World’s biggest open art exhibition gets underway with 12000 applicants
It’s a bumper year for submissions at the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, which has been held ever since the Academy was founded in 1768. The queue looked as menacing as the Da Vinci exhibition last Christmas, except all involved were carrying paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture.The Royal Academy of Arts founding principle is to ‘mount an annual selling exhibition open to all artists of distinguished merit’ to finance the training of young artists in the RA Schools. The exhibition continues to play a significant part in fund raising to finance students at the Royal Academy, which receives no public funding. All of those who support the Summer Exhibition by submitting work, visiting it and through purchases contribute to supporting artists of the future. The Summer Exhibition attracts a high volume of entrants each year with over 11,000 entries received last year. The majority of works will be for sale, offering visitors an unrivalled opportunity to purchase original artwork by high profile and emerging artists.
Last year’s exhibition saw Artist Michael Craig Martin curating a room of RA members which could hold weight in any international museum. The room contains works by Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley,Anish Kapoor Jenny Saville,and Alan Jones. not to mention Michael Craig Martin himself. A spectacular array of painting, sculpture, photography and architectural design is on offer in the largest and oldest open submission exhibition in the world. The exhibition does a good job of encapsulating the national psyche in a must see show in any given year. This years offering is predicted to be better then ever.
Following long Academy tradition, the 244 year old exhibition is curated by an annually rotating committee of Royal Academicians who are all practicing artists and architects. Any artist may enter work for selection – over 12,000 works are submitted for consideration every year and around 1200 are exhibited. The Academy works hard to encourage a diverse range of artists to enter and, as a result, well over 100 artists are included every year who have not previously exhibited in the Summer Exhibition. The show provides an unrivalled opportunity for exhibitors to sell their work and have it seen by the 200,000 visitors that the exhibition draws during its three-month run; all artists are strongly encouraged to enter work that is available for sale.
Over £65,000 will be given in prizes; awards include The Charles Wollaston Award for the most distinguished work (£25,000), The Jack Goldhill Award for a sculpture (£10,000), The Hugh Casson Drawing Prize (£3000), The British Institution Awards for students (4 prizes of £1000), The Rose Award for Photography (£1000), The Sunny Dupree Family Award for a Woman Artist (£3500) and the Bovis Lend Lease/Architects Journal Awards for Architecture (£15,000 in total). All exhibited works are eligible for the relevant prizes.The Summer Exhibition is a unique celebratory showcase for art of all styles and media, encompassing paintings, sculpture, photography, prints, architectural models, film, and artist’s books. Historically, the exhibition has also provided an opportunity for Royal Academicians, many of whom are internationally renowned, to show their own work.