Summer Exhibition, 2015, Royal Academy: How to brighten up art’s Groundhog Day

Striking and vibrant colour shines throughout the exhibition
Vivid beacons: Ian Davenport’s Duplex Etching: Grey, Lavender, 2014 (Picture courtesy of Ian Davenport and Alan Cristea Gallery) and Grayson Perry’s Julie and Rob, 2013 (Picture courtesy the artist, Paragon/Contemporary Editions and Victoria Miro, London)
Ben Luke4 June 2015

Michael Craig-Martin, the co-ordinator of this year’s jamboree at the RA, has ensured that it’s not just a Summer Exhibition but a summery one, too. Vibrant colour, the kind that shines from Craig-Martin’s own paintings, is this year’s dominant theme.

It hits you as soon as you enter: Scottish artist Jim Lambie has decorated the stairs leading to the show in his trademark Zobop style, where lines of brightly hued plastic tape follow the staircase’s architectural contours. I must have seen 20 of Lambie’s floors now; their pop-art exuberance still thrills.

The boldness continues on the gallery walls: the Wohl Central Hall’s a vivid turquoise; Gallery III, the show’s grand signature space, is shocking pink.

It’s a bright idea, in both senses of the word, because the Summer Exhibition can be art’s Groundhog Day. The principles have remained essentially the same for almost 250 years, uniting works by Royal Academicians, invited guests and members of the public, both artists and hobbyists, through the open submission process.

At its worst, the occasional distinguished painting or sculpture briefly stems a vast tide of dross, by both Academicians and amateurs. But at its best, as here, the volume of highlights among the 1,100 works make that dross less oppressive.

Another Craig-Martin aim is to focus on distinguished artists who haven’t received due attention. Michael Simpson’s powerful and sinister Squint paintings feature in the central hall, as do excellent paintings by Vanessa Jackson and Tess Jaray.

On display: Michael Craig-Martin’s Sofa (Picture courtesy Michael Craig-Martin and Alan Cristea Gallery)

Colour is a useful device for standing out: Ian Davenport’s gloriously liquid Duplex Etching: Grey, Lavender is a beacon in the print room, for instance. Also vivid is Grayson Perry’s Julie and Rob, a tapestry featuring the protagonists of his themed house in Essex. The show is bookended by two superb rooms: one featuring almost calligraphic ink drawings of trees on encyclopaedia pages by William Kentridge, the other dedicated to Tom Phillips’s magnificent lifelong opus A Humument, where each page of a Victorian novel is transformed into a unique painting with chance snatches of text.

Ultimately, it’s the best Summer Exhibition I’ve seen.

Until August 16 (020 7300 8000, royalacademy.org.uk)

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