RA Summer Exhibition 2018 review: Nothing if not topical

Summer Exhibition 2018

Royal Academy, London                                                             Until Aug 19

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At some point last year or the year before, ‘Operation: Get Grayson’ was launched. The Royal Academy was planning its 250th anniversary celebrations – for 2018 – and seeking a way to ensure that its Summer Exhibition was an absolute barnstormer. Look no further, went the thinking, than Grayson Perry.

Though originally famous as a potter who dressed in women’s clothing, Perry has in recent years had a string of hits as an author and TV presenter. 

Given the chance, surely he’d bring his Midas touch to the RA too, as curator of its 250th Summer Exhibition. That show opened this week, with more than 1,300 works on show – as always, a mixture between big names (such as David Hockney) and rank amateurs.

The first piece we encounter is by Portuguese sculptor Joana Vasconcelos, and it hangs above us like a vast, velvet chandelier in many colours.

The first piece we encounter is by Portuguese sculptor Joana Vasconcelos, and it hangs above us like a vast, velvet chandelier in many colours

The first piece we encounter is by Portuguese sculptor Joana Vasconcelos, and it hangs above us like a vast, velvet chandelier in many colours

The show is nothing if not topical. Pictures of Kim Jong Un and a burnt-out Grenfell Tower appear.

There’s also a work by Banksy in response to the Brexit referendum, a Vote Leave placard having been reworked to read ‘Vote Love’.

In a light-hearted imagining by Alison Jackson, Donald Trump is caught in flagrante in the Oval Office with Miss Mexico.

There are also flashes of Perry’s trademark wit in his juxtapositions. A portrait of Nigel Farage, for instance, hangs beside a painting of a penis, and below a painting of a man vomiting.

Perry promised an emphasis on ‘fun and colour’ and by painting the walls of certain rooms bright yellow and fluorescent blue, he undoubtedly adds to the sense of gaiety

Perry promised an emphasis on ‘fun and colour’ and by painting the walls of certain rooms bright yellow and fluorescent blue, he undoubtedly adds to the sense of gaiety

 Animal sculptures feature in abundance: from a grinning, wooden donkey to a bear trapped beneath a Persian rug. There’s also a puppy recreating the pose from Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring.

At the outset, Perry promised an emphasis on ‘fun and colour’ with this year’s exhibition, and by painting the walls of certain rooms bright yellow and fluorescent blue, he undoubtedly adds to the sense of gaiety.

Above: Curator Grayson Perry. Though originally famous as a potter who dressed in women’s clothing, Perry has in recent years had a string of hits as an author and TV presenter

Above: Curator Grayson Perry. Though originally famous as a potter who dressed in women’s clothing, Perry has in recent years had a string of hits as an author and TV presenter

 The question is, though: is 2018’s offering really that different from all the other Summer Exhibitions of recent years? The answer is no. And in fairness, that’s not through any fault of Perry.

Any show that, by tradition, features work by more than a thousand artists in a limited number of rooms is going to be chaotic and hit-and-miss. The good inevitably mingles with the not so good – and even Grayson Perry can’t do much about that.

  

ALSO WORTH SEEING   

The Great Spectacle 

Royal Academy, London                                                                        Until Aug 19

Rating:

 To mark the 250th consecutive Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, major pieces from a quarter-millennium of Summer Exhibitions have been brought together for a show of their own.

Landscapes by Turner, Constable and Gainsborough take us back to the glory days of British art, the early 19th century. In terms of popularity, though, the exhibition peaked in the Victorian age, when works such as William Powell Frith’s Ramsgate Sands (Life At The Seaside) had to be roped off and protected by policemen, so great was the clamour to see them.

In essence, The Great Spectacle offers a dash through the RA’s history – and, to its organisers’ credit, there’s no attempt to hide the fact that in the 20th century the Academy lost its mojo.

Above: John Constable's 'The Leaping Horse'. Landscapes by Turner, Constable and Gainsborough take us back to the glory days of British art, the early 19th century

Above: John Constable’s ‘The Leaping Horse’. Landscapes by Turner, Constable and Gainsborough take us back to the glory days of British art, the early 19th century

 It became associated with fustiness, provincialism and Sunday painters (something reflected by an infamous tirade by Sir Alfred Munnings – president from 1944 to 1949 – who declared he’d like to kick Picasso up the backside). A host of cutting-edge artists refused to show in the Summer Exhibition, from Francis Bacon to Barbara Hepworth.

By closing with an abstract piece by trendy photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, the implication is that in the 21st century the Summer Exhibition has become cool again.

Time will tell if that’s really the case, but this show is a lively trip down memory lane in the meantime.



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