Royal Academy of Arts
Established | 1768 |
---|---|
Location | Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, United Kingdom |
Visitors | 1,285,595 (as of 2016)[1] |
President | Rebecca Salter |
Public transit access | Green Park; Piccadilly Circus |
Website | royalacademy.org.uk |
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly in London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate.
History
The origin of the Royal Academy of Arts lies in an attempt in 1755 by members of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, principally the sculptor Henry Cheere, to found an autonomous academy of arts. Prior to this a number of artists were members of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, including Cheere and William Hogarth, or were involved in small-scale private art academies, such as the St Martin's Lane Academy.[2] Although Cheere's attempt failed, the eventual charter, called an 'Instrument', used to establish the Royal Academy of Arts over a decade later was almost identical to that drawn up by Cheere in 1755.[3]
The success of St Martin's Lane Academy led to the formation of the
The painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president,[7] and Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary,[8] a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788.[9]
The instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. The founder members were Reynolds,
The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in
The first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. Following the cessation of a similar annual exhibition at the British Institution, the Academy expanded its exhibition programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters in 1870.[14]
Britain's first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, as another way to fulfil its mission. Led by Reynolds, the first president, the first program included a lecture by William Hunter.[15]
In 2018, the Academy's 250th anniversary, the results of a major refurbishment were unveiled. The project began on 1 January 2008 with the appointment of
Activities
Charitable status
The Royal Academy receives funding from neither the State nor the Crown, and operates as a charity.
Permanent collection and loans
One of its principal sources of revenue is hosting a programme of temporary loan exhibitions. These are comparable to those at the
Exhibitions
Under the direction of former exhibitions secretary Sir
In 2004, the Academy attracted media attention for a series of financial scandals and reports of a feud between Rosenthal and other senior staff. These problems resulted in the cancellation of what were expected to have been profitable exhibitions.[23] In 2006, it attracted the press by erroneously placing only the support for a sculpture on display, and then justifying it being kept on display.[24]
From 3 February to 28 April 2024, the RA shows the exhibition "Entangled Pasts, 1768-now" in order to reveal and discuss "connections between art associated with the Royal Academy of Arts and Britain's colonial histories."[25] However, according to Colin Grant, in The Guardian, the exhibition "appears to be tame" though it attempts to "critique the exclusive and impenetrable RA."[26]
Summer Exhibition
The Academy hosts the Summer Exhibition an annual open art exhibition, which means anyone can enter their work to be considered for exhibition. Established in 1769, it is the oldest and largest open submission exhibition in the world and is included in London's Social Season. The members of The Academy, also known as Royal Academicians select and hang the works. Art works in a variety of media are exhibited including painting, sculpture, film, architecture, photography and printmaking.
Tracey Emin exhibited in the 2005 show. In March 2007 Emin accepted the Academy's invitation to become a Royal Academician, commenting in her weekly newspaper column that, "It doesn't mean that I have become more conformist; it means that the Royal Academy has become more open, which is healthy and brilliant."[27]
Friends programme
In 1977, Sir Hugh Casson founded the Friends of the Royal Academy, a charity designed to provide financial support for the institution.[28]
Literary collaborations
Pin Drop Studio hosts live events where well-known authors, actors and thinkers read a short story chosen as a response to the main exhibition programme. The literary evenings are hosted by Pin Drop Studio founder Simon Oldfield. Guests have included Graham Swift, Sebastian Faulks, Lionel Shriver, William Boyd, Will Self, Dame Eileen Atkins, Dame Siân Phillips, Lisa Dawn and Ben Okri.[29]
The RA and Pin Drop Short Story Award is an open submission writing prize, held annually along similar principles of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The award ceremony features a live reading of the winning story in its entirety by a special guest. Past winning stories have been read by Stephen Fry, Dame Penelope Wilton, Juliet Stevenson and Gwendoline Christie.[30]
Presidents and officers
On 10 December 2019, Rebecca Salter was elected the first female President of the Royal Academy[31] on the retirement of Sir Christopher Le Brun.[32]
In September 2007, Sir Charles Saumarez Smith became Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy, a newly created post.[33] Saumarez Smith stepped down from the role at the end of 2018, and it was announced that Axel Rüger, director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, would fill the position from June 2019.[34]
Royal Academy Schools
The Royal Academy Schools form the oldest art school in Britain, and have been an integral part of the Royal Academy of Arts since its foundation in 1768. A key principle of the RA Schools is that their three-year post graduate programme is free of charge to every applicant offered a place.[35]
The Royal Academy Schools was the first institution to provide professional training for artists in Britain. The Schools' programme of formal training was modelled on that of the French
In 1769, the first year of operation, the Schools enrolled 77 students. By 1830 more than 1,500 students had enrolled in the Schools, an average intake of 25 students each year. They included men such as
In 2011 Tracey Emin was appointed Professor of Drawing,[43] and Fiona Rae was appointed Professor of Painting – the first women professors to be appointed in the history of the Academy.[44] Emin was succeeded by Michael Landy,[45] and then David Remfry in 2016 while Rae was succeeded by Chantal Joffe in January 2016.[46]
Library, archive, and collections
The first president of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, gave his noted self-portrait, beginning the Royal Academy collection. This was followed by gifts from other founding members, such as Gainsborough and
The photographic collection consists of photographs of Academicians, landscapes, architecture and works of art. Holdings include early portraits by William Lake Price dating from the 1850s, portraits by David Wilkie Wynfield and Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion (1872–85).[48]
Wall and ceiling paintings
Among the paintings decorating the walls and ceilings of the building are those of Benjamin West and Angelica Kauffman, in the entrance hall (Hutchison 1968, p. 153), moved from the previous building at Somerset House. In the centre is West's roundel The Graces Unveiling Nature, c. 1779,[49] surrounded by panels depicting the elements, Fire, Water, Air and Earth.[50] At each end are mounted two of Kauffman's circular paintings, Composition at the west end, and Painting or Colour and Genius or Invention at the east end.[51]
Michelangelo's Taddei Tondo
The most prized possession of the Academy's collection is
War memorials
In the entrance portico are two war memorials. One is in memory of the students of the Royal Academy Schools who fell in World War I[53] and the second commemorates the 2,003 men of the Artists Rifles who gave their lives in that war with a further plaque to those who died in World War II.[54]
Membership
Membership of the Royal Academy is composed of up to 80 practising artists, each elected by ballot of the General Assembly of the Royal Academy, and known individually as Royal Academicians (RA). The Royal Academy is governed by these Royal Academicians. The 1768 Instrument of Foundation allowed total membership of the Royal Academy to be 40 artists. Originally engravers were completely excluded from the academy, but at the beginning of 1769 the category of Associate-Engraver was created. Their number was limited to six, and unlike other associates, they could not be promoted to full academicians.[55] In 1853 membership of the Academy was increased to 42, and opened to engravers. In 1922, 154 years after the founding of the Royal Academy, Annie Swynnerton became the first woman Associate of the Royal Academy.[56]
See also
- 6 Burlington Gardens
- Cork Street, behind the Royal Academy, with many art galleries
- Royal West of England Academy
References
- ^ "Visitor Figures 2016" (PDF). The Art Newspaper Review. April 2017. p. 14. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
- ^ Hodgson & Eaton 1905, p. 7.
- ^ Gordon Sutton, Artisan or Artist?: A History of the Teaching of Art and Crafts in English Schools (London: Pergamon Press, 2014) p.297
- ^ Hodgson & Eaton 1905, p. 10.
- ^ Chapter 11, The Royal Academy, Sir William Chambers Knight of the Polar Star, John Harris, 1970, A. Zwemmer Ltd
- ^ Hodgson & Eaton 1905, p. 11.
- ^ Hodgson & Eaton 1905, p. 14.
- ^ Hodgson & Eaton 1905, p. 8.
- ^ Hodgson & Eaton 1905, p. 96.
- ^ a b Hodgson & Eaton 1905, p. 353.
- ^ a b Hodgson & Eaton 1905, p. 13.
- ^ Hodgson & Eaton 1905, p. 320.
- ^ "Burlington House | Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32 (pp. 390–429)". British-history.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- ^ "Exhibition of the works of Old Masters". Royal Academy; Printed by William Clowes and Sons. 1870. Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- S2CID 26388873.
- ^ "Royal Academy of Arts". TRC Windows. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
- ^ "The New RA Now open". royalacademy.org.uk. Archived from the original on 17 March 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
- ^ Thompson, Jessie (14 May 2018). "The Royal Academy of Arts gets a new look: Everything you need to know about £56m redevelopment". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 5 December 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
- ^ "The Royal Academy Of Arts". Charity Commission. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- ^ "Lease of Burlington House". Royal Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- ^ "Fine Rooms are trading up". Evening Standard. 12 March 2004. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- ^ "Myra – Art Crimes". Archived from the original on 2 March 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
- ^ Higgins, Charlotte (10 June 2004). "Feud at top 'tearing Royal Academy apart'". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 5 February 2008. Retrieved 7 March 2007.
- ^ BBC (14 June 2006). "Empty plinth sidelines sculpture". BBC News. Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 7 March 2007.
- ^ RA. Entangled Pasts: Large Print Guide (Main Galleries). London: RA, 2024, p. 7.
- ^ Grant, Colin: "Entangled Pasts 1768-Now review – RA all at sea with its risk-light colonial revisionism", The Guardian, 30 January 2024.
- ^ Emin, Tracey. "I can see that the Ra-Ra club is going to be a lot of fun" Archived 10 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 30 March 2007
- ^ "Friends of the Royal Academy". Charity Commission. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- ^ "Podcast: Pin Drop with Ben Okri | Royal Academy of Arts". www.royalacademy.org.uk. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
- ^ "Royal Academy & Pin Drop Short Story Award | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
- ^ "Rebecca Salter Becomes Twenty-Seventh President of The Royal Academy". Artlyst. Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- ^ "Christopher Le Brun Royal Academy President To Step Down". Artlyst. 26 September 2019. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- ^ Kennedy, Maev (28 March 2007). "Gallery director quits after policy tussle". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 19 August 2007. Retrieved 30 March 2007.
- from the original on 1 March 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
- ^ "Royal Academy Schools Prospectus | Royal Academy of Arts". www.royalacademy.org.uk. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- ^ "Oliver Goldsmith". Royal Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4125. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ "Charles Lucy (1814–1873), Victorian Art History". www.avictorian.com. Archived from the original on 6 June 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69105. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Reynolds, Simon. "Sims, Charles Henry (1873–1928)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
- ^ "Sir Francis Newbolt (1863–1940)". Royal Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 16 November 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
- ^ "SIR F.G. NEWBOLT, ATTORNEY, 77, DEAD;". New York Times. 8 December 1940. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
- ^ "Tracey Emin to become a professor". BBC News. 14 December 2011. Archived from the original on 10 December 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
- ^ "Tracey Emin to become Professor of Drawing at RA" Archived 27 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine"BBC News" 14 December 2011
- ^ "RA Schools Announces Annual Exhibition of Works By Graduating Artists". Artlyst. 8 June 2015. Archived from the original on 27 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- ^ Royal Academy of Arts announces election of new Royal Academician, new professors for the Royal Academy Schools and Honorary Surveyor Archived 26 August 2022 at the Wayback Machine Royal Academy of Arts news release, dated 16 January 2016.
- ^ The Magic of a Line: Drawings by Dame Laura Knight, R.A., Library Print Room, Royal Academy of Arts, 2008
- ^ Muybridge, Eadweard. "Animal Locomotion. An Electro-Photographic Investigation Of Consecutive Phases Of Animal Movements. 1872–1885". Royal Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- ^ "RA Collections: Benjamin West – The Graces unveiling Nature". Racollection.org.uk. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
- ^ "RA Collections: Benjamin West". racollection.org.uk. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
- ^ "RA Collections: Angelica Kauffman". racollection.org.uk. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
- ^ "The Making of an Artist: The Great Tradition | Exhibition | Royal Academy of Arts". www.royalacademy.org.uk. Archived from the original on 18 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- ^ "Royal Academy of Arts: Students". Royal Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- ^ "Royal Academy of Arts: Artists Rifles". Royal Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
- ^ Hodgson & Eaton 1905, p. 112.
- ^ Hutchison, Sidney."The History of the Royal Academy, 1768–1968" Taplinger Publishing Company, 1968
Sources
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Hodgson, J. E.; Eaton, Fred A. (1905). The Royal academy and its members 1768–1830. London: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Further reading
- Holme, Charles (1904). The Royal Academy from Reynolds to Millais (PDF).
- George Dunlop Leslie: The inner life of the Royal Academy, with an account of its schools and exhibitions principally in the reign of Queen Victoria (London: John Murray, 1914)
- The History of the Royal Academy 1768–1968, Sidney C. Hutchison, Taplinger, NY, 1968
- Smith, Charles Saumarez (2012). The Company of Artists: The Origins of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. London: Bloomsbury/Modern Art Press. ISBN 9781408182109.
External links
- Royal Academy – official website
- Royal Academy Collection – official website
- Paintings at Royal Academy of Arts, on the Art UK site