Lecture Room

Arranged by Mali Morris RA and Humphrey Ocean RA, this gallery – more than any other this year – shows the work of Royal Academicians. The memorial display of six paintings by the late Leonard Rosoman RA, one from each decade of his career, was hung first. The rest of the installation followed naturally from there, acknowledging the extraordinary diversity of the Academicians, and allowing each piece its individuality. ‘We looked across the big spaces of the room, as well as thinking of neighbourly effects,’ says Morris. ‘The contrasts helped to create a dynamic: Olwyn Bowey opposite Albert Irvin, for example, and Frank Bowling alongside Richard Wilson.’

Installation view of the Lecture Room, Summer Exhibition 2012. Photo: John Bodkin.

But non-Academicians also feature strongly in this room. Jane Harris’s minimalist, golden painting hangs above works by artists of different generations and nationalities, from New Yorker Thomas Nozkowski to Londoner Phillip Allen. Morris and Ocean wanted each painting and sculpture, through careful placing, to ‘contribute to a pictorial, spatial whole – just as the particular character of this gallery contributes to the whole exhibition. We hope that others will enjoy, as we have, the seriousness and pleasure in this gathering, in all its variety.’

• Royal Academy of Arts