Five reasons to visit the RA Summer Exhibition
The Royal Academy's headline show is the longest running open-submission exhibition in the world, and has taken place, uninterrupted, for two-and-a-half centuries. To mark this milestone, the committee headed by Grayson Perry has some exciting treats up its sleeve. As well as new works by David Hockney, a sculpture by Anish Kapoor and beautiful new gallery spaces, the 250th edition will also be spilling onto the streets of central London. Here is why you can't miss it.
1. This is the first Summer Exhibition in the brand new RA
Last month, the new RA in Burlington Gardens opened to great fanfare, and rightly so. As well as impressive new galleries and a lecture hall (where Tom Odell has already performed) you can now delve into the building’s breath-taking vaults, which are dotted with neo-classical sculpture, all designed by the great Sir David Chipperfield.
2. Anish Kapoor is taking over the courtyard
Every year a different artist creates a display for the Annenberg Courtyard and this year it falls to the Turner Prize-winning Anish Kapoor. His sculpture, Symphony for a Beloved Daughter, will hover several metres from the floor in his trademark deep maroon and is guaranteed to make you catch your breath as you walk in.
3. There’s a room full of fun...
... or in the words of Grayson Perry, a room dedicated to "works in which the committee found humour". Held in the Ronald and Rita McAulay Gallery in the new RA buildings there will be a mixture of David Shrigley’s amusing news headlines such as Hole Found in Sock and Woman Spills Coffee, a series of pictures by Martin Parr including selfies of Grayson himself and a trolley full of junk by Michael Landy.
4. It’s a chance to see new work by David Hockney
Hockey has long been experimenting with reverse perspective and photography and the Summer Exhibition is showing two vast new works along those themes. Inside it opens up as well and (the even more catchy) Seven trollies, six and a half stools, six portraits, eleven paintings, and two curtains combine photographs taken from many view-points into a single monumental image, each seven-metres long.
5. Art will be all over the city
Rose Wylie, Cornelia Parker and Joe Tilson are among artists who have designed a series of 200 flags that will adorn the West End this summer. With subjects ranging from Oscar Wilde, neo-classical Italian architecture and Grayson Perry’s cat, Kevin, we can expect some wonderful displays of colour and creativity in the capital this season.
The 250th Royal Academy Summer Exhibition runs from 12 June to 19 August 2018. Visit royalacademy.org.uk
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