Summer exhibition

This year’s annual exhibition at the Royal Academy, the world’s largest open contemporary art exhibition in the world.

I think this year’s show was one of the better ones! There was lots of work I’d have happily taken home with me but sadly I didn’t. As ever I loved the rooms of small pictures but this year these seemed to be a better blend of work by academicians and the public. Highlights from those rooms included Stephen Farthing’s two pictures of a collie dog in a flat cap, that is the picture was of the underside of a flat cap with a picture of the dog in the middle of it not a dog in a hat, which would also have been good! I also liked Ben Madgwick’s “Aspirin” which was a picture of an old fashioned Aspirin bottle on the edge of a canvas with a very glossy finish.

Of the bigger works I liked Joe Tilson’s pictures of Venice of which there were a few scattered about the show. These had a think decorative geometric border with a picture of a Venetian church in the middle. I also liked the wit of Phil Shaw’s “For Piet’s sake II” a picture of books on Mondrian arranged in the pattern of a Mondrian picture.

The award for most hideous picture in the show goes to “Johnny Otis (Hand jive)” by Henry Kondracki which was a blue and black picture of a jazz band. I found it a bit bland and ugly.

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