My Art Agenda: Norman Ackroyd
By Norman Ackroyd
Published on 9 September 2018
Norman Ackroyd RA discusses his art agenda.
From the Winter 2018 issue of RA Magazine, issued quarterly to Friends of the RA.
My current exhibitions
I have a more than usually busy winter. At Yorkshire Sculpture Park, my survey show The Furthest Lands includes 76 etchings and some watercolours that traverse the western extremities of the British archipelago, from North Shetland to the Scilly Isles. At Pallant House in Chichester I am showing about 20 etchings, including Croagh Patrick from Inishturk (2018; both shows until 24 Feb 2019), alongside a major exhibition by my tutor from the Royal College of Art, Julian Trevelyan RA. I will be showing works from the past two years at North House Gallery, in Manningtree (1 Dec–26 Jan 2019), and Zillah Bell Gallery in Thirsk (8 Dec–12 Jan 2019). I am also publishing Fragments, a boxed set of 12 etchings printed alongside 'fragmented' lines of poetry that have stuck in my memory. I am fascinated by how image, words and sounds overlap so powerfully that they lodge in the mind, retina or ear.
My favourite recent exhibition
Gagosian’s Picasso show at its Mayfair gallery last year, brilliantly curated by John Richardson. It was especially good on Picasso’s passion for etching. There were exquisite proofs of many of his greatest plates, but the real bonus was the very large Minotaur etching from the 1930s. Gagosian had obtained all the states and hung them progressively on one long wall. It was an education to get into Picasso’s mind from state to state and to understand, from personal experience, the amount of physical energy and persistence needed to complete a work of that size.
What I am currently reading
The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane and I'm rereading his The Wild Places. He is an elegant, descriptive writer of landscape and brings great research and scholarship into his narrative.
My favourite bedside book
My 1970s reprint of Britannia Depicta, by Emanuel Bowen. It is a road atlas of England and Wales first published in 1720. In it one can take a stage coach journey through the country in all directions. For instance, page 101 begins the depiction of the road from London to Burlington (now Bridlington). Marginalia tell us that a certain Richard Boyle, from the Yorkshire coastal town, became Lord Burlington when he was given the title of Earl of Burlington in 1663. This was the original Lord Burlington of Burlington House, now home to the Royal Academy. Boyle also became Earl of Cork (giving this name to nearby Cork Street). Britannia Depicta is replete with amazing facts and information, much of which can be related to a 21st-century map and a 21st-century journey. London to Bridlington would have taken at least four exhausting days and is minutely described. I often fall asleep before I reach my destination.
A hidden gem to visit
A mere 100 yards from the RA, opposite the main doorway to Fortnum and Mason, is the the Geological Society of London. Hanging in the entrance hall is one of the most extraordinary copperplate engravings. Over 8ft by 6ft, it is William Smith’s 1815 Geological Map of England and Wales. The map is a marvel of scholarship and technical ingenuity and is hand-coloured in watercolour. Curtains that protect it from UV light will be opened by the receptionist on request. Smith was the undisputed founder of stratigraphical geology, and his map still remains a first reference for many geological surveys.
Related articles
What are the building blocks of a liveable (and loveable) city?
11 December 2018
Bill Viola / Michelangelo: finding the language of emotion
7 December 2018
