Open exhibitions like this are a pleasure to stroll round because there is no narrative, no history or biography or grand issues to engage with: just art and your reactions to it.
The Royal West of England Academy was founded in the 1840s. The current building was built in the 1850s with details added just before the Great War. The academy was granted its royal charter in 1913.
This is the 165th year of the RWA’s Annual Open Exhibition. Over 2,000 pieces were submitted from which the judges selected 624 pieces. It’s similar to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition except:
- it’s held in Bristol
- it’s held in the autumn, not the summer
- it’s smaller
There are paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, mixed media and videos. As at the RA Summer Exhibition, almost all the pieces are on sale.
Main room at RWA 165
The majority of the works are paintings. I liked the mysterious forest fragility of this one.
Swimming with mules by Nicola Bealing. Oil and spray paint on linen (£19,000)
On the Antiques Roadshow the other day an expert referred to a painting very like this next one in appearance as a good example of the ‘New English Art Club’ style, meaning blotchily realistic. There are always entries like this at the RA. It seems to be a permanent style or ‘look’ in English art. Unflatterinb realism.
The nurseryman by Martin Bentham. Oil on linen (£4,850)
At the other extreme (maybe) is ‘conceptual’ art, in this case a series of photos of several rolls of tape with words on – I think they all have ‘menopause’ written on them which allows the artist to create verbal and visual puns.
The Menses Tapes by Rachel Ara. Digital print (£340)
Jason Lane had several entertaining sculptures of birds made from random bits of waste metal.
Circus Bird by Jason Lane. Reclaimed steel (£1,450)
In fact I found myself drawn much more to the sculptures than the paintings and drawings. They seem more engaging, more varied, and often more obviously humorous, as in this collection of cartoon figures by John Butler.
Limewood sculptures by John Butler (£480)
Or this joke piece by Bev Knowlden
Pop Up Moses by Bev Knowlden. Iron resin (£350)
That said, amid the flood of visual images I found myself drawn to this – as far as I can tell – completely naturalistic photo of a boxing ring – not something you see in art much – framed in the flat, complete, square-on style I like most in my photos.
Spaniorum Farm Gymnasium by Stephen Lewis. Digital print (£565)
There are several featured artists in the show and one is the photographer Tom Hunter, represented by three haunting big prints made of abandoned quarries. Unfortunately too high up on the wall and too reflective of the gallery lights to be worth snapping.
One of the visitor guides explained that over the past few years it’s become a custom for the second (smallish) room in the show to be entirely of works in black and white – the monochrome room. What a good idea.
The monochrome room
The pieces varied from straightforward (if imaginative) black and white photos…
On King’s Play Hill, Wiltshire by Richard Draper. Giclée print on archival paper (£480)
… to a stunning sculpture which reminded me of the taut early carvings of Jacob Epstein/Eric Gill…
Odysseus by Reece Ingram. Marble (£4,750)
… through to this simple but striking and humorous piece…
Coming Out by David Backhouse. Bronze (£6,000)
… and this extraordinary work which is made entirely of poppy seeds and which won the show’s Creativity Award.
Seeds to the wind by Jon England. Poppy seeds and varnish (£2,200)
Through the doors and back in the world of colour was a crazy cubist-looking piece which, on closer examination, turned out to be made entirely from old wooden school rulers.
Lost and Found by Rose Vickers. Wooden rulers (£2,900)
I made an effort to look beyond all the fun sculptures to the flat images, the paintings and photos and drawings and prints. Probably the most striking of these was the stunningly good-looking Dominique by Philip Munoz. This is actually what the world of images outside art galleries often looks like – adverts on buses, hoardings, in newspapers and magazines – glamour, fashion, movies, models, music videso.
This image raises the question of why so much contemporary art so determinedly turns its back on the real world ‘out there’, in favour of deliberately abstract or fragmented or degraded images. Maybe it feels it can’t compete. But it can, as Philip Munoz’s amazing painting shows.
Dominique by Philip Munoz. Oil on linen (£7,500)
When I go round the RA Summer exhibition with the kids we play various games to keep ourselves motivated, including Find the most expensive work (alongside find the smallest/largest work). As far as I could see this appears to be the priciest item on display, by none other than Christopher le Brun who is the current president of the Royal Academy and one of the ‘invited artists’ featured in the show.
Paean by Christopher Le Brun. Oil on canvas (£72,000)
The Le Brun piece perhaps explains why it’s easier to relate to sculptures: by definition, sculptures have to be free standing, they have to have a presence in the world. Maybe it’s harder to make a rubbish sculpture than a rubbish painting. Maybe three-dimensional objects are always more interesting than two-dimensional ones because they present more angles and information to our restless, calculating, predator brains.
For whatever reason, I kept being attracted away from the paintings on the wall towards the sculptures in the hall.
Etch by Linda Kieft. Stoneware (£1,800)
And a lot of them seemed to be both figurative and humorous. Because I saw an Ai Weiwei sculpture up the road at the Bristol Art Gallery the day before, I still had his work in mind. Ai has done scores and scores of sculptures which are not funny or amusing. Clever, visually striking, yes – but not sympatico. Here in Bristol, for some reason, almost all the sculptures had a winning warmth and humour.
Uprising by Tom Astley. Clay, paint, jesmonite and bronze resin (£1,850)
I liked this entanglement of lizards, beautifully modelled, brightly coloured…
Alchemical fire by Manuel Calderon. Bronze casting (£35,600)
… and was very taken by these three guys on a bench. They’re the kind of undetailed slabby humanoid figures you often see not just in art galleries, but in life-sized humanoid sculptures around city streets. But here they were set off by the more detailed imagery in the paintings and drawings on the nearby walls, which gave them an extra sense of freedom and spaciousness. They made more sense in a gallery than on a street corner.
Trilogy by William Cramer. Bronze figure, aluminium figure, silver leaf resin figure on stone base (£2,000)
Then there’s plain quirky.
Launch of yellow skyrocket and sputniks by Morag MacInnes. Clay. (£600)
This exhibition is great fun, warm and humane, varied and stimulating, entertaining and thoughtful.
If you could have one and only one of these pieces free of charge – which one would you choose and why?
Related links
- 165 Annual Open Exhibition continues at the Royal West of England Academy till 3 December 2017
- Gallery of images
Books & Boots 