ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS EXHIBITION PROGRAMME 2012

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In January 2012 the Royal Academy of Arts will present the first major exhibition in the UK to
showcase David Hockney’s landscape work. Vivid paintings inspired by Yorkshire landscape, many
large in scale and created specifically for the exhibition, will be shown alongside related drawings,
films and ipad drawings. Through a selection of around 200 works spanning fifty years, this
impressive body of work will be placed in the context of Hockney’s extended exploration of and
fascination with landscape.
Highlights will include three groups of new work made since 2005, when Hockney returned to live in
Bridlington, showing an intense observation of his surroundings in a variety of media. The
exhibition will reveal the artist’s emotional engagement with the landscape he knew in his youth, as
he examines on a daily basis the changes in the seasons, the cycle of growth and variations in light
conditions. The exhibition will take the visitor on a journey through Hockney’s world.
PREMIUMS
6 Burlington Gardens
2 March – 15 March 2012

RA Schools sponsored by Newton Investment Management

Premiums comprises contemporary artwork by Royal Academy Schools second year students. This
year, for the first time, the annual exhibition will be held in the prestigious galleries of 6 Burlington
Gardens. The exhibition will provide an excellent opportunity to view new work by emerging artists
at the interim point of their 3 year postgraduate course. Works on display will include installation
pieces, painting, sculpture, video and photography.
Prizes known as ‘Premiums’ for painting and drawing were established in the 1750s. The Royal
Academy of Arts continued this system of prizes to encourage its students. ‘Premiums’ are still
awarded to the RA Schools Students.

JOHAN ZOFFANY RA: SOCIETY OBSERVED
The Sackler Wing of Galleries
10 March – 10 June 2012
Supported by Cox & Kings
Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed will constitute a radical re-evaluation of the extraordinary life and career of this brilliant and enigmatic artist. Born near Frankfurt in 1733, Zoffany moved to London in 1760. Adapting to the indigenous art culture and patterns of patronage, he created virtuoso portraits and subject pictures that proved to be highly desirable to a wide range of patrons. His work provides an invaluable and often unique appraisal of key British institutions and edifices: the art academy; the Court; the theatre; the bourgeois family; and the British Empire. Of all the major artists at work in eighteenth-century England, none explored more inventively the interstices of Georgian society and the complexities of British imperial rule than Zoffany.

The exhibition will feature oil paintings, and a selection of drawings and prints from British and
international public and private collections, a number of which have been rarely or never exhibited
before. The works testify to the central importance of Zoffany to the artistic culture of eighteenthcentury Europe.
SUMMER EXHIBITION 2012
Main Galleries
4 June – 12 August 2012
The Royal Academy’s annual Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open submission
contemporary art show. Now in its 244th year, this exhibition continues the tradition of showcasing
work by both emerging and established artists in all media including painting, sculpture,
photography, printmaking, architecture and film. Royal Academician Tess Jaray will be the coordinator for the Summer Exhibition this year.
RA SCHOOLS SHOW
Schools Studio
20 June – 1 July 2012
RA Schools sponsored by Newton Investment Management
The annual Schools Show will see the transformation of the RA Schools studios into beautiful gallery
spaces. Displaying the work of emergent artists who have completed their three-year postgraduate
course, the exhibition will provide an excellent opportunity to view and purchase new work. The
works on display will encompass a wide variety of media and will introduce significant young artists
of the contemporary art world.

Established in 1768, the Royal Academy Schools is a leading centre for the postgraduate study of
fine art, run by artists for artists at the heart of the RA, and offering the only three-year, full time
postgraduate course in fine art in the UK.
FROM PARIS: A TASTE FOR IMPRESSIONISM
PAINTINGS FROM THE CLARK
The Sackler Wing of Galleries
7 July – 23 September 2012
Showcasing major works from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown,
Massachusetts, this exhibition will illustrate the Clark Art Institute’s holdings of French 19th-century
art, with particular emphasis upon Impressionism. Masterpieces by Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Degas,
Sisley and Morisot, as well as an exceptional group of more than twenty paintings by Renoir, will be
included. The collection also embraces important works by pre-Impressionist artists such as Corot,
Théodore Rousseau and J-F.Millet, as well as examples of highly polished ‘academic’ paintings by
Gérôme, Alma-Tadema and Bouguereau.
The works in the exhibition will be presented by genre, in order to reveal the range of subject matter
and diversity of stylistic approach in French 19th-century art. The groups of works will include:
landscapes and cityscapes; marine views; genre paintings depicting scenes of everyday life; nudes;
still lifes; portraits – including self portraits of artists central to the exhibition such as Renoir and
Degas, and paintings reflecting the contemporary interest in Orientalism.
BRONZE*
Main Galleries
15 September – 9 December 2012
In September 2012, the Royal Academy of Arts will present Bronze, a landmark exhibition that
celebrates the extraordinary historical, geographical, and stylistic range of this global art form. This
exhibition will bring together outstanding works from the earliest times to the present in a thematic
arrangement that is fresh and unique. No such cross-cultural exhibition on this scale has ever been
attempted.
Works in the exhibition will cover 4,000 years, from antiquity to the present day. The best bronzes
from Asia, Africa and Europe will be included. Ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan bronzes will be
among the most stunningly beautiful examples. The medieval period offers outstanding and rare
survivals and the Renaissance too, in the works of artists like Ghiberti, Donatello, Cellini, and later
Giambologna, De Vries and others. Works by Rodin, Boccioni, Picasso, Jasper Johns, Giacometti,
Moore, Beuys and Bourgeois are representative of the best from the nineteenth century to today.
ARTISTS’ LABORATORY 05 AND 06
Weston Rooms, Main Galleries
Autumn 2012
Supported by the Friends of the Royal Academy
The Artists’ Laboratory is a programme of exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts which takes
place each autumn. The programme gives the Royal Academicians an opportunity to take risks and
explore new ideas within their artistic practice and is a chance for the public to experience less
familiar aspects of their work. The exhibition underpins the Royal Academy’s unique position in
having artists at its core.
THE JOHN MADEJSKI FINE ROOMS
The John Madejski Fine Rooms are the former state rooms of Burlington House, originally one of
London’s great private town mansions. These magnificently-restored 18th-century spaces house
works from the Royal Academy’s collection of British art from the last 250 years.
Driven to Draw: Twentieth-century Drawings and Sketchbooks from the Royal Academy’s Collection
Tennant Gallery
3 November 2011 – 12 February 2012
Featuring rarely seen twentieth-century drawings and sketchbooks from the RA’s collection, this
exhibition aims to capture the magic of drawing done for its own sake. It includes works by the
Royal Academicians L.S. Lowry, Laura Knight, Edward Bawden, John Bratby and Michael Landy.

The Diamond Jubilee
The John Madejski Fine Rooms
10 December 2011 – 1 December 2012
A new display – ‘The Queen’s Artists’ for 2012 will include a selection of Diploma Works by Royal
Academicians elected during the reign of the present Queen, marking Her Majesty’s Diamond
Jubilee. The display will include works by Carel Weight RA, Ruskin Spear RA and Freddie Gore RA.
The John Madejski Fine Rooms are accessible by free guided tour only, at the following times:
Tuesday 1 pm; Wednesday to Friday 1 pm and 3 pm; Saturday 11.30 am

The King’s Artists: George III’s Academy*
Tennant Gallery
25 May – 21 October 2012
Celebrating the Royal Academy’s connection with the monarchy since its foundation in 1768, this
exhibition is timed to coincide with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It will include paintings, sculpture
and drawings by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Agostino Carlini and George Dance, and will overlap with the
RA’s major exhibition in the Sackler Galleries of their contemporary, Johan Zoffany, himself a key
figure in the relationship between King George III and his new Academy.

LithOrrgraphy
Tennant Gallery
23 February – 20 May 2012
This exhibition will explore method and madness in the lithographs of Royal Academician Chris Orr,
whose prints meld technical mastery with a joyful sense of anarchy.

THE ARCHITECTURE SPACE
Nicholas Hawksmoor: Architect of the Imagination
4 February – 17 June 2012
An exhibition exploring how the striking buildings of the great English Baroque architect, Nicholas
Hawksmoor, have sparked the imaginations of generations of architects, artists and writers. A range
of fascinating images and quotations will be juxtaposed to dramatically bring to light the
imaginative legacy of this most original architect.

 

TICKETS AND OPENING HOURS
Tickets go on sale several months before an exhibition opens. To book tickets in advance please tel:
0844 209 0051 or visit www.royalacademy.org.uk. Groups of 10 or more are asked to book in
advance; please tel: 020 7300 8027 or email: groupbookings@royalacademy.org.uk; RA Friends go
free.

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