By James Brewer
“Espirit d’Art is JMW Turner tying himself to the mast of his ship in order to paint a storm. Espirit d’Art is Yinka Shonibare kitting out Nelson’s ship Victory in African sails [In 2010 the British-Nigerian artist created Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle for the Fourth Plinth of Trafalgar Square]. Espirit d’Art is everything Van Gogh said or did.”
These and many more examples under the choice invented term Espirit d’Art are a means for the radical Bob and Roberta Smith (a nom de guerre d’artiste for just one man whose name is Patrick Brill) to underline his rallying cry Art is a Human Right. He boldly calls attention to his activism by inscribing it in signwriters paint on board and discarded materials.
His entry for the 254th Summer Exhibition of London’s Royal Academy of Arts lays out a manifesto of the kind he has proclaimed against neglect of arts education, and it serves nicely as a marker for the diversity of expression in the unique mid-year show. Just shy of 1,500 of the 15,000 submitted entries were accepted and are of a huge range of media and modes. They emphasise, as does London-born Bob and Roberta Smith says, that art is “an important element in democratic life.”
In tune with the zeitgeist, Climate was the theme selected by British sculptor Alison Wilding, lead coordinator of the 2022 Summer Exhibition and her fellow committee members, and this has opened a wide door to the imagination. In effect there are no rules. There is no need, and some of the exhibitors are old hands at contributing to this annual event. All are on form, many presenting works in their confident familiar styles notwithstanding the setbacks they may they suffered at the height of the pandemic.
The sheer variety of exhibits in the world’s largest open submission contemporary show is stunning. Some of the abstract, and some of the figurative studies, call to mind the advice of Leonardo da Vinci who in his Treatise on Painting advised artists to find marvellous new ideas by looking at damp stains on a wall, ashes of a fire and clouds for stones which could suggest landscapes, battles, figures in motion, strange faces, and an infinity of other objects.
Speaking by happenstance against the background of a wall where Espirit d’Art is on display, Royal Academy secretary and chief executive Axel Rüger said that after Covid-induced cancellations and postponements, it was exciting to put the Summer Exhibition “back into the summer, where it belongs.” Mr Rüger must have been pleased about the reminder from Bob and Roberta about the importance of the Dutch genius – the chief executive’s post up to 2019 was as director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Of this year’s theme, Mr Rüger said that the submissions treat not just of climate urgency but climate in all its manifestations, such as the tension between the natural environment and the city of London including Piccadilly, home to the academy.
In two rooms the walls have been painted a startling lemon and yellow on the direction of one of the guest curators Grayson Perry, a Royal Academy stalwart. Here is an irresistible study called Attention All Shipping. This is a linocut and stencil with much picked out in red, by Tobias Till, a draughtsman-perfectionist who has a fine sense of humour. The detail is riveting in its depiction of seafarers, mermaids, ships from various eras, all sorts of sea creatures including octopus, whale, and seahorse. And of course, the 31 sea areas by which the waters around the British Isles are known meteorologically: Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties, Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Dogger, Fisher, German Bight, Humber, Thames, Dover and so on. These names are poetry and even romantic to listeners at sea and on land who tune in to the Met Office shipping forecast, which is issued four times a day.
Since first broadcast a century ago, the service has inspired books, verses and songs, and now commemorative artwork. A limited edition of 50 prints of Attention All Shipping has been made, so shipping fans – and armchair afficionados who are about to mourn the closure of the BBC Radio 4 Longwave frequency which was the home over the years to the forecasts – have an opportunity to snap up a charming souvenir.
Tobias Till (a graduate of Royal Academy Schools) interviewed by artist and curator Helena Cardow for TAG Fine Arts, was asked what inspired his works and replied: “The need to play with and subvert the status quo.”
Even away from the yellow-hued walls, lemon is on display, as a fruit sculpture but a “rotten” one by Kathleen Ryan – with the title of Bad Lemon (Josh) – which has been chosen for the Summer Exhibition’s signature poster. Kathleen lives and works in New York and the title is explained by her collaboration with a London-based gallery run by Josh Lilley, where she had a solo show in 2018, and she is also listed with the François Ghebaly gallery in Los Angeles. Her Mouldy Fruit Sculptures are made of precious and semi-precious gemstones and “challenge perceptions of decoration and decay.” On a foam base are placed malachite, opal, smoky quartz and other stones of varied shapes and sizes. In this way, the desirable treasure helps form an image of disgusting rot. Kathleen has also given the treatment to sculptures of oranges and pears.
London-based, US-born Anne Krinsky has two prints, entitled Erosion 1 and Sea Kale 1, in the exhibition. They are part of her project examining the vulnerable wetlands of the south coast of England. For this, Anne in 2020 and 2021 visited areas including Lymington and Keyhaven Reserve in the North Solent, and Chichester, Pagham and Portsmouth harbours. Working with photography, projection, and digital print, she created exhibitions for Worthing Museum and Art Gallery and the resort’s seafront promenade. “I wanted to share my passion for these fragile and beautiful coastal habitats, which are threatened by rising sea levels and pollution. It’s heart-breaking to see the overgrowth of algae, from agricultural runoff and dumping of sewage, that is engulfing south coast wetlands,” says Anne.
She photographed sea kale growing on the shingle at Hurst Spit, in Keyhaven. “It’s a beautiful plant with purple stalks, an edible coastal plant declining in the UK, as shingle beaches are threatened by development, coastal defences, and rising sea levels. I projected the photograph onto another wetland print, rephotographed it, and then worked with the image in Photoshop to arrive at the final image.”
She hunts for “overlooked structures in the natural and lived environments, searching for underlying patterns and parallels in nature and technology.” Erosion 1 originated as a still from a video she took of water splashing over an eroding groyne near the mouth of the Beaulieu River.
In an earlier project, Tide Line Thames, Anne investigated the capital’s riverside and architectural structures. Her digital print installation named Tropical Thames graced Crossrail Place Roof Garden which is on the site of the historic West India Docks, in a tribute to its history and the luxuriant plant life along waterway paths.
Unsurprisingly for an exhibition with a climate and environment theme, filth and trash take their place – as subject-matter, not in quality. These are the pictorial possibilities of the remains of the day. Making their voice heard are the Singh Twins in a digital dyed fabric composition entitled Because You’re Worth It? II from their Slaves of Fashion series. The colourful work features a mass of waste packaging and other detritus at sea and on land, with polar bear, sea creatures and humans stranded on the edge of a hellish inferno. Even the commodity trading houses Cargill and Bunge get a mention, although it is unclear what message that is sending.
The Singh Twins are the sisters Amrit and Rabindra Kaur Singh, of Sikh heritage, born in Richmond upon Thames and with Liverpool as their adopted home city. Their latest foray is part of their exploration of “hidden narratives of Empire, colonialism, conflict and slavery through the lens of India’s historical textile trade and their relevance to modern day legacies and debates around ethical consumerism, racism and the politics of trade.”
The Twins’ highly decorative style relates to the tradition of Indian miniature painting known for its exquisite detail and technical skill and draws on other heritage from ancient Greek and Roman to medieval European, 18th century British satirists, the Pre-Raphaelites and art nouveau.
Sculptor Laura Ford has similar concerns as displayed in her Very Limited Penguins made of steel, Jesmonite (a gypsum-based material), and fabric. Her playful sculptures are described as faithful representations of fantasy with sometimes bittersweet and menacing qualities mixed with tenderness.
Laura’s penguins top a tiered display of small dimension works, including Girl in Boat in bronze on steel base by Beth Carter who is based in Bristol. Lower on the same pedestal, Sandra Lane has used air dried clay and house emulsion to make some unusual Courgette Shoes.
Making use of blown-out tyres and steel, Douglas White – he has a keen interest in discarded objects, both natural and man-made – has constructed a sinister Black Palm. The notion of the tenebrous tree took root during his residency in the central American nation of Belize when he was troubled by the roadside burnt waste of diseased tropical palms, which he saw as a monument to European colonialism that made a fetish of tropical nature while using it as fodder for industry.
Glamour and alienation hover in charcoal Swans from the London and New York artist Gary Hume in his trademark abstract formalist mix. The black swans are as graceful as their white cousins but are detached from any natural habitat. Gary Hume’s work is identified with the irreverent Young British Artists who came to prominence in the early 1990s.
Hung adjacent to Swans is Enigma, a photograph printed on dichroic glass by Gavin Turk, another former member of the Young British Artists. Whatever the intention, the glasswork acts as a mirror to passing activity on the far wall of the gallery. An enigma indeed: is it another riff by Turk, who has always been concerned about the ‘myth’ of the artist, on how society values artworks?
The aforesaid, acclaimed Yinka Shonibare has put forward three Studies of African Art from Picasso’s Collection, part of his Modern Magic series. These relief prints with woodblock and fabric collage highlight what modernism has drawn from African artefacts.
The determinedly figurative artist Eileen Cooper, prominent for her images, at once strongly outlined and sympathetic, of women’s persona and identity, shows her latest oil painting, Fair Weather. This is a beach scene of a couple shielding themselves from the sun while cradling their dog and celebrates her emphasis on drawing as a key to clear expression of the female self.
Untitled. Jet engine, anti-depressants, and youth is a puzzle but springs into life when a young man strips down and sits astride said jet engine. This concept is from London sculptor Roger Hiorns. He says that his work investigates interactions between organic and inorganic objects, relating to power relations and the perversity of authority. This contradiction is gathered in the atomisation of an aircraft engine; antidepressants embedded in a complex piece of machinery; and the presence of a nude youth. The artist wants to “offer a new understanding of objects, and of the behaviours they can provoke.”
Grayson Perry has produced another of his metaphorical self-portraits with tilts at modern society. His etching of Our Town has blood-red streets with names such as Me Me Me, Contraria and Little England. A river called Mainstream Media has inlets including Binge Watch.
Separately, the multi-talented Perry has cast a bronze Covid Bell embossed with some rather ghoulish motifs, and which is rung once an hour on the hour – the gallery invites members of the public to toll the bell – in honour of those who worked hard during the Covid emergency.
Royal Academicians Rana Begum and Níall McLaughlin curate architecture in two galleries and have added various works of art on the walls. They were joined by invited architects including Boonserm Premthada, who innovated the use of elephant dung to make bricks and displays a structure with such bricks made in the UK.
Outside, in the Royal Academy’s Annenberg Courtyard is Humid Labyrinth Room (with Spontaneous Landscape), an installation by the Spanish artist and 2020 RA Architecture Prize winner Cristina Iglesias. This aims to bring the experience of intimacy and landscape to a public space in the middle of the city.
Most works are for sale, and the funds raised support the exhibiting artists, postgraduate students at the RA Schools, and the work of the Royal Academy.
British artist Mali Morris designed flags to hang above Bond Street as part of Art in Mayfair, an annual arts festival running alongside the Summer Exhibition. She says she is inspired by the likes of Matisse and the Early Italians. Another academician, Paul Huxley, has created colourful hanging canvases along Piccadilly.
Picture captions in full:
Attention All Shipping. By Tobias Till. Linocut and stencil.
Because You’re Worth It? II (Slaves of Fashion Series). By the Singh Twins. Digital dyed fabric lightbox, Photo: © The Singh Twins.
Espirit d’Art. By Bob and Roberta Smith. Signwriters paint on board. Detail.
Exhibition poster showing Bad Lemon (Josh) by Kathleen Ryan. The work is in aventurine, serpentine, agate, quartz, Ching Hai jade, red malachite, hematite, jasper, rose quartz, carelian, onyx, mother of pearl, freshwater pearl, bone, acrylic, glass, stell pins on coated polystyrene.
Very Limited Penguins. Steel, Jesmonite, fabric and wooden plinth. By Laura Ford.
Swans. Charcoal on canvas, over board. By Gary Hume. Foreground: Enigma. Photograph printed on dichroic glass. By Gavin Turk.
Fair Weather. By Eileen Cooper. Oil.
Black Palm. Blown-out tyres and steel. By Douglas White.
Our Town. Etching. By Grayson Perry.
Sea Kale 1. By Anne Krinsky. Archival pigment print on Hannemuhle Photo Rag.
Erosion 1. By Anne Krinsky. Archival pigment print on Hannemuhle Photo Rag.
Covid Bell. By Grayson Perry. Bronze.
Untitled. Jet engine, anti-depressants, and youth. By Roger Hiorns.
Courgette Shoes. By Sandra Lane. Clay and house emulsion.
Royal Academy Summer courtyard installation: Wet Labyrinth (with Spontaneous Landscape) by Cristina Iglesias. Photo: © Royal Academy of Arts, London/ David Parry.
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition runs until Sunday August 21, 2022. Open 10am – 6pm Tuesday to Sunday.
