Articles
Curators
RA Exhibitions
> 1 year ago
Podcast: Rubens, Rembrandt and Watteau
Nico Van Hout, curator at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, explores the thread of Rubens’s influence through art history.
RA Exhibitions
> 1 year ago
Podcast: Allen Jones, ‘Chair’
This intimate salon explores Allen Jones’s controversial work ‘Chair’ and its changing status as a piece of fine art, an erotic sculpture and an object of attack.
RA Exhibitions
> 1 year ago
Podcast: Richard Diebenkorn, A Riotous Calm
Exhibition curator Sarah C. Bancroft explores Richard Diebenkorn’s consuming attention to detail and improvisational process that led to his magnificent compositions.
RA Exhibitions
< 2 years ago
Podcast: An introduction to Moroni by curator Arturo Galansino
From the small northern Italian town of Bergamo emerged one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th-century. Who was Giovanni Battista Moroni?
RA Exhibitions
< 2 years ago
Curator’s picks: Giovanni Battista Moroni
Curator Arturo Galansino chooses his favourite five works from the critically-acclaimed exhibition.
Inside the Academy
< 2 years ago
Who’s who in ‘Mr. Turner’?
Mike Leigh’s new film brings to life one of British art’s brightest stars and features several scenes set at the RA. We take a look at the supporting cast of Turner’s friends and rivals at the Academy.
RA Exhibitions
< 2 years ago
Podcast: Curator Kathleen Soriano on Kiefer’s iconography
How does artist Anselm Kiefer use mythology, history, literature, philosophy and science in his work? What meanings do lead, straw, fire, earth, and water hold for him?
RA Exhibitions
< 2 years ago
Jean-Etienne Liotard: the story so far
As we prepare for an exhibition of this eccentric and distinctive portraitist, we caught up with co-curator MaryAnne Stevens to learn about the genesis of the show.
RA Exhibitions
< 2 years ago
Richard Diebenkorn: the story so far
The works of one of America’s finest abstract painters, Richard Diebenkorn, come to the RA next spring. We caught up with Royal Academy curator Edith Devaney to learn about the genesis of the show.
RA Exhibitions
< 2 years ago
Joseph Cornell: the story so far
Next year’s exhibition of Joseph Cornell will give a unique opportunity to view the magical works of this incomparable artist. We caught up with curator Sarah Lea to learn about the genesis of the show.
RA Exhibitions
< 2 years ago
Giovanni Battista Moroni: A beginner’s guide
In October, the RA opens an exhibition of work by one of the greatest portrait painters of all time, Giovanni Battista Moroni. But he is comparatively little known – certainly when compared to the giants of Italian painting like Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto. We spoke to exhibition curator Arturo Galansino to find out more about what sets Moroni apart.
RA Exhibitions
< 2 years ago
Rubens and His Legacy: the story so far
Our upcoming Rubens show is the first major exhibition to look at the Flemish master’s influence on four centuries of art history. We caught up with curator Arturo Galansino to learn about the genesis of the show.
RA Exhibitions
2 years ago
Curator’s picks: Dennis Hopper
The exhibition curator highlights four moments of 1960s America immortalised through Hopper’s unique photographs.
Opinion
2 years ago
Gego: rediscovering an extraordinary artist
As a new exhibition of her work opens at the Henry Moore Institute, ‘Radical Geometry’ co-curator Adrian Locke discusses the work of Gertrude Goldschmidt.
RA Exhibitions
2 years ago
Curator’s picks: Radical Geometry
‘Radical Geometry’ is now in full swing and with such a wealth of inspiring works on view, we asked co-curator Adrian Locke to choose his favourites.
RA Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
Curator’s picks: Renaissance Impressions
As the exhibition comes to an end this weekend, curator Arturo Galansino selects his favourite works in the show.
RA Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
Creating ‘Sensing Spaces’
Curator Kate Goodwin explains the process behind the development and creation of this exhibition.
Our Collection
> 2 years ago
Special delivery
Helen Valentine, our Senior Curator, and Edwina Mulvany, our Registrar, have just returned from Australia where they were installing the exhibition ‘Genius and Ambition’.
Our Collection
> 2 years ago
History returns
A slice of history has recently returned to the Royal Academy after over 200 years, in the form of an intriguing drawing by John Flaxman RA.
RA Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
Hide and seek
Certain exhibitions are especially rewarding to put together, and ‘Norman Stevens ARA: Selected Prints’ is definitely one of them. Not only has the project had close input from the artist’s family and friends, but it also feels long overdue.
Artists
> 2 years ago
Meet the architects: Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura
More than any other architects, Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura have made me look with a fresh eye at the Royal Academy’s galleries and architecture.
Artists
> 2 years ago
Meet the architects: Kengo Kuma
It may seem a strange term for an architect to coin, but Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has been developing an idea of what he calls “weak architecture”.
RA Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
A serendipitous moment and a hint of what’s to come
Shortly after I had been sent the initial ideas by Siza and Souto de Moura I headed into the Main Galleries to consider how they would work.
Inside the Academy
> 2 years ago
Building the show: a peek behind the scenes
Christmas and the holiday period was rather a surreal time. While others were thinking about feasts and wrapping presents, our minds were reeling with schedules of lorries and orders for installation.
Artists
< 3 years ago
Meet the architects: Diébédo Francis Kéré
When putting together this group of architects I purposefully sought out those who would bring a variety of perspectives on how we think about architecture and the spaces around us.
Artists
< 3 years ago
Meet the architects: Li Xiaodong
It was when sitting with Li Xiaodong in a courtyard garden in the Huairou district, a mountainous area near the Great Wall, an hour north of Beijing, that many of his observations of Chinese culture and sensibilities became much clearer for me.
Inside the Academy
< 3 years ago
A taste of Sensing Spaces
Sensing Spaces will transform the RA’s Main Galleries with structures, light, sounds and smells. Hear from behind the scenes as the exhibition installation gets underway.
RA Exhibitions
< 3 years ago
Pezo Von Ellrichshausen: to the Pacific edge
Curator Kate Goodwin visits a “heroic” house perched high, overlooking the ocean in Chile.
Artists
< 3 years ago
Meet the architects: Sofia von Ellrichshausen and Mauricio Pezo
Spending some time with the Chilean architects who ‘consider’ rather than ‘design’.
RA Exhibitions
< 3 years ago
Grafton: from Chandigarh to Cordoba
In my last post, I discussed how Grafton Architects wanted to explore what ‘being present’ in an architectural space means. But what spaces have been in their minds as they design their interventions to our galleries? Which spaces have awakened their senses?
Artists
< 3 years ago
Meet the architects: Grafton
“Buildings tell the stories of our lives in built form… We walk through and feel spaces with our whole bodies and our senses, not just with our eyes and with our minds. We are fully involved in the experience; this is what makes us human.”