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10/6/2006

Summer Exhibition 2006

Royal Academy of Arts, London

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, now in its 238th year, is the world's largest open contemporary art exhibition and features paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and architectural models. Prizes totalling £70,000 are offered to artists in various categories.

This year's theme is 'From Life'. This broad theme encourages new (and even tentative) strategies for art to respond to life and the business of living.

The Royal Academy’s annual Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open submission contemporary art exhibition, with a tradition of showcasing work by unknown and emerging artists alongside that of more established names. Artists featured in this year's show include Georg Baselitz Hon RA, Sandra Blow RA, Anthony Caro RA, Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Ken Howard RA and Richard Long RA.

The Summer Exhibition 2006 includes two memorial galleries dedicated to the late Members Sir Eduardo Paolozzi RA and Patrick Caulfield RA, both of whom died in 2005. Sir Eduardo Paolozzi was a sculptor, printmaker and was elected Royal Academician in 1979. Patrick Caulfield, a 'New Generation’ painter and printmaker, had been a Royal Academician since 1993.

With 1,200 works to be displayed the amount of visible wall and floor space can diminish rapidly during the two weeks it usually takes to hang the entire exhibition. The final effect can be startling for visitors who are used to seeing art hung more sparsely. Some Academicians, notably Peter Blake RA, have even filled the galleries with as many art works as possible, playing with visitors' expectations, and creating a particular frisson in the galleries. Regardless of how many works are exhibited in any one gallery — and it does vary — a lot of effort goes into creating an engaging environment in which each work is shown to best possible advantage. Moving a work can upset the dynamic in an entire gallery and require days of rehanging to achieve a new balance.

A brief history of the Summer Exhibition
When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768 one of its key objectives was to establish an annual exhibition, open to all artists of merit, which could be visited by the public. The first Summer Exhibition took place in 1769 and featured 136 works by 57 artists. Since then the exhibition has been held every year without exception. Today, around a thousand works are selected each year from as many as 9,000 entries representing some 5,000 artists. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, architectural designs and models and continues to be the largest and most popular open exhibition in the United Kingdom.

Image: Homage (1934-2005) by Frank Bowling RA (c) The Artist

Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House Piccadilly London W1J 0BD
Our Opening Hours
10am-6pm Everyday except Friday (last admission to galleries 5.30pm)
10am-10pm Fridays (last admission to galleries 9.30pm)

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