Why the Royal Academy Summer Show is a glorified car boot sale
Is the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition nothing more than a glorified car boot sale? When you hear the media blurb for their 249th event – over 1,000 works by amateur and professional artists bought together in one place and all or nearly all for sale – it does sound suspiciously like one or a modest art fair. This was not always the case. In the glorious olden days, artists like Sir Joshua Reynolds, JMW Turner, and John Constable were members of the Royal Academy and Varnishing Day of the summer exhibition were famous or infamous as both social and artistic events. In their day it wasn't an event where works were bought or sold but more an occasion for artists to see what their peers had done in the last year.
Tracing those august footprints I enter the courtyard of the Royal Academy and my heart sinks instantly. I am confronted by Wind Sculpture VI by Yinka Shonibare who has done some brilliant and distinctive work in the past. These sculptures are intended to capture movement but sadly fail miserably. Lacking any sense of fluidity and charm they set the scene for the horror of some of the works inside. Draping some of Shonibare’s characteristic African fabric around the neck of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first President of the Royal Academy perched on his ceremonial column, seems to only add insult to injury.
Ascending the gracious staircase there are two mysterious works with equally mysterious titles Here and Thereafter and Firecrest by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, one of Britain’s finest painters and a graduate of the Royal Academy Schools. She has been invited to show by the hanging committee led by Eileen Cooper OBE RA. Sadly her works disappear into the mist and if I did not know they were there it would be easy to miss them.
Nowadays any living artist can submit two works to be chosen by the committee while the 80 Royal Academician can automatically exhibit as many as eight works of their choice. In a separate gesture the hanging committee can also invite selected artists to exhibit, so the result is the galleries are crammed floor to ceiling with so many works, that it is impossible to see anything properly. It is being at a car boot where there is so much garbage everywhere, that in the end, you can't see the good stuff to buy, even if you wanted to. There is no more respect for RA Academicians – they are piled up just as high and just as low. It is just about having the appetite to rummage around, which let's face it, isn't the norm for a major exhibition in such a venerable institution.
In the early galleries the leading names on the British art scene are all here (with the exception perhaps of Damien Hirst). Sir Michael Craig Martin RA beloved teacher of many, draws the eye with a large colourful painting surrounded by two thoughtful quiet works by Tess Jarray RA but must they also be ranged atop a lovely array of small drawings by Alison Wilding RA. There are distinctive quirky works by Jeffrey Camp RA that I would have loved a step ladder to see better. It is good to observe that Basil Beattie RA is in good form and that David Remfry MBE RA is throwing off some of the shackles of tastefulness in his paintings full of VA VA Vroom activity. Sad to see that alas Lisa Milroy RA is still making paintings of shoes.
There is just so much – too much. The architecture room bores as always, not able really to make a compelling case for making architectural models sexy. The squished room with works by the ever popular and ubiquitous Anthony Green RA only somewhat redeemed by a lovely poetic wall of Mali Morris another RA’s work. On the way I note that Sean Scully HON RA has been sadly reduced to very expensive wall paper and yes that is a Cornelia Parker RA Black Path (Bunhill Fields) on a low plinth – a pavement work – patterns observed while walking her children to school.
There are some delightful discoveries to be made if you have the patience and stamina. African artist Abdoulaye Konaté makes the case that Basquiat energy can indeed be channelled. As always Rose Wylie RA delivers the goods with Julieta (Film Notes), some wonderful quirky small drawings and a large triptych of the same subject. I like Jock McFadyen’s RA Harvey Reaches Down Behind the Bar, McFadyen, an artist with a particular style all his own deserves more attention. And who knew that Una Stubbs could do a small totally recognizable portrait of Bill Nighy Our Bill, reasonable at £500 and already snapped up. There is the witty Very Nice Ride a spinning kinetic feathery work by Italian artist Paola Pivi atop a dour glowering photograph The Cleaner by the overtly purposeful performance artist Marina Abramović HON RA.
Isaac Julien has a whole gallery dedicated to his Western Union: Small Boats, a film work for which he has won the £25,000 Woolaston Award work. It is at least a relief to sink onto a bench.
My head is splitting from trying to sort out the wood from the chaff and to discover something new that I did not know before I came. Entering the lecture theatre sparsely hung painted dark grey for effect I am made aware that here is the really “serious art.” A large Anish Kapoor truly grotesque pink mess part menstrual flow and part fetus (priced at a mere £650,000) has escaped his last show at Lisson and is placed next to Dutch Fairy Tale a glorious Rosemarie Trockel HON RA a ceramic piece that I wish I could literally fall into and a modest yet skillful Untitled canvas by Varda Caivano. Here is Julian Schnabel HON RA, another former famous rebel reprising his successful plate paintings of the 1980s (with hopefully better glue) painted here too decorously with roses according to the title Rose Painting (near Van Gogh’s Grave) XVIII.
Opposite is a surprisingly decorous work Und der Bist Maler Geworden by Anselm Keifer HON RA at right angles to American artist George Condo in a surprisingly loose and flowing canvas. Fiona Rae’s RA seductively named canvas She Pricked her Finger Cutting the Cloud is in a direct face off with a smeary Mischievous Player by Indonesian superstar Christina Ay Tjoe. Sean Scully RA is introduced back into the mix along with the skillful Nordic abstraction of Per Kirkeby HON RA. On the floor a splayed yet sadly tasteful sculpture A Bigger Sprawl by Alan Jones RA. Just in case it is all too tasteful Professor Phyllida Barlow CBE RA and teacher of all who were not taught by Sir Michael Craig Martin is here with Untitled :Hammer 2015, a powerful sculpture. In the mix the aptly named Bumps in the Road by American artist Huma Bhabba,. Ellen Gallagher the equally brilliant American artist is represented by Corns a relief made of plasticine that reminds me that my feet are killing me. Mark Wallinger’s large ID painting (37) striking here deserving of being with its glamorous company. A striking room all in all.
Along the way I note El Anatsui HON RA who has has a small distinctive work as does Wangechi Mutu. Along with Julien, Abdoulaye Konaté, Shonibare, Gallagher and Yiadom-Boakye – attesting to the fact that there are people of colour in the exhibition. Almost an anomaly considering all the attendees seem to be of a certain age and race.
Both the problem and the glory of this exhibition is that it does not know what it wants to be. Any show with over 1,200 works is too much for any one human to fully take in. In an art fair spread over a huge hall there is a chance to regroup and recharge. Is the Summer Exhibition an exhibition? Is it a sale? Is there a chance for an amateur to be discovered? A portion of the proceeds of the summer exhibition is put back into the exhibition for improving the Royal Academy Schools. We are sternly told to dig deep into our pockets and there is literally a scoreboard of sales as one enters the exhibition.
In the past few years the Royal Academy has hosted some exhibitions containing truly great works. Their Abstract Expressionism show had some amazing Jackson Pollocks, Painting the Modern Garden Monet to Matisse had Monets “to die for” and Revolution: Russian Art had some wonderfully memorable Malevichs. The problem has always seemed to be the attitude if 20 are good then 30 are better. The result for many of the shows has been padding by second rate Impressionists and cacophony and lack of focus in Russia. Perhaps getting some of the past graduates of the Royal Academy Schools to enter the portals might truly refresh the walls. The sales angle here is all so blatant that I feel okay by using an artist’s work and price to have the last word. Tracey Emin RA’s Never Again!, an edition of 10 neon light sculptures, priced immodestly at £54,000 each.
The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition runs until 20 August 2017
