Oct. Multiplied Art Fair 2015 New print editions by Eileen Cooper RA, Naomi Frears, Peter Freeth RA, Katherine Jones, Sara Lee, Nana Shiomi and Emma Stibbon RA at Christie’s, South Kensington, 16-18 Oct. Katherine Jones: Cover and Keep Safe This awardwinning printmaker explores complex themes of shelter and shifting sands, 16 Nov-18 Dec. ROYAL BIRMINGHAM SOCIETY OF ARTISTS

4 Brook Street, Birmingham,0121 2364353, www. rbsa.org.uk Photographic Prize: Urban Life

Inaugural open exhibition exploring the diverse applications of photographic technology today, 10 Sep-3 Oct. Abstraction at the RBSA 5-31 Oct. RBSA New Curators 2015: Exploring Drawing Examining the diverse and

sometimes unexpected ways in which artists use drawing through examples from the RBSA Collection, 2-28 Nov. RIPON CATHEDRAL Ripon Cathedral, Minster, 01765 603534, www.greatnorthartshow.co.uk Great North Art Show A prestigious selling exhibition featuring over 300 works by some of the UK’s finest contemporary artists, free, until 20 Sep.

© G A L L ERY PA N GO L I N . © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY T H E O P EN E Y E G A L L ERY. R OYA L CO L L EC T I O N T RUS T/© H ER M A J ES T Y Q U EEN E L IZ A B E T H I I 2015 . © T H E A R T IS T/CO U R T ESY S T U D I O_ L EI GH

BROOK GALLERY

Fore Street, Budleigh Salterton, Devon, 01395 443003, www.brookgallery.co.uk Brendan Neiland 16 Oct-16 Nov.

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WATERCOLOUR JOURNEYS 2 - 31 October

PRIVATE VIEW Thursday 1 October 6 - 8pm Guest Artist Norman Ackroyd RA RE

Bankside Gallery 48 Hopton Street | London SE1 9JH 020 7928 7521 | Open daily 11am -6pm www.royalwatercoloursociety.co.uk Across Kaibito Plateau II by Caroline McAdam Clark RWS

Watts Gallery

Physical Energy

Watts Chapel

Tea Shop Cake

Limnerslease

Watts Chapel

A day out at WATTS GALLERY - ARTISTS’ VILLAGE Visit Watts Gallery and discover an Artists’ Village, located in the heart of the Surrey Hills. Explore the unique Victorian art collection and acclaimed programme of temporary exhibitions.

Visit the breathtaking Watts Chapel and take a tour of Limnerslease, the Arts & Crafts home of eminent artists G F and Mary Watts and be the first to discover the newly restored Watts Studios, opening this Winter.

www.wattsgallery.org.uk

Down Lane, Compton, Guildford, GU3 1DQ

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Short Courses in London

Autumn – Winter 2015 ROYAL PAVILION

Christie’s Education London Short Courses offer students a unique opportunity to explore different aspects of art and culture from a range of perspectives, with expert speakers drawn from the fields of art business, academia and contemporary curation.

SHORT COURSES Art World Access 21–25 September The London Art Circle Begins 21 September Art Business Course Begins 22 September London Art Course – Modern and Contemporary Begins 23 September The Christie’s Wine Circle Begins 24 September

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Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton, 030 0029 0900, www.brighton-hove-museums.org.uk Exotic Creatures Prince Regent Gallery. Admission payable, members free, 14 Nov 2015-28 Feb 2016 .

Access to Interiors 5–9 October

Floris Perfume Course 13 November

SHIPLEY ART GALLERY & MUSEUM

The Allure of Adornment, a 5000 Year-Old Tradition of Indian Jewels 27 November

Prince Consort Road, Gateshead, 0191 477 1495, www.shipleyartgallery.org.uk

The Art of the Great Parisian Fine Jewellery Houses 3 December

interiors ranging from stately homes to mud huts. Includes new paintings of Jewish homes in Gateshead, until 31 Oct.

Art Business Winter School 7–11 December

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Naomi Alexander: Domesticity - An Exhibition of Interiors Paintings of

TURNER CONTEMPORARY

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

Free entry for 2 with this voucher

The Creative Genius of Stanley Spencer Includes passionate spiritual

works, floral and outdoor scenes, and a moving series of figurative paintings reflecting the artist’s particular joys and anguish, until 20 March 2016.

THE SUNBURY EMBROIDERY GALLERY Image: Barry Peckham RSMA ROI Valsheda, off the Needles (detail)

The Mall, London SW1 www.mallgalleries.org.uk www.rsma-web.co.uk

Drawings, paintings, prints and constructions, 9-26 Sep 11am-5pm (opening event: 5 Sep 2-5pm).

Rendezvous, Margate, Kent, 01843 233000, www.turnercontemporary.org Risk Marina Abramović Hon RA, Marcel Duchamp, Eva Hesse, Carsten Höller, Yves Klein, JMW Turner, Yoko Ono, Gerhard Richter and Ai Weiwei Hon RA, 10 Oct 2015-17 Jan 2016.

Platform 2015 9 Sep-15 Nov. Pedro Reyes: Disarm (Mechanized) 12 Sep 2015-10 Jan 2016.

THE STANLEY SPENCER GALLERY

Over 300 works by some of the most celebrated marine artists at work today from the deep sea to quiet harbours, from super-tankers to sailing dinghies, from all that is beside the sea to what lies under it.

Yvonne Crossley RWA: New Work

SLADERS YARD

Southall and craft and accessories by leading artists and designers, open daily, 19 Sep-1 Nov. Sladers Yard Winter Show Mixed show of leading artists’ work, from 7 Nov.

14 to 25 October 2015

THE DRAWING GALLERY

The Old Chapel, Walford, Shropshire 01547 540 454, www.thedrawinggallery.com

West Bay Road, West Bay, Bridport, Dorset, 01308 459511, www.sladersyard.co.uk Daisy Cook: Recent paintings & Tim Nicholson: Unseen paintings from a Lifetime Until 13 Sep. Marzia Colonna: Collages and Sculpture With furniture by Petter

Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition

Flavin alongside new pieces by Nicolas Deshayes and others, until 27 Sep 2015.

Terry Frost A retrospective on the event of the centenary of the artist’s birth.

Organised by Tate St Ives but shown at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange from 10 Oct 2015-9 Jan 2016 due to the temporary closure of Tate St Ives from 28 Sep 2015-20 May 2016.

The Walled Garden, Sunbury-on-Thames, 01932 788101, www.sunburyembroidery.org.uk Recent Graduate Hanny Newton: Metamorphic Textures Exploration of

traditional embroidery techniques and layered felting to create sculptural rock formations inspired by rock layering, 8 Sep-4 Oct. Marielle Schram: The Rhythm of a Morning Walk The natural colours in Schram’s oil paintings are enhanced by her preparatoy process, projecting a two-dimensional illusion of depth and stillness, 6 Oct-8 Nov. TATE ST IVES

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

Images Moving Out Onto Space

With iconic works by Bryan Wynter, Liliane Lijn, Bridget Riley and Dan

WADDESDON MANOR

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

Henry Moore: From Paper to Bronze

100 drawings from the collection of The Henry Moore Foundation, open Wed-Sun, until 25 Oct. Simon Periton: Resistance is Fertile Sculptural bedding in the gardens, open Wed-Sun, until Oct. Jane Wildgoose: Beyond All Price Wed-Sun, until 25 Oct. YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK

West Bretton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, 01924 832631, www.ysp.co.uk Caro in Yorkshire Until 1 Nov. Bob and Roberta Smith: Art for All 5 Sep 2015-3 Jan 2016. Bill Viola 10 Oct 201510 Apr 2016.

ZILLAH BELL GALLERY

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

The Original Print Show Curated by Norman Ackroyd CBE RA Ackroyd

curates his selection of contemporary original etchings, engravings, lithographs, screenprints and digital prints 5 Sep-31 Oct. Rievaulx, Yorkshire Works by artists including: Peter Hicks, Anne Thornhill, Sue Morton and Paul Blackwell, inspired by Rievaulx, Yorkshire, 3-24 Oct. Hilary Paynter RE New works by one of the UK’s leading wood engravers and Past President of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, 31 Oct-21 Nov.

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Image: Victor Hageman The Emigrants, c.1910 Ben Uri Collection

Exploring a century of émigré history in London through the hidden treasures of the Ben Uri Collections

Ben Uri: 100 Years in London Until 13 December 2015 Free entry | 12 – 6pm daily | Late Thurs 8.30pm Inigo Rooms Somerset House East Wing King’s College London WC2R 2LS www.benuri100.org | #BenUri100

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Showcasing Art History Lecture series Tuesdays 7.15-8.15pm followed by drinks • Inspiring • Accessible • Sociable Autumn 2015: British post-war art c.1945 - c.1965 10 lectures from 6 October 2015 Spring 2016: Image and Imagination in Late Medieval Europe, c.1200 - c.1500 10 lectures from 12 January 2016 Summer 2016: Global Contemporary Art 5 lectures from 19 April 2016 contact: t: 020 7848 2678 e: short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk www.courtauld.ac.uk/learn/showcasing The Courtauld is an internationally renowned centre for the study of art history and conservation

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BOOK NOW 15 Oct 2015–10 Jan 2016 www.ashmolean.org

10/08/2015 12:26

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

Readers’ Offers Gorferydd No 2, 1983 by Kyffin Williams at Paisnel Gallery at 20/21 British Art Fair

Shopping

RA Publications

LAPADA is offering readers a free ticket to their 2015 LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair (22-27 Sept). Now in its sixth year, the fair brings together over 100 exhibitiors presenting a unique collection of objects from across the art and antiques spectrum. See enclosed insert.

Cass Art is offering £5 off the Cass Art A3 Jumbo Watercolour Gummed Pad. £13.95 for 50 sheets of 300gsm paper.

One pad per person. Enter promotional code RA09 at www.cassart.co.uk before 15 Sep. See advertisement on page 105.

As well as publishing the catalogues that accompany each exhibition at the Royal Academy, the institution also produces books featuring the work of its Academicians. The RA Shop is offering a 10% discount on the following new titles, which are available this autumn:

Sahara is offering 10% off all full price purchases over £150 from their AW2015 collections, in store or online.

Visit saharalondon.com/RA for discount code. Offer valid until 4 Oct. See enclosed insert.

The Sketchbooks of Chris Wilkinson RA is published to coincide with his

The Holburne Museum is offering

discounted entry £5.50 (reduced from £6.95) for ‘Canaletto: Celebrating Britain’ (until 4 Oct). Visit www.holburne.org and see advertisement on page 103.

2-for-1 Tickets 20/21 British Art Fair (10-14 Sept)

at the Royal College of Art. The fair specialises in modern and post-war British art.

Eating Out, Travel & Membership

exhibition ‘Thinking Through Drawing’ (see page 79). This handsome volume brings together working drawings from 20 years of Wilkinson’s sketchbooks.

These provide a unique insight into the development of many of his practice’s most influential works, including the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, Maggie’s Centre in Oxford and the King’s Cross Gasholders. £15.25 (rrp £16.95).

Richoux, opposite the Royal Academy,

is offering a 10% discount on breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea or dinner. See advertisement on page 84.

The Ashmolean Museum ‘Titian to

Canaletto: Drawing in Venice’ (15 Oct 2015-10 Jan 2016). 100 drawings from the Uffizi, the Ashmolean and Christ Church. See advertisement on page 103.

Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art ‘More than Meets the

Eye: New Research on the Estorick Collection’ (until 20 Dec). See advertisement on page 101.

The Fan Museum ‘Made in China’

(5 Sep-31 Dec) is a collaborative project between The Fan Museum and Hong Kong-based collector Edwin Mok. This unique exhibition traces the evolution of fans made for export to the West from the late seventeenth century onwards.

Valid on full price tickets only. See advertisement on page 101.

Private Jet Tours invites readers to a talk on Caravaggio at the Royal Overseas League on 7 Oct. Coffee/tea from 2:30pm followed by the presentation and drinks. Further information on the trip 'Following Caravaggio’ in Spring 2016 also available. RSVP by 30 Sep at www.privatejettours.co.uk/presentations or on 0844 800 0809. See advertisement on page 115.

The Royal Over-Seas League, located close to the RA, provides 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 www.rosl.org.uk or telephone 020 7408 0214.

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islands as St Kilda, but also reveals the artist’s joy and enthusiasm in working en plein air, whatever the weather. £15.25 (rrp £16.95).

We Think the World of You: People and Dogs Drawn Together

by David Remfry RA contains the

artist’s intimate portraits of dogs and their owners and shows the mutual understanding that so often exists between the two. Many of the sitters, including Susan Sarandon and Alan Cumming, are fellow residents of the famous Chelsea Hotel in New York, where Remfry lived for many years. A number of the sitters contribute lively descriptions of their relationships with their pets. £15.25 (rrp £16.95).

A Hebridean Notebook by Norman Ackroyd follows the successful ‘A

Shetland Notebook’ which the RA published last year. ‘A Hebridean Notebook’, with 40 double-page watercolour illustrations, captures not only the atmosphere of such remote

All titles available from the RA Shop, online at www.royalacademy.org.uk/shop (Enter RAMAGAUTUMN at checkout to claim your discount) or by calling 0800 634 6341 (Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm).

© THE ARTIST'S ESTATE/COURTESY PAISNEL GALLERY, LONDON.

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Amongst its rich collection of 19th and 20th Century paintings are over 90 works by Van Gogh. Our tour is based at the at the 4* NH Museums Quarter Hotel.

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The latest developments in and around the RA

Artist and RA Treasurer Chris Orr prepares for a meeting of the Academy’s Finance Committee at Burlington House

Values added Chris Orr RA juggles his art practice with the job of RA Treasurer, balancing financial imperatives with safeguarding the soul of the institution, says RICHARD CORK. Photograph by CAROL SACHS The irrepressible artist Chris Orr RA, now 72, never stops darting energetically from one ambitious project to another. Although he retired as Professor of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art seven years ago, his vigorous commitment to watercolour painting and printmaking has intensified since then. And in August 2014 he

was elected Treasurer of the Royal Academy.

Orr loves this new job, telling me that, ‘the RA is doing incredibly well, and the architectural interventions by David Chipperfield will change things in a great way from 2018. The Schools will be brought right up to date by 2019, with better workshops, a proper library, digital suites and access to the marvellous new lecture theatre.’

But Orr has no illusions about the amount of time he now spends in Academy meetings: ‘The theory was that I would be there two days a week, but sometimes I’ve had to be there four times a week, and it’s proven difficult to switch on and off to the Academy’s affairs so readily.

The temperature is always rising at the RA.’ As Treasurer, Orr’s key job is being Chair of the Finance Committee: ‘There are seven of us, we meet six times a year, and plan five years

ahead – we must look right into the future. I have to be the glue that makes different segments of the RA work together, from the Academicians and the Friends to the RA staff. Everyone is very passionate about their points of view and I try to make that whole package work. I’m not the financial director, but I look at the way we conduct ourselves. The RA has to respect its values, and there is always a conflict between idealism and pragmatism. What I try to do is represent the RA’s soul – its past and present.’

Orr emphasises that he doesn’t set the budgets. ‘That would be ridiculous. But I do oversee them, and it’s good that I’m not a financial person. The Academy has been run by artists for centuries, from Joshua Reynolds to the present day. Artists are entrepreneurs: they can’t bury their heads in the sand and they are pretty shrewd business people. The Academy is pragmatic, and that’s why it has survived so long.’

What is the biggest challenge confronting the Treasurer? ‘Understanding how modern corporate finances work. Financial professionals use a whole new language that I have had to learn. It’s a battle and it’s ongoing. The RA is going through radical changes and dealing with much bigger sums of money, like those from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Retaining the soul of the RA is tricky – it could easily become corporate. The artists continue to govern to safeguard against this in order to keep the RA’s identity and stay unique for the right reasons.’

Another challenge for Orr, as he admits, is balancing all this with making his own work. ‘My life has become pretty anarchic.’ Orr is fascinated by history, and shows me an extraordinary print called London’s Burning (2015), which he describes as ‘a dance through time – a historical panorama with people dancing on rubble in 2011, echoing people doing similar things back in 1666.’ He believes that ‘history is everything – when you’re drawing or painting, you’re stepping outside time and ghosts appear from the past.’

Orr is equally adept at satire, following in the tradition of Hogarth and Gillray. A new lithographic and silkscreen print called Moonlight Sonata, while the mice are away the Cats will play (2015) is alive with hilarious incidents, and could be seen as a metaphor for Orr’s restlessly creative life. He never stops, moving from printmaking to ‘the fantastic medium’ of watercolour to ‘writing, researching and juggling’ all sorts of information.

‘I’m instinctively connective, bringing together very disparate things – like being an artist and the RA Treasurer.’

To see recent and past prints by Chris Orr RA visit www.chrisorr-ra.com

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© M A L I M O R R IS R A A N D M A R L EN E M CK I B B I N . © M A L I M O R R IS R A A N D EL E A N O R P R I TCH A R D. CO U R T ESY O F A I W EI W EI S T U D I O/ I M AGE CO U R T ESY O F A I W EI W EI /© A I W EI W EI

Academy News

Academy News LEFT Bangle, earrings and necklace from the ‘Two

by Two’ range by Marlene McKibbin with Mali Morris BELOW ‘Creekside’ blanket designed by Eleanor Pritchard with Mali Morris

Partners in design

‘We didn’t get together on a platform to debate the difference between design and painting. We got together in our studios to make some things.

People often talk about it as an intellectual question but for us the discussion happened naturally through our exchange and practice.

It was surprising to all three of us, I think, to discover so much.’

© M A L I M O R R IS R A A N D M A R L EN E M CK I B B I N . © M A L I M O R R IS R A A N D EL E A N O R P R I TCH A R D. CO U R T ESY O F A I W EI W EI S T U D I O/ I M AGE CO U R T ESY O F A I W EI W EI /© A I W EI W EI

Take one artist, two designers and a shop renowned for its exclusive ranges and what have you got? ALICE McCANN has the answer

Two by Two jewellery collection by Marlene McKibbin with Mali Morris RA and Creekside cushions and blanket

by Eleanor Pritchard with Mali Morris RA are available exclusively from the Royal Academy Shop, http://roy.ac/shop, 0800 634 6341

Mali Morris RA, a painter known for her profound study of colour, has stepped beyond her studio to collaborate with designers on two new ranges at the RA Shop. One result is a collection of jewellery (above), created in partnership with Marlene McKibbin, whose vibrant, rhythmic work in acrylic, stainless-steel and gold is found in collections worldwide. Another is a reversible blanket (right) with cushions, from the studio of textile designer Eleanor Pritchard, who fuses traditional weaving techniques with a midcentury-inspired aesthetic.

‘It was a dialogue,’ says Morris, standing in her studio in Deptford, London. ‘And dialogue for me is not about information that goes from A to B. It’s creative. It constructs. We discussed principles, processes and the differences in the ways we work, to arrive at the finished pieces.’

While Morris worked on both collections in tandem, the two are entirely separate projects. With McKibbin the outcome is ‘Two

by Two’, a range of bangles, pendants and earrings made from elliptical slices of highly

polished acrylic through which light refracts to create concentrations of colour on the tips (above). This luminosity is in direct contrast to the thick, mottled quality of ‘Creekside’ (right), the weaving Morris worked on with Pritchard.

The range derives its name from the studios looking out onto Deptford Creek that both artist and designer occupy.

Both of these new ranges, which are available exclusively at the RA Shop, are imbued with Morris’s sensibility as a painter, particularly her interest in colour. ‘When we were deciding how the colours might operate together, Mali knew instantly,’ says McKibbin, who initially invited Morris to her studio at home to ‘play’ – a word that characterises the openness and intimacy of their work. For Pritchard, it was about ‘opening up a conversation’ that could lead to a surprising outcome. ‘I instinctively go to the same colours when I’m designing and Mali put a wild card in there,’ she explains.

Morris points out that the results had more far-reaching impact than perhaps expected.

News in brief

AI WEIWEI KICKSTARTED This summer the RA launched a Kickstarter campaign for the first time, inviting the public to support an effort to bring Ai Weiwei’s installation Trees (left) to the RA’s Annenberg Courtyard. At the time of going press, £73,921 had been raised towards the goal of £100,000. To find out more about the work and the campaign, visit http://roy.ac/AiWeiweiTree NEW ROYAL ACADEMICIAN ELECTED Peter Randall-Page has been elected an Academician in the category of Sculptor. His recent commissions include façades for The Laboratory, Dulwich College, made in collaboration with Grimshaw Architects, the practice of Nicholas Grimshaw PPRA.

Trees, 2009-10/2015, by Ai Weiwei

BOXING CLEVER The Academy set a challenge on Instagram, inviting art lovers to create a shadow box in response to the RA’s Cornell show. Eileen Cooper was among the

RAs who also took part. To view the winners, visit http://roy.ac/CornellChallenge.

WHAT’S NEW AT BURLINGTON GARDENS Hoardings are being erected around Burlington Gardens in preparation for the major RA redevelopment project. For more details on the plans, visit http://roy.ac/250. The RA Shop, Atelier café and Pace gallery at Burlington Gardens are open as usual.

ARTISTS IN AMERICA The American foundation for the RA continues its programme with a preview of sculptor Richard Long RA’s New York show, as well as an evening with painter Sean Scully RA. The foundation is looking forward to visiting US exhibitions on Wolfgang Tillmans RA, Frank Stella Hon RA and William Kentridge Hon RA. For information, contact 001 212 980 8404 or info@aarat.org

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As the RA extends its activities beyond its galleries, ELEANOR MILLS reports on two off-site projects by Academicians in London and Hong Kong

One More Time, 2015, by Cornelia Parker RA, at London’s St Pancras International station

Ever since its inception in 1768, the Royal Academy has exhibited the best contemporary fine art in its galleries. Now the RA is moving beyond its gallery spaces in Piccadilly with a series of offsite projects in which Academicians respond to dramatic spaces, in the UK and abroad, with site-specific artworks.

In London, Cornelia Parker RA’s installation One More Time (2015; above left) is now on display in the concourse of St Pancras International as part of the station’s Terrace Wires art programme. Inspiration for the work came while Parker had been waiting for a train to Paris. She noticed that another commission in the station by David Batchelor (now deinstalled) was restricting her view of the station’s magnificent 19th-century Dent clock.

‘That gave me the idea to hang a facsimile of the clock in front of the original, but in black, with all the original white clock’s colours reversed like a photographic negative,’ she explains.

She describes the two clocks as ‘alter egos’, as they both tell the same time differently.

‘I want people to double take because they’re not sure which time to look at.’ One More Time eclipses its white counterpart when viewed from the platforms – as you disembark from a train and walk down the platform the eclipse is gradual and beautiful, like a solar eclipse.

‘It appropriates the ideas of parallel time, and night and day, as well as astrological time.’

In Hong Kong earlier this year, Richard Wilson RA launched the Academy’s threeyear collaboration with the Peninsula Hotel by balancing a vintage bus high up on the building’s sun terrace. The kinetic sculpture, wittily entitled Hang On A Minute Lads, I’ve Got A Great Idea (2012; left), is Wilson’s full-sized replica of the bus that featured in the famous finale of the 1969 heist movie The Italian Job. ‘Vehicles don’t go on roofs,’ says Wilson, ‘so the incongruity of the sculpture teetering seven floors up on the hotel was quite a spectacle.

‘It was like flying the flag for Britain and the RA,’ he adds, ‘not only in its red white and blue stripes, but also in its ambition.’

One More Time – Terrace Wires: Cornelia Parker RA St Pancras International, London, www.terracewires. com, in partnership with HS1 Ltd, until November Cornelia Parker Alan Cristea Gallery, London, www.alancristea.com, 12 Oct–14 Nov

Hang On A Minute Lads…, 2012, by Richard Wilson RA, at the Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong

To watch a video about the making of One More Time, visit http://roy.ac/onemoretime

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© M A R T I N B RU D N IZ K I D ES I GN S T U D I O. © B A R B A R A R A E R A . © M A R I O N M ACP H EE

Time to go further

© CO R N EL I A PA R K ER R A / F O R T ER R ACE W I R ES AT S T PA N CR AS I N T ER N AT I O N A L S TAT I O N , CO - P R ES EN T ED BY HS1 LT D. A N D T H E R A / P H OTO © T I M W H I T BY, GE T T Y I M AGES . © R I CH A R D W I LS O N R A /CO U R T ESY M DS F I N E A R T/O R I GI N A L LY CO M M IS S I O N ED BY T H E D E L A WA R R PAV I L I O N A N D GEN ER O US LY S U P P O R T ED BY ED D I E I Z Z A R D, A R TS CO U N CI L EN GL A N D GR A N TS F O R T H E T H E A R TS V I A T H E N AT I O N A L LOT T ERY A N D T H E H EN RY M O O R E F O U N DAT I O N , AS PA R T O F T H E LO N D O N 2012 F ES T I VA L .

Academy News

Join the club The Academicians’ Room in the RA’s Keeper’s House began life in 1883 as an architectural gallery, before becoming the favourite haunt of the Academy’s artists as a private members club.

From 9 September, the room enters a fresh phase in its rich history, with a new design by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio. Vintage furnishings now create the intimate, bohemian ambience of an artist’s drawing room (illustrated left). Annual club membership is £300 (under-35s £150). RA Friends are invited to visit the Academicians’ Room on 16, 17 and 18 September, the days of the ‘Ai Weiwei’ Friends Preview Days. Friends who sign up before 7 September will have the joining fee waived plus an invitation to the Opening Party on 8 September (020 7300 5920; academiciansroom@raarts.org.uk).

Humpback Whale IV, 2015, by Marion MacPhee

© M A R T I N B RU D N IZ K I D ES I GN S T U D I O. © B A R B A R A R A E R A . © M A R I O N M ACP H EE

© CO R N EL I A PA R K ER R A / F O R T ER R ACE W I R ES AT S T PA N CR AS I N T ER N AT I O N A L S TAT I O N , CO - P R ES EN T ED BY HS1 LT D. A N D T H E R A / P H OTO © T I M W H I T BY, GE T T Y I M AGES . © R I CH A R D W I LS O N R A /CO U R T ESY M DS F I N E A R T/O R I GI N A L LY CO M M IS S I O N ED BY T H E D E L A WA R R PAV I L I O N A N D GEN ER O US LY S U P P O R T ED BY ED D I E I Z Z A R D, A R TS CO U N CI L EN GL A N D GR A N TS F O R T H E T H E A R TS V I A T H E N AT I O N A L LOT T ERY A N D T H E H EN RY M O O R E F O U N DAT I O N , AS PA R T O F T H E LO N D O N 2012 F ES T I VA L .

Academy News

Sea changes The coast continues to inspire artists, as a selling show of art in the Keeper’s House reveals, says natural history writer PATRICK BARKHAM The sea was a once subject of fear, before the Romantics saw creative possibilities in our terror of the ocean, and articulated an emerging passion for coastal landscapes. The presence of the sea – from its light to the creatures within it – remains a powerful influence on artists, as a new exhibition in the RA’s Keeper’s House shows.

‘Between the Land and the Sea’ is co-ordinated

by Barbara Rae RA, the Scottish painter and printmaker (Lacken Cross, 2011; above right), and is part of the ‘Art Sales’ programme at the RA, with the works on view in the Keeper’s House available to purchase online and by mail order. The show includes work inspired by

Lacken Cross, 2011, by Barbara Rae RA.

Scottish moorlands and coastlines but it is not, as Rae emphasises, a landscape show. Instead, there is a far wider range of responses to wild phenomena – depictions of lobsters and other shellfish (Elizabeth Blackadder RA), light on water (John Mackechnie), mermaids (Ashley Cook) and a majestic humpback whale (Marion MacPhee, above).

‘As a painter, I’m not interested in setting down topographic detail,’ says Rae. ‘I’m curious about the ways people interact with land and sea – what they have done to alter their environment over the centuries, whether by fishing or agriculture.’ The artist lives in Edinburgh but admits that she heads westwards for inspiration.

‘I cannot actually work on the east coast of Scotland because the light is so wrong – the sun is in the wrong place,’ she says. As well as western Scotland, she travels to County Mayo, Ireland, in winter, when low sunlight picks out neolithic field patterns and other archaeological detail.

Rae’s work is also informed by encounters with beach debris, seabird shapes and the geological

formations so eloquently revealed by sea erosion.

‘Between the Land and the Sea’ includes work by Royal Academicians and other artists who have an association with Glasgow Print Studio. One of those is Murray Robertson, who harks back to our ancient fear of the sea by reinterpreting the historic cartographers who adorned their maps with fantastical creatures. Robertson’s Law of the Sea (2010) includes text by Hunter S. Thompson: ‘It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.’ If British beaches were simply soft and sunny they wouldn’t be nearly as inspirational: a ‘slight edge of menace’, in Robertson’s words, is richly stimulating for artistic creation.

Between the Land and the Sea The Keeper’s House, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 020 7300 8000, 29 Oct–6 April 2016 Art Sales www.royalacademy. org.uk/artsales, 020 7300 5933 Barbara Rae Richmond Hill Gallery, Richmond, 020 8940 5152, www.therichmondhillgallery.com, 15 Nov–24 Jan 2016

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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 we’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 Š Benedict Johnson

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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

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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 Sundays relax with brunch as you listen to live jazz.

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

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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

to 4pm, a brunch is also available. The Balcon has its own private dining room seating up to 16 guests; separated by silk curtains, it gives the opportunity to enjoy the atmosphere of the restaurant.

Monday-Saturday 6.30am-11pm Sunday 7am-10pm.

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

8 Pall Mall SW1, 020 7389 7820 www.thebalconlondon.com

FRANCO’S

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

3 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.

We have private dining facilities to seat up to 60 guests and run regular cookery schools. 11-15 Swallow Street W1, 020 7734 4756 www.bentleys.org

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Franco’s, founded in 1946, has acquired a brand new sleek interior for 2015 to celebrate its tenth anniversary. 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.

THE BALCON

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THE CHESTERFIELD MAYFAIR

A short walk from the Royal Academy is The Chesterfield Mayfair, home of the ‘Charlie and The Chesterfield’-themed afternoon tea, priced at £34.50 and hosted

by Willy Wonka himself. The quality of afternoon tea has been officially recognised, as the Chesterfield has retained the Tea Guild’s Award of excellence for five consecutive years. Berkeley Square, 35 Charles Street W1, 020 7491 2622 www.chesterfieldmayfair.com

Flooded by natural daylight, 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. Every Sunday from 12pm

8 THE GRILL AT THE DORCHESTER

An iconic Mayfair restaurant since 1931, 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.

Delicious dishes range from modern grill favourites, the signature blue lobster chowder, classics such as the carving trolley or Sunday roast and an extensive sweet soufflé menu - the first of its kind in London. The Dorchester, Park Lane, W1, 020 7317 6531 www.dorchestercollection.com

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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

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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

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Restaurant & Shopping Guide GUSTOSO RISTORANTE & ENOTECA 9

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 wellstocked bar and the menu is based around 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; Fri/Sat: 12-3pm, 6.30-11pm; Sun: 12.30-9.30pm.

35 Willow Place SW1, 020 7834 5778 www.ristorantegustoso.co.uk

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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 until 5pm, or you 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.

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

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QUAGLINO’S

Quaglino’s is a legendary hot spot with a glamorous Art Deco-inspired restaurant, two stunning bars and private dining rooms. The modern European menu designed by Executive Head Chef, Mickael Weiss, changes seasonally and always uses the highest quality ingredients. The restaurant offers a host of menu options, along with Q Brunch on Saturdays, accompanied by bottomless bubbles. The bars boast an iconic cocktail list, serving tipples with a taste of the past and an extensive wine list. The Main Bar also serves up a Prohibition Afternoon Tea from 3-5pm. From 10pm, the restaurant transforms into an entertainment mecca, showcasing live music from resident house bands and renowned DJs. Quaglino’s is open Monday to Saturday, for lunch

and dinner, with the bars open until 1am Monday -Thursday and 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, with late bar food also available. 16 Bury Street SW1,

160 Piccadilly W1, 020 7499 6996 www.thewolseley.com

020 7930 6767 www.quaglinos-restaurant.co.uk

of military and fine bespoke handwork, the firm has enjoyed the continuous patronage 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 the 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

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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

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

4

PENHALIGON’S

Penhaligon’s is a British perfumer, founded in 1870 by William Penhaligon.

Characterised by our longstanding relationship with royalty, as proud holders of two Royal Warrants from HRH the Duke of Edinburgh and HRH the Prince of Wales, as well as our creativity and rich heritage of 145 years. William’s first fragrance, Hammam Bouquet, was inspired by the steamy, rich scents of the Hammam baths on Jermyn Street. We continue William’s legacy of creating fragrances inspired by the unexpected to this day, from a Savile Row workroom to London Dry Gin, the ballet to London’s historic docklands. 16/17 Burlington Arcade 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

W1, 020 7493 9136 www.penhaligons.com

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WILTONS

Offering a selection of traditional menus for 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.

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 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

55 Jermyn Street SW1, 020 7629 9955 www.wiltons.co.uk 14

THE WOLSELEY

A café-restaurant in the grand European tradition and located just a few minutes’ walk from the Royal Academy of Arts, 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.

3

GIEVES & HAWKES

Gieves & Hawkes has been located at No.1 Savile Row, a short stroll from Burlington House, for over 100 years. With a tradition

5

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 twentieth 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

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Proof for RA Magazine pub. 17 November

Proof for RA Magazine pub. 26 May

Courses C u r we n Print S tu d y C e n tre

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

2015 available 2015Printmaking Printmaking brochure brochure out now curwenprintstudy.co.uk 01223 892380 enquires@curwenprintstudy.co.uk

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Proof for RA Magazine pub. 17 November

Art Courses in Andover, Hampshire

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

Classified Saturday life classes

All media, all levels with professional tutoring. Long & short poses.

Experienced portfolio advice for students. Elianor Jonzen.

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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.

Art History Courses & Guided Visits Small, friendly,

informative, inexpensive and fun talks by experts for anyone interested in art history and all that London has to offer www.arthistoricallondon.com

t: 09799905959 www.casajuno.co.uk

Menton Town Centre

Sleeps 12. Enjoy the eclectic art collection and interior design of this Now booking: drawing classes for restored 1860s villa and separate artists and enthusiasts www.rca.ac.uk/ guest house situated just above studying-at-the-rca/short-courses/ town centre, 5 mins walk to shops and beaches. Beautiful garden with panoramic views across the bay and Buy and Sell over the old town. Lovely pool area with shower and shady places to We are always pleased to buyBelinda_Horley_proof.indd 1 sit and read. Secluded dining area good quality second-hand & older on front terrace or in shady 19/03/2015 16:21 citrus books for our shop. Aardvark Books tree courtyard. Enjoy versatility Manor Farm, Brampton Bryan, of 2 houses on one site. Ideal for Shropshire, SY7 0DH 2 families. Off street parking for 2 Email: aardvaark@btconnect.com cars. Now booking Summer 2016. www.aardvark-books.com t: 07900 916729 In the beginning there was pattiebarwick@gmail.com www.mentonsejour.com sound…

Quality Sound Design & Editing France: Menton Audio for gallery, film & installation, 2 bedroom house in grounds of Consulting & noise reduction 1860s town villa; pool, beautiful Mike 07759510452 www.mikewyeld.com views of sea and old town. Charming courtyard with lemon trees; Easy Holidays walk to covered market, sea, train and bus station. Off street VENICE HEART OF THE parking available. t: 07900 916729 CITY pattiebarwick@gmail.com Pretty beamed apartment in leafy www.mentonsejour.com

Royal College of Art

courtyard. 1 double bedroom, sleeps 2. Excellent location for main sights. (St Marks and Rialto 8 mins).

Reasonable rates, 3 nts+ patricianolan@btopenworld.com 07796957579

Marrakech

Chic, elegantly restored 18th century riad in Medina. Four double bedrooms, seductive baths, cook and housekeeper. t: 07770431194. www.riadhayati.com

France: Nice

Stunning view over the roofs of the old town. Quiet sunny 2 room balcony flat. Sleeps 2/3. 30 minute bus to airport. £500 pw. Tel. 020 7720 7519 or 01736 762013

Foundries

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Fine Art Bronze Casting Welding – Patina Specialists Ceramic Shell Contact: AB or Jerry 1 Fawe Street, London E14 6PD t: 020 7515 8052 f: 020 7987 7339 ....

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. Venice, Nice, Cornwall and Plymouth. www.jo-whitney.co.uk Marjana Wjasnova Symbolic, abstract, spiritual artist. www.wjasnova.com

Venice Centre

Self-catering apartments in charming c15th palazzetto, sleeps 2/5. www.valleycastle.com

Venice 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

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

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

Tuscan/Umbrian border

Find Donatello, Piero, Burri minutes from our splendid villa. Flexible rates.

Pool, gardens, views, walks, wildlife.

020 7059 0278; www.lafoce.co.uk

Shop Developed exclusively between Philip Sutton RA and the Royal Academy, you won’t find this stunning silk scarf anywhere else. Featuring a detail of a flamboyant garden scene taken from his work Themis (2006/2011, oil on canvas), this piece is the perfect showcase for Sutton’s inventive use of colour.

100% silk crepe de Chine.12:01 50 x 162.5cm. Made in the UK with 12/05/2015 a hand-rolled finish. £75 SKU - 02083536 Discover more of this exclusive range and shop our entire collection at www.royalacademy.org.uk/shop Mail Order 0800 6346341 (Mon-Fri 10am-5.30pm)

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

To advertise here please call Irene Michaelides on 020 7300 5675 or irene.michaelides@royalacademy.org.uk

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08/1

Short Story

The Interpretation of Roads

Untitled (Tilly Losch), c.1935-38, by Joseph Cornell

Roads were never as clear once you were on them, never as beautiful. This thought nosed about in her mind like a sliver of paper: sometimes she could feel it bend and give, sometimes it would seem to stiffen, dart forward and make a cut. And still she continued to peer through her big and dirty locomotive window while beautifully unimpeded roads, or tracks, or trails javelined towards her, opened their deep prospects and then span away again, disappearing.

They were intensely unavailable and therefore intensely inviting.

Of course.

The more savage the landscape became, the more she wished her train would simply stop and tumble her out into wilderness. She pictured herself gladly abandoning her bags after some brief struggle with snow and ruts and silly, tiny wheels designed to be pulled across pavements, not to cope with undiluted terrain, with reality.

She imagined her body as it would become on a rigorous journey: forward-leaning and dogged and free. Her skin would feel tranquil in a setting suitable for natural forms of life, an animal space.

This was, of course, fantasy.

While Canada unspooled alongside her like a movie, like the film she would step inside as her new and adventuring self, she was being carried east. With minimal effort on her part, really no need for her to even pay attention, she was crossing the mathematically level snow plains

and icy lakes that burst upward silently in the distance to become chaos, to become the wild rise of the Rockies. Mountains ground slowly round about her at the edge of her horizon. They displayed glaring surfaces, or dark channels, tall hollows of shade, apparent faults, but she was unable to decipher any meaning in their changes from one form to the next. She did not understand their language.

There was also no way to tell quite how huge everything was, no credible sense of scale. And somehow the presence of snow, of so much whiteness, had flattened all perspectives and she could very easily decide to believe she was staring at a backdrop, a vastly elaborate set, beyond which sunshine, professional chatter and readied mechanisms of obscure purpose were waiting out of sight.

This was, of course, ridiculous.

There was also no way to measure quite how merciless just the simple, raw air might be outside the window frame. At least, this was true until one encountered the unheated sections at each end of every railcar and saw where naked metal had been coralled over by milky accretions of frost upon frost. Corners at floor level looked as if they were being filled with drifted snow, invisible weather creeping indoors to heap and stick. One could stand there on the icy slither and irregularity, being mildly jolted by one’s progress, bleached by winter light, and let the fatally inquisitive chill explore the space between one’s fingers.

She, of course, loved to do just that.

It took more than three days to cross Canada – ways to amuse herself while alone were limited.

And she was, of course, alone.

She was lying on the bed of her shippish little railroad cabin and having her eyes tugged sideways by her view’s direction until she felt tired and had to look away. In theory, her bunk should be hinged back into the bulkhead during daytime and the two chairs folded underneath it should be popped up like origami and there for her use – enough seating for a couple, although she was not visibly a couple. But the idea of lying down while shuddering through pine trees, gazing at lakes, sighting along those appetising roads – it was too miraculous, too perfectly impossible. So she’d asked that her bed should stay – solitary

and remarkable and made up with white sheets.

This meant she could rest and be rocked and face more miles than her lifetime would ever be able to understand. She felt that any speeds of travel above walking pace must produce confusions in the human brain: nightmares, sensations of floating, vertigo, dissociation.

These were, of course, common in any case. Further east, there was a late addition to her cast. He was currently beyond the reach of all technology – both her phone and her computer having been defeated by her location.

They were petulantly eating electricity to no purpose, updating intimations of emptiness.

It would be, of course, not inappropriate to write a letter.

She’d bought postcards – more to save the pictures than because she’d wanted ever to send them. Still, she could be turn-of-last century about communicating, could hope that one of their rest stops would offer her access to stamps, a post box, mail box, trustworthy rider to take off her wishes, thoughts, wishes, intentions, wishes in a leather pouch, kept warm against the saddle as they were galloped the whole way.

Her message would, of course, arrive with unexpected additions – water stains and dusts and so forth – and he would not necessarily understand their language.

He might be at home now, warm and civilised: the angles of his limbs shifting, the clever length of his fingers being active amongst his possessions, his lips smiling, pursing, pressing, as soft as promises and as remarkable as breath.

If she closed her eyes she could not, of course, see him.

The taste, scent, sense of him, though – that was steadfastly with her. His shadow fell behind her like either a bodyguard or a warder and made her invisibly a couple. She sat at café tables, walked, engaged in conversations without him, but still she was accompanied by his kind of Sunday spirit, his way of being occasionally a tall, blithe boy lost in dreaming, pockets filled with sea shells, ticket stubs, magic tricks, expanding ladders to aid fast getaways. There were moments when this felt like the thousand threads she needed to hold her, sustain her in unlikely flight.

At moments, his love had woven the thousand threads that would surely haul her into nowhere.

Of course.

Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust The Sackler Wing, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 020 7300 8000, until 27 Sep. 2009-2016 Season supported by JTI. Supported by The Terra Foundation for American Art. Exhibition organised by the RA, London, and Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

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 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 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 FO U N DAT I O N / VAG A , N Y/ DAC S , LO N D O N 2015

by A.L. KENNEDY. This exclusive short story is inspired by Joseph Cornell’s Untitled (Tilly Losch)

114 RA MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2015

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ACCOMPANIED BY CANON DR ANNE DAVISON NADFAS Accredited Lecturer

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