I always enjoy the Summer Show at the Royal Academy of Art, it’s the oldest open submission exhibition in the world and since it’s inception in 1768 they’ve yet to miss a year (which is quite an astonishing feat really, especially considering all the past “unprecedented times” our nation has lived through, lest we forget, the first influenza pandemic of 1775, cholera in 1831, and not just one but two World Wars.) And through it all, every year throughout June, July and August, the RA has presented the Summer Show. However, this cursed year because of national lockdowns, at one point it was thought that perhaps for the first time EVER, the Summer Show (like most things in 2020) would have to be cancelled.
Now, I don’t exaggerate when I say this, it was the most mind numbingly boring summer of my entire life, but like all things, good and bad, it soon passed and with the changing of seasons (and lockdown law) it was revealed that the Summer Show was not actually cancelled, but had only been delayed. In late October 2020, the Summer Winter Show, curated by Jane and Louise Wilson RA, finally opened it’s doors to the public. Although the show was taking place in the midst of our very own “unprecedented times” the exhibition didn’t really reflect this (I think because submissions were submitted in the “before times” a utopia that now seemed but a distance memory), apart from a few pieces that were obviously added later that eluded to the pandemic and other major world events such as BLM, overall for the most part the exhibition didn’t speak to the times we live in. It was the same old Summer Show and I for one really enjoyed it , walking around the exhibition allowed me to somewhat escape reality (well, as much as one can walking around an exhibition space whilst wearing a face mask and following a one way system.)
Here are some of the treasures of the 2020 Summer Exhibition.
my choices have been inspired by Pablo Picasso’s blue period, 1901-1904, a period where the painter exclusively produced work in shades of blue and bluey-greens
ALTAMIRA: BLUE ROOM
Caroline Peña Bray
This is a piece from Caroline Peña Bray’s photographic series Altamira, the series aims to document the collective memory of a place through objects, these objects give abstract notions such as intimacy or memory, a form.
BUDDHA AND WOMAN IN BLUE (I)
Guler Ates
BATHROOM – III
Diana Savostaite
BLUE WALL, CHELSEA HOTEL (TRIPTYCH)
Rita Barros
Artists in Love
I was first drawn to these three photographs because the peeling blue wallpaper photographed and displayed in this way looked to me like an old map, which I found really quietly beautiful. Not knowing anything about the artist, Portuguese photographer Rita Barros, I did some research and found out the most marvellous thing. The Chelsea Hotel on fourth street in New York City where these photos were taken, is where Rita has been living for many years with her long term partner in crime, none other than the artist and poet… Rene Ricard.
