Margaret Erskine and Alex Forde-Erskine review the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition
Great mistake, really, getting a review of an art exhibition from people who know what they like……
| For 2007 the theme of the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy is light.
Hence the large number of exhibits needing electricity (if the power fails, are they still works of art, and do you get your money back if they blow your fusebox when you get them home?). |
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Not that we liked them much, with the exception of the fish-pond-like structure in the central hall which even earned a cool rating.
A selection of our other findings -
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As usual there is a selection of abstract sculpture resembling dinosaur droppings, which never impress us.
The steel dinosaurs in the courtyard are, however, handsome, even imposing. |
Some things we really didn’t like – painting the walls of the architecture section bright royal blue is most distracting (we hope not a deliberate ploy) so we now can’t remember any of the exhibits. The small Weston Room, the traditional refuge of the smallest works, is distinctly thin this year but the two bronze dancers by James Butler nearly made up for this. Others were also voting with their feet on this one – usually elbows should be left outside this room, in the interests of health and safety.
Some more light-hearted pieces we did like. The bookcase installation in subtle shades of grey by Tom Philips, for example, and the drumkit. Also a piece that achieved trompe d’oeil by virtue of its position that we only just spotted – see if you do too.
One room focusses on photography and other digital media and we hope to see this as a feature of future exhibitions. The camera now lies as much as the paintbrush, it seems, and a good thing too.
It is always a pleasure to see works by Elizabeth Blackadder, as bastions against modern for modern’s sake, anemones and hellebores this time.
The dirty great thing with Tony and Cherie (minus clothes) is distinctly dull and unsubtle compared with Ken Howard’s treatment of his model, very much the naked as opposed to the nude.
We did like the skull by Alastair Mackie– elegant with mother of pearl, unlike the bling thing (we saw it on the news and hope you missed it).
We never understand the prizes (or the majority of the titles, come to that) so usually award one of our own – Item We Would Most Like to Steal if We Had Somewhere to Put It. Won by The Library at Elsinore (the bookcase installation - Alex’s choice) and Greek Vase (2) 1993 (a small but striking etched monoprint of, surprisingly, a Greek vase – my choice).
On the whole, a bit geeky, but enough to please us and a few really enjoyable surprises.
The Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition runs until August 19 2007