Tower and Town, August 2019

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Arts Review

This month’s review covers both the Summer Exhibition 2019 at the Royal Academy and Augustus John: Drawn from Life at the Salisbury Museum.

This was my first visit to the RA’s Summer Exhibition 2019. Bedazzled by the magnificence of Burlington House itself, the grand courtyard and plush staircase leading to the first floor, I eventually reached the entrance to Wohl Central Hall, the first ‘room’ of the exhibition. Put simply, ‘this year’s co-ordinator, the painter Jock McFadyen RA, plays on the British love of animals and the traditional popularity of pictures of pets, mixing the real with the imagined, the domestic with the wild and the cute with the fierce’. In describing the types of work entered into this year’s show, specifically a piece by Banksy, the information board went on to say, ‘Banksy’s Keep Out sets the tone for the exhibition: art that reflects the world today.’

And that is precisely the central motif of this year’s exhibition. Recurring images of abandonment, waste, pollution, destruction and decay are the threads running through this tapestry of intrigue and wonderment. This year, the RA received over 16,000 submissions.

Gallery III is the largest and most spectacular hanging space at the Academy. Stepping in, you are blown away by the enormity of some of the paintings, and the fluidity of arrangement between painting and photography. The oustanding piece for me in this room was David Hepher’s housing block which, in the centre, has a small image of John Constable’s The Hay Wain with ‘Wayne’ graffitied over it.

There’s so much I could say about this exhibition, so many pieces I loved and indeed wish I could have bought! Being surrounded by ‘art that reflects the world today’ was thrilling. It is a wakeup call to the world we are living in, and what it is becoming.

On your next visit to Salisbury, make a point of visiting the Augustus John: Drawn from Life exhibition at the Salisbury Museum. This is a small, intimate show of selected drawings, paintings, etchings and sculptures by, arguably, the most talented British draughtsman of the twentieth century. His drawings are rightly compared to those of the Great Masters of the Renaissance. They are beyond exquisite. Studies of his first wife, Ida Nettleship, and of his great friend and poet, WB Yeats are particular standouts. This is a modest yet stunning exhibition, which I encourage you to see.

P.S. Filed at home in and amongst many other things is a photograph of my great grandfather (an artist) with two of his great friends, Augustus John, and renowned Irish artist, Willy Conor (by coincidence a family relative also) painting together in Ireland before the First World War.

Summer Exhibition 2019 - at the RA 10th June – 12th August 2019.

Augustus John: Drawn from Life - Salisbury Museum 18th May – 29th September 2019

Gabriella Venus