Skip to navigation | Skip to search
No photo credits available.
No photo credits available.
No photo credits available.
Issue Number: 99
‘The Summer Show used to be full of art that was well executed but dull... I want visitors to my gallery to feel like they have missed a stair for a moment’
Humphrey Ocean RA in the Summer Exhibition 2008 Galleries. Photo © Juergen Teller
Humphrey Ocean RA still remembers how stifling the Academy used to be. ‘Henry Moore crossed the road when he walked past the Royal Academy, and I’ve suffered from walking into the Summer Exhibition, feeling ill and thinking: “This is not why I make art.”’
But Ocean also believes, ‘There is something honest about the Summer Show. It reveals what’s happening here, there and everywhere. You can’t do that at Tate. The range at the RA is beyond measure. It’s a freethinking establishment.’
True, he admits, ‘One of the complaints about the Summer Show is that it’s a jumble, because we’re used to beautifully hung, beautifully curated exhibitions elsewhere. So it is more dangerous to curate the Summer Show, and that’s why it can be considered unattractive. But what I love about it is that visitors have to make up their own minds about what’s important in the exhibition. I remember once, Tom Phillips RA took me aside at the opening and said: “Every year, there are five masterpieces in the Summer Show – the challenge is to find them!”’
Far from promoting a cosy clique of RA regulars in the room he is selecting this year, Ocean is ‘keen that as many non-members as possible can show. I’m attracted to wayward people, hecklers and whatever – people on the edge of the art camp rather than in the middle.
I don’t wish to upset anybody by not putting in RA members. But I think my gallery should be inclusive, so I want to juxtapose artists you wouldn’t expect to find hanging together. The Summer Show used to be full of art that was well executed but dull, not near the edge of the cliff. I want visitors to my gallery to feel like they’ve missed a stair for a moment!’
How many artists is he planning to show?
‘I would hope about 100. I’m not afraid of hanging cheek by jowl, but it’s got to look deliberate rather than crammed. And I may be putting in some things that wouldn’t have been in the Summer Show when I first exhibited here about 30 years ago. I’ve even got a couple of people who might be seen as designers rather than artists. One is Margaret Calvert, who designed all those road signs with Jock Kinnear when motorways burgeoned at the beginning of the 1960s. She did the designs in the triangles, and they would work well, even if displayed next to Stubbs drawings, Warhol or Keith Haring. Calvert designed them knowing that they were going to be read at 60mph, so they had to be legible. She is the only one who felt a little bit bewildered to be in the Summer Show. But when I paid her a visit, she became enthusiastic.’
Another potential surprise in Ocean’s gallery is Ron Arad, who is better known as a designer. ‘He’s not recognised as much as he should be in the art world. But he’s having a big retrospective at the Pompidou Centre in Paris this autumn. I came to his work years ago, and now I’ve invited him to display his ping-pong table sculpture. It’s made using stainless steel that reflects everything around it, so it should look amazing in a tightly hung room. It’s a lot of fun to play on – as Tracey and I did for the cover photo – although that won’t be allowed in the show.’
But Ocean is not neglecting more established artists. ‘I’ve chosen Mark Alexander, who exhibits at Haunch of Venison. He’ll be showing one of his black paintings of Dr Gachet, an intense image inspired by the collector who tried to look after Van Gogh in his final months.’
Ocean is also interested in abstract art – hence his decision to include Ben Ravenscroft. ‘He had a show recently at Hales Gallery and is still quite young. He paints dabs of colour laid over each other. They form an image using strong, subdued and milky colours, and what’s exciting to me is that they’re about now – absolutely of this time.’
So are a group of young artists who were at St Martin’s Art College, London, who go by the name of Group Show. ‘They make a range of things, from portraits to abstract objects, all very diverse. I would describe them as like a musical group, each playing different instruments but all contributing to a unified sound.’
From the older generation, Ocean has chosen Geoffrey Rigden, who taught him at Canterbury College of Art. ‘His work is abstract and geometrical, but not hard-edged. It has intelligence, sending out a clear beam. I live chiefly by the eye, and so does Geoffrey.’
Ocean is also showing Mali Morris: ‘A little painting, oblong, with brush strokes going across and four circles, one in each corner. She’s got a particular touch, and her painting is a reddy-mauvey-purpley thing, with thin white paint over that. So it’s quite watery and veiled. I’m keeping the works in my gallery deliberately small, because RAs usually send in such huge works. In fact, I see myself here as a waiter serving up brains on a tray: some of them are better than people give them credit for.’
- Richard Cork
Your account: online ticketing | RA shop
