I’ve been a member of the Royal Academy for a couple of years, and I find the ability to pop along on spec, indeed on a whim, for the exhibitions there thoroughly agreeable.
I’ve been going to the Summer Exhibition for much longer, and it really is a compelling show – this year as good as I’ve ever seen it. A bit brighter and less doomy than last year, and the architecture part was a bit smaller than some years. One minor complaint is the Sipsmith gin bar was marginalised from within one of the galleries to a little stall outside, which necessitated leaving the exhibition in order to procure refreshment, before returning for a quick whizz around on a lunch break.
While there, I also snuck into the other two exhibitions there – firs the Felix Vallotton. I’d never heard of him (not that surprising, all things considered), but nor had my mother (Art teacher her professional career, Fine Arts degree, voracious reader). He’s brilliant! Always amazing to see someone who’d mastered several techniques to brilliant effect. I’m a big fan.
Finally, there was a Helene Schjerfbeck exhibition. When I worked in Helsinki on and off in 2008, I visited a few galleries and appreciated some of the Finnish/Nordic artists about whom very little is known in UK. I don’t recall discovering Schjerfbeck, and I wasn’t terribly wowed by this exhibition. The one thing I’d heard about, and was pretty cool, was the range of self portraits she’d painted over her life, giving an insight into her style, vision, self-worth and mental state until her death. I took a video as I walked round looking at them:
Timsformational 