RA Magazine Blog Listing

On entering Treasures from Budapest, the first thing you see is the beautifully carved St Andrew Altarpiece. One of the most striking works on display, this sixteenth-century work towers over the atmospherically lit Central Hall. In this audio slideshow, exhibition co-curator Joanna Norman explains just what it is about the altarpiece that makes it such an unusual work of art.

In the second video in our 'Glasgow Boys' series, curator Hugh Stevenson of Glasgow Museums gives an introduction to John Lavery's famous painting 'The Tennis Party' (1885).

After compiling our map of Frieze week events around London, the blog team made it to the event itself. Check out the short film below for some highlights of this year's fair.

Images and text come together in the second exhibition in the RA's Artists' Laboratory series, which opens this week and features work by Stephen Farthing RA. In the video below, the artist discusses the ethos behind the exhibition, called 'The Back Story', and gives the literal back story of one of the show's key works.

Whimsicially romantic but often tinged with melancholy, artist Rob Ryan's distinctive works effortlessly bridge the worlds of art and design. After a flurry of creative collaborations, the artist has returned to his characteristically elaborate papercuts in a new solo show with TAG Fine Arts, just around the corner from the RA.

'There is no new thing under the sun… All is vanity and vexation of spirit… ' The oft-quoted words of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes might take a somewhat bleak view of the futility human existence, but it's the same Biblical tome that exhorts us more cheerfully to 'eat, drink and be merry', accept the transitory nature of life and take pleasure in the here and now....

Formerly a fashion designer, Helen Storey has more recently investigated how science, art and fashion might come together in leading the way for a more sustainable future. Her installation 'Say Goodbye', commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts and supported by the Royal Society of Chemistry, is a key work in the current exhibition GSK Contemporary - Aware: Art Fashion Identity at 6 Burlington...

The REcreative website, launched today by the Louis Vuitton Young Arts Project, aims to give young people an online arts community where they can share their work, watch interviews with leading artists and get behind-the-scenes insights on careers in the art world.

Each week during the Summer Exhibition we'll be taking a closer look at a work, or group of works, in the show. This week, Nuala O'Donovan discusses her work 'Banksia, Dynamic Layers' which can be found in Gallery VIII.

'Jeremy Deller: Bats in Space' sees the artist team up with bat scientist Professor Kate Jones with the aim of bringing the hidden world of bat communication to life.

The temporary art city that is Frieze Art Fair has decamped from Regent's Park. The gallerists have departed, James Fujiyama's fantasy archeological dig has been dug up, Spartacus Chetwynd's performative Cat Bus has driven back to the depot and Annika Ström's Ten Embarrassed Men have left the building. But fear not - a number of our Frieze Week top contemporary art picks around London remain open...

'Cycles of Radical Will', Shaun Gladwell's new solo show at Bexhill on Sea, gives visitors a chance to immerse themselves in the Australian artist's video and installation art - quite literally, if they're prepared to jump on a BMX bike or a skateboard and take to the roof of the De La Warr Pavilion.

The RA's autumn exhibition Bronze has received a rapturous response from the critics. One of the show's aims is to celebrate bronze's range as a medium, both in age - from the Bronze age right up to the present day - and artistic possibility.

David Hockney RA's recent East Yorkshire landscapes play the starring role in his forthcoming show at the RA. Here, the exhibition's co-curator, Edith Devaney, explains what is special about this part of the country and how the artist's return to his roots shaped his artistic practice.

What does a dancer make of Degas? Former prima ballerina Darcey Bussell CBE has visited the RA's 'Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement'. Here, she discusses the artist's special understanding of dance technique and picks out some of her favourite works in the exhibition.

The RA’s A-level Summer Exhibition Online runs in parallel to the Summer Exhibition. Now in its fourth year, it provides a great opportunity to see work by potential artists of the future. Any student at A-level in the UK can enter, and this year the RA received over 1,300 submissions from across the country and selected work by 56 students to present online.

Running alongside the Summer Exhibition, the RA’s A-level Summer Exhibition Online provides a showcase for talented young artists of the future. Now in its fifth year, the current exhibition attracted over 900 submissions from students across the UK.

'Masterworks: Architecture at the Royal Academy' is on until 13 March in the John Madejski Fine Rooms. In the video below, curator Neil Bingham introduces the exhibition and covers some of the highlights of this survey of the Royal Academy's collection of drawings and models by celebrated British architects.

In the film below, the curators of 'Watteau: The Drawings', Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, describe Watteau's masterful 'trois crayons' drawing technique that characterises many of the works in the exhibition.

Browse and Darby, just around the corner from the Royal Academy, has put on an exhibition of Degas drawings and bronzes to coincide with 'Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement'. We visited with the RA's Degas curator, Ann Dumas, who selected some of her favourite works in the show.

Transatlantic dealers and gallerists Eykyn Maclean have launched their new London space with an exhibition of Cy Twombly works from the collection of Ileana Sonnabend.

Edmund de Waal's bestselling family memoir The Hare with the Amber Eyes told the story of the Ephrussi banking dynasty's fortunes throughout 19th and 20th century Europe, from fabulous wealth and cultural prestige to Nazi persecution and the dispersal of the family across three continents. It is a book in which family, belonging and the meaning of collecting are all central themes; inspired by De...

The American glass artist Dale Chihuly is well known in the UK, not least for his spectacular 27-foot chandelier that graces the front hall of the Victoria & Albert Museum. It was created on the occasion of his 2001 exhibition 'Chihuly at the V&A', which was followed in 2005 by a large site-specific installation at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Saturday saw the start of Tate Blackouts, a showcase for Olafur Eliasson's 'Little Sun' project in which visitors can explore the darkened surrealism galleries in Tate Modern after closing time using the lamp that Eliasson has developed with engineer Frederik Ottesen.

French artist Edouard Manet and American artist George Bellows were both painters of modern life; one capturing the world of nineteenth century Paris, the other forging a career in early twentieth century New York. But the similarities between these two virtuoso painters extend even further than this, as 'George Bellows' co-curator Ann Dumas explains in this video.

Sydney Lee was a highly accomplished and experimental printmaker, as curator Robert Meyrick demonstrates in these videos. His search for subjects took him from the waterways of Kent to the mountains of Switzerland, while his influences ranged from Whistler's etchings of the Thames to Japanese colour woodblock prints.

Although best known for his paintings of gritty urban life in early twentieth-century New York, George Bellows painted a range of subjects throughout his career, which was cut short by his death at the age of 42. In these videos, the co-curators of the RA exhibition introduce four very different works by the artist, from the violence of the boxing ring to a family portrait.

When Jennifer Copley-May saw the summer issue of RA Magazine she did a double take: ‘Good Lord,’ she said, ‘that’s my aunt!" Gazing out from the cover was the unmistakable face of Jennifer's aunt, Juliet Kepes.

The Royal Academy's new exhibition of 19th-century French masterpieces from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute opened this weekend. In the videos below, curator Richard Rand introduces three key works from the exhibition

We're reporting on each of the events in the RA's free salon series for GSK Contemporary - Aware. First up: The Artist's Robe: Adornment and Identity. Participants include Artist Grayson Perry, Professor Reina Lewis (London College of Fashion) and Dr. Emma Tarlo (Goldsmiths)

We're reporting on each of the events in the RA's free salon series for GSK Contemporary - Aware. From X Factor winner Matt Cardle's biceps to Lady Gaga and the art of pastiche, tonight's conversation asked how identities are constructed and performed through fashion. Key themes included celebrity, psychology and the history of fancy dress.

We're reporting on each of the events in the RA's free salon series for GSK Contemporary - Aware. Second in the series is Storeytellers of Fashion. Participants include blogger Susie Lau, set designer Hattie Spice, Editor-in-chief Perry Curties (125 Magazine) and Dr. Agnès Rocamora (London College of Fashion).

For the fifth in the series of salons Helen Palmer (WGSN), Martin Raymond and Chris Sanderson (The Future Laboratory), and Suzanne Lee (University of the Arts, London) offer us a tantalising glimpse into the world of fashion forecasting.

The politics of tartan, whether knitting is cool, the unravelling of personal history and the fallacy of authenticity were all strands woven together in tonight's discussion. Participants include artist Yinka Shonibare, Carol Tulloch (Victoria & Albert Museum), Dr. Jonathan Faiers (Central St. Martins) and artist Freddie Robins

In tonight's event Hilary Rose, Caterina Radvan and Nigel Hartley explored the psychology of fashion in relation to illness and how, after death, the protective and comforting aspects of clothing are no longer essential, but their symbolic values may remain.

Keeping the RA's Annenberg Courtyard relatively pigeon-free so visitors can enjoy the outdoor cafe without fending off skyborne raids is an ongoing effort, and it's the ancient art of falconry that best does the trick. Read more

2012 has been a special year for London and a special year for the Royal Academy too. In this video, we take a look back at some of the highlights, from 'David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture' to 'Bronze'.

In the first of a video series inspired by the Royal Academy exhibition 'Mexico: A Revolution in Art, 1910-1940', we take a look at the Mexican mural programme of the early 20th century, and the huge impact it had on the art of the period.

José Guadalupe Posada was an illustrator and printmaker who produced a huge amount of work throughout the period of the Mexican revolution. His iconic images - especially the skeletal calaveras or calacas - are firmly embedded in Mexican popular culture. In the second of our video series inspired by the Royal Academy exhibition Mexico: A Revolution in Art, 1910-1940 curator Adrian Locke and UK...

What brought the English watercolour artist Edward Burra to Mexico in the 1930s? In this video, the third in a series inspired by the Royal Academy exhibition 'Mexico: A Revolution in Art, 1910-1940' we visit the picturesque town of Cuernavaca, subject of Burra's painting 'El Paseo' which features in the exhibition.

Modern British Sculpture opens at the Royal Academy in just over a week, and today the RA and BBC Four announced a new collaboration - 'Sculpture on Screen' - that will give sculpture fans the chance to enjoy a feast of arts broadcasting during the run of the exhibition.

The incongruous sight of a dry stone wall shed taking shape in the Royal Academy's classical courtyard has had visitors scratching their heads in recent weeks.

John Constable's The Leaping Horse is the latest work to star in the 'Masterpiece a Month' exhibition, celebrating 200 years of the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

In this video, Rebecca Lodge of Burgh House takes us on a stroll across Hampstead Heath and explains how this pocket of countryside just a stone's through from the city was so important in Constable's life and work. All of the oil sketches featured in the video are from the Royal Academy's Collections.

The RA Schools is a unique environment – the only UK institution to offer a three-year, full-time postgraduate fine arts course. Tucked into the back of Burlington House, this network of corridors, offices and studios is normally a hive of behind-the-scenes activity (and perhaps the odd haunting). But for ten days each year, the annual Schools Show sees the doors thrown open and the historic studios...

Like many historic buildings in London, the Royal Academy has its fair share of ghost stories - and artist Blue Firth collects them. The RA Schools student's work deals with creating a 'supernatural archive' of Burlington House. Her research has now entered a new stage - a late night vigil in the RA Schools, open to members of the public.

Last year we introduced you to the Louis Vuitton Young Arts Project, a programme of activities for young people and the joint effort of five London galleries including the Royal Academy. The fruits of their labours can now be seen in 'Art Imposters' a free exhibition in the gallery at Louis Vuitton Maison in New Bond Street.

For ten days each year, the RA Schools Show sees the studios of the Royal Academy Schools transformed into stunning gallery spaces that showcase the work of the graduating class. We spoke to four of the students about their work and what it's like to study at the Schools.

With the exception of the annual Schools Show, the RA Schools studios and workshop spaces are generally hidden from public view. This week, a group of RA patrons and Friends Ambassador Emilia Fox had a sneak peak into the world of the Schools in a behind-the-scenes printmaking workshop

In the first video of a two-part series on RA Editions, Stephen Chambers RA discusses the inspiration behind his work 'Double St. Joan' and the process of realising it in print.

Each year the Premiums exhibition gives the public a chance to see the work of RA Schools students at an interim point in their three-year postgraduate studies. The exhibition reflects the diversity of practice at the Schools and this year is no exception; with painting, sculpture, video and photography all represented. We spoke to three of the students about their work, and discovered some interesting...

The Royal Academy's annual Premiums exhibition gives the public a chance to see the work of RA Schools students at an interim point in their three-year postgraduate studies.

As the RA's Premiums exhibition draws to a close (tomorrow is your last chance to see work by these second-year postgraduate students in the RA Schools), here are three more interviews with this year's exhibiting artists.

In the second part of our focus on new prints from RA Editions, RA Schools graduate Liane Lang discusses her etching 'Europe (Albert Memorial)'.

The RA Schools Show, which opens today, showcases the work of the 16 students who this year complete the three-year postgraduate fine art course in the RA Schools. We spoke to three of this year's students as they were installing their work in the Schools' historic studios, transformed into a contemporary gallery space for the run of the exhibition:

The 2013 Premiums Interim Projects exhibition is currently on at the RA's Burlington Gardens site, and provides a great opportunity to see the work of RA Schools students at the midway point in their three-year postgraduate course.

The RA Schools Show showcases the work of the 17 students who this year complete the three-year postgraduate fine art course in the RA Schools. In these videos we speak to two of the class of 2013, James Robertson and Marie von Heyl, about the work they will be showing in the exhibition.

If you enjoyed last issue's interview with David Nash RA about his landmark exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, why not listen to the recording of his recent Royal Academy evening talk. He is joined in conversation by Peter Murray OBE, Executive Director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and renowned art critic Dr Richard Cork.

Starting this week, the Royal Academy's new Artists' Laboratory programme is an opportunity to explore the less familiar and experimental elements of the work of Royal Academicians. The first exhibition in the series features the work of Ian McKeever RA.

Jointly organised by The Royal Parks and the Serpentine Gallery, 'Turning the World Upside Down' sees four of Anish Kapoor's highly reflective stainless steel works placed in Kensington Gardens. With video

Two Royal Academicians are contributing to a new campaign that aims to resurrect the holiday postcard while raising money for Comic Relief.

Titled 'Work and Play, London and New York'; Chris Orr RA's current exhibition at Jill George Gallery in Soho features a range of prints and drawings of iconic city scenes. From Times Square teeming with colour and human activity to a bird's eye view of traffic in Lambeth, Orr's eye for detail reveals the complex pageantry of urban life with wry humour.

The work of Stephen Farthing RA often refers to his fascination with art history and this is certainly true of his current Artists' Laboratory exhibition at the RA. Many of the drawings and paintings displayed were produced as a creative response to his role as editor of the book '1001 Paintings to See Before You Die'.

The Royal Academy's current Tennant Gallery exhibition, 'Ivor Abrahams: Mystery and Imagination' brings together the artist's 'Edgar Allan Poe' and 'Edmund Burke' print portfolios from the 1970s. Poe in particular has captured the imagination of generatons of artists. In the film below, Abrahams explains how Poe's richly metaphoric writings - a precursor to the symbolist movement - inspired his...

Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry is the latest artist to be elected to the ranks of the Royal Academicians. Perry was elected in the category of Printmaking at a recent RA General Assembly.

As a tribute to John Hoyland RA, who died on 31 July, we're posting the conversation between Hoyland and Damien Hirst that appeared in the Autumn 2009 issue of RA Magazine (portrait by Jillian Edelstein). An obituary by Ian Ritchie RA will appear in the Autumn issue of RA Magazine, published 1 September 2011.

London Underground has unveiled the first of a series of artworks for Acts of Kindness, an art project by Michael Landy RA.

Christopher Le Brun was last night elected President of the Royal Academy. He succeeds Sir Nicholas Grimshaw PPRA who has stepped down after seven years in office.

Frank Bowling RA's current exhibition in the Tennant Gallery, Journeyings: Recent Works on Paper, coincides with the publication of a new book about Bowling's art by the critic Mel Gooding and published by the RA.

Following on from this month's RA Magazine tributes to John Hoyland RA, who died on 31 July, Anthony Caro RA shares his memories.

Grayson Perry RA's exhibition at the British Museum opens today. The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman features objects chosen by Perry from the museum's collection, alongside new works by the artist that include drawings, embroidered wall hangings and the ceramics for which he is best known.

The coming week is your last chance to see a retrospective of work by Frederick Gore RA (1913-2009) at Richmond Hill Gallery, highlights of which include a number of Gore's classic landscapes of loactions including Greece, Majorca and France.

Caro at Chatsworth is the first exhibition dedicated to the work of a single artist to take place in the gardens of Chatsworth House. Featuring 15 sculptures by Sir Anthony Caro RA that span a 40-year period, the exhibition is sited around the Chatsworth canal pond with its dramatic Emperor Fountain.

David Mach RA's current installation in Southwark Cathedral, 'Die Harder', was first shown in 'Precious Light' and the 20-foot crucifixion is on display until Good Friday.

There's still time to catch an exhibition of recent work by newly elected Royal Academician Terry Setch at Flowers Gallery in Cork Street this week.

Tom Phillips RA is celebrating his 75th birthday with two exhibitions and a fifth reprint of his acclaimed artist's book A Humument, as Richard Cork reports in the Summer 2012 edition of RA Magazine. We visited Tom Phillips at Flowers Gallery on Kingsland Road, where his exhibition 'The Remains of the Day' recently opened. In the video below, he introduces the exhibition and discusses several of...

The 1969 film 'The Italian Job' ends on the ultimate cliffhanger. A coach carrying a gang of gold bullion thieves and their ill-gotten gain teeters on a precipice in the Italian alps, the gang trying to figure out how to save both themselves and the gold, until Michael Caine utters the immortal words: 'Hang on a minute lads... I've got a great idea'.

'Gary Hume: Flashback' is a touring exhibition from the Arts Council Collection. It features works by the Royal Academician ranging from early in his career to the present day, and is currently on show at The Jerwood Gallery]* in Hastings.

The Scottish-born, East London-based artist Jock McFadyen was recently elected a Royal Academician. McFadyen currently has a solo show at The Fleming Collection, and in the video below he explains how this major survey demonstrates how his approach to painting has changed during the course of his career.

London's Piper Gallery is currently showing new paintings by Royal Academician Tess Jaray. In the video below, the artist discusses some of the inspirations for her work, from Malevich's Red Square to the architecture of Damascus.

Royal Academician Ivor Abrahams began using gardens as a motif in his work in the 1970s. In recent years he has returned to the subject with a renewed enthusiasm, following an exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute in 2008 that focused on his early prints and sculptures of gardens.

Royal Academician Humphrey Ocean's exhibition 'A handbook of modern life' at the National Portrait Gallery comprises a series of paintings of family, friends and other visitors to his studio. In this video, he describes what the process of portrait painting is like, from the moment a visitor first enters his studio.

This spring, the grounds of historic Hatfield House in Hertfordshire will host an exhibition of sculpture by six Royal Academicians.

Royal Academician Richard Wilson is famous for his large scale, site specific sculptures - from 20:50, a room of reflective sump oil that plays tricks with space, to last year's 'Hang on a minute, lads…' which saw him balancing a bus on the roof of Bexhill on Sea's De La Warr Pavilion. His latest project takes him from defying gravity to freezing a moment - and a movement - in time.

Recently elected a Royal Academician, Conrad Shawcross has established a career as a Renaissance man; an artist whose fascination with science has led to extraordinary works that fuse beauty with big ideas, often in the form of elaborate machines.

Painted by a very young John Singer Sargent, 'Atlantic Storm' will soon become a familiar sight for London commuters as the posters for 'Sargent and the Sea' go up across the capital. In this two minute video, Royal Academy of Arts curator Ann Dumas gives an insight into the story behind this striking image. Read more

In 1952, a group of eight young British sculptors burst onto the international scene at the XXVI Venice Biennale. The art historian Herbert Read coined the phrase 'the geometry of fear' to describe the work of this new generation, whose angular, spiky works seemed a deliberate departure from the monumental and rounded organic forms of earlier British sculptors such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth...

Fans of David Mach RA's gorilla in the Summer Exhibition can expect more large-scale coat hanger sculptures to come, with a new project announced this week.

It's an exciting time at the Royal Academy this week as entries arrive for the Summer Exhibition, the world's largest open-submission contemporary art exhibition. In the video below, some of this year's entrants tell us about their work, why they've decided to enter and what it would mean to them to be selected for the show.

The week before the Summer Exhibition opens its doors to the public is a busy time at the Royal Academy. The first official event in a week rich with traditions old and new is Non-Members Varnishing Day, a uniquely colourful and festive occasion.

Visitors to the Royal Academy this week will have noticed a striking addition to the Annenberg Courtyard. Specially created for the Summer Exhibition, 'Coloring Book' by Jeff Koons Hon RA consists of highly reflective stainless steel with a surface decoration of brightly coloured swirls, and was unwrapped over the course of several hours early on Sunday.

Forget Spring - Summer is definitely in the air at the RA. As London basks in an unseasonal warm spell, how appropriate that the first Summer Exhibition entries have started to arrive.

Yesterday was Non-Members Varnishing Day at the Royal Academy, the first chance for artists selected for the Summer Exhibition to see their work displayed in the galleries.

Each week during the Summer Exhibition we'll be taking a closer look at a work, or group of works, in the show. This week, Olu Shobowale discusses his work 'Chicken Chair' which can be found in the Large Weston Room.

Each week during the Summer Exhibition we'll be taking a closer look at a work, or group of works, in the show. This week, Cornelia Parker RA discusses her work 'Brontëan Abstractions (Deletions from the Original Manuscript of ‘Jane Eyre’)' which can be found in the Large Weston Room.

Each week during the Summer Exhibition we'll be taking a closer look at a work, or group of works, in the show. This week, Anne Desmet RA discusses her works Olympic Shadows, London Olympic Velodrome, Olympic Aquatics Centre in construction, and London Olympic Site - WWII Archaeology which can be found in Gallery I. Posted: 27 June 2012 by Amy Macpherson, RA Website Editor.

This week, the architect Chris Wilkinson RA discusses his installation 'From Landscape to Portrait' in the Royal Academy's Annenberg Courtyard.

Each week during the Summer Exhibition we're taking a closer look at a work, or group of works, in the show. This week, Royal Academician Tom Phillips discusses his work The Seven Ages of Man which can be found in Gallery V.

Dance and architecture seem like very different disciplines, so how can one respond to the other? The choreographer Katie Green rose to the challenge with her recent commission for the Royal Academy's Courtyard, a site-specific dance in and around Chris Wilkinson RA's architectural installation 'From Landscape to Portrait'.

Each week during the Summer Exhibition we're taking a closer look at a work, or group of works, in the show. This week, first-time exhibitor David Webb discusses his work 'Laguna San Ignacio' which can be found in Gallery III.

Each week during the Summer Exhibition we're taking a closer look at a work, or group of works, in the show. This week, printmaker Martin Langford discusses his work Tunnel Vision which can be found in Gallery III.

Each week during the Summer Exhibition we've taken a closer look at a work, or group of works, in the show. This week, in our final video, architect Roz Barr discusses her model 'Vaal’ – New Church Valer which can be found in Gallery VI. The Summer Exhibition closes on 12 August.

Continuing our video blog series on 'Glasgow Boys', curator Roger Billcliffe introduces James Guthrie's painting 'To Pastures New', which was first shown at the RA in 1883.

In the last video blog in our Glasgow Boys series, curator MaryAnne Stevens introduces James Patterson's 'Moniaive' and explains how the painter's 'portable studio' for working outdoors influenced his work, along with the use of photography.

With the exhibition 'Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880 – 1900' opening this weekend, we'll be bringing you a series of videos over the next week or so that feature key works from the exhibition. The first video, below, introduces the star of the RA's poster campaign for the exhibition: 'The Druids – Bringing in the Mistletoe' (1890) by George Henry and E.A. Hornel.

'Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed' opens to the public this Saturday, 10 March. To whet your appetite, here's a fascinating introduction to what is arguably Zoffany's best painting - 'The Tribuna of the Uffizi' - by exhibition co-curator Martin Postle.

The RA's new exhibition 'Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed' opens to the public tomorrow. Following on from our earlier video on Zoffany's 'The Tribuna of the Uffizi', here's curator Martin Postle on the story behind the exhibition's poster image - 'The Sharp Family'.