The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition 2008
Saturday morning I attended the Friends and Members preview of the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition and was faced with my annual choice between spending £12 on two glasses of Pimms or going whole hog, spending £18 on a jug and getting sloshed.
The Summer Exhibition is something I always approach with some trepidation as it can get quite overwhelming. With two or three galleries crammed full of paintings and people it is very easy to tire yourself out trying to see everything or just get frustrated and steam on through to larger stuff at the end. Although, I’m pleased to say that this wasn’t the case this year.
The standard at the ‘low end’ was phenomenal, not that I’ve ever seen any bad work before but there has been a lot of unremarkable paintings in the past. What was missing this year was the celebrated ‘high end’ work, there was no naked Tony Blair getting expelled from paradise or anything that you could really latch on to as being the centre or highlight of the exhibition.
I think what will stick out for people is Tracy Emin’s gallery. The very fact that it’s darkened sets it apart from the rest of the bright Summer Exhibition, then there’s the rather understated notice (pictured above) out side… and then there’s its content. This is not a collection of Emin’s work but rather her personal choice of things she wanted included (mainly from her friends and colleagues.) The content is definitely shocking and a few a pieces are definitely not for the faint hearted!
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