Published four times a year for Friends of the Royal Academy, the beautifully designed RA Magazine explores in depth the art on view both inside and outside the RA each season.
Including insightful essays, interviews with artists, thought-provoking opinion pieces, comprehensive listings, and previews of shows across the UK and abroad, RA Magazine brings the Royal Academy and the wider art world into your home.
Some of the magazine’s interviews and reviews are published on our website. Read articles from RA Magazine.
The RA’s founding President Joshua Reynolds may have shaken up the art world when he delivered his ‘Discourses’ lectures, but are they still relevant now? We take a closer look at what artists and art-lovers can learn from the series today.
As the RA unveils the Hispanic Society Museum & Library’s collection for the first time in Britain, Xavier Bray visits its atmospheric home in New York.
One of the most beautiful houses in London has reopened to the public. Here, Simon Wilson writes that the Former President of the Royal Academy’s home is a testament to his artistic vision.
The Berlin-based artist’s profound compassion and expressive depictions of those suffering were rooted in first-hand experience.
Torn between domestic life and the studio, the German painter portrayed women in a startling new light.
A founder member of the Blue Rider, the art group at the heart of German Expressionism, Münter developed a spontaneous painting method that captured the essence of things.
The new Royal Academician, renowned for his seafaring sculptures, invites Rosanna McLaughlin aboard his London space.
As the RA mounts the first major survey show of American artist Milton Avery in Europe, Kelly Grovier traces his career – from his artistic roots in American Impressionism to kinship with Abstract Expressionists including Mark Rothko – and Avery’s lifelong obsession with colour.
As we prepare to open this year’s Young Artists’ Summer Show, we asked schoolteacher Stephanie Cubbin what her art students have taught her about taking risks, sharing, and independence.
As the Royal Academy Schools Class of 2022 open up their studios for their final show, they reflect on how the building – from its Mayfair location to its crumbling corners – has influenced their practice.
From a striking coastal sculpture to a life-size betting shop made entirely of glass, artist Ryan Gander RA’s practice is brilliantly varied. Get to know the life and work of the newly elected Royal Academician.
For all your summer reading needs, we’ve picked 10 contemporary novels inspired by art and artists. Escape to the studios of 1970s New York, the courts of 15th-century Paris, or the deathbed of Francis Bacon…
The colour white can be as challenging for the painter as the blank white sheet of paper is for the writer. Ian McKeever RA reflects on James McNeill Whistler’s ability to create form using one of the most elusive colours.
When you can’t go to the art, let the art come to you. Here’s our pick of the best artist biopics and documentaries available to stream.
Three unmissable exhibitions are happening in Birmingham, Gateshead and Wakefield. Don’t say we didn’t tell you…
We’ve filled our galleries with Whistler, Klimt, and Rossetti’s paintings of women wearing white gowns, but what started this trend in the 1860s? Professor Lara Feigel explores the literary origins of this aesthetic moment.
Francis Bacon’s family links with Africa and his enduring friendship with photographer Peter Beard drew the artist’s eye to the animal kingdom and its killing grounds, writes Philip Hoare.
An ambitious architectural installation is coming to the RA. Here, Kester Rattenbury sheds light on American architect John Hejduk and his visionary constructions.
Kyōsai blurred the divide between the popular and elite art of 19th-century Japan. Christopher Harding introduces the master of satirical and traditional painting as a rare collection of Kyōsai’s art comes to the RA.
Far from evoking the past, Jock McFadyen RA’s eerie paintings imagine a dystopian future, writes Matthew Beaumont, as he prepares to meet the artist for his RA show, ‘Tourist without a Guidebook’.
Ahead of our exhibition exploring James McNeill Whistler and Joanna Hiffernan’s relationship, Celia Paul, artist and sitter for Lucian Freud, meditates on what it takes to be painted.
Painter Paul Huxley RA and sculptor William Tucker RA pay tribute to the former President of the RA who expanded the language of 20th century sculpture.
The Starr Fellowship provides a bursary and a studio at the RA Schools for a U.S. artist to develop their practice – we met 2021 Starr Fellow Kevin Gallagher.
Horace Ové’s work has influenced John Akomfrah RA, Isaac Julien RA and countless others. Ahead of Tate Modern’s group show, ‘Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now’, artist Hurvin Anderson looks back at Ové’s films and the stories they tell.
Yinka Shonibare RA invited the renowned Brixton-based reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson to bring his powerful words to the Summer Exhibition. Caleb Azumah Nelson sits down with him to discuss the poetry of resistance.
Ahead of her Tate Modern show, Lubaina Himid RA selects artists in print whose words she admires.
Ahead of the exhibition ‘Francis Bacon: Man and Beast’ Jenny Saville RA reflects on the profound impact Bacon has had on her life and work.
Poet Sasha Dugdale reflects on Laura Knight RA’s evocative Gypsy portraits ahead of a major retrospective of the artist’s work in Milton Keynes.
Constable didn’t know he was entering his ‘late’ period, but in the last ten years of his life he sought truth in nature, and created landscapes infused with timeless imagination.
As Hélène Binet’s enigmatic photographs of buildings go on show at the RA, Fiona Maddocks asks the artist about the meeting between light and line, and mood and memory in her works.
Author Colm Tóibín traces the conflation of the animal and human condition in 20th-century art and literature.
This year, Yinka Shonibare RA is putting marginalised voices at the heart of the Summer Exhibition. Here, Kadish Morris explores the vision and art for this year’s show.
Author, classicist and comedian, Natalie Haynes, explores the theme of nature in classical mythology, from Bernini and Giambattista Tiepolo, to John William Waterhouse RA.
Psychiatrist Sue Stuart-Smith on how the seasons affect us all.
From artists’ abodes to land art on Beachy Head, the beautiful south is a cultural hotspot this summer.
From Virgil’s ‘Georgics’ to T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’, novelist Ali Smith explores the spirit of spring in poetry
From PVC-clad performance art to site-specific sculptural interventions, the work of RA Schools students has thrived despite the pandemic. Charlotte Jansen meets three of the artists as they prepare their long-planned final-year show.
David Hockney spent lockdown capturing spring arriving in Normandy. Here, he reflects on how technology has transformed his practice
Art is back. Celebrate the return of galleries and fill your diaries with some of the best exhibitions from across the country.
Tristan McConnell reports from the Nairobi studio of RA Schools alumnus, Michael Armitage, whose solo exhibition at the Royal Academy is due to open May 2021.
Edith Devaney, curator of our upcoming David Hockney exhibition, explores how the artist harnessed springtime to explore the drama of nature, the process of grief – and the power of hope.
100-year-old artist Diana Armfield RA writes about the joy of painting the flowers in her garden.
This International Women’s Day, we celebrate an artist once dismissed as a “San Francisco Housewife” who refused to see parenthood as an obstacle.
Newly elected Royal Academician, John Akomfrah, has been exploring Black British life since the ‘80s. He tells us about being slammed in the press by Salman Rushdie and his love of Virginia Woolf.
Joy Labinjo is quietly changing the course of art history from a small studio in south London. Writer Fiona Maddocks meets Labinjo to discuss her ambitious paintings, and the next steps in her career.
As the first major European show of Packer’s work opens, Aruna D’Souza celebrates the painter’s powerful repurposing of art historical tradition.
As the Royal Academy brings Tracey Emin and Edvard Munch’s work together, Jennifer Higgie, host of ‘Bow Down: Women in Art History’ podcast, asks Emin what makes them kindred spirits.
As a retrospective of the photographer opens in London, Theo Gordon focuses on a pivotal series that commented on gay experience in 1980s Delhi.
Imogen West-Knights catches up with three young creatives as they prepare to exhibit in this year’s Young Artists’ Summer Show.
Although his accession to the English throne was marred by plague, the Scottish Stuart brought with him vibrant art and culture, says Clare Jackson.
No artist is an island, as Charlotte Jansen found when she met students and their mentors at the RA’s art school.
Curator Ann Dumas digs into how Paul Cézanne’s Provençal landscapes broke new ground with their blend of art and geology.
Hampstead in the 1930s was populated with modernist artists and architects. As Caroline Maclean gives a tour of the area, look out for the reference numbers on our illustrated map below.
Historian Jenny Uglow tells the story of how Angelica Kauffman became a founding Member of the RA and one of the most revered artists in Georgian Britain.
A chance find in a market unearthed a bumper crop of early photographs by Charles Jones that are now art-historical treasures. Felix Bazalgette samples the artist-gardener’s rich pickings.
Rana Begum RA discusses moving studios during a pandemic, its impact on her creative process and how having the children at home has introduced some new qualities into her work.
While in lockdown Tessa Hadley pays a visit to her inner National Gallery, contemplating recollections of one of her favourite Renaissance altarpieces, Jacopo Di Cioni’s ‘Coronation of the Virgin’.
Plug in your headphones, sit back and relax with one of these podcasts, transporting you into the art world from the comfort of your front room.
The centuries-old techniques of woodcut and wood engraving are alive and well today, holding an enduring appeal for contemporary artists. But what are these processes and what is the difference? Fiona Maddocks investigates.
In 1930, the greatest works of the Italian Renaissance drew half a million visitors to the Academy. But there was a darker, political undercurrent to this blockbuster show, explains Katherine Jane Alexander…
Galleries and museums might be closed but you can still see major exhibitions from around the world, while swapping the crowds for a cuppa. We pick some of the best virtual tours and artworks currently available online.
Rooted in folk traditions, quilts from the Alabama hamlet of Gee’s Bend have long been prized by museums in the States. Now, their unbounded creativity has arrived in the UK.
From Titian to photos of Thatcher-era Gateshead, here’s our pick of the exhibitions across the UK we think you should see in March. And don’t you dare say you’re too busy.
Not every collector’s story ends happily. Novelist Sarah Dunant charts the bumpy tale behind Wilhelm Hansen’s treasured collection of Impressionist paintings, which go on display at the RA this spring.
The Impressionists are renowned for their enduring scenes of people and places, whether energetic seascapes or portraits of young women. Four artists – Hughie O‘Donoghue RA, Maggi Hambling, Ishbel Myerscough and Mali Morris RA – describe works that resonate with them in our upcoming exhibition ‘Gauguin and the Impressionists’.
From Linder’s radical feminist collages and Grayson Perry’s early pots, to the Barbican’s blockbuster survey of masculinity, here are 10 exhibitions you won’t want to miss.
From the largest-ever assemblage of works by Jan van Eyck, to the unveiling of the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum, 2020 promises to bring into focus some of the finest achievements in cultural history.
Come in from the cold this December with our recommended picks of exhibitions to see across the UK.
From David Bomberg’s fascination with the Old Masters to Kiki Smith’s first solo show in the UK, here are 10 exhibitions not to miss this November.
William Hogarth revelled in the vanity and corruption of London’s rakes and harlots. But his Comic History paintings also draw sobering parallels with Britain’s political climate today, writes Simon Wilson.
Six tonnes of steel mesh, eight kilometres of coiled tubing, a gallery flooded with sea water and a body that can be walked through: this autumn Antony Gormley RA transforms the Academy’s Main Galleries into a sequence of experiences that challenge the viewer. The show’s co-curator takes us behind the scenes.
From the focused, linear depictions in his early works, to the triumphant naked portrait painted at the top of his game, Lucian Freud’s self-portraits are a testament to the artist’s indefatigable journey. Friend and art critic Martin Gayford selects five works from our forthcoming exhibition ‘Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits’.
From Matisse’s masterful use of line, to an exhibition showing the overwhelming obsession with colour in the 20th century, here are 10 exhibitions to see this month.
From Bridget Riley and the dazzling canvases of the Op-Art movement, to the culinary artefacts of the ancient world, here 10 shows across the UK that we recommend this month.
As art-making is ebbed out of schools across the country, we overlook the skills it delivers – strengths that should be the envy of “proper” academic education, says Michael Craig-Martin.
Feeling overwhelmed by all the art to see in this year’s Summer Exhibition? Here’s some guidance from poet and art critic Kelly Grovier, who met with the show’s coordinator to discuss its themes before selecting his own standout works to see.
As we introduce the Finnish artist Helene Schjerfbeck to British audiences, painter Ian McKeever RA reflects on her searing self-portraits; works that changed the way he viewed both art and himself.
The master of multi-screens is back with a new work exploring the life of Brazilian brutalist architect Bo Bardi, whose socially conscious buildings and writings come to life through Julien’s lens. Here’s what you need to know.
The British-Guyanese artist spent decades in New York at the forefront of experimental abstract painting. Now, at age 85, he’s finally celebrated in a retrospective show at Tate Britain. We trace how he got there.
This year’s RA Architecture Prize winners, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, are responsible for New York’s High Line, MoMA, Lincoln Center and The Broad – among many buildings. With two projects in London on the way, the American duo met Edwin Heathcote to talk punk, surveillance, disagreements and resistance.
From abstract art by pioneering women artists to explorations of the natural world, here are 10 exhibitions to catch this May.
From the prints of Edvard Munch at the British Museum to Ruskin and Turner at York Art Gallery, here are 10 exhibitions not to miss this April.
In a world where social media screens for nudity, it’s remarkable that one of the few places we can look freely at the naked body in public is the art gallery, says Jill Burke from the University of Edinburgh, as ‘The Renaissance Nude’ opens at the RA.
As the Academician’s site-specific show opens at the RA, Jon Wood explains what we gain from the pleasures and perplexities of her works.
With the work of contemporary artist Bill Viola on show alongside works by Michelangelo, the exhibition’s co-curator imagines what the Renaissance master might have had to say about it, in a fictional letter to his nephew…
Planning a fresh start for Spring? Check out this month’s pick of exhibitions across the UK – the idea of firsts is a recurring theme.
Eliza Bonham Carter, Curator and Head of the RA Schools, and RA Schools student Ewan Macfarlane share their thoughts. Cast your vote below.
This spring, new exhibitions and books explore the two artists’ belief in the educational and humanising power of art.
Smartphones and tablets are becoming canvases for creativity, thanks to new apps. Charlotte Mullins tries some out with her family.
As part of RA Architecture Studio’s Invisible Landscapes series, urbanist Rachel Fisher weighs up the myriad ways that social technology can help us build human-centred cities.
With new spaces to encounter art – and places to eat or drink in between – you can easily spend a whole day at the Academy. RA Magazine sent its new deputy editor Sarah Handelman to discover how to do it well
We asked four writers to respond to key themes in ‘Bill Viola / Michelangelo’. On the subject of birth, art historian Ingrid Rowland reveals how both artists confront the particular and the universal in the cycle of life.
We asked four writers to respond to key themes in ‘Bill Viola / Michelangelo’. On the subject of emotional states, novelist Deborah Levy asks what it means to surrender to our most intense and incoherent feelings.
We asked four writers to respond to key themes in ‘Bill Viola / Michelangelo’. On the subject of mortality, the former bishop Richard Holloway writes that art and religion are driven onwards by the fact of our death.
We asked four writers to respond to key themes in ‘Bill Viola / Michelangelo’. On the subject of transcendence, poet and novelist Ben Okri argues that art’s power lies where understanding leaves off, beyond thought and word.
‘Tis the season to be creative and cultured! From deep neural networks to bronze-cast peanut butter on toast, these are our selections of what to see over the festive period…
With their direct eye contact and powerful stances, Egon Schiele’s drawings of women were some of the first to recognise female autonomy. But who were the artist’s models and how did their relationships with Schiele play out on paper?
As Phyllida Barlow prepares to open a new show of work at the RA, she joins composer Harrison Birtwistle, and journalist Fiona Maddocks, to exchange ideas about creativity – from how ideas arise to when you know they’re finished, and the trauma of titling.
This month see art that spans a millennium. From the 11th-century Domesday Book, to Japanese surimono prints and empty swimming pools, here are 10 exhibitions to check out this November.
Sarah Pickstone, alumna of the RA Schools, discusses the inspiration behind her new works in Burlington House, her co-operative studio and the democratic nature of drawing.
With a major retrospective now open at Tate Britain, Martin Oldham reflects on the importance and relevance of Edward Burne-Jones paintings.
With Cornelia Parker’s Hitchcock-inspired barn in the Royal Academy’s courtyard, Sam Jacob takes a look at the psychological, architectural and social layers of this imposing installation.
The heyday of British watercolour is reflected at the RA in a free exhibition of works from the BNY Mellon Collection, says Ian Warrell.
As the drawings of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele go on show at the Royal Academy, Jill Lloyd reveals how these two giants of 20th-century Viennese modernism fuelled one another’s innovations on paper to push the boundaries of art and depict the human figure as never before.
The long days of summer are over, but there is no shortage of art to see. From the first UK exhibitions dedicated to pioneering textile artist Anni Albers and Spanish Old Master Jusepe de Ribera, to witches’ ladders and Frieze Masters, here are 10 exhibitions not to miss this month.
He gave us the Shard in London, and in Paris the Centre Pompidou. On the eve of his first exhibition in the capital for 30 years, Renzo Piano meets Jonathan Glancey and reflects on a life of making buildings.
Mali Morris RA pays tribute to the inspirational life and work of the painter and printmaker Gillian Ayres RA, who passed away earlier this year.
From iconic graphic designs to objects of resistance and Impressionist depictions of everyday life, here’s our pick of exhibitions to see this month.
As the RA mounts its groundbreaking exhibition on the art of the peoples of the Pacific Islands, Maia Jessop Nuku introduces its themes of voyaging, encountering and place-making.
Curators and scholars give us a glimpse of the remarkable diversity, ancient and modern, that marks out Oceania on the world’s art map.
Renowned Chinese artist Zhang Enli will make a site-specific installation in the RA’s Life Room, in an open studio setting where the public can watch him work.
From a translucent sculpture offering a portrait of a city, to an exploration of humans and the cosmos, here’s our top 10 art exhibitions to help you escape the August heat.
From a pairing of master printmakers Goya and Hogarth, to a comprehensive survey of the painter Yves Klein, here’s our pick of 10 new art exhibitions to check out this July.
With three landmark exhibitions in London this year – including the inaugural show of the RA’s new galleries – the artist discusses mysteries of the cosmos, classical mythology and chance encounters at her LA studio.
The artist Linder Sterling went from designing notorious artwork for the Buzzcocks to conjuring mytho-poetic forces on a beach in St Ives. With a new show at Nottingham Contemporary, we explore the pioneering punk’s two very different defining moments.
Charles I might have had a keen eye for art, but his queen’s eye was sharper and far more sophisticated. With the couple’s extraordinary art collection currently on display at the RA, the consort’s biographer Erin Griffey explores her life, style and legacy.
Salvador Dalí may have made Surrealism famous, but an overlooked group of artists, writers and activists in 1940s Cairo made the movement their own. Here we look at their pioneering work, currently on show at Tate Liverpool.
In 1936 British artist Gluck painted herself and her lover in a radical depiction of same-sex partnership. With a show at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery exploring her life and work, we look at the story behind the painting.
‘Tis the season to be jolly, and what could be jollier than this: ten exhibitions to help you escape the shopping crowds, shelter from the cold a while and wrap yourself up in art and ideas?
With a new show at White Cube Bermondsey, the artistic duo tell us eight things about their lives, art, fame, bigots, liberals, Brexit, and their favourite East End Turkish restaurant.
Political turmoil in 17th-century Europe threw up exciting pickings for Charles I’s art collection. But after a civil war that led to his execution, his masterpieces were dispersed across the globe. Here, Jenny Uglow introduces our show finally reuniting the king’s treasures.
Remember, remember the month of November – gunpowder, treason and… art? If you’re not too busy with bonfires, toffee apples or toppling the government, here are a few art shows we recommend catching this month.
The international architect talks art collections, local communities and working for the disempowered at his London studio.
From the Turner Prize shortlist to Moomins creator Tove Jansson, here are 10 must-see exhibitions opening this month.
The pair may seem like opposites, but our exhibition this autumn shows they shared surprising artistic interests. Here, curator Dawn Ades explores four aspects of their enduring affinity for each other’s work.
With four decades of his photographs currently showing at Whitechapel Gallery, the artist divulges the hidden world of his virtual darkroom.
As the pioneering American artist covers Blenheim Palace with her provocative text-based work this autumn, she discusses a career of making art with words.
With a solo show at London’s Alan Cristea Gallery this month, the printmaker shares the projects, exhibitions and places currently on her radar.
The pioneering artist and designer has been overshadowed by her father for over a century, but a new show at William Morris Gallery is stitching together the threads of her own remarkable career.
As a retrospective of the 1980s icon opens at the Barbican, art historian Morgan Falconer traces how the artist cracked the New York art scene and chased his wildest dreams.
Art critic Michael Prodger recommends the best new biographies of artists and art lovers – from Renoir to Peggy Guggenheim.
This month the RA celebrates Jasper Johns as one of America’s greatest living artists – here art historian Barbara Rose explores the complex transformations of objects and images throughout his work.
From an exploration of recent LGBTQ+ art to a vibrant celebration of tulips, here’s our pick of the best new exhibitions to see this month.
The artist’s studio faces extinction in the capital if the property market continues to price artists out. But change might be afoot, reports architectural critic Hugh Pearman, as he explores six possible solutions.
Ahead of a Tate survey of Black art in America, Bonnie Greer tracks the emergence of a generation that defined itself on its own terms.
It may be only a short step from the RA to the National Gallery, but the loan of the Academy’s rarest treasure to the Michelangelo and Sebastiano show is a triumph of technical skill.
Rather than being supplementary to his paintings, were Raphael’s drawings works of genius in their own right? RA Magazine’s Sam Phillips argues the Ashmolean Museum’s once-in-a-lifetime show offers a rare chance to reassess this aspect of his work.
How are the capital’s artists using their working spaces today? In the spirit of this year’s Summer Exhibition, which is encouraging artists who have not shown before at the RA, Skye Sherwin visits first-time exhibitors at work to see what they are bringing to the Academy.
Is an artists’ union necessary? Bob and Roberta Smith RA and David Mach RA share their thoughts. Cast your vote below.
From David Hockney’s portraits in palazzi to Phyllida Barlow’s swollen sculptures in the British Pavilion, here’s the must-see work by Royal Academicians in this year’s biennale.
Phyllida Barlow RA’s bulbous sculptures, Robert Cuoghi’s messiah machines and Damien Hirst’s demons – here are ten highlights of this year’s contemporary art spectacular.
From work inspired by life inside a Syrian prison to the colourful, geometric work of Rana Begum, here are some of the most unmissable exhibitions open this month.
From powerful and symbolic 20th-century war paintings to the first ever exhibition dedicated to queer British art, here’s the best art to see this month as chosen by the RA Magazine team.
The billionaire software entrepreneur Hasso Plattner has made Potsdam an international art destination with the opening of his Museum Barberini.
As a new show at the National Portrait Gallery places the two artists side by side, Lauren Elkin explores how Gillian Wearing RA finds identity-blurring inspiration in the inter-war writer and photographer Claude Cahun.
While it’s business as usual in the galleries, elsewhere at the RA major building work is transforming the Academy for 2018. Exhibition designer Adrien Gardère and RA President Christopher Le Brun explore how the plans will reveal the historic RA Collections to the public.
Emma Crichton-Miller charts the fortunes of St Petersburg’s porcelain factory, from supplier of exclusive editions to the Russian court, to producer of high end Soviet agit-prop.
With prints on her walls by Calder, Klee and Keith Haring, Cath Kidston has long been an avid collector, and the London Original Print Fair has been the designer’s hunting ground. Martin Gayford went to see the works adorning her Gloucestershire home.
Rebecca Salter RA brings her artist’s palate to matters of taste, in a delicious round-up of the best books on art and food.
He shot to fame as a painter, but for the past 20 years Gary Hume RA has also made prints. Amy Macpherson visits him at the RA Schools’ print workshop ahead of his selling show in the Keeper’s House.
The photographer’s workspace in a former Berlin department store houses giant printers, tropical plants and DJ turntables. Anna Coatman meets the acclaimed artist and EU campaigner.
A show on the Bruegel dynasty celebrates a reattribution of a key painting, says Laura Cumming.
As ‘America after the Fall’ brings some of the country’s most iconic works to Europe for the first time, Sarah Churchwell considers the cultural and political backdrop to Depression Era art.
Can we consider colours as purely subjective forces? Kassia St Clair and Emyr Williams go head to head. Vote on the winner below.
Sam Phillips finds the dotted line from the British Museum’s American prints through to Japanese architecture at the Barbican, in six sizzling spring shows.
From the versatile exploration of light in contemporary art to Henry Moore’s peculiar collection of found objects, here are some of the best shows to see this week.
With a momentous exhibition marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Martin Sixsmith charts the course of a pivotal period in art, from euphoric creativity to eventual repression.
Fifty years since Florence was hit by the floods that destroyed not only lives but invaluable art treasures, Claudia Pritchard reports on the legacy.
Artists have assumed many identities in paint, as a new exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery shows. Here are four self-portraits from the Royal Collection’s who’s who of great artists, and what they tell us about their makers.
From a far-flung group of Impressionists to two exhibitions dedicated to the work of the great Zaha Hadid RA, here are some of the best shows to visit this week.
Seeking advice as she co-curated our Abstract Expressionism exhibition, Edith Devaney went to New York to meet Dore Ashton and Irving Sandler – two commentators who championed the likes of Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, and entertained them in their kitchens.
Eight gift ideas to awaken the imagination and dazzle the senses… Bob and Roberta Smith RA chooses the best children’s books about art and design.
From a taxidermy goat in a car tyre to controversial feminist installations, here’s the best art to see this week.
The RA archive is a treasure trove of stories, memories and recordings about art and artists from the past 250 years. In honour of Explore Your Archive week, we introduce some of its highlights and four more London archives to explore, holding everything from American performance art footage to rare Japanese prints.
From overlooked ceramicists to the untold stories of artists’ assistants, we unearth the best art to see this week.
Anna Coatman meets the shape-shifting Scottish video artist, whose virtual worlds question the images and identities created in social media.
How do painters from different generations see Abstract Expressionism today? Two RA Schools alumni, Basil Beattie RA and Aimée Parrott, met in the Academy’s show to discuss the movement’s enduring influence.
Ahead of its opening next week, architect Piers Gough RA gets a sneak preview of the museum’s new home – a reworking of the former Commonwealth Institute in London’s Holland Park.
Can utopian ideals help architects to build better futures? Or are these efforts doomed to be too rigid, over-simplified and suppressive? Ian Ritchie RA and Hugh Pearman go head to head. Vote on the winner below.
From raucous performance art in Glasgow to a multicoloured adventure into the world of 1970s disco dancefloors, here’s the best art to see this week.
From the search for an art installation among England’s trees, to a one-woman operation to make a supermarket entirely of felt, here’s some of the best art to see this week.
A golden rhinoceros from South Africa, decorated drones from Pakistan and digital creatures from behind the computer screen – here’s some of the best art to see this week.
From sculptural works made of everyday materials, to photographic works savouring everyday moments, the ordinary seems extraordinary in the best art shows this week.
Belgium’s leading contemporary painter, who curates the RA’s James Ensor exhibition, tells Sam Phillips why it is time to reassess Ensor’s art.
The Belgian artist James Ensor painted life through the lens of the carnival, creating unsettling and often satirical works. Michael Prodger searches for the man behind these intriguing images.
From a road trip chasing presidents’ hometowns in the USA, to galleries filled with pebbles, trees and dancers, we explore the best art for the week ahead.
Picasso’s friends and family are the focus of an exhibition showing how portraiture pushed the artist forward, writes Christopher Baker
Despite the image of art dealing as a man’s world, women played a crucial role in the display, promotion and sale of 20th-century British art. Gill Hedley profiles three female gallerists who promoted British artists.
From the reconstruction of human faces through prosthetic advancements during WWI, to the reconstruction of farmyard animals’ faces using marble dust and resin, we take in the best shows to see this week.
From a Brutalist labyrinth in the heart of London, to the baroque grandeur of a countryside palace, here’s where to find the best art this week.
As Christie’s auction house celebrates 250 years of wielding the gavel, Martin Oldham tracks down its founder James Christie, a man who turned the humble auction into the spectacle it remains to this day.
Modern artists rejected the Western canon in favour of tribal art, writes Simon Wilson, as he takes in shows in Vienna and Berlin.
As the Academy stages a show of Peter Cook RA’s drawings to mark his 80th birthday, Kate Goodwin asks the architect about his vision for urban ways of life.
Video artist Elizabeth Price is curating a show in Manchester that explores the horizontal in art. Anna Coatman meets her and finds the concept works on many levels.
What did the artists associated with Abstract Expressionism do so differently? And how is their work still relevant today? As the first survey of Abstract Expressionism for nearly 60 years is staged in Britain, co-curator David Anfam answers key questions.
Should artists bow to tradition, or should they break all the rules? Martin Gayford and Richard Cork go head to head. Vote on the winner below.
The ebullient, multimedia artist-poet Brian Catling RA is reluctant to identify his studio as a physical space, as Fiona Maddocks discovered when she met up with him in Oxford.
From underwater theatre in the Square Mile to the bright lights of Blackpool, we guide you through the best of this week’s art events and exhibitions.
From ‘liquid painting’ at Battersea Park to the weird world of Stanley Kubrick, we guide you through the best of this week’s art events and exhibitions.
From thrones modelled out of guns to charting the changing face of artist self-portraits, we guide you through the best of this week’s art events and exhibitions.
From surreal sculptures hanging off the gallery wall to ankle boots crafted entirely out of grass, we guide you through the best of this week’s art events and exhibitions.
From ink drawings that look at the destruction of Syrian relics to a multimedia celebration of fabric and textiles, we guide you through the best of this week’s art events and exhibitions.
David Hockney RA returns to the Academy this summer with his sparkling new series of portraits. Barry Humphries, creator of Dame Edna Everage and friend of the artist, recounts his experience of sitting for a portrait in Hockney’s Los Angeles studio.
From a new museum concept that addresses the migrant crisis to paintings by the talented but largely forgotten Winifred Knights, we guide you through the best of this week’s art events and exhibitions.
Michael Prodger heads for the beach with his pick of the best holiday reads on artists – in fact and fiction.
For Etel Adnan, art world success came late – in her eighties. Anna Coatman met the writer and painter in Paris ahead of a major show in London.
From captivating live shows at London’s first performance art festival to Yayoi Kusama’s glossy oversized pumpkin sculptures, we guide you through the best of this week’s art events and exhibitions.
The stage is set and the pressure is on as third-year students from the RA Schools prepare work for their final show, which opens to the public this summer in the studios of the RA. Jonathan P. Watts goes behind the scenes to meet the artists at this critical point.
No one captures New York quite like Bill Jacklin RA, who moved to the Big Apple in the 1980s and never looked back. Nancy Campbell caught up with him ahead of his show of prints and drawings at the RA.
Students have created a giant collage to greet passers-by while restoration work takes place at the RA’s Burlington Gardens building. Harriet Baker finds out how they made it.
As Tate puts the finishing touches to its monumental new extension, architect Eric Parry RA considers its aesthetic and cultural impact, while painters Gillian Ayres RA and Timothy Hyman RA preview accompanying retrospective shows of Khakhar and O’Keeffe.
Artist duos are challenging the concept of individual authorship. Now they are celebrated at this year’s Summer Exhibition. Fiona Maddocks asks four pairs of artists how they collaborate.
Without the contrast to harsh judgements, does praise have any meaning? Or is the role of the critic to simply inform and encourage readers to go and see for themselves? Jonathan Jones and Simon Wilson go head to head. Vote on the winner below.
The National Gallery unveils work by its artist in residence, while a show at Tate explores the relationship between British art and photography. We pick the week’s best shows.
From a long-awaited survey of Mona Hatoum at Tate Modern to a display featuring Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara’s iconic cartoon girl, we pick the week’s best shows.
From a major Alberto Giacometti show at the Sainsbury Centre to a rare display of contemporary Arab art at Whitechapel Gallery, we pick the week’s best art.
From a display of ancient Sicilian treasures to bawdy illustrations by legendary cartoonist R. Crumb, we pick the week’s best art events.
From a mesmerising display of Dan Flavin’s neon works in Birmingham to an exhibition focusing on Giacometti’s early sculpture, we pick the week’s top shows.
From a celebration of Jamaican Dancehall EP covers, to the unveiling of work by Yinka Shonibare RA, there’s plenty to see this Bank Holiday weekend.
From an eccentric exhibition of cartoonist David Shrigley’s work to a rare display of Russian portraiture, we pick the week’s best art events.
From provocative Sarah Lucas sculptures in the Soane Museum to a view of Britain from the perspectives of international photographers at the Barbican, we pick the week’s best art events.
Giorgione left few clues to his life, yet he was at the heart of a creative explosion in 16th-century Venetian painting that changed the course of European art. Ali Smith brings to life the fusion of originality and poetry in his work.
The first decade of the 16th century saw Venice become a creative cauldron, as a glittering array of painters put the city on the cusp of an artistic golden age. Sarah Dunant celebrates some of the most influential figures.
From the unveiling of a colossal public sculpture in London to a blockbuster exhibition of Botticelli’s paintings, we present the week’s top shows.
Botticelli was a huge success, then virtually forgotten before his resurrection by the Pre-Raphaelites, reveals Simon Wilson ahead of a lavish V&A show.
The Swedish painter Hilma af Klint was making abstract art before Kandinsky, but her spiritualist methods have undermined her standing in art history. Now her work is being reassessed at the Serpentine Galleries.
As an exhibition opens on Delacroix and his legacy, Martin Oldham draws out three qualities that mark him as a modern artist.
From erotically-charged artworks in Mayfair to a new gallery opening in Letchworth Garden City, we present the week’s top shows.
As Tate examines the “selfie” throughout art history, Modern Art Oxford celebrates its 50th birthday. See what shows are opening this week.
From a survey of Romanticism in British art to the discovery of a Norwegian master, we bring you the must-see shows this week.
Hieronymus Bosch’s home town celebrates the artist’s 500th anniversary with a spectacular retrospective, says Martin Oldham.
Garden historian Tim Richardson explores the relationship between artists and garden-makers, and selects six of the world’s most celebrated garden designers to shed new light on the artists in Painting the Modern Garden.
From intimate insight into lives and deaths of everyday Ancient Egyptians to a poignant display of war zone documentary, we bring you the must-see shows this week.
From a multi-channel video installation to an immersive recreation of a modern master’s studio, we bring you the must-see shows opening this week.
From paintings on the coast in Bournemouth and Margate to arresting multi-media installations in London, we bring you the must-see shows opening this week.
From JWM Turner in Edinburgh to an exhibition of friendship and fine art in London, we bring you the must-see shows this week.
A London gallery has unveiled a cache of tiny figure drawings by a little-known Polish artist, whose work shows a mastery of gestural skill.
In Rose Wylie RA’s Kent studio, paint spatters are everywhere. Fiona Maddocks meets the artist whose star is shining late in life.
From a celebration of the practice of drawing to the last in the fig-2 series, we bring you the must-see shows this week.
In recent years there has been rapid growth of major museums in the Middle East. Anthony Downey investigates the social, political and ethical challenges that face these new institutions.
From a unique photography project on display in Liverpool to an installation of interactive tales in South London, we bring you the must-see shows opening this week.
New spaces at the Academy in 2018 will showcase the RA’s superb art collection. Laura Gascoigne delves into the bequest of Carel Weight RA, an artist who donated outstanding works.
From softly abstract paintings in London to a macabre installation at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, we bring you the must-see shows opening this week.
The Royal Collection’s show of Dutch Golden Age genre painting is not only visually compelling but also delightfully seductive in subject matter, despite moralising intent.
From a meditation on the image and idea of superstar Bill Murray to a restorative art apothecary, we bring you the must-see shows opening this week.
From the artists of the Japanese Mono-ha movement in London, to an imaginary museum in Liverpool, we bring you the must-see shows opening this week.
Less salon, more living room – that’s the ambience of the new-look Academicians’ Room, where club members can relax along with Royal Academicians.
From Kara Walker’s striking sketches, to Winter Light at Waddesdon Manor, we recommend five exhibitions across the UK to see this week.
Curator Ann Dumas sets the scene for our major exhibition of garden painters, revealing how Monet’s passion for plants pushed the boundaries of his art.
Is how an artist’s work is conserved part of their remit as its creator, or is it a decision for those caring for and interpreting the work for the public? An artist and an art historian go head to head.
As two new shows celebrate the 200th anniversary of Julia Margaret Cameron, painter Chantal Joffe RA explains why her photographs interest and inspire her.
From the beautiful Art Nouveau designs of Alphonse Mucha to the otherworldly work of Anne Hardy, we guide you through our recommendations of art events and exhibitions to see this week.
From the alluring sculptures of Cristina Iglesias to Bristol & Bath’s Art Weekender, we highlight our recommendations of art to see this week.
A review of the RA Collection has turned up a vital historical document, the Royal charter of the Society of Artists. RA archivist Mark Pomeroy explains.
From monumental abstract painting on the Sussex coast to meditative sonic art in a Soho basement, we guide you through the must-see exhibitions in the UK this week.
Charles and Ray Eames contributed much more to art and design than their iconic chairs, as a Barbican exhibition reveals.
Anne Desmet RA is known for her prints and collages exploring space and time. But in her new show she combines these with objects in unusual and playful ways.
Looking for something unusual at the October art fairs? Head for Frieze Masters Spotlight section.
As an alphabet of art opens in London to coincide with the Frieze art fairs, we give you the ABC guide to the top shows to see.
From the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to the newly opened Centre of Ceramic Art, the county hosts some outstanding shows this autumn.
As the first show of Goya’s portraiture opens today, Caroline Bugler considers three ways the Spanish master broke the genre’s boundaries.
As his biography of Benjamin West PRA is published, Loyd Grossman reveals how this founding member of the Academy broke with the past like no other artist of his era.
From the polyphonic world of Rachel Rose, to a fascinating insight into metric photography, we highlight the best of this week’s art openings, exhibitions and events.
RA Magazine’s Gill Crabbe pays a visit to Ai Weiwei’s new wood-themed exhibition in Helsinki.
Ma Jian is renowned for his novels exploring subjects censored in China, where his books are banned, and he has been barred from entering the Chinese mainland. Ahead of Ai Weiwei’s RA retrospective, we asked the writer about his admiration for the artist, and about the limits of free expression in China.
From David Hockney’s early drawings to breathtaking Celtic objects, we guide you through seven great art events and exhibitions to see this week.
The Swiss artist Jean-Etienne Liotard was one of the great portraitists of the Enlightenment. Christopher Baker introduces the idiosyncratic Orientalist whose travels through the courts of Europe and beyond resulted in works of exceptional delicacy.
With a display on Beijing’s Caochangdi in our Architecture Space, our curator discusses the Ai Weiwei-designed buildings of this artists’ region, and their place in a rapidly developing city.
From Frank Bowling’s ‘Poured Paintings’ to Nollywood videos in Peckham, we guide you through our pick of this week’s art events.
This autumn, the RA Library and Print Room will host a project by Edmund de Waal: an exploration of the colour white. Here, he takes us through some of the objects on display.
From Jennifer Rubell’s newborn baby made from hand-blown glass to the abstract works of ‘Los Diez Pintores Concretos’, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
Fearless and uncompromising, Ai Weiwei’s art challenges cultural values, confronts injustices and pushes materials to their limit. Sam Phillips talks to the artist about his show at the RA, which he was not expecting to be able to attend.
The late John Hoyland RA told Damien Hirst about meeting Francis Bacon, and what it is to be a painter.
Chris Wilkinson RA has continued to value hand drawing in an age where digital software prevails in architectural offices. Hugh Pearman meets him as a show opens at the RA to accompany the publication of his sketchbooks.
To mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, and the Academy’s display of Daniel Maclise RA’s extraordinary drawing, Owen Sheers writes a poem considering its significance in the context of war art.
The abstract art of Sean Scully RA is installed in the 9th century church of Santa Cecilia in Catalonia.
In his new book of essays, Julian Barnes offers insightful lessons in how to look at – and read about – art.
From the psychedelic, cacophonous videos of South Africa’s Dineo Seshee Bopape, to the abandoned Saharan film sets in Ben Rivers’ latest cinematic work, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
The intensely wrought paintings of Frank Auerbach find their match in Giacometti’s sculptures, as two shows reveal, says Simon Wilson.
Despite various challenges, including a leaking roof, Sonia Lawson RA is keen to return to her garden studio, says Fiona Maddocks.
From the dystopian installations of Josh Kline, to the shadowy, marginalised life of Pierre Molinier, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
From the multi-sensory sculptures of Paul Neagu to an astronomy-inspired installation at the Whitworth, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
From the conceptual land art of Richard Long RA to Thomas Ruff’s new photographic series of inverted plants, we take you through the week’s top art shows.
From the exuberant paintings of the late Albert Irvin RA to the Alice Anderson’s series of objects mummified entirely in copper thread, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
From a major survey of Anthony Caro RA’s work at The Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle to the abstract paintings of William Gear RA, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
From the best of contemporary and modern British painting to a cabinet of curiosities by Fiona Tan, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
From the exploration of contemporary Chinese art at The Whitworth to Eloise Hawser’s appropriation of a cinema organ, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
From Jackson Pollock’s pivotal series of black pourings to the monumental sculptures of Phyllida Barlow RA, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
From the fairytale paintings of Richard Dadd to the ‘unfinished’ works at the Courtauld Gallery, we take you through our top shows this week.
From a flying machine at the Hayward Gallery to the optical art of Bridget Riley, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
From live art performances directed by Lu Kemp to James Turrell’s high intensity illuminations at Houghton Hall, we guide you through this week’s top shows.
From Ryoji Ikeda’s immersive installation at Brewer Street Car Park to the design icons from the Arts and Crafts Movement, we take you through our top shows this week.
From international photography event Photo London to a Magna Carta tapestry by Cornelia Parker RA, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
Joseph Cornell created curious worlds of long ago and far away in his boxes of found objects. We examine the work of this American trailblazer ahead of his RA exhibition.
The imagined portraits by this RA Schools alumna and Turner Prize nominee are revelations from another world, says Kelly Grovier.
Leading abstract painter Frank Bowling RA welcomes a major show that reassesses Jackson Pollock’s black pourings.
As Michael Craig-Martin RA co-ordinates this year’s Summer Exhibition, the Curator and Head of the RA Schools Eliza Bonham Carter discovers in a new book what makes this leading artist and teacher tick.
Behind redbrick walls in an old Berlin factory Fiona Maddocks finds architect Louisa Hutton RA in a calm and spacious haven.
Art and architecture combine on a corner of London’s St James’s, where Stephen Cox RA has integrated sculpture into Eric Parry RA’s building. Sam Phillips reports.
Would building more museums help to improve society or be a wasteful luxury? Theatre-maker Stella Duffy and curator Kieran Long go head to head. Read both sides then vote in the poll below.
As parts of Eduardo Paolozzi RA’s mosaics are removed from Tottenham Court Road tube station ahead of Crossrail, Richard Cork hopes that Transport for London will honour its promises.
Eileen Cooper RA’s figures exude a fluid spontaneity. Laura Gascoigne meets the artist, ahead of her show of drawings at the Academy.
RA Magazine’s Guest Editor David Chipperfield RA meets Conrad Shawcross RA in Green Park to talk trees and tetrahedrons, ahead of the sculptor’s spectacular work that greets visitors to the Summer Exhibition.
From David Hockney RA at Annely Juda Fine Art to sculptures by Conrad Shawcross RA and Barbara Hepworth in Salisbury, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
In this video, architect David Chipperfield RA discusses his plans for opening up the Royal Academy ahead of our 250th anniversary in 2018.
Burlington Gardens, the stately building behind Burlington House, is the RA’s second home. As the Academy prepares for its 250th anniversary, John Tusa reveals the plans to unite and revitalise the two buildings, transforming this artist-led institution
Four key figures connected to the RA look forward to a major transformation at the Academy in 2018.
From Sarah Lucas’s erotic sculptures at the Venice Biennale to Jeff Koons at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
As the local government funding gap grows, councils will cash in on their art collections, warns Louisa Buck
This week, RA Magazine travels to Oxford to take a look at a cluster of art events opening in the city, from the Ashmolean to the Bodleian Library.
Visual art can shape approaches across public policy. Here are three unlikely areas where art and artists can make a difference.
From Vote Art at Peckham Platform to Jo Baer’s paintings at Camden Arts Centre, here are six shows to see this week.
From political art at Nottingham Contemporary to Ravilious’s engravings in Dulwich, here are five shows to see this week.
From Greek sculptures at the British Museum to Helena Almeida’s inhabited drawings.
Rubens’s influence on painting extends right up to today, as a room curated by Jenny Saville RA for ‘Rubens and His Legacy’ reveals. Tim Marlow asks the painter about her response to the Flemish master as both artist and curator.
From abstract paintings at the National Portrait Gallery to a British art sale at Sotheby’s.
How do you break the barriers that stop people coming to an art institution? Caroline Bugler gets some first-hand experience of the RA’s creative sessions that encourage access for everyone.
In the latest in our series on turning points in artists’ careers, Chantal Joffe RA tells Sam Phillips about the impact two teachers had on her work.
As the fair celebrates its 30th birthday, we give one of our printmaker Academicians an imaginary cheque to spend…
Timothy Hyman RA ponders the dark and visionary nature of Goya’s drawings, as an entire album of his sheets come together in a rare reunion.
When Tom Phillips RA rented a room in a south London house 50 years ago, little did he know the entire house would become his studio.
From Impressionist paintings at The National Gallery to mixed media installations at Baltic.
As the Academy celebrates the American master, painter Ian McKeever RA explores Richard Diebenkorn’s profound inquiry into the nature of abstraction.
From a kayak at The Barbican to sex shop objects at Transition Gallery.
A survey of work by Cornelia Parker RA is the opening show at Manchester’s newly renovated Whitworth Gallery – featuring a room hung with the negatives from a poppy factory.
Should art have politics at the forefront of its agenda? Artist Bob and Roberta Smith RA and critic Kelly Grovier go head to head.
As Sonia Delaunay’s paintings, textiles and murals come to London, painter Jennifer Durrant RA explores her vibrant work.
Sarah Whitfield visits the newly refurbished château in Paris housing the world’s finest collection of Picasso, a tour de force in the City of Light.
From sublime salt prints at Tate Britain to textile sculptures at the Hayward Gallery.
From the scattered wild waters of Scotland to knick-knacks collected by artists.
From Peruvian Huacos and Japanese netsuke to the portraits of Marlene Dumas.
From haunting paintings at David Zwirner to an assemblage of ideas and images at Victoria Miro.
From Christian Marclay’s return to White Cube to progressive paintings by RA alumni.
Walk the RA Recommends tour or visit the one-stop-shop that is the London Art Fair.
From an abundance of abstraction across London to impressionistic cityscapes of New York.
Behind the billowing sails of Frank Gehry Hon RA’s latest building in Paris lies a shifting cargo of contemporary art, says Hugh Pearman.
As RA Schools students prepare to show their own work midway through their course in ‘Premiums’, some of the students select artists who inspire them.
As her husband’s health began to fail, painter Diana Armfield RA began to paint French and Italian scenes using sketches she had made during their travels.
Sam Phillips investigates the six degrees of separation between an Edinburgh garden and the influence of Pop art on Communist Russia.
A family memoir involving art dealers, Nazis and looted treasure is compared to a collection of 10 essays from the 1970s and ’80s reiussed in elegant format.
Painting and printmaking often feed into each other, as the first in a series of RA selling shows reveals.
From his battle scenes to royal portraits, landscapes and altarpieces, Rubens’s extraordinary output occupies a uniquely heroic position in the history of art. Waldemar Januszczak argues that art was one thing before him – and another thing after.
As a major show of the revolutionary William Blake’s work opens in Oxford, Alan Moore, the legendary comic book author, delights in the artist’s subtle satire of Isaac Newton.
From William Blake in Oxford to ‘the next big thing’ in Manchester.
From drawings of light at the Science Museum to animals under threat at the Old Sorting Office.
In 1986 paint stripper was thrown over Allen Jones’s sculpture ‘Chair’ (1969) during a Tate show. Alison Bracker talks to conservator Lyndsey Morgan about her experience restoring the work in the face of controversy.
From Maggi Hambling’s expressive paintings of waves to a presentation of the photography of conflict at Tate Modern.
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Allen Jones RA has been at the centre of artistic battles between abstraction and figuration, painting and sculpture, design and fine art. Martin Gayford meets the influential Pop artist whose retrospective is currently at the Royal Academy.
Ron Arad RA and Sam Jacob discuss whether considerations of beauty are valuable in architecture, or whether they detract from more important issues.
Marlene Dumas Hon RA’s paintings elevate women to mythic status. Here we celebrate the vision of a major artist as her powerful Amsterdam show comes to London.
A few years ago, Philip Dowson wrote and published a book of his memoirs, which he distributed only to his close family and friends. We have been given permission to republish an extract.
From Scandinavian scenes of nature and a 1980s take on Russian geometric shapes to prize-winning portrait photography.
In this article from the RA Magazine archive, architect Will Alsop discusses Leighton House, and what its architecture says about Frederick Leighton, the Royal Academy President who commissioned it.
The Mexico-based businessman Juan Antonio Pérez Simón has amassed one of the world’s greatest collections of art. He talks to us about his love of Victorian art as his 19th-century masterpieces visit Leighton House Museum, the home of the former RA President.
Your essential festive gift guide.
In an article from the RA Magazine archive, we find out what happened when two Academicians joined Gordon Ramsay at his Claridge’s restaurant.
From Post-Impressionist views of British Columbia to ground-breaking design from the RCA.
The country has until 28 November to donate, if the Blake Society is to transform his seaside cottage into a permanent home for the artist-poet.
Revisit this exploration of the meaning of Jones’s works, ahead of his first major retrospective in Burlington Gardens.
RA Magazine’s Sam Phillips picks 20 of the best Frieze week openings and events.
From the Turner Prize shortlist at Tate Britain to the inaugural exhibition at White Rainbow Gallery, dedicated to Japanese art.
From C.R.W. Nevinson’s images of the First World War at Osborne Samuel London, to a new body of work from Kai Althoff at Michael Werner.
Throughout his career, the German artist Anselm Kiefer has confronted the weight of the past and the power of myth on a monumental scale. As the RA stages a major retrospective, Martin Gayford chronicles the extraordinary vision and transformative force of this colossus of contemporary art.
Three Royal Academicians – an architect, a sculptor and a painter – respond to memory, mystery and material in the work of Anselm Kiefer.
One of the key moments in modern British art occurred one day in 1965, when Allen Jones RA, then in his late 20s, first stepped inside an American casino. Kelly Grovier spotlights the Pop artist’s first step towards iconic status, as the Academy mounts a major show of his work.
Ahead of an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Fred Cuming RA pays tribute to his work, and his lasting influence.
From fifteenth century China at the British Museum to Raqs Media Collective’s new exhibition at Frith Street Gallery.
A remarkable look into how a chance encounter in 1988 liberated the Academician’s painting practice.
Academicians from Antony Gormley to Bill Woodrow are on display in Sotheby’s annual sculpture show at Chatsworth House.
An insight into Eddie Chambers’s ‘Black Artists in British Art: A History from 1950 to the Present’, the first comprehensive study on the topic.
A quick look at some of the new titles which draw on the connection between art and the written word.
From two very different exhibitions at Hauser & Wirth to coastline prints by Norman Ackroyd RA at Mall Galleries.
Sam Phillips investigates the six degrees of separation between J.M.W. Turner RA and Hilla Becher’s architectural photography.
Known for his colourful urban buildings, the Academician also retreats to paint in his Norfolk studio.
As a major show of Rembrandt’s late works opens, Bragg considers the artist’s achievement as a consummate witness of life.
Although their erotic and existential angst once fell foul of public taste, Egon Schiele’s nudes have stood the test of time, argues Simon Wilson.
From recent works by Jasper Johns Hon RA to the Frieze Art Fair, we bring you ten essential London exhibition openings for your diary.
The Academician and sculptor finds history repeating itself on reading an illuminating analysis of Britain’s first Afghan war.
From the beginnings of colour photography in Russia to the powerful and poetic portraits of artist Celia Paul.
From a survey of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh at Glasgow’s Hunterian to the last days of shows from Sean Scully RA, Phyllida Barlow RA and more.
With Edinburgh’s galleries and museums playing host to over 45 exhibitions this summer, here are our top picks of what not to miss.
As a major Malevich show goes on view, Zaha Hadid RA reveals how her use of painting and drawing to develop buildings was inspired by the artist.
From marking the centenary of World War I at the Imperial War Museum to Salisbury Cathedral, where John Maine RA’s sculptures are set around the grounds.
As an exhibition honouring the British art of the First World War opens at the Imperial War Museum a century after its outbreak, the painter discusses the impact of these works.
The vibrant colours and traditional textiles of Mexico have weaved their way into the painter’s recent ‘Rebozo’ series.
From Dottori’s Futurist landscapes at the Estorick Collection to Raven Row, where dancers perform the pioneering works of Yvonne Rainer.
A new book of Norman Ackroyd RA’s watercolours captures the immediacy of the moment, as the artist explains.
Vivid colours are coupled with formal simplicity in the recent artworks exhibited by Mathew Tom in the RA Schools studios.
As two exhibitions looking at the Ming Empire open in the UK this summer, we look at the wealth of objects in store.
From a showcase of Mayfair galleries to the blurred lines of painting and photography by Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke.
From Quentin Blake’s whimsical illustrations to Matthew Barney’s surreal films.
Artist John Carter RA explains how his work resonates with Buenos Aires artists in ‘Radical Geometry’.
An exhibition tracks Bridget Riley’s return to the stripe at key points in her career, writes Chris Fite-Wassilak.
Chair of the Friends Board of Trustees Denise Wilson talks to Sam Phillips about her role at the Academy.
Fiona Maddocks meets sculptor and former RA President Phillip King in his studio in a converted north London factory.
From the NPG’s annual BP Portrait Award to Academician Fred Cuming’s serene seascapes.
As Marina Abramovic Hon RA’s latest performance art piece opens, we spotlight key moments in her career.
Simon Wilson investigates the six degrees of separation between Phyllida Barlow RA and Roubiliac’s portrait busts.
Two Academicians take the rare step of showing alongside their partners this summer, reports Richard Cork.
The multiple meanings of West’s witty sculptures are unravelled at The Hepworth Wakefield this summer.
Dennis Hopper was the epitome of 1960s American counter-culture. As an exhibition of the actor and director’s photographs comes to the RA, Jonathan Romney assesses this diverse body of work to reveal an astute chronicler of the art, celebrity and tense American politics of the period.
Two shows shine a new light on the Dutch modern master’s work.
How does an art movement travel to a new continent? As the RA’s ‘Radical Geometry’ opens, Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro maps the cultural and political changes that were crucial to the development of abstraction in South America.
As students from the RA Schools prepare for their final show, what are their feelings about leaving after three intensive years of study? Some of them discuss the issues they face with Schools tutor Brian Griffiths and Phyllida Barlow RA, who has been involved in art education for 45 years.
Simon Wilson surveys a slew of shows, in London, Liverpool and Margate, that reveal the changing roles colour has played in art history.
The RA is curating a major exhibition in Istanbul of prints and paintings by Stephen Chambers, including his giant screen print shown at the RA in 2012, writes Emma Hill.
How does the RA ensure the works of art it borrows remain in exemplary condition? Eleanor Mills charts the conservation challenges of bringing the woodcut prints in ‘Renaissance Impressions’ to the UK.
The pioneering video artist talks to Laura Gascoigne about mystery, compassion and sacrifice in art, as the first of his two altarpieces commissioned by St Paul’s Cathedral goes on permanent display.
Can an establishment institution like the Royal Academy be a radical force? As this year’s Summer Exhibition focuses on an influx of newly elected Royal Academicians, Ben Luke puts the question to Members old and new.
From Lucian Freud’s superb collection of Frank Auerbach works to a survey of recent American abstract art.
Eileen Cooper RA and Helena Morrissey discuss whether art institutions need to prioritise women to achieve gender equality or whether positive discrimination is counter-productive.
The success of the art historian, particularly as a broadcaster, is more significant than ever, says Christopher Baker.
Continuing our series on artists’ epiphanies, Sam Phillips visits the Welsh beach that transformed Setch’s art.
Architect Trevor Dannatt RA pays tribute to Louis Kahn, whose poetic buildings are celebrated at London’s Design Museum.
From everyday design to the painterly abstraction of Richard Smith’s works on paper.
Liam Scarlett’s contemporary ballet ‘Sweet Violets’ puts Walter Sickert RA’s fascination with murder centre stage.
From the latest Artangel commission to the history of British comics.
As exceptional examples go on display in ‘Renaissance Impressions’, printmaker Anne Desmet RA reveals the story behind this pivotal development and discusses why these rare prints continue to dazzle us today.
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Inspired by our ‘Renaissance Impressions’ exhibition, Stephen Chambers RA decided to create his own chiaroscuro woodcut. Here he shares his discoveries and includes his step-by-step guide.
As Tate Modern mounts a major show of Matisse’s cut-outs, painter Mali Morris RA pays tribute to the artist’s directness, inventiveness and exuberance
As the V&A explores the influential career of William Kent this season, we explore three works that testify to the abiding achievements of 18th-century Britain’s most versatile artist and designer.
In the first of a new series on artists’ epiphanies, Tess Jaray RA reveals three turning points in her understanding of art.
War, terror and human conflict pervade the art of new RA sculptor Tim Shaw, whose first major solo show opens in Birmingham.
Novelist Tracy Chevalier, who curates a new exhibition of quilts, argues that this traditional activity should be accepted as a contemporary art medium.
Why do artists collect art? We posed the question to artist collectors Damien Hirst, Tom Phillips RA, Howard Hodgkin and Georg Baselitz Hon RA, whose chiaroscuro prints are included in the ‘Renaissance Impressions’ show at the Academy.
Owen Hopkins tours the good, the bad and the ugly of City of London architecture.
Fragrance designer Jo Malone has a nose for architecture as well as scent, as we discovered on a visit Kengo Kuma’s aromatic installation in our ‘Sensing Spaces’ exhibition.
London plays host to some giants of the art world over the next year. The Chairman of the RA’s Exhibition Committee, Stephen Farthing RA, picks his top five upcoming shows and celebrates innovations born of great skill and maturity.
Two new exhibitions of war art provide grave testament to the extent of human tragedy in world conflict.
How do buildings make us feel? In the RA’s ‘Sensing Spaces’ exhibition, leading international architects build extraordinary new structures in the Academy’s galleries for visitors to explore. Jay Merrick responds to the ideas behind this groundbreaking project.
Introducing the architects taking part in ‘Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined’.
The RA’s Australia show has three rooms dedicated to Aboriginal art. Wally Caruna celebrates this rich vein of indigenous culture by exploring a key work in the show that evokes the ancestral origins of the great bush fire.
Sam Phillips meets Sean Scully RA in his Barcelona studio.
The RA speaks about how his love of large numbers influences his sculptures over a steak at Hawksmoor.
Behind the scenes with this year’s co-ordinators Norman Ackroyd RA and Eva Jiricna RA.
Oliver Peyton explains what he’s cooking up when Keeper’s House opens this Autumn.
If you like ‘Downton Abbey’, you’ll love ‘Summer in February’, starring Dominic Cooper as Alfred Munnings, future President of the Royal Academy.
Meet the sculptor who chooses materials for their rawness and authenticity to create her haunting art.
The Academician talks about the mix of violence and poetry in her work, as her often explosive art takes her across the globe.
Take two art collectors, a disused milk depot in Bloomsbury and just add artists. Get a taste of what’s in store at the Dairy.
The architect and Academician talks over lunch about searching for “the beautiful idea” when he designs a building.
Sir Robert Walpole’s priceless 18th-century collection returns to Houghton Hall
New York at the start of the 20th century was a hotbed of explosive urbanisation. The RA’s exhibition of Bellow’s work explores the idea of painting from raw experience.
Fiona Maddocks meets painter and Academician Joe Tilson at his studio in a workers’ cottage in Chelsea.
Known as a rebel, and a thorn in the side of the French Academy, Manet challenged the status quo through his portraiture, painting friends, family, and Parisian society.
Look forward to an illuminating experience at the UK’s first survey show of light art.
Over a sushi lunch, the sculptor and Academician talks about “getting away with” art that challenges our preconceptions of the world around us.
An exhibition of Ice Age art at the British Museum reveals the imagination and skills of Europe’s earliest artists.
Tracing the emergence of landscape painting as a distinct genre in its own right.
The architect and Academician fills his London studio with a sense of fun, as Fiona Maddocks discovers.
Redefining the best of British cuisine with the Academician, who herself is as a conjuror in the world of colour.
Printmaker and Academician Anne Desmet discusses juggling work and family life in a studio at her east London house.
As artist in residence at Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre, the Academician is a healing presence.
Spanning over five millenia, the RA’s ambitious survey show places contemporary artists’ works alongside works dating back to the Bronze Age.
Did Ruskin burn Turner’s clandestine drawings? Simon Wilson acclaims a revelatory new book on the works that seared the great critic’s soul.
The Academician talks with us from her current studio in Oxford.
The artist gives RA Magazine an exclusive video tour of highlights from the show.
A founding member of the RA as well as a wry observer and commentator on Georgian life, this is a first look at our exhibition of the work of Johan Zoffany.
We speak to the painter in her minimalist studio in London’s East End, which is filled with an unexpected riot of colour.
By using the latest technology to present nature on a vast scale, the Academician breaks new ground yet again.
The Academician’s Clerkenwell studio is cool, white and ordered - but in it Hume is a warm, unpretentious presence.
Over a seafood lunch, Sarah Greenberg admires the Academician’s steely resolve.
The Academician has built his studio in a converted granary, in the Shropshire landscape made famous by A.E Housman.
Evidence of Albert Irvin’s thirst for adventure on canvas can be seen in the east London studio he has occupied for over 30 years.
The architect and Academician enthuses over a dish called Heaven and Earth, and tells us why fun is important in architecture.
Over an Italian lunch, the architect and Academician discusses the influence of art and history on his designs.
The quiet minimalist aesthetic of the Academician’s London studio has survived an extraordinary intrusion, he tells us.
Get the vital statistics on the Academician’s studio, his work, and his relationship to the planet.
A classic French bistro delights the Academician, who tells us why the future of the RA belongs to its Friends.
Over a seafood lunch the Academician discusses why the world is her oyster when it comes to making her art.
When Maurice Cockrill RA is not nurturing his charges at the RA Schools, he can be found hidden away in his splendid attic studio at the Academy.
Jennifer Durrant RA’s studio is part of a big adventure she embarked on in 2000, when she left London to migrate south.
Visiting with the sculptor in his new London studio, Fiona Maddocks finds him as full of sound and fury as his monumental work.
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