✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Visual Arts

Review: 250th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, 2018 ★★★★★

12 Jun 18 – 19 Aug 18, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Guest curator Grayson Perry breathes new life into the Summer Exhibition; Royal Academy of Art's longest running annual showcase of contemporary art

By Lucy Scovell on 16/8/2018

80 CW readers are interested
Ron Arad_Where are my Glasses -Under (Green)
Ron Arad_Where are my Glasses -Under (Green)
Review: 250th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, 2018 4 Review: 250th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, 2018 Ali Godwin
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is renowned for its chaotic, non-hierarchical 'Salon Hang', glamorous visitors and flourishing emerging arts scene.


TRY CULTURE WHISPER
Receive free tickets & insider tips to unlock the best of London — direct to your inbox
Originally quite a traditional affair – the Summer Exhibition has been running annually since 1769 – it is today the world's biggest open submission art show, attracting an overwhelming number of entrants each year. This year, around 1200 works are on display; the result is a heady concoction of classic and contemporary, with painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, architecture and film sharing wall and floor space.


For the first time, the Summer Exhibition spans The New RA and spills onto the streets of London’s West End – look out for the installation of over 200 flags designed by Royal Academicians Rose Wylie, Grayson Perry, Cornelia Parker and Joe Tilson before entering the Royal Academy on Piccadilly.


Read more about The New RA here.



Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2018, Bond Street, Rose Wylie flags
Rose Wylie's flags hanging over Bond Street


Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2018; Review


Rid of its intellectual priciness and stultified curatorial hang, the 250th Summer Exhibition – under the helm of guest curator and committee member Grayson Perry – is bigger and better than ever. This 'unique festival of art making' offers a 'sensory, aesthetic and overwhelming experience' explains Grayson Perry during the press preview. And he's right it does. This year's edition is a fun, liberating and visual feast of art by 'the great, the good, and the unknown'. With his flamboyant touch, humorous juxtapositions, and pops of vibrant, bold colour, Grayson Perry has breathed new life into a somewhat atrophying institution.


Exhibition highlights this year include Anish Kapoor’s monumental sculpture Symphony for a Beloved Daughter, 2018, in the Royal Academy's Annenberg courtyard and two new photo-montages by Royal Academician David Hockney. Hockney's enormous photographic drawings on display in the Lecture Room, both over 7 metres in length, are an extension of the Californian-based artist's experimentation with reverse perspective, photo montage and photo editing.


Elsewhere, there's work by Mona Hatoum and Tal R, alongside Royal Academicians Antony Gormley, Wolfgang Tillmans and Rose Wylie. In the principal room of the exhibition (Room III), painted sherbet lemon for the occasion, hangs a very rare Sean Scully figurative work, Ghost Requiem, which is part of a new series created in reaction to the current political climate, and an unusual 'wall-based' Banksy priced at £350 million. The price of the anti-Brexit statement symbolically reflects the amount that the Leave campaign stated would go to the NHS each week if Britain left the EU.



Royal Academy; Summer Exhibition 2018. Installation shot.
Royal Academy; Summer Exhibition 2018. Installation shot, courtesy of Culture Whisper.

But among the showstoppers remains a lot of mediocrity: herein lies the fun. With no intention of segregating good from bad, Perry mixes it all up in a 'joyful celebration of things you just like looking at'. No pomp, no circumstance, just art in all its multitude of forms. Look out for the totally unfathomable juxtaposition of the horizontal Pink Panther sculpture and a portrait of Nigel Farage in Room III, and Marlboro Man, a sculpture made from wool, waste paper and plaster by Calum Stevens in Room VIII.


As part of the 250th celebrations, the committee have also encouraged ‘outsider artists’ – artists with no formal training, and who work outside of the conventional gallery system – to submit new work to showcase the broadest representation of art made now.


Once you've ploughed through the suite of crowded galleries, summon up the courage to see the Royal Academy's accompanying exhibition exploring the history of the Summer Exhibition. The Great Spectacle traces the evolution of the annual show by featuring highlights from the past 250 years. Portraits by Reynolds and Gainsborough stand out for their sheer aesthetic beauty while two Turner landscapes serve as subtle reminders of what good art actually is.


Read more about the Royal Academy Great Spectacle here


Royal Academy; Summer Exhibition 2018. Installation shot.
Royal Academy; Summer Exhibition 2018. Installation shot, courtesy of Culture Whisper.


The Summer Exhibition is always a completely different experience to any other show in London. It requires time and effort, and a lot of stamina, if you want to sidestep the hoarding crowds and bypass the mass of mediocre works on display. That said, it does also provide an unparalleled opportunity to discover emerging talent and pick up works by lesser-known and non-commercial artists.


As always, the majority of the artworks in the Summer Exhibition are for sale, in some cases for fairly affordable prices (the cheapest work is under £100). It's a great opportunity for both new and seasoned collectors to expand on a multi-disciplinary art collection. Enjoy.




What Review: 250th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, 2018
Where Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD | MAP
Nearest tube Green Park (underground)
When 12 Jun 18 – 19 Aug 18, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Price £18
Website Click here for more information



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 17–19 March
Things to do in London this weekend: 17–19 March
Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher in My Brilliant Friend season 4, HBO/Sky Atlantic (Photo: HBO)
My Brilliant Friend, season 4, Sky Atlantic: first-look photo, release date, plot, cast
Best art exhibitions in London. Photo: Thin Air at the Beams
Top exhibitions on now in London

Editor's Picks

 LAPADA Fair, Berkeley Square
LAPADA Fair, Berkeley Square
Winter Edit: the hottest interior design trends of 2019
Winter edit: the hottest interior design trends of 2019
Best art exhibitions, London, 2018
Best art exhibitions, London, 2018
An Illuminating Path, David LaChapelle, 1998. Courtesy of the artist. C. David LaChapelle
Michael Jackson: On the Wall, review, National Portrait Gallery
Egon Schiele, Detail: The Caller, 1913. C. Callimanopulos Collection.
How Egon Schiele and Jean-Michel Basquiat changed the art world forever
Installation view, Blenheim Palace, Yves Klein, Pure Pigment installation, courtesy of Blenheim Art Foundation, photo by Tom Lin
Top 10 art exhibitions outside of London this summer

Editor's Picks

What members say

    Absolutely beautiful! Make sure that you work your way through the characteristic Summer Exhibition chaos to explore Tom Phillips A Humament in the final Read more

    Moya Stirrup

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • Indian Accent

    Already a sensation in Delhi and New York, Indian Accent reinvents Indian dishes using techniques from various cuisines making for a unique and experimental menu.

    Read more...
    Book Map
  • Thomas' Cafe, Burberry

    The breakfast at Thomas' Cafe at Burberry's is all all very, very quintessentially British, highly seasonal produce chosen with scrupulous integrity. Hansen & Lyderman smoked salmon, check, Lalani & Co. tea with Calabrian bergamot, check.

    Read more...
    Book Map
  • Sabor

    Sabor, meaning flavour in Spanish, is all about traditional Spanish ingredients and cooking methods, but with relaxed dining. At their tables, journey from the tapas bars of Andalucía through to the asadors of Castile to the seafood restaurants of Galicia.

    Read more...
    Book Map
80

Art

Royal Academy

Summer Exhibition

Grayson Perry

You might like

  • Audrey Hepburn, 1955, Norman Parkinson

    Proud Galleries London, Audrey Hepburn: Beyond the Screen

  • Review: Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up, V&A

    Review: Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up, V&A ★★★★★

  • RA Lates: Cosmic Ocean, Oceania exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, 2018

    Review: Oceania exhibition, Royal Academy, London ★★★★★

  • Egon Schiele, Nude Self-Portrait, Squatting, 1916

    Royal Academy Exhibition review: Klimt/Schiele: Drawings from the Albertina Museum ★★★★★

  • Jeffrey Gibson, Stephen Friedman Gallery Booth, Frieze London 2022

    How to get the most out of Frieze Week London: 2022

  •  LAPADA Fair, Berkeley Square

    LAPADA Fair, Berkeley Square



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×