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Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

16th Jul 2014
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One of the social highlights of the summer, along with Ascot, Henley, Wimbledon and Lord's, is the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, a tradition that goes back to 1769.

It is a fair bet that many readers of this column will be regular visitors to the Royal Academy's sumptuous premises in Piccadilly. There might be three reasons for attending their Summer Exhibition.

First, many will visit right at the start as a Friend of the Academy. In theory, this is a real boon since entry is restricted. However, these days there are so many Friends that it is usually impossible to move, although the chance to buy overpriced Pimm’s can be irresistible. On the upside, there is also a strong chance that you will bump into friends, relations, clients and, most important of all, those that you wish to convert into clients.

Secondly, if money is burning a hole in your pocket this is an opportunity to invest. As always, your correspondent feels the obligation to emphasise that he is not permitted to give investment advice and would never seek to do so, particularly in the art market. The price range is very wide. At one end of the scale it is possible to spend no more than £100 on a tiny print. At the other, Last Train by Ron Arad in the Rotunda that opens and closes the visit is still available at a cool £600,000.

Finally, one can embark on an artistic adventure are seeing an incredible quantity and variety of contemporary art works most of which will pass viewers by almost unnoticed. However, everyone will be gripped by a good proportion and might feel tempted to consider purchasing something until they see the little red dot showing that an item is sold or the price bracket making it unassailable. This year, a sensational studio painting by Ken Howard, a Summer Exhibition regular, failed on both counts having sold for £38,000.

Ideally, one should attend with a companion or two since this is the best way to see and appreciate pieces that you would otherwise have missed. There is so much going on that it is easy to walk past something really special. You can also get into healthy disagreements over the value of some splurge or other that a friend considers high art.

Each room has a very distinctive style since they are handed over to different curators to make their own brief mark. Therefore it is possible to go through a room and wonder how anybody could consider even a single exhibit to be worth seeing, while finding another so delectable that is almost impossible to tear yourself away.

Regulars begin to see patterns and recognise some of the more significant artists. Distinctive works by the likes of Howard, Eileen Cooper, Paula Rego, John Bellany and Allen Jones almost feel like old friends at first sight.

However, much of the pleasure can come in seeing work by new exhibitors. Multitalented actor turned offer Edward Petherbridge has painted a witty piece recollecting his childhood. This feature is the Alhambra Theatre Bradford and would have been a tempting purchase for any theatre buff had it not been marked NFS (Not for Sale).

Inevitably, the really popular prints are small typically featuring birds or cats. These sell by the bucket load and one wonders whether purchasers feel quite so enthusiastic having got the pictures home and put them on the wall, probably next to a dozen other depictions of birds or cats, as appropriate.

The breadth of this exhibition can still surprise. Some paintings are big enough to replace a wall, let alone go on one, while others require a magnifying glass. There are items of great beauty and others that you feel you could have created yourself given a little bit of junk and 20 minutes. That is all part of the fun of an afternoon's entertainment that will not break the bank unless you become a buyer but does give plenty of opportunity for heated conversation over the merits or otherwise of so much that is on show.

If you have never been, do not miss out. Regulars might wish to try visiting later in the exhibition, where there is much more time and space to enjoy the weird and wonderful.

Should you take this opportunity, keep an eye out for the cake man, a cleverly designed comic confection, a metallic bicycle that even Boris Johnson would be loath to hire out and the Pop Art of Michael Craig Martin, including an iconic coffee cup that will be cost even more than you would pay at Starbucks and is unlikely to be tax-deductible.

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition runs until 17 August.

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