Final weeks
America after the Fall: Painting in the 1930s
25 February — 4 June 2017
The art of 1930s America tells the story of a nation in flux. Artists responded to rapid social change and economic anxiety with some of the 20th century’s most powerful art – brought together now in this once-in-a-generation show.
Now on
Anthony Green RA: The Life and Death of Miss Dupont
18 January – 25 June 2017
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Anthony Green’s election as a Royal Academician, this show focuses on a recently-completed work, shown for the very first time. Three metres tall and entitled 'The Fur Coat, “Hazana”', it tells the story of his mother’s second marriage, seen through the eyes of her 13-year-old only child.
Now on
Futures Found: The Real and Imagined Cityscapes of Post-war Britain
18 February — 25 June 2017
This free exhibition explores the contrasts between the ambitions for Britain’s new post-war cityscapes and the varied futures that were subsequently created.
Panel discussion
Art and national identity
26 May 2017
In the midst of Brexit and in an age of political upheaval in the UK and abroad, how are ideas about national identity portrayed through art? How can art and spaces for art can define national identity? What is the role of the wider art community in defining national identity?
RA Lates: The Electric Forest
On 17 June, join us after hours to experience an immersive summer solstice festival in a botanical, psychedelic underworld.
Coming soon
Summer Exhibition
13 June – 20 August 2017
Everything you’ll see at the Summer Exhibition represents the art being made today. Expect to find a panorama of art in all media, from painting, printmaking, film and photography to sculpture, architectural works and performance art.
Coming soon
Charles I: King and Collector
27 January — 15 April 2018
Discover the legendary art collection of Charles I. For the first time since the 17th century, a landmark exhibition at the RA will bring together the astounding treasures that changed the taste of the nation.
Coming soon
Matisse in the Studio
5 August – 12 November 2017
This summer, step into the studio of Henri Matisse. Focusing exclusively on the role of the artist’s treasured objects in his work, this exhibition reveals how this eclectic collection took on new life in his transcendent art.
Coming soon
Dalí / Duchamp
7 October 2017 — 3 January 2018
Take another look at two artistic giants: father of conceptual art Marcel Duchamp, and larger-than-life Surrealist Salvador Dalí. This is the first exhibition to throw light on their surprising relationship and its influence on the work of both artists.
Family activity
Make a paint-splattering spinning top
Learn how to make a spinning top that will spin and spin, splattering paint to create multiple masterpieces!
RA Recommends
The month in art: 10 exhibitions not to miss this May
From work inspired by life inside a Syrian prison to the colourful, geometric work of Rana Begum, here are some of the most unmissable exhibitions open this month.
Feature
10 of the most parodied artworks of all time
With ‘American Gothic’ in the UK for the first time, we take a look at some of the other iconic works that have attracted moustaches, Muppets and other mimicry across art history.
Feature
10 to see at the Venice Biennale
Phyllida Barlow RA’s bulbous sculptures, Robert Cuoghi’s messiah machines and Damien Hirst’s demons – here are ten highlights of this year’s contemporary art spectacular.
Feature
How to read it: Henry Tuke’s A Bathing Group
As Tate Britain’s ‘Queer British Art’ marks the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality, we take a look at the work of Henry Tuke from the RA collection, on display in the show.
Art Sales: Only Connect
The RA is proud to present the latest exhibition from the Royal Academy’s Art Sales programme; ‘Only Connect’, curated by Professor David Remfry RA. This diverse selection of work, by Royal Academicians and invited artists, explores the relationship between the artist and the drawn line, celebrating connections between seemingly disparate works that resonate with one another in various ways.
Courses and classes
From antique to life: drawing and painting inside the historic art school
Six-day practical and theoretical summer course
24–29 July 2017
An intensive, expert-led summer course exploring the traditional teaching methods pioneered by the Royal Academy Schools, including working from antique classical casts as well as life models, exploring drawing, watercolour and oil painting.
Make Your Mark on the RA
As our 250th anniversary approaches, we've launched Make Your Mark – a public appeal to ensure the next 250 years of the RA. Friends, visitors and supporters are invited to physically make their mark on the Academy, from adopting a masterpiece in our Collection to naming a seat in our new lecture theatre.
Video
RA250 stories: hidden treasures of the RA Collection
In 2018 we're unveiling new spaces to display the Royal Academy's Collection. In this video, we take a look at some of the treasures that will be on show, including the UK's only sculpture by Michelangelo.
RA Editions: Ed Ruscha, 'Thinks I, to Myself'
We're proud to offer a new limited edition print by internationally renowned Honorary Academician, Ed Ruscha. Often associated with the Pop Art movement, his work is as much a commentary on contemporary life in America as a wider take on man’s place within ever-changing worlds and societies.
Feature
The reality behind American Gothic
As ‘America after the Fall’ brings some of the country’s most iconic works to Europe for the first time, Sarah Churchwell considers the cultural and political backdrop to Depression Era art.
Feature
“No one should be ashamed of their art hero”
Mentioning the quirky, non-conformist style of Anthony Green at my art school interview drew sniggers – but it was Green’s very idiosyncrasies that taught me to think for myself, says artist and RA Schools tutor Mark Hampson.
Catch up: Gilbert & George in conversation
Gilbert & George discuss their art and vision with the RA’s Artistic Director Tim Marlow.
Feature
Why I made my Muppet masterpiece: "American Gothique"
As Grant Wood’s American Gothic goes on show at the RA, the former Creative Director of the Muppets explains how he came to make a painstaking tribute to it – and why he owes Piggy an apology.
Feature
How to read it: Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo
Currently on display at the National Gallery, the Virgin and Child with the Infant St John, known as the Taddei Tondo, is the only marble sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti in a UK collection. It will return to the RA to be displayed in our new collections displays for our 250th anniversary in 2018.
Feature
In the studio with Wolfgang Tillmans RA
The photographer’s workspace in a former Berlin department store houses giant printers, tropical plants and DJ turntables. Anna Coatman meets the acclaimed artist and EU campaigner.
Art Sales: Fred Cuming RA
The artist's exploration of dramatic light and shadow around the southern English coastlines continues in a number of new paintings. All works are for sale.
RA Collection
How to read it: Anthony Green’s 'The Fur Coat'
The story behind a slightly unusual work by Royal Academician Anthony Green, only recently completed and currently on show in the RA’s Tennant Gallery.
David Hockney RA's SUMO: A Bigger Book
A "definitive visual autobiography" of David Hockney RA, spanning over six decades and 600 pages. Major paintings are accompanied by the artist’s drawings, photo-composites, multi-perspective collages, stage designs, multi-camera video works, and iPad drawings.
Feature
“It’s like making a garden” – Gary Hume RA on printmaking
He shot to fame as a painter, but for the past 20 years Gary Hume RA has also made prints. Amy Macpherson visits the artist at the RA Schools’ print workshop ahead of his selling show in the Keeper’s House.
Opinion
“The 21st century is proving pretty nasty. Let’s reflect on art’s relationship with our times.”
by Bob and Roberta Smith
Should artists get involved in politics like the Russian Constructivists? Or should they remain distant like Thomas Hart Benton during America's Great Depression?
Feature
Six views of America
As a new term in the White House divides America, we look back to another time of social upheaval and economic anxiety. Through the eyes of artists in the RA’s upcoming exhibition, ‘America after the Fall: Painting in the 1930s’, here are six snapshots of a changing country.
The exhibition is the thing that excites me – it’s the moment that the work really comes alive.
Eddie Peake
The act of drawing is at the heart of everything I do. It is the most intimate of processes and at its best reveals both the hand and mind of the artist to the viewer.
Rebecca Salter RA
Visit the RA shop
Browse our range of artistic products designed and inspired by Royal Academicians, from Grayson Perry and Yinka Shonibare to David Hockney and Zaha Hadid.
Very rarely as an artist do you get that real ecstasy of painting – you are always chasing it.
Chantal Joffe RA
Article
Eddie Peake: "I don't know what my sexuality is"
As I see it
With a new show at White Cube Hong Kong, RA Schools alumnus Eddie Peake talks football, finding himself and “ferocious attention seeking.”
Keep looking at your own work. Keep looking at the world, trying to reconcile the two things. Cherish your fellow travellers. Don’t give up.
Antony Gormley
Feature
Odd couples: Artists you never knew were friends
With our exhibition exploring the little-known relationship between Dalí and Duchamp later this year, we take a look at the friendship between those two great masters of modern art, and five other artist pairs you may never have guessed.
Explore RA250
The Royal Academy is undergoing a transformative redevelopment in the build-up to 2018, when we will celebrate our 250th anniversary. Each month, we'll share with you a behind-the-scenes look as the project progresses.
There is only one rule for aspiring artists. That is, only become one if you have absolutely no choice, if your drive is so strong that nothing else could be contemplated. If you think in terms of worldly success, forget it. The rewards are in the doing and in the breadth of art.
Tess Jaray RA
Videos
How to… make a wood engraving, with Anne Desmet
Anne Desmet RA demonstrates each step in creating a wood engraving, from tracing the original drawing through to printing a first proof.
Mayfair & St James's interactive gallery map
Produced by the Royal Academy of Arts in collaboration with GalleriesNow.net, this interactive map highlights the 145 art locations in this historic quarter of London, including 139 commercial galleries, four auction houses and the RA itself.
The moment just before a work is finished, it’s finished. You want a bit of nervous twitching, a bit of tension, in the sculpture.
Richard Wilson RA
Inside the Academy
Tumblr: From the RA
Discover works from the RA's Collections
We've reached the half-way point on our quest to digitise 10,000 items from the Royal Academy of Arts' vast collections. Visit our Tumblr to discover drawings, sketches, prints, books, oddities and wonders, all revealed by RA staff and a team of volunteers.
Listen to RA podcasts
From short stories read by leading novelists to artists and experts in conversation, catch up on events at the RA with our podcasts.
Architecture is a public art, and is never really finished. When a building is completed it’s the beginning of its life – a life which really only starts when people inhabit and breathe life into it. Buildings change, evolve and grow.
Alan Stanton RA
Explore our Collection
The Royal Academy Collections include paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, historic books, (i.e. published before 1921), archives, historic photographs and plaster casts.
Become a Friend of the RA
Free RA Tours
Discover the art, architecture and history of the RA in these special, one-hour tours that include the historic John Madejski Fine Rooms.
Learn from experts and artists
Our new programme of short courses and classes offers the opportunity to explore subjects ranging from life drawing to the history of portraiture, led by expert tutors and practising artists.
Inside the Academy
Redeveloping the Royal Academy
For nearly 250 years, the RA has been a place to make, exhibit and debate art. For our anniversary in 2018 we are opening up the RA as never before, transforming our historic buildings – and inviting Friends and visitors old and new to celebrate with us.
Inside the Academy
The RA Schools
A school of contemporary fine art, right at the heart of the RA.
Looking for an art-lover’s gift?
Order bespoke art prints, canvases and framed reproductions from our Collection online.
Join the club
The Academicians’ Room in the Keeper’s House began life in 1883, becoming the favourite haunt of the Academy’s artists as a private members club. The room has entered a new phase in its rich history, and has reopened with a fresh new look by the renowned Martin Brudnizki Design Studio. Members can expect artworks by Royal Academicians on display, an exceptional food menu and an exciting programme of events, including an artist-led Salon Series.
Friends of the RA
RA Art Tours Worldwide
These expert-led small-group tours, created by travel specialists Cox & Kings, focus on the art, architecture and archaeology of some of the world’s most fascinating destinations.