Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

One of the nice things about the agency (as opposed to the many nasty things) is the way in which we are encouraged to think laterally and try to identify cultural trends before they go “mainstream”.

Terry (our Managing Director) likes everything that is new and innovative. He likes us to do things first. He never criticises work for being “too creative” (even though it might be wacky, weird and hopelessly off the brief).

Terry has been to every Royal Academy Summer Exhibition for the past thirty years. The bookcase in his office is full of old exhibition catalogues. He used to buy one painting from each exhibition (that’s a lot of RAs!) until he ran out of wall-space.

Therefore all of us are encouraged to go to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition each year to look at two-dimensional images and get a feel for the sort of cultural representations that will be filtering through to society over the next year. Two-dimensional images are actually highly-artificial ways of creating the illusion of reality, and there is no such thing as a purely “realist” way of representing the world as it “really is”. Artists show us how to look at society, and the techniques they use (the lines, the colours, the textures) need to be incorporated into the latest creative “product” of the agency, suitably amended for the commercial world.

So on Friday afternoon, when things were a little slack, I went to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition with Paul (graphic designer), Rachel (Account Executive), Caroline (Account Executive) and Angela (Ian’s PA - I will explain her presence in the group in a later posting).



Above: there was a floral garland on the statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds in the courtyard of the Royal Academy.

Caroline paid for all of us on her company credit card. We went into the exhibition and walked around the crowded rooms in a group. I think we would have seen more had we split up (but by staying close to Caroline we could make sure she paid for tea and cakes at the end).



Above: the latest catalogue was added to Terry's collection.

I have to be honest and say that I didn’t like most of the art that was on show (I know how bad this sounds, but I am at heart a stuckist). Rachel liked a painting by David Gleeson and nearly bought it (it was one of the few works that didn‘t have a red “sold“ sticker on it). Paul liked Gus Cummins, Jennifer Dickson, Leonard Rosoman. Caroline liked Lisa Milroy. Angela liked “everything, all of it”. And I liked Anthony Green and Simon Palmer.