The Royal Academy Of Arts

Francis Bacon is considered one of the most important painters of the 20th century. A major exhibition of his paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2020 explores the role of animals in his work - not least the human animal. Having often painted dogs and horses, in 1969 Bacon first depicted bullfights. In this powerful series of works, the interaction between man and beast is dangerous and cruel, but also disturbingly intimate. Both are contorted in their anguished struggle and the erotic lurks not far away: "Bullfighting is like boxing," Bacon once said. "A marvellous aperitif to sex." 0Twenty-two years later, a lone bull was to be the subject of his final painting. In this fascinating publication - a significant addition to the literature on Bacon - expert authors discuss Bacon's approach to animals and identify his varied sources of inspiration, which included surrealist literature and the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge. They contend that, by depicting animals in states of vulnerability, anger and unease, Bacon sought to delve into the human condition.00Exhibition: Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (22.01-12.04.2021).

From the eighteenth century to the twenty-first, the Royal Academy of Arts in London has occupied a prominent, occasionally controversial and always individual position in the art world. Its Annual Exhibitions, now known as the Summer Exhibitions, have seen artistic reputations rise and fall, and its enduringly popular international loan exhibitions have helped to shape the public's appreciation of the visual arts. Packed with illustrations, this brief introduction to the Academy's 250-year story considers how its homes and some of its characters have made it what it is. AUTHOR: Peter Sawbridge is Editorial Director at the Royal Academy of Arts. 62 colour images

During his reign, King Charles I (1600-1649) assembled one of Europe's most extraordinary art collections. Indeed, by the time of his death, it contained some 2,000 paintings and sculptures. Charles I: King and Collector explores the origins of the collection, the way it was assembled and what it came to represent. Authoritative essays provide a revealing historical context for the formation of the King's taste. They analyse key areas of the collection, such as the Italian Renaissance, and how the paintings that Charles collected influenced the contemporary artists he commissioned. Following Charles's execution, his collection was sold. This book, which accompanies the exhibition, reunites its most important works in sumptuous detail. Featuring paintings by such masters as Van Dyck, Rubens and Raphael, this striking publication offers a unique insight into this fabled collection. AUTHORS: Desmond Shawe-Taylor is Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. Per Rumberg is Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. David Ekserdjian is Professor of Film and Art History at the University of Leicester. Dr Barbara Furlotti is Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Gregory Martin, formerly Curator of Baroque Paintings and Assistant Keeper of the National Gallery, London, is Editor of the Corpus Rubenianum. Guido Rebecchini is Lecturer and Head of the Renaissance Section at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Vanessa Remington is Senior Curator of Paintings at The Royal Collection. Dr Karen Serres is the Schroder Foundation Curator of Paintings at the Courtauld Gallery, London. Lucy Whitaker is Assistant Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. Jeremy Wood is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Nottingham. Helen Wyld is Curator at National Museums Scotland. SELLING POINTS: * The compelling story of the British monarch who created one of the most stupendous art collections ever assembled * Accompanies the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition that brings together astonishing works by Van Dyck, Rubens, Titian, Holbein, Mantegna and Rembrandt, among many others * A major BBC TV series on the Royal Collection and a documentary on Charles I is planned 200 colour illustrations

Pairing one of the world’s greatest sculptors with one of today’s greatest writers on art, Shaping the World tells the story of human culture from prehistory to the present through the medium of sculpture. Practiced by every culture throughout the history of the world, sculpture is a universal art form that’s deeply rooted in the human psyche and may even predate the advent of language. In this wide-ranging book, internationally renowned sculptor Antony Gormley and distinguished art critic Martin Gayford consider sculpture as an art form related to humanity’s potential for thought and feeling, as well as to our urge to build, make pictures, practice religion, and develop philosophical thought. They take into account materials and techniques and consider overarching themes, such as space, light, and darkness. Drawing on examples from around the globe—ranging from the standing stones at Stenness, Orkney, dating from around 3100 BCE, and the Terracotta Army in China to Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and Richard Serra’s steel structures—Shaping the World explores sculpture as a form of physical thought capable of altering the way people feel.

"Encompassing thousands of islands from the remote shores of Rapa Nui to the dense rainforest of Papua New Guinea, Oceania is one of the world's most extraordinary and diverse regions. This book, accompanying the spectacular exhibition at the Royal Academy opening this September, showcases Oceanic art and the subsequent migrations of people, cultures and objects from the Pacific around the world, from the unrivalled navigational feats of the first settlers who traversed the open ocean in wooden canoes to the explorations of Captain Cook 250 years ago. Bringing together the most up-to-date scholarship by experts in the field, this book presents Oceania through the eyes of its own people - artists, poets and photographers - who explore the legacy of the past and the future of a world and way of life threatened by a changing climate. Featuring over 300 colour illustrations, and text from Peter Brunt, Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington; Nicholas Thomas, Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge; Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu, Emmanuel Kasarhérou, Deputy Director of the Department of the Department of Heritage and Collections at Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris; Sean Mallon, Senior Curator of Pacific Cultures at the Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington; Michael Mel, Manager for Pacific and International Collections at the Australian Museum, Sydney; and Dame Anne Salmond DBE, Professor of Maori Studies at the University of Auckland."--Royal Academy of Arts website (accessed 26/10/2018).

The British sculptor Phyllida Barlow CBE RA (b. 1944) studied at Chelsea College of Art (1960-63) and the Slade School of Art (1963-66), where she later taught for much of her career. Since retiring from teaching in 2009, she has been elected a Royal Academician, created new work for Tate Britain and the Royal Academy, had numerous solo shows and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. Barlow's large-scale sculptures eschew serenity, balance, and beauty in favour of instability, obstruction, and oddness. This study of Phyllida Barlow situates her as an important figure within British contemporary art.

In 1964 Lucian Freud set his students at the Norwich College of Art an assignment: to paint naked self-portraits and to make them "revealing, telling, believable ... really shameless." It was advice that the artist was often to follow himself. Visceral, unflinching and often nude, Freud's self-portraits chart his biography and give us an insight into the development of his style. These paintings provide the viewer with a constant reminder of the artist's overwhelming presence, whether he is confronting the viewer directly or only present as a shadow or in a reflection. Freud's exploration of the self-portrait is unexpected and wide-ranging. In this volume, essays by leading authorities, including those who knew him, explore Freud's life and work, and analyze the importance of self-portraiture in his practice.

"Originally associated with the British Pop Art movement in the early 1960s, Joe Tilson has achieved international acclaim over the last forty years for the individuality and originality of his paintings, constructions, painted reliefs, prints and multiples, whose sources are drawn from literature, philosophy, ethnography and alchemy.] [This handsome catalogue, illustrated in colour throughout and containing an incisive and thought-provoking essay by Mel Gooding, is published to accompany a major retrospective of Tilson's work at the Royal Academy of Arts.] - book jacket.