Royal Academy

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(Redirected from Royal Academy of Arts)
This article refers to an art institution in London. For other meanings of Royal Academy see Royal Academy (disambiguation).

Image:Burlington House ILN 1874.jpg

The Royal Academy is an art institution based in Piccadilly, London.

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History

The Royal Academy was formed to rival the Society of Artists after an unseemly leadership dispute between two leading architects, Sir William Chambers and James Paine. Paine won, but Chambers vowed revenge and used his strong connections with the King to create a new artistic body, the Royal Academy, in 1768. It was formally launched the following year.

Its forty founder members, all admitted on 10 December 1768, included a father/daughter combination (George Michael Moser and Mary Moser) and two sets of brothers (George Dance the Younger and Nathaniel Dance-Holland, and Paul and Thomas Sandby).

Sir Joshua Reynolds was its first president, and Benjamin West its second.

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Activities

The Royal Academy does not receive financial support from the state or crown. One of its principal sources of revenue is hosting temporary public art exhibitions. These are of the highest quality, comparable to those at the National Gallery, the Tate Gallery and leading art galleries outside the United Kingdom. In 2004 the highlights of the Academy's permanent collection went on display in the newly restored reception rooms of the original section of Burlington House, which are now known as the "John Madejski Fine Rooms".

Under the Direction of the Exhibitions Secretary Norman Rosenthal the Academy has hosted ambitious exhibitions of contemporary art including in 1997 "Sensation" the collection of work by young British Artists owned by Charles Saatchi. The show created controversy for including a painting of Myra Hindley that was vandalised while on display.

The Academy also hosts an annual Royal Academy summer exhibition of new art, which is a well known event on the London social calendar. It is not as fashionable as was the case in earlier centuries, and has been largely ignored by the trendy Brit Artists and their patrons; however Tracey Emin exhibited in the 2005 show.

Anyone who wishes may submit pictures for inclusion and those which are selected are displayed alongside the works of the Academicians. Many of the works are available for purchase.

In 2004 the Academy attracted press and media attention for a series of financial scandals and reports of a feud between Rosenthal and other senior staff that resulted in the cancellation of what would have been profitable exhibitions.

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Royal Academy Schools

The Academy runs a postgraduate art school and a research library. The Royal Academy Schools, the country's oldest art school, is based in Burlington House. There are generally two exhibitions every year of work by Academy students.

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Location

Until 1771, the Academy was based in Pall Mall. Shortly afterwards, it was able to move into premises at the new Somerset House, a government building which had been designed by Sir William Chambers, and was intended to provide accommodation for a number of learned societies. In 1837, the Academy moved to the recently constructed National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and then, in 1868, to its present home at Burlington House in Piccadilly. Major extensions were made to the building to designs by Charles Barry (junior), architect son of Sir Charles Barry.

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Membership

Full membership of the academy is limited to 80 Academicians or "RAs", who may be painters, printmakers, sculptors, or architects, and must be "professionally active in Britain".

The Academy's rules are that there must always be at least 14 sculptors, 12 architects, and eight printmakers; the balance being made up of painters. New Academicians are elected by the existing RAs.

Apart from kudos of being elected, full members of the Academy may expect to serve for a time on the governing council of the Academy, and to take part in various committees. Each room in the Summer Exhibition is generally hung by a different R.A.

A larger number of Associates of the Royal Academy (designated "A.R.A.") are also elected, but being an A.R.A. is not a prerequisite to full membership.

Members of the public can also join the Royal Academy as "Friends" by making a financial donation; outside of public exhibitions, this is one of the RA's main sources of income.

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Academicians ("RAs") by year of election

(incomplete list)

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Presidents

President Served
Sir Joshua Reynolds1768–1792
Benjamin West1792–1805
James Wyatt1805–1806
Benjamin West1806–1820
Sir Thomas Lawrence1820–1830
Sir Martin Archer Shee1830–1850
Sir Charles Lock Eastlake1850–1865
Sir Francis Grant1866–1878
Lord Leighton1878–1896
Sir John Everett MillaisFebruary–August 1896
Sir Edward Poynter1896–1918
Sir Aston Webb1919–1924
Sir Frank Dicksee1924–1928
Sir William Llewellyn1928–1938
Sir Edwin Lutyens1938–1944
Sir Alfred Munnings1944–1949
Sir Gerald Kelly1949–1954
Sir Albert Richardson1954–1956
Sir Charles Wheeler1956–1966
Sir Thomas Monnington1966–1976
Sir Hugh Casson1976–1984
Sir Roger de Grey1984–1993
Sir Philip Dowson1993–1999
Phillip King1999–2004
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw2004–present
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See also

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External links

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