Gifted : from the Royal Academy to the Queen

Surprisingly good exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery of the Royal Academy’s present to the Queen for her Jubilee, three portfolios of works on paper by the current Royal Academicians.

I had expected to the exhibition to be a bit dull but it was fascinating to see what each artist had decided to give her and to hear the artists commentaries on some of the works. Some artists seemed to pick something they had in the studio but others created a new work for the gift. As a whole the collection is a great view of established contemporary art.

I particularly liked the works where the artists had thought about what the Queen might like  or were relevant to her such as a Jaspar John like picture called “16 appearances of the Union Jack” by Tom Philips or Humphrey Ocean’s picture of Kenyan birds.

My favourite was actually a flow chart style picture called “How we do it!” by Eva Juricha which tried to map the creative process. I had to stand and sketch it as it described so well the messy random thoughts and how thee become a workable idea.

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