The Royal Academy Show: Art Made and Exhibited Now

The Royal Academy is home to immense artistic activity and is steeped in history. The Great Spectacle and the Summer Exhibition are both on from 12 June to 19 August at the RA.

The 'Summer Exhibition' at the Royal Academy has exhibited every summer for the past two hundred and fifty years old. As the world has changed dramatically, so too has the art that makes it into the galleries of the Royal Academy for the Summer Exhibition. Paintings, sculpture, drawings and architectural designs by household names are displayed alongside work by first-time exhibitors. The Summer Exhibition is a high-profile platform for both established and lesser-known contemporary artists.

This year, Grayson Perry RA and his committee of fellow artists have handpicked over 1,300 artworks in an array of mediums. The exhibition extends across the RA's newly-expanded cultural campus, with prints on display in The Sackler Wing of Galleries and a “room of humour” in the new Ronald and Rita McAulay Gallery featuring David Shrigley and Martin Parr. The art extravaganza even spills out into the streets of London’s West End with an installation of over 200 flags designed by Royal Academicians.

The Great Spectacle is staged to coincide with the Summer Exhibition of 2018 and is a survey of its history. The exhibition will remember important moments and celebrated figures in the Royal Academy's history. Graduates and teachers, Sir John Soane and J. M. W. Turner:  influential painters, Constable and Stubbs: friendly rivals,  Gainsborough and Reynolds: and unique pieces donated by collectors such as Taddeo Tondo, a marble relief by Michelangelo.

The RA Summer Exhibition and Great Spectacle allows us to retrace our artistic roots and through an array of mediums in an ever-changing art world. We don’t know what the future of art is but we can find a slice of art heritage in our galleries.

In celebration of the summer season at the Royal Academy, we've rounded up a selection of contemporary art available here at Alfies.

Wooden sculpture, c1960s, signed. Available from Robinson Antiques

Nike of Samothrace bronze sculpture, c1960s, available from Cupio Gallery

Large sculptural bronze vase, signed Nuro. 1980s. Available from The Moderns

Contemporary painting. Available from Thomas Fine Art  

Titled The Four Grey Ladies, 1982 water colour and gouache painting by R P Lister. Available from John Cserny Fine Arts

The Great Spectacle and the Summer Exhibition are both on from 12 June to 19 August at the RA.


Written by Titika Malkogeorgou

Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse

A major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts 'Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse' will examine how gardens were depicted by Monet and his contemporaries.

Floral masterpieces by renowned artists such as Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse are abundant, however a quarter of the space is devoted to Monet’s work. It will include Monet's Agapanthus Triptych, the 42ft long piece he worked on from 1915 until his death aged 86 in 1926.

This exhibition positions him as the most important painter of gardens in the Modern period. Monet once wrote: ‘I owe it to flowers that I became a painter’.

Monet's Agapanthus Triptych

At Alfies, our dealers have a sublime collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist floral art. Below is just a small selection of what they have on offer.

Bueno, oil on canvas, Barcelona, offered by Diplomat Treasures International 

Impressionist flowers, oil on board, by Lucy Kemp-Welch, 1869-1958, offered by Robert McKoy Fine Arts

Still life by Janet Pritchard, oil on board, offered by Diplomat Treasures International 

Signed watercolour, early 20th century, offered by Thomas Fine Art 

Still life flowers, oil & pastel, signed Nigel Lyyton, offered by Nadine Okker

Flowers in a vase watercolour, English school, late 19th century, offered by Thomas Fine Art 

'Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse'  will be at the Royal Academy, London, from 30 January until 20 April.