Royal Academy of Art

Royal Academy of Art

David Hockney's largest ever work, Bigger Trees Near Water, takes up an entire wall of the exhibition space at the Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition

The Royal Academy has free exhibitions and paid-entry exhibitions all year round in its historic galleries on Piccadilly in London's West End.

One of London's leading art galleries and museums with exhibitions all year round, including Rodin, Chola, Citizens and Kings, the Unknown Monet, Impressionists by the Sea and Summer Exhibition 2007.

The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects.

They were founded by George III in 1768 to promote painting, printmaking, sculpture and architecture; there are some 100 Academicians in those disciplines. Today the Royal Academy continues to encourage the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate.

The Royal Academy mounts a continuous programme of internationally renowned loan exhibitions complemented by gallery education programmes, seminars and debates.

The Summer Exhibition of works of art by Academicians and other artists, the largest open-submission exhibition of works for sale in the world, has been held every year since 1769. Future generations of artists are trained in the RA Schools, which offer the only three-year postgraduate fine-art course in Britain.

The Royal Academy owns a major collection of works by Academicians past and present and has the oldest and one of the best fine-art libraries in Britain. The collection has been given gifts such as the Michelangelo Taddei Tondo, one of the greatest works of art in the world, which is on display in the Sackler Wing.

The Royal Academy supports itself through admission charges and sales, the Friends and the generosity of its individual and corporate benefactors. The Royal Academy receives no regular government funding for its cultural activities.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk

Summer Exhition 2007

The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition is the largest open contemporary art exhibition in the world, drawing together a wide range of new work by both established and unknown living artists. The 239th Summer Exhibition opens its doors on Piccadilly, central London, from 11 June to 19 August 2007

The theme of this year's exhibition is Light. Jane and Louise Wilson's photograph printed on aluminium, Safe Light, Corridor, is among the exhibits.

Chris Levine's Lightness of Being will be on show

Exhititors include Winding River by US artist William Steiger.

Unknown artists selected : William Alsop's Fog Is An Urban Experience

The second gallery features a memorial to British abstract artist Sandra Blow, who died last year aged 80.

Michael Sandle's controversial Iraq Triptych has won the exhibition's Hugh Casson prize for drawing. The three-panel work is a protest at Tony Blair's handling of the Iraq war