Search results for ""Royal Academy of Arts""

On Charles II's restoration to the throne in 1660, four of his supporters were provided with plots of land in a leafy suburb of London, on which to build their extravagant town palaces. The only one to survive - built for the poet and courtier Sir John Denham (1615-1669) and now situated in the heart of Piccadilly - became the home of the Royal Academy of Arts, its exhibitions and its Schools. This important study charts the history of the estate through its many owners, including the 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694-1753), who gave the house not only its name but also its distinctive and influential architecture. In his day, the house was host to leading scholars and celebrities, who met within Burlington's cutting-edge creation, which remains an unparalleled example of the Palladian style in England. Nicholas Savage's meticulous research examines 350 years of social and architectural history, as well as revealing the next phase in the life of the estate, as the Royal Academy opens up Burlington House as never before in an exciting redevelopment led by Sir David Chipperfield CBE RA to celebrate the institution's 250th anniversary.

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Published in association with the Royal Academy of Arts, London Animated by an unprecedented study of its collections, this book tells the story of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and illuminates the history of art in Britain over the past two and a half centuries. Thousands of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and engravings, as well as silver, furniture, medals, and historic photographs, make up this monumental collection, featured here in stunning illustrations, and including an array of little-studied works of art and other objects of the highest quality. The works of art complement an archive of 600,000 documents and the first library in Britain dedicated to the fine arts. This fresh history reveals the central role of the Royal Academy in British national life, especially during the 19th century. It also explores periods of turmoil in the 20th century, when the Academy sought either to defy or to come to terms with modernism, challenging linear histories and frequently held notions of progress and innovation.Published in association with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Royal Academy of Arts, London

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This mini wall calendar will brighten your day with the delightful animals portrayed by a range of young artists who featured in the RA Young Artistsâ Summer Show 2023. Information from the artists accompanies each work and the datepad features previous and next monthâs views. Printed on FSC-certified paper, with plastic-free packaging.

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Featuring the vibrant work of 12 Royal Academicians or RA-exhibited artists (the leading talents Nancy Cadogan, Brian Oxley, Gabriella Buckingham, Philip Sutton, Ali Mackie, Gabrielle Nesfield, Mary Barnes, Kaffe Fassett, Sarah Wood, Martin Leman, Wendy Jacob and Julia Hamilton), this wall art calendar displays bright, original, modern and contemplative still life paintings, to be enjoyed by all. The datepad features previous and next month's views. Printed on FSC-certified paper, with plastic-free packaging.

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A selection of Michael Craig-Martin's paintings, prints and sculptures, with an interview. This book is the result of a collaboration between The Gallery at Windsor, Florida, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Born in Ireland, the artist Michael Craig-Martin studied in America. On returning to the UK, he became a key figure in British conceptual art and an influential educator, linked in particular to the YBAs including Damien Hirst and Gary Hume. Craig-Martin's works transform recognisable objects - such as sneakers, headphones, watches and, most recently, Modernist buildings - with bold colour and simplified lines. He cites his 'rationalism' as the root of his practice. Craig-Martin is the latest subject of a three-year curatorial partnership between The Gallery at Windsor, Florida, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, initiated to celebrate the Academy's 250th anniversary. This lively book reproduces a selection of his paintings, prints and sculptures, with an insightful essay by the art critic Ben Luke and an interview between Tim Marlow and the artist. Published to accompany an exhibition at the Gallery at Windsor, Florida, 26 January - 26 April 2019. Ben Luke is the art critic at the London Evening Standard. Tim Marlow is artistic director at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Below images, left to right: Sir Michael Craig-Martin CBE RA, Untitled (watch fragment yellow), 2017. Acrylic on aluminium, 90 x 90 cm. Sir Michael Craig-Martin CBE RA, Double Take (iPhone), 2017. Acrylic on aluminium in two panels, 2018, 90 x 180 cm. Sir Michael Craig-Martin CBE RA, Untitled (trainer fragment), 2017. Acrylic on aluminium, 60 x 60 cm. Sir Michael Craig-Martin CBE RA, Untitled (lightbulb blue), 2017. Acrylic on aluminium, 90 x 90 cm. All images courtesy Gagosian. Photos Mike Bruce.

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Over five decades, the painter Humphrey Ocean RA's work has filtered into our national culture. This includes his series of portraits entitled A handbook of modern life displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in 2013; his portrait of Christopher Le Brun, President of the Royal Academy of Arts; and the cover of Sir Paul McCartney's 2007 album Memory Almost Full, which featured one of the Chair series. Ocean's practice encompasses painting, printmaking, sculpture, book-making and drawing. Of the last, he has said: 'Paper is lovely, immediate and personal. I draw as an end in itself.' In 2019 his exhibition 'Birds, Cars and Chairs' is on display at the Royal Academy of Arts. Of these subjects, he says: 'Birds, cars and chairs are, in that order, ancient, modern and intimate. Without them life would be a lot less bearable.' These works are reproduced alongside others in the book to provide a fascinating overview of Ocean's career, with an essay by Ben Thomas, which sets out to discover exactly what it is that makes Ocean's art so appealing and universal.

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In October 2018 Cornelia Parker's Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) lands in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. This meticulous and unsettling installation - first shown on the roof of The Metropolitan Museum of Art against the skyline of New York's Central Park - is half stage set, half sculpture. The work, which draws on archetypal images of American culture such as the red barn and the infamous Bates motel from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, will now be seen against a backdrop of Burlington House's neoclassical buildings. Cornelia Parker was elected a Royal Academician in 2009. She has since had solo shows at the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, and the Frith Street Gallery, London. She is well known for her installations, including Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991), a reconstruction of an exploded shed, which now forms part of Tate's collection. Generously illustrated with supporting imagery and installation shots, this book comprises a conversation with the artist and a text on the work's installation in London. Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) will be on display in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, from October 2018 to March 2019.

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At the beginning of 2020, just as global Covid-19 restrictions were coming into force, the artist David Hockney was at his house, studio and garden in Normandy. From there, he witnessed the arrival of spring, and recorded the blossoming of the surrounding landscape on his iPad, a medium he has been using for over a decade. Working outdoors was an antidote to the anxiety of the moment for Hockney – 'We need art, and I do think it can relieve stress,' he says. This uplifting publication – produced to accompany a major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts – includes 116 of his new iPad paintings and shows to full effect Hockney's singular skill in capturing the exuberance of nature.

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Each year between 1819 and 1825, John Constable (1776-1837) submitted a monumental canvas to the Royal Academy of Arts in London for display in the annual Exhibition. These so-called six-footers vividly captured the life of the River Stour in Suffolk, where Constable grew up and where he returned to paint each year. The Leaping Horse, the last of these, now a major work in the Academy's collection, is the subject of this fascinating new book. Humphreys explores Constable's often avant-garde working methods, as well as his struggle to gain full acceptance within the art establishment of the early nineteenth century. With reproductions of his full-scale preliminary sketches as well as brand new photography of the painting itself, this book is the ideal companion for art lovers who seek a deeper appreciation of Constable's iconic depictions of the English countryside.

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Internationally renowned, highly educated and very well connected, Angelica Kauffman (1741–1807) led a brilliant career as a pioneering history painter, an innovative portraitist and one of only two women among the founding membership of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. ‘The whole World is angelicamad’ – thus a Danish diplomat described the effect of her art and personality during her lifetime. Kauffman was admired by Goethe and Herder, and her clients included queens and emperors from across the continent. Her extraordinary life and work are beautifully presented in this handsome volume, which contains her finest paintings and drawings.

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In The Miserable Lives of Fabulous Artists, Chris Orr turns his humorous gaze on some of the most famous - and fabulous - artists of the past. With over 30 new works, accompanied by Orr's captions, artists from Edward Hopper to Pablo Picasso find themselves in weird and wonderful situations. Edvard Munch holidays at the seaside, John Constable RA is disturbed at his easel by frolicking nudists and there's an unfortunate incident in Barbara Hepworth's studio... No one can escape Orr's imagination: Walter Sickert is distracted from a spreadeagled model by a fly in his soup, Dame Laura Knight RA is caught shoplifting, and Frida Kahlo enjoys a fry-up. Each image is packed with detail to pore over, and the book concludes with notes from the artist, accompanied by preparatory drawings for the finished work. This new collection, published to coincide with an exhibition of Orr's works at the Royal Academy of Arts, is a charming romp which affectionately pokes fun at well-loved artists.

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Dame Laura Knight RA (1877-1970) was the first female member to be elected to the Royal Academy of Arts, submitting Dawn, her now famous painting of two female nudes, as her Diploma Work in 1936. In 1965 the Academy's major retrospective of her work recognised her importance in British art. This autumn an exhibition of Knight's drawings opens at the RA. Drawing was a key part of her practice, and allowed her to capture at speed her various subjects, which include travellers, circus performers, boxers, ballet dancers and ice skaters. Drawing allowed her to capture with immediacy the exuberant life of her models, as well as being a vital recording tool when she witnessed one of the most important events of the twentieth century: the Nuremberg trials. In this new publication on the artist, Annette Wickham and Helen Valentine present the Academy's holdings of her drawings with an in-depth analysis focused on three key subjects within her work: the nude, the working woman and country life.

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New site-specific works by Phyllida Barlow fill the Royal Academy's Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries in early 2019. This accompanying publication provides a lively account of the artist's role in modern British sculpture. The British sculptor Phyllida Barlow CBE RA (b. 1944) studied at Chelsea College of Art (1960-63) and the Slade School of Art (1963-66), where she later taught for much of her career. In recent years, she has been elected a Royal Academician, created new work for Tate and the Royal Academy, had numerous solo shows and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. Barlow's large-scale sculptures eschew serenity, balance and beauty in favour of instability, obstruction and oddness. They invade the spaces they inhabit, instead of neatly complementing them. Her use of inexpensive, everyday materials - concrete, plywood, cardboard, plaster, fabric and paint - suggests that her works are a double act of recycling: both of the materials she uses and the images she draws from her memory. With installation shots of the artist's new works at the Royal Academy and photography from the studio, this book situates Barlow as a key figure within contemporary sculpture. Published to accompany an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 16 February-23 June 2019. Alastair Sooke is an art critic and broadcaster. Edith Devaney is Head of Summer Exhibition and Curator of Contemporary Projects at the Royal Academy.

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Francis Bacon is considered one of the most important painters of the twentieth century. A major exhibition of his paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts, planned for 2020 but postponed because of the pandemic, explores the role of animals in his work – not least the human animal. Having often painted dogs and horses, in 1969 Bacon first depicted bullfights. In this powerful series of works, the interaction between man and beast is dangerous and cruel, but also disturbingly intimate. Both are contorted in their anguished struggle, and the erotic lurks not far away: ‘Bullfighting is like boxing,’ Bacon once said. ‘A marvellous aperitif to sex.’ Twenty-two years later, a lone bull was to be the subject of his final painting. In this fascinating publication – a significant addition to the literature on Bacon – expert authors discuss Bacon’s approach to animals and identify his varied sources of inspiration, which included wildlife photography and the motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge. They contend that, by considering animals in states of vulnerability, anger and unease, Bacon was able to lay bare the role of instinctual behaviour in the human condition. Images below, left to right: Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Fragment of a Crucifixion, 1950. Oil and cotton wool on canvas, 140 x 108.5 cm. Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Photo Hugo Maertens Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Study for Portrait (with Two Owls), 1963. Oil on canvas, 198.1 x 144.8 cm. Private collection. Photo Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Man with Dog, 1953. Oil on canvas, 152 x 117 cm. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Gift of Seymour H. Knox Jr, 1955, inv. K1955:3. Photo Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd All images © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2020.

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Drawing on the artist''s substantial and fascinating archive, the renowned design historian Tanya Harrod puts into their rich context the many strands of the work of Leonard Rosoman OBE RA (1913-2012). The range of Rosoman''s output is extraordinary, encompassing his time in the Auxiliary Fire Service in London and as an Official War Artist in the far east, his work for the theatre and as an illustrator, painter and teacher, and his large-scale murals for the restored chapel at Lambeth Palace and the RA Restaurant at Burlington House, home of an institution of which he was an integral part for over half a century. In her engaging assessment of Rosoman''s remarkable achievement throughout his long career, Harrod gives the reader a thorough grasp of this underrated artist and his world.

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Sir Michael Craig-Martin CBE RA (b. 1941) is an important figure in British conceptual art, and among the most influential artists and teachers of his generation. Since his rise to prominence in the late 1960s he has moved between sculpture, installation, painting, drawing and print, creating works that fuse elements of pop, minimalism and conceptual art. His work transforms everyday objects from buckets and ladders to trainers, mobile phones and laptops with bold colours and simple, uninflected lines. Renowned as an art educator, he has inspired generations of artists, including the YBAs. This handsome book, the catalogue of the largest exhibition of Craig-Martin's work to have been mounted in the UK, contains thought-provoking texts by the critics Michael Bracewell and Richard Cork, and an illuminating conversation between the artist and the writer Carolina Grau.

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Born in 1942 in Worthing, David Remfry RA studied at Hull College of Art. His first solo show in London in 1973 has been followed by more than 50 international solo exhibitions. He is well known both for his large-scale watercolours of dancers, and for his drawings and watercolours of his neighbours and friends at the Hotel Chelsea in New York, where he lived from 1995 to 2016.Remfry's skill in capturing dancers in movement in spontaneous watercolour is shown to particularly good effect in these pocket-sized sketches of tango aficionados. Characteristically, he shows us neither their heads nor their feet, instead concentrating entirely on their midriffs in this charming celebration of the most seductive and passionate of dances.

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Working principally in drawing and print media on paper, Emma Stibbon RA depicts landscapes and environments that are undergoing dynamic transformation, among them the polar regions, volcanic areas, deserts and coastal and urban locations. Her approach is driven by her desire to understand how human activity and the forces of nature are shaping our surroundings: As an artist, I feel committed to representing the impact of these changes, be they natural or human. My impulse is to draw, to act as a witness.'A regular traveller, Stibbon undertakes field research alongside geologists and scientists; on her return to her Bristol studio, she works from her sketches and photographic records to create large-scale drawn and printed artworks that testify to the fragility of our existence.Full of Stibbon's new work, this beautifully designed book contains a foreword by Caroline Lucas MP, an engaging interview with the artist by Sara Cooper, a text on the sublime in nature and art

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The Hispanic Society of America in New York is the vision of Archer M. Huntington (1870–1955). From an early age, Huntington developed an abiding love both of Hispanic culture and of museums and libraries. He resolved to devote his considerable fortune to combining these two passions, and carried out his project so resourcefully that the collections he assembled remain exceptional for their depth and richness, displaying the culture of Spain and Latin America in the broadest sense. Their scope ranges from the prehistoric era to the early 20th century, including antiquities, decorative arts, Islamic works, manuscripts and rare books as well as superb canvases by Old Masters such as El Greco, Velázquez and Goya. This handsome new publication features an introduction to Archer M. Huntington and the Hispanic Society by Patrick Lenaghan, the Society’s Head Curator of Prints, Photographs and Sculpture, and plates and catalogue entries on some of its greatest treasures by the Society’s curators.

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The Franco-Swiss photographer Hélène Binet (b. 1959) is renowned for making images that express an intimate experience of architecture. Using a combination of analogue and digital techniques, her photographs are both a representation and a discovery of her subjects, all of them buildings that break the mould, pushing daringly at the boundaries of their time. In this selection of some ninety of her photographs – ranging from the baroque London churches of Nicholas Hawksmoor and the Jantar Mantar Observatory in Jaipur through to buildings of contemporary architects Le Corbusier, Peter Zumthor, John Hejduk, Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid – her work is revealed in all its subtlety and quiet sensitivity.

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A collection of the award-winning architect's travel sketches, showing inspirational buildings across the globe. Includes Sydney Opera House, St Paul's Cathedral and the Tokyo skyline. Chris Wilkinson, the founder of the architectural practice WilkinsonEyre, is responsible for beautiful buildings and structures in London and beyond, including the Gasholders at King's Cross, the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station, and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. In this appealing publication, Wilkinson presents the sketches he makes while travelling for business and leisure, usually focusing on inspirational buildings or urban cityscapes. His travels have taken him as far afield as the West Indies, Russia, Egypt, Australia and Japan. Wherever he goes, he finds an hour or two to sit and sketch - whether in a hotel room with a view or on a cafe terrace with a cappuccino. From the medieval Tuscan town of Lucca to ancient Egyptian architecture, the Sydney Opera House and the skylines of London, Tokyo and New York, Wilkinson introduces each sketch and ruminates on his work, his travels, and the cities and buildings that have most inspired him.

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The Lammermuir Hills have been an important trade route between Scotland and England for generations, as well as an effective barrier when necessary. Drawn by the long history of south-eastern Scotland and the many conflicting elements in play in its natural environment – among them wind farms, pylons, forestry plantations, grouse moors and sheep – the distinguished Scottish painter and printmaker Barbara Rae CBE RA has made numerous studies of these wild expanses. This handsome volume reproduces a wide selection of her intensely colourful images with accompanying photographs and maps, and texts by the art critic Duncan Macmillan, Emeritus Professor of the History of Scottish Art at the University of Edinburgh, and Maureen Barrie, who worked for many years at National Museums Scotland.

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The Japanese artist Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831–1889) was celebrated for his exciting impromptu performances at calligraphy and painting parties. Dynamic, playful and provocative, Kyōsai delighted his audience with spontaneous and speedy paintings of demons, skeletons, deities and Buddhist saints. These were often satirical, reflecting a time of political and cultural change in Japan. Among his most charming and inventive works are his brilliant depictions of animals, which humorously play the roles of protagonists of modern life. Kyōsai’s important place in Japanese art is here explored in depth by Sadamura Koto, a leading authority on the artist, in this catalogue of the exceptionally rich holdings of the Israel Goldman Collection.

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Born in 1885 to a working-class family in Connecticut, Milton Avery left school at 16 to work in a factory. Intending to study lettering but soon transferring to painting, he attended evening school for fifteen years before moving to New York in the 1920s to pursue a career as a painter. Although he never identified with a particular movement, Avery was a sociable member of the New York art scene. He became a figure of considerable influence for a younger generation of American artists, including Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman. His talent was praised by Rothko, who said of his work ‘the poetry penetrated every pore of the canvas to the last touch of the brush’. Edith Devaney introduces Avery and his work, while Erin Monroe looks at Avery’s early years in Hartford, and Marla Price examines Matisse’s influence upon his art. A conversation with the artist’s daughter March Avery Cavanaugh and an illustrated chronology by Isabella Boorman complete the book.

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Emma Stibbon's drawings and prints depict volcanoes, tectonic plates and powerful glaciers. Includes commentary by the artist on the making and location of each image. The artist is fascinated by environments in flux. Her work often explores the impact of natural forces: the shifting tectonic plates, volcanic activity and powerful glaciers that shape and transform the Earth's surface. Stibbon has accompanied research expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, lived and worked among volcanoes in Hawai'i, and has made several visits to Stromboli, off the coast of northern Sicily, Iceland and Norway. This book presents the sketches she made during her travels. They have the immediacy that results from an artist working at speed and often in difficult circumstances. Readers will discover the unexpected visual effect of ink that has frozen on contact with the paper. The book is introduced by the artist who, informed by her discussions with vulcanologists and glaciologists, explains why she is drawn to depict nature's extremes.

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The product of extensive interviews with the artist, this publication provides the definitive guide to the work of Jock McFadyen RA. The architecture critic Rowan Moore creates a fascinating portrait of the artist, weaving together stories from McFadyen's life - from burning an effigy of his principal and being thrown out of college to a residency at the National Gallery and election to the Royal Academy in 2012 - with an in-depth analysis of his art. McFadyen's story begins in 1950s Scotland, moving via squats in Chelsea during the punk era, to the East End of London, now the subject of many of his large-scale landscapes. Moore explores McFadyen's decision to 'believe in painting' in the face of artists who appeared to seek financial reward before all else, and the inspiration he takes from a wide range of artists, including James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and Walter Sickert (1860-1942). This publication celebrates an important contemporary painter, and is generously illustrated with a selection of McFadyen's works - including Tate Moss, a painting derived from an illicit kayak trip along the canal into London's future Olympic Park, and his recent depictions of a gargantuan moon hanging above Edinburgh.

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From Michelangelo's marbles to photographic self-portraits, artists have always been fascinated by their creative encounters with the human body. Often a key part of their early training, drawing and sculpting from life goes on to inform their later work in unexpected and inspiring ways. This illuminating publication brings together interviews with over 15 artists from all disciplines, including painters, sculptors and conceptual artists, working in a variety of different media. Through their in-depth conversations with the artists, writers explore the many ways artists work 'from life': from Jeremy Deller's open life class with Iggy Pop as model to Jonathan Yeo's innovative use of 3D scanners and virtual reality. An introductory essay provides the historical context for a practice deeply rooted in artistic tradition. Generously illustrated with reproductions of the artists' work and photography of their working methods, this book upends all our prior assumptions about 'working from life'.

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When Bob and Roberta Smith - pseudonym of the artist Patrick Brill - was elected a Royal Academician in 2013, he had a more complex relationship with the Royal Academy than most. He remembers well the feeling of suspense as his parents, both artists, waited to hear whether their submissions had been accepted for the annual Summer Exhibition. The outcome brought jubilation or despair, but rarely to both, which led to its problems. In The Secret to a Good Life, Bob and Roberta Smith introduces his mother, Deirdre Borlase, and her encounters with the often sexist and class-ridden art establishment of post-war Britain. Her story has led her son to ruminate on drawing, politics and the challenge that art can pose to authority. In the colourful signwriting style for which he is best known, the artist tells a poignant and political family story. In the end, it is Deirdre who provides the answer to the question: what is the secret to a good life?

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Born in 1943 in Bristol, Nigel Hall RA studied at the West of England College of Art in Bristol and at the Royal College of Art in London before winning a Harkness Fellowship to study in America, where he travelled in California and the Mojave Desert.One of the foremost sculptors of his generation, Hall has created acclaimed works in steel, aluminium and polished wood. As a boy he watched and worked with his grandfather, a stonemason who restored churches and other buildings in the West of England: Experience of carving has affected the way I make sculpture and drawings, which is very much to do with light and shade, and edge.'In this appealing new volume, Hall's skill as a draughtsman is revealed, as is the importance of drawing to his sculptural practice. Indeed, his abstract drawings in gouache and charcoal show the same preoccupation with space and balance as his sculptures. Some 80 of Hall's beautiful works on paper are included, with an intriguing introduction to

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Anthony Green's idiosyncratic art is anchored in one central theme: family. It forms the core of his immediately recognisable work, revealing an intrinsic connection between his personal and artistic lives. The pictures in Green's mind have no edges, so his paintings are not contained within a traditional shape. They have irregularly shaped supports, reflecting the unpredictable range of situations and emotions that characterise family life. Green has exhibited across the globe, and was shortlisted for the Jerwood Painting Prize in 1996. A distinguished and long-serving Royal Academician, Green has exhibited at every Summer Exhibition for the last five decades. He was elected ARA in 1971 and RA in 1977, after winning that year's Summer Exhibit of the Year. He served for some years as Chairman of the RA's Exhibitions Committee. He lives and works in Cambridgeshire.

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Chris Orr MBE RA is one of Britain's foremost printmakers. In this definitive book he and Robert Hewison explore his remarkable printmaking career, from his early experiments as a student in the 1960s, when he first discovered how etching could enhance his drawing, to his later innovations in lithography, silkscreen and digital printing, and his ingenious use of long-forgotten processes. Hewison also considers the significant contribution that Orr has made to printmaking as a teacher, first at Cardiff College of Art and then in London at Central St Martins and the Royal College of Art, where he was Professor of Printmaking from 1998 to 2008. Illustrated with over 150 of Orr's theatrical, witty and wilfully allusive prints, this book looks for the first time in depth at the gloriously original output of a ceaseless inventor. The book will also be published in a limited edition containing a specially made print signed by the artist.

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"The book is compact, beautifully designed, and includes excellent essays by Linsey Young and Kathleen Soriano, with introductions on each section by the artist, reproductions of each work in the show, as well as others on Cooper and Soriano’s wish list which could not be accommodated." — Printmaking Today Eileen Cooper OBE RA has been consistently successful across her 50-year career, the influence of her art seen in the range and depth of her work as well as in her contribution to art education. Cooper’s artistic experiences – which, in the words of Linsey Young, disrupt the neat patriarchal understandings of women – are brought together in this thoughtfully designed and elegant hardback. Early works are illustrated alongside previously unseen drawings, paintings, prints, ceramics and portraits, many of which will surprise readers. The authors also consider Cooper’s work in relation to the collections of Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, including works by Peter Doig, Paula Rego, Pablo Picasso, Dame Laura Knight and Lotte Laserstein.

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David Remfry MBE RA has long been fascinated by the relationships that develop between dogs and their owners. In this charming new book, his deft portraits in watercolour and gouache reveal the mutual understanding and sympathy of these partnerships. Many of his portraits are accompanied by sketches from the artist's many notebooks alongside brief accounts by his sitters of how dog and owner came to find each other. Remfry's lively watercolours and sketches illustrate such celebrities as Ethan Hawke (and Nina), Susan Sarandon (and Penny and Rigby) and Alan Cumming (and Honey). Some of the sitters were Remfry’s neighbours at the iconic Chelsea Hotel in New York.

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"Monet, van Gogh and Cezanne feature in a pleasurable Royal Academy show that demonstrates why the Impressionists remain the world's favourite set of artists." — Independent Best known for their superlative oils on canvas, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and numerous other Impressionists and Post-Impressionists also regularly used paper as a support for works in watercolour, gouache, pencil, tempera and that most elusive of media, pastel. Their practice transformed the status of these works from preparatory studies, to be left in the studio and not shown in public, to works of art in their own right. With insightful texts by acknowledged experts in the field, this sumptuous book brings together some 70 masterworks on paper by leading Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists. Their bold innovations challenged traditional attitudes, radically transformed the future direction of art and ultimately paved the way for later movements such as Abstract Expressionism.

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"Forget the rural idylls. This sublime show recasts John Constable as the godfather of the Avant Garde, producing explosive, nightmarish paintings of a vanishing world." – Jonathan Jones, Guardian One of Britain’s greatest landscape painters, John Constable (1776–1837) was brought up in Dedham Vale, the valley of the River Stour in Suffolk. The eldest son of a wealthy mill owner, he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1800 at the age of 24, and thereafter committed himself to painting nature out of doors. His ‘six-footers’, such as The Hay Wain and The Leaping Horse, were designed to promote landscape as a subject and to stand out in the Academy’s Annual Exhibition. Despite this, he sold few paintings in his lifetime and was elected a Royal Academician late in his career. With texts by leading authorities on the artist, this handsome book looks at the freedom of Constable’s late works and records his enormous contribution to the English landscape tradition.

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The artist Humphrey Ocean RA has painted portraits of Sir Paul McCartney and Philip Larkin, among many others. But alongside these prestigious commissions, he has always returned to drawing the simpler things in life: our 'alluringly unnatural world', as he puts it. The result is this idiosyncratic and charming collection of birds, all rendered in Ocean's unique style. With a species to discover on every page, this book is the perfect gift for any keen ornithologist, aspiring twitcher or dedicated listener to Tweet of the Day. As well as birdwatching around his home and studio in South London, Ocean regularly visits his sister, who is a nun in Nairobi and has loved birds all her life. There, he paints Kenyan birds such as the Eurasian bee-eater, the Bulbul and the Flycatcher that are 'local, a bit like our garden birds so nothing overly exotic, but of course to me they are'. They join the familiar gulls, thrushes and tits of the gardens, parks and hedgerows of the UK in this beautifully produced collection.

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Norman Ackroyd CBE RA has spent over four decades recording the coastal landscapes of the British archipelago. All his watercolours and many of his etchings are executed en plein air, mainly from chartered boats chosen for their skippers' local knowledge and expertise in landing on the more remote rocks and islands. These journeys, which can last up to fourteen hours, are the result of extensive reading and research. A Shetland Notebook contains 39 watercolours selected from several journeys to the edges of Shetland in the spring and summer of 2012. From the verdant flora of the southern isles to the rugged northern cliffs of Unst and Esha Ness, the book paints a vivid portrait of one of the most intriguing yet inhospitable corners of the British Isles. Each sketch is accompanied by a brief but engaging commentary by the artist.

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Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) created many of the most beautiful and important drawings in the history of Western art. Many of these were anatomical and became the yardstick for the early study of the human body. From their unique perspectives as artist and scientist, brothers Stephen and Michael Farthing analyse Leonardo's drawings - which are concerned chiefly with the skeletal, cardiovascular, muscular and nervous systems - and discuss the impact they had on both art and medical understanding. Stephen Farthing has created a series of drawings in response to Leonardo, which are reproduced with commentary by Michael, who also provides a useful glossary of medical terminology. Together, they reveal how some of Leonardo's leaps of understanding were nothing short of revolutionary and, despite some misunderstandings, the accuracy of Leonardo's grasp.

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The subjects and styles of Anthony Whishaw encompass an exceptional range. He paints in concurrent series, which sometimes overlap to form unexpected hybrids. His paintings vary in scale from only 20 cm to nearly 7 metres in length, and a similar breadth of scope also exists within his subject-matter, which examines both macro- and microcosms, from the depths of space to electrochemical activity in the brain. His paintings can be both figurative and abstract, illustrative and allusive. Whishaw also employ a broad range of media. He uses acrylic and collage techniques on canvas, board and paper, often adding sand, soil, ash or metal to help his exploration of the plastic quality of paint. His work has been exhibited at venues including the ICA and the Barbican Centre in London. He has many awards to his name, including the Royal College of Art Drawing Prize, and the Arts Council of Great Britain Award. He was elected an Associate Royal Academician in 1980 and a Royal Academician in 1989. He lives and works in London.

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Over the past decade, Frank Bowling has enjoyed belated attention and celebration, including a major Tate Britain retrospective in 2019. This comprehensive monograph, published in 2011, is now available in an updated and expanded edition. Born in British Guiana in 1934, Bowling arrived in England in his late teens, going on to study at the Royal College of Art alongside David Hockney and Derek Boshier. By the early 1960s he was recognised as an original force in the vibrant London art scene, with a style that brilliantly combined figurative, symbolic and abstract elements. Dividing his time between New York and London since the late 1960s, he has developed a unique and virtuosic abstract style that combines aspects of American painterly abstraction with a treatment of light and space that consciously recollects the great English landscape painters Gainsborough, Turner and Constable. In a compelling text the art writer, critic and curator Mel Gooding hails Bowling as one of the finest British artists of his generation.

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The Royal Academy's legendary Summer Exhibition has been an annual event since 1769 and is always an occasion for innovation, experiment and debate. But 2020 may prove to be its most extraordinary year yet: prevented from opening in May by the closure of the Royal Academy during the Covid-19 pandemic, the exhibition this year opens in the autumn. A committee of artists and architects, led by the artistic duo Jane and Louise Wilson RA, will hang over 1,000 works in the galleries of Burlington House, all while navigating the challenges of social distancing, travel restrictions and shielding. The Summer Exhibition Illustrated was first published in the 1870s and presents the highlights of the show, which this year include works by Korakrit Arunanondchai, Karen Kilimnik and Chris Ofili. In their conversation that opens the book, the Wilsons expand on the experience of opening the exhibition in such exceptional circumstances and celebrate the resilience of artistic practice and its power to bring people together. The Summer Exhibition 2020 will run from the 6 October 2020 to 3 January 2021.

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In 1964 Lucian Freud set his students at the Norwich College of Art an assignment: to paint naked self-portraits and to make them 'revealing, telling, believable... really shameless'. It was advice that the artist was often to follow himself. Visceral, unflinching and often nude, Freud's self-portraits give us an insight into the development of his style as a painter. The works provide the viewer with a constant reminder of the artist's overwhelming presence, whether he is confronting the viewer directly or only present as a shadow or in a reflection. Essays by leading authorities - including those who knew him well - explore Freud's life and work, and analyse the importance of self-portraiture in his practice and the intensity that he maintained when studying his own.

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Accompanying catalogue for the Marina Abramović exhibition at the Royal Academy from 23 September – 4 January 2024. The exhibition travels to the Stedlijk in March 2024. Over the past half century, Marina Abramović has earned worldwide acclaim as a pioneer of performance art. This handsome new book records the first UK exhibition to include works from her entire career. Re-performances of some of her best-known and most radical pieces appear alongside new and recent work. An augmented-reality app for iOS and Android enables readers to watch films of Abramović’s original performances while reading the book. An essential purchase for all followers of Abramović’s extraordinary 55-year career, this important publication brings expert voices into the debate that her groundbreaking art engenders. How far should an artist push herself in pursuit of her work? What role does the audience play in creating a performance? How can performance art outlive the moment in which it takes place? Text in Dutch.

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The first monograph on this important but overlooked artist. Coincides with a major show of new work at Alan Cristea Gallery, London, 27 June to 31 July, 2019. Mick Moon RA was born in Edinburgh in 1937 and grew up in Blackpool. He studied at the Chelsea School of Art (1958-62) and later taught at the Slade School of Fine Art (1973-90). He was elected a Royal Academician in 1994 and his work now forms part of many public collections including those of the Scottish National Gallery, Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Moon's paintings and prints combine a wide variety of media and techniques in complex and intriguing layers. More recently, photographic elements have formed part of his practice, along with textural materials such as wood and cloth which Moon combines with ink and paint. The art historian Mel Gooding provides an authoritative insight into Mick Moon's practice and a definitive overview of his career. He argues that Moon is one of the most important artists of his generation and asserts his place as one of the key figures of post-war British art.

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