Press kits

• Tacita Dean: LANDSCAPE

  In an unprecedented collaboration, three major London galleries, the National Portrait Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, and National Gallery, will open three distinct exhibitions with the artist Tacita Dean, it was announced today. The three exhibitions, Tacita Dean: LANDSCAPE, PORTRAIT, STILL LIFE, shaped by Dean’s response to the individual character of each institution, will explore genres traditionally associated with painting – landscape at the Royal Academy of Arts, portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery and still life at the National Gallery – seen through the contemporary prism of Dean’s wide-ranging artistic practice.

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• From Life

  11 December 2017 - 11 March 2018

  Looking to the past, present and future of one of the cornerstones of artistic process, we ask what it means to make art from life, and how the practice is evolving as technology opens up new ways of making and seeing.

  Drawing from casts and life models was long considered essential training for any aspiring artist, and was once a staple of the Royal Academy’s own art school. Now, on the cusp of the RA’s 250th anniversary, this special exhibition project takes an inquisitive look at the tradition and its ongoing relationship with artists today.

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• 2018 exhibition programme announcement

  Announcing an overview of the year ahead at the Royal Academy of Arts.

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Press kits

• Dalí / Duchamp

  7 October 2017 – 3 January 2018

  Dalí / Duchamp is the first exhibition to present the art of two of the 20th century’s most famous artists in exclusive dialogue. Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) and Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) are usually seen as opposites in almost every respect, yet they shared attitudes to art and life that are manifested in their respective oeuvres on many levels. Taking their friendship as its starting point, the exhibition will demonstrate the aesthetic, philosophical and personal links between them. Over 80 paintings, sculptures, ‘readymades’, photographs, drawings, films and archival material will bring to life the myriad of connections between the works of these two very different creative and intelligent minds. Dalí / Duchamp will be located in Galleries 1, 2 and the Weston Rooms in Burlington House and will include loans from public institutions and private collections across Europe and the US.

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• Matisse in the Studio

  5 August – 12 November 2017

  Matisse in the Studio is the first exhibition to consider how the personal collection of treasured objects of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) were both subject matter and inspiration for his work. To reveal the working processes by which these pieces were transformed in his oeuvre, around 35 objects are displayed alongside 65 of Matisse’s paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and cut-outs.

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• Charles I: King and Collector

  27 January – 15 April 2018

  In January 2018, the Royal Academy of Arts, in partnership with Royal Collection Trust, will present Charles I: King and Collector, a landmark exhibition that will reunite one of the most extraordinary and influential art collections ever assembled. During his reign, Charles I (1600-1649) acquired and commissioned exceptional masterpieces from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, including works by Van Dyck, Rubens, Holbein, Titian and Mantegna, amongst others. Charles I was executed in 1649 and just months later the collection was offered for sale and dispersed across Europe. Although many works were retrieved by Charles II during the Restoration, others now form the core of collections such as the Musée du Louvre and the Museo Nacional del Prado.

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• Jasper Johns: 'Something Resembling Truth'

  23 September — 10 December 2017

  In September 2017, the Royal Academy of Arts will present a landmark exhibition of the Honorary Royal Academician, Jasper Johns. This will be the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s work to be held in the UK in 40 years. The exhibition will comprise over 150 works including sculpture, drawings and prints, together with new work from the artist. Johns is recognised as one of the most significant and influential artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and the exhibition will span over 60 years from his early career, right up to the present time, bringing together artworks that rarely travel from international private and public collections. The title of the exhibition comes from a statement by Johns in 2008: ‘One hopes for something resembling truth, some sense of life, even of grace, to flicker, at least in the work.’

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General news from the Academy

• The Royal Academy of Arts and St Pancras International unveil monumental mechanical work by Conrad Shawcross RA

  The Royal Academy of Arts today revealed a major site-specific installation, The Interpretation of Movement (a 9:8 in blue), 2017, by Royal Academician Conrad Shawcross for Terrace Wires, the station’s public commissioning programme for new artwork by leading international artists.

  This is the third instalment of a four-year partnership between HS1 Ltd. (owners of St Pancras International) and the Royal Academy for the station’s public sculpture series, following Cornelia Parker RA’s One More Time in 2015 and Ron Arad RA’s Thought of Train of Thought in 2016. This year marks the fifth year of the Terrace Wires commission at the station.

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• The Royal Academy of Arts announces the Wollaston Award winner

  The prestigious £25,000 Charles Wollaston Award has been won by Isaac Julien for his film WESTERN UNION: Small Boats in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition. Established in 1978 and presented to the ‘most distinguished work’ in the exhibition, it is one of the most significant art prizes awarded in the country.

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• The Royal Academy of Arts announces election of David Adjaye and Gilbert & George as new Royal Academicians

  The Royal Academy of Arts has elected the internationally renowned architect Sir David Adjaye and artist Gilbert & George as new Royal Academicians following a recent General Assembly.

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General news from the Academy

• The Royal Academy of Arts launches the public appeal 'Make Your Mark', ensuring the next 250 years of the academy

  London, 17 May 2017: The Royal Academy of Arts launches the public appeal ‘Make Your Mark’ to raise £3 million to help complete its transformative redevelopment, realise the ambitious plans for its 250th anniversary and to ensure the next 250 years of the Royal Academy as Britain’s foremost independent, artist and architect-led institution.

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• The Royal Academy of Arts and the Peninsula Hong Kong announce installation by leading British artist, Michael Craig-Martin RA

  London, 25 January 2017: The Royal Academy of Arts and The Peninsula Hong Kong will co-present a public art installation in Hong Kong by leading British artist and Royal Academician Michael Craig-Martin. The third instalment in a three-year partnership between The Peninsula and the Royal Academy, Craig-Martin’s work is timed to coincide with the fifth edition of Art Basel Hong Kong, and will be unveiled on Monday 20 March 2017.

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• The Royal Academy of Arts and HTC Vive collaborate to present the world's first 3D-printed virtual reality art

  London, 1 November 2016: In January 2017, the Royal Academy of Arts and HTC Vive will present the first ever 3D-printed artworks in virtual reality by Royal Academy Schools’ alumni Adham Faramawy, Elliot Dodd and current third-year student Jessy Jetpacks in the display Virtually Real, from 11 – 14 January 2017 in the Fine Rooms at the Royal Academy.

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General news from the Academy

• The Royal Academy Schools and British Fashion Council announce a new collaboration: Fashion Arts Commissions

  London, 27 October 2016: The Royal Academy Schools and the BFC Fashion Arts Foundation have announced their commitment to encouraging and nurturing future talent with a new commissioning project bringing together visual artists and fashion designers to collaborate across both art forms. Fashion Art Commissions will pair alumni from the RA Schools with NEWGEN and NEWGEN MEN designers.

  The commission will result in artworks that will form part of an auction at Christie’s. The pieces will be on display from 31 October –11 November 2016 at Christie’s King Street gallery and will then be part of an online auction from 22 November – 1 December 2016. The money raised from the auction will go to the BFC Fashion Arts Foundation, one of the BFC’s registered charities.

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• The Royal Academy of Arts celebrates The Queen’s 90th birthday with an awards ceremony recognising figures in the visual arts and architecture

  London, 28 September 2016: On Tuesday 11 October 2016, the Royal Academy of Arts celebrated the role of their Royal Patron, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in her 90th year with a reception and an awards ceremony. The Queen was accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh.

  Christopher Le Brun, President of the Royal Academy of Arts, said, “We are delighted to receive The Queen at the Royal Academy in her 90th year. In celebration and recognition of her support for the arts, those who have made a valued contribution will be honoured. The list of award winners shows the great breadth of achievements during Her Majesty’s reign. In this time the arts have been significantly transformed, are now more prominent in national life and more internationally successful than ever before.”

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• Royal Academy Keeper Eileen Cooper RA recognised by Woman of the Year

  London, 26 September 2016: Royal Academician and Keeper of the Royal Academy of Arts, Eileen Cooper, will join over 400 women from all walks of life at the Women of the Year Lunch as a ‘2016 Woman of Achievement’. Each guest is regarded as a ‘Woman of the Year’ and represents not only herself, but the millions of women who make a difference every day.

  Eileen Cooper RA is attending in celebration of her contribution to the arts and arts education.

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General news from the Academy

• Origins – A Project by Ordinary Architecture to go on display in October

  15 October 2016 – 15 January 2017

  This Autumn the Royal Academy has commissioned Ordinary Architecture to create a series of interventions throughout Burlington House that offer an intriguing contemporary counterpoint to the ‘origin myths’ of architecture. The history of architecture is full of ‘origin myths’, stories of how and where architecture began. What makes these ‘origin myths’ important is the way they describe the point at which architecture becomes culture, when the act of building becomes imbued with cultural meanings that can be read and interpreted.

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• Royal Academy of Arts announces The Veronica Scanner: Live 3D Portraiture to go on display in September 2016

  London, 25 July 2016: The Royal Academy of Arts in partnership with Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation and the Rothschild Foundation will present The Veronica Scanner: Live 3D Portraiture to UK audiences for ten days only in London, from 2 – 11 September 2016, and Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire from 22 – 30 October 2016.

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• Friends in the Summer Exhibition

  The Royal Academy of Arts celebrates Friends Week with the appointment of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall as new Patron

  London, 10 May 2016: After almost forty years, The Duke of Edinburgh will pass the patronage of the Friends of the Royal Academy of Arts to The Duchess of Cornwall. The appointment of Her Royal Highness as Patron will take place during the annual Friends Week from 16 – 22 May 2016. The Duke of Edinburgh has been patron of the programme since it was founded in 1977.

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RA250

• The Royal Academy of Arts and John Sisk & Son celebrate a milestone in the construction of the Academy's transformative redevelopment

  The Royal Academy of Arts and John Sisk & Son today revealed the newly restored 19th century façade of Burlington Gardens in a special event to celebrate a significant milestone in the RA’s transformative redevelopment. Christopher Le Brun, President of the Royal Academy and Stephen Bowcott, Chief Executive Officer of John Sisk & Son, were joined by Royal Academician sculptors Cornelia Parker and Gilbert and George, along with Blondel Cluff, Chair of the London Committee for the National Lottery, to unveil the final four statues to be restored on the building’s façade above the main entrance.

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• The Royal Academy of Arts today announced a generous gift from the Dorfman Foundation

  The Royal Academy of Arts today announced a generous gift from the Dorfman Foundation which will significantly transform the future of architecture at the Royal Academy. As the RA prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2018, the support from the Dorfman Foundation will enable the RA to launch two new international architecture awards, together with the restoration of the majestic Senate Rooms in Burlington Gardens to house a new architecture space and cafe. Coupled with the Royal Academy’s new commitment to host a yearly architecture exhibition, the gift will realise the RA’s mission to garner a wider appreciation and understanding of architecture, bringing to the fore its vital relationship to culture and society.

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• The Royal Academy of Arts unveils a monumental public artwork by Yinka Shonibare RA on the façade of Burlington Gardens

  London, 16 May 2016: The Royal Academy of Arts today unveiled a major large-scale public artwork by Yinka Shonibare MBE RA. It will wrap around the scaffolding on the façade of Burlington Gardens whilst the building is undertaking a transformative redevelopment in the lead up to the Royal Academy’s 250th anniversary in 2018. RA Family Album, 2016, consists of over 160 black and white photographs and prints, showcasing the people who have made the RA an inclusive place for artists, creativity and learning since its foundation in 1768. The 71m-wide design is topped by one of Shonibare’s renowned colourful fabric designs which drips down over the images.

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RA250

• Royal Academy of Arts reveals new hoarding design created by local students with support from Richard Wilson RA and HLF

  London, 10 February 2016: The Royal Academy of Arts has partnered with local students to design a section of the scaffold hoarding which will cover the façade of Burlington Gardens throughout the Royal Academy’s transformative redevelopment. The students created the design with artist Diana Taylor, alongside advice from Royal Academician Richard Wilson, and funding provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The final hoarding artwork will be revealed to the public on 24 February 2016.

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• Keystone of British cultural history revealed for first time in 100 years

  London, 27 October 2015: The Charter for the Society of Artists of Great Britain and its associated Roll of Obligation have been rediscovered at the Royal Academy of Arts 250 years after the Society’s foundation in 1765. Thought to be missing, these documents are central to the story of British cultural history signifying the formalisation of artists as a professional group in Britain in the late eighteenth century. The Society was crucial to the foundation of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768, when a cabal of artists broke away from the Society and formed the Academy instead.

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• The Royal Academy’s north-facing Entrance, Burlington Gardens, in 2018

  Image: Hayes Davidson

  The Royal Academy of Arts unveils plans for 250th anniversary redevelopment

  London, 11 May 2015: The Royal Academy of Arts, Britain’s foremost artist-led institution, today unveiled designs for a transformative redevelopment which will be completed in time for its 250th anniversary in 2018. The project is supported by a grant of £12.7 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

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