The latest iteration features 1,600 works spread over 13 rooms
Every year since 1769, the Royal Academy has hosted a Summer Exhibition, a “cave-of-wonders-cum-candy-shop-cum-car-boot-sale of works by known academicians and keen members of the public”, said Laura Freeman in The Times. And, as the saying goes, “it is what it is”. This latest iteration, stewarded by watercolourist David Remfry, features some 1,600 works spread over 13 rooms under the “happily vague” theme “Only Connect”. As ever, submissions are open to anyone, everything is for sale, and its scope takes in almost every conceivable artistic medium. While it doesn’t represent much of a departure from the standard format, it is markedly “less manic than usual”, and aside from “the odd nod to climate change or BLM”, it is significantly lighter on politics than recent outings. There is so much to see here: one moment you’re looking at an “inflated sculptural beetle”, the next, a piece juxtaposing floor plans for Notre-Dame cathedral and a Second World War German battleship – laid flat, they “look much the same”. Or you can admire a “balloon dog” wrapped in Tunnock’s Teacake foil. The tone is largely upbeat: this is a show with “all the fun of the fair”.
