Page 44 - Studio International - June 1967

The Royal Academy-what can be done?

'In the nineteenth century "academic" meant "of or belonging to a learned society"; now it means "not
leading to a decision". The Royal Academy's 199th Summer Exhibition is certainly "academic" in the
modern sense. . . . The problem of making the Summer Exhibition representative of the artistic life of
the country still remains.'

Ian Dunlop

The Royal Academy is really too easy a target. In an age say it is above fashion and movements. It can accept
which prefers artists to be young and if possible rebel- realist works as well as abstracts. It can take the land-
lious, aged academicians are bound to seem rather scapes of a Sunday painter.
ridiculous; in an age which scorns tradition the very idea Unfortunately such a policy is all very well in theory but
of an academy of art is an anachronism. Small wonder mutually destructive in practice. There is no real under-
the Summer Exhibition comes in for a pasting each year. lying reason why any one work has been accpted.
The 199th Summer Exhibition is certainly 'academic' in This policy is shown at its worst in the 'modern works'.
the modern sense. It continues to teeter indecisively These are, and have been, appalling pastiches of modern-
between the old-fashioned and the pastiches of the new. ism. Their inclusion seems to be due not so much to
There have been some welcome improvements in the tolerance as to fear that unless something of this kind is
hanging but the overall standard is much as it was in included the Exhibition will be written off as out-of-date.
previous years, and that, to put no fine a point on it, is One of the curious features about recent summer exhibi-
very low indeed. With the Academy at least, there seems tions is the lack of any good realist works. It is the sort of
to be only a limited number of cards in the artistic pack art with which the academy could be expected to score
(plus the occasional joker). over other institutions. But there is no painter in the
This year the Hanging Committee have attempted Academy who can be compared with American realists
where possible to keep the suits together. The trompe l'oeil like Andrew Wyeth, Edward Hopper and Alex Colville.
works are given a wall to themselves; the modern works, With the absence of good realist painting (or sculpture)
if that is what they can be called, are grouped together; the Summer Exhibition lacks a solid foundation. It be-
and where subject fails works have been arranged by comes increasingly hard to justify. As it is at present
colour or method of handling paint. Sir William Mac- constructed, with the hideous overcrowding, the pre-
Taggart's excellent contribution, Stooks at Sunset, with its ponderance of mediocre work, the absence of any
glowing reds and golds, has been placed underneath a strong conviction behind the selection, there seems no
portrait of a girl which is also predominantly red in place for it in the second half of the twentieth century.
colour. Unfortunately the two do not work well together. True, it does give a chance for good but unfashionable
To their credit the Hanging Committee have cut down artists to show their work to a wide public. But it also
on those obsequious portraits of public dignatories, but gives a chance for a lot of indifferent artists.
otherwise things are almost reassuringly as they have A short term solution would be to cut down the number
always been. There are the figure paintings of Sir of works exhibited. The Academy already turns away
Gerald Kelly, the landscapes of Algernon Newton, the about four-fifths of what is sent in but they could turn as
still-lifes of John Bratby, all of which are destined to many away again. It would, of course, be very difficult.
produce in the annual visitor a feeling of déjà vu. The Academy could either limit the entries to one work
It would, of course, be a great pity if some of the regular by each contributor—in which case the overall standards
contributors were not included. Artists like Roberts, would remain much the same—or they could reduce
Lowry, Bratby, Spear, Weight and others have an indi- the number of artists—in which case they would lay
viduality which makes their work well worth seeing; themselves open to the charges of favouritism and pre-
the trouble is that every year the good is suffocated by judice. Or they could say, 'damn the lot of you', and just
the bad. The Summer Exhibition is dreadfully over- show the work of members and associates. This would be
crowded. The Academy seems to believe that an art logical but the standard would remain pretty low.
exhibition should be a kind of treasure trail with the few But whatever the method, the problem of making
good works scattered among the indifferent so that the the Exhibition representative of the artistic life of the
visitor can find them for himself. This type of display is, country would remain. It is almost an insoluble one. The
however, better suited for the paintings hung on the Academy is caught in a vicious circle of its own making.
railings of Green Park. It makes the exhibition look as if As the respect for the Academy and the Summer Exhibi-
its main purpose is to sell works of art. tion diminishes, so the number of proven good artists
In fairness to the Academy the overcrowding is not due wishing to exhibit there gets less and less.
to commercial reasons, as the Academy gains nothing by The only possible solution would be to scrap the present
the sales. It is due instead to a misguided policy of process of selection by committee and put in work by
tolerance. The Hanging Committee prides itself on the invitation only. But it would mean the end of the
catholicism of its tastes. It can point to the walls and safely Exhibition as we know it. q