Articles
RA Recommends
Let the Royal Academy be your guide to the art world. Suggestions, selections and opinions from the team at RA Magazine.
RA Recommends
5 months ago
Video: what does the Summer Exhibition mean to you?
We asked guests at the Summer Exhibition Preview Party what they love most about the Summer Exhibition.
RA Recommends
11 months ago
The great art quiz of 2023
Have you been paying attention to art news this year? Put your knowledge to the test with our art quiz of 2023.
RA Recommends
> 1 year ago
Eight books about art and architecture for your summer reading list
We’ve been through the bookshelves of the RA Shop to pick out our favourite books for art and architecture lovers, just in time for your summer holiday.
RA Recommends
< 2 years ago
The great art quiz of 2022
Some say it’s a tradition older than Father Christmas, others say it started in 2015. We may never know… But it’s here, our annual art quiz of the year! Time to test your recollection of what happened in the art world in 2022.
RA Recommends
2 years ago
Inside Lord Leighton PRA’s masterpiece-filled home
One of the most beautiful houses in London has reopened to the public. Here, Simon Wilson writes that the Former President of the Royal Academy’s home is a testament to his artistic vision.
RA Recommends
> 2 years ago
10 novels about art you won’t put down
For all your summer reading needs, we’ve picked 10 contemporary novels inspired by art and artists. Escape to the studios of 1970s New York, the courts of 15th-century Paris, or the deathbed of Francis Bacon…
RA Recommends
> 2 years ago
10 artist movies and docs to watch on Netflix, Amazon Prime and more
When you can’t go to the art, let the art come to you. Here’s our pick of the best artist biopics and documentaries available to stream.
RA Recommends
> 2 years ago
Doughnuts, art and sake: a London tour of Japanese delights
From a noh theatre festival to centuries-old arts and crafts, via the best of East Asia’s doughnuts, Rebecca Salter PRA’s route round the capital includes cultural and culinary treats.
RA Recommends
< 3 years ago
The great art quiz of 2021
Gather round, art lovers – because it’s time for our annual art-related quizzing! Play with the family, test your know-it-all neighbours, or just take the blimmin’ thing right now!
RA Recommends
< 3 years ago
Filmmaker Horace Ové’s powerful depictions of 1970s Black British life
Horace Ové’s work has influenced John Akomfrah RA, Isaac Julien RA and countless others. Ahead of Tate Modern’s group show, ‘Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now’, artist Hurvin Anderson looks back at Ové’s films and the stories they tell.
RA Recommends
< 3 years ago
Lubaina Himid’s five must-read books by artists
Ahead of her Tate Modern show, Lubaina Himid RA selects artists in print whose words she admires.
RA Recommends
3 years ago
Laura Knight RA’s compelling Gypsy paintings
Poet Sasha Dugdale reflects on Laura Knight RA’s evocative Gypsy portraits ahead of a major retrospective of the artist’s work in Milton Keynes.
RA Recommends
> 3 years ago
8 places to see outdoor art this summer
From giant worms in Bexhill to Bronze-Age carvings in Yorkshire, there is so much art to see outside this summer.
RA Recommends
> 3 years ago
Eight shows to see in Sussex this summer
From artists’ abodes to land art on Beachy Head, the beautiful south is a cultural hotspot this summer.
RA Recommends
> 3 years ago
10 art shows to see this May
Art is back. Celebrate the return of galleries and fill your diaries with some of the best exhibitions from across the country.
RA Recommends
> 3 years ago
Creative tips for young artists, from young artists
Regardless of your age, we could all learn something from these exhibitors from last year’s Young Artists’ Summer Show.
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> 3 years ago
Eileen Gray: an architect and designer you should know
A designer of decorative furniture and Modernist architecture, Eileen Gray found recognition aged 94. Here’s our guide to the life of this overlooked master, and her infamous seaside villa, E-1027.
RA Recommends
> 3 years ago
Ruth Asawa: the pioneering American sculptor you need to know
This International Women’s Day, we celebrate an artist once dismissed as a “San Francisco Housewife” who refused to see parenthood as an obstacle.
RA Recommends
< 4 years ago
Online life drawing classes to help you stay creative (and sane) at home
Grab your putty rubber and pencil, because here are 10 of our favourite virtual life drawing classes to see you through lockdown 3.0, with appearances from suspension artists, wild animals, strippers, and fat, queer or disabled models.
RA Recommends
< 4 years ago
12 makers on Instagram to inspire your creativity
If you’re looking to get creative at home, why not start by filling your Instagram feed with artists? From paper artists to ceramicists, here are 12 accounts that will inspire you to start making.
RA Recommends
< 4 years ago
Eight of the best home art activities for kids
We’ve loved seeing you being creative at home with our online activities. If you need more inspiration during lockdown, we’ve picked out some other great resources from the UK’s art galleries and organisations…
RA Recommends
< 4 years ago
The joyful world of children’s art
When we tweeted an artwork in the Young Artists’ Summer Show by Cressida, aged 5, we were flooded by children’s art which will make you marvel, make you laugh and make your day.
RA Recommends
< 4 years ago
The great art quiz of 2020
It’s been a challenging and eventful year for everything, let alone art — have you been paying attention, or wrapped under a duvet watching Netflix?
RA Recommends
< 4 years ago
Jennifer Packer’s intimate portraits of Black lives
As the first major European show of Packer’s work opens, Aruna D’Souza celebrates the painter’s powerful repurposing of art historical tradition.
RA Recommends
4 years ago
How Sunil Gupta captured the hidden experience of gay men in Delhi
As a retrospective of the photographer opens in London, Theo Gordon focuses on a pivotal series that commented on gay experience in 1980s Delhi.
RA Recommends
> 4 years ago
Five of the best art staycations in England
Move aside Florence, Paris and Madrid. We’ve rounded up some of the best places for an art staycation or day trip in England.
RA Recommends
> 4 years ago
Quiz: the great women artists
Do you know your Kauffman from your Emin? Test your knowledge of women artists and the Royal Academy of Arts in the The Great Women Artists quiz.
RA Recommends
> 4 years ago
9 art podcasts to keep you inspired during lockdown
Plug in your headphones, sit back and relax with one of these podcasts, transporting you into the art world from the comfort of your front room.
RA Recommends
> 4 years ago
9 virtual exhibition tours to watch online
Galleries and museums might be closed but you can still see major exhibitions from around the world, while swapping the crowds for a cuppa. We pick some of the best virtual tours and artworks currently available online.
RA Recommends
> 4 years ago
Aubrey Beardsley: a lifetime of art in a five year career
Aubrey Beardsley’s masterly experimentation with different styles and disregard for Victorian taboo are the focus of a new exhibition at Tate Britain. Columnist Simon Wilson looks at the originator of Art Nouveau and his powerful vision of the world.
RA Recommends
> 4 years ago
10 art exhibitions to see in March
From Titian to photos of Thatcher-era Gateshead, here’s our pick of the exhibitions across the UK we think you should see in March. And don’t you dare say you’re too busy.
RA Recommends
< 5 years ago
10 art exhibitions to see in February
From Linder’s radical feminist collages and Grayson Perry’s early pots, to the Barbican’s blockbuster survey of masculinity, here are 10 exhibitions you won’t want to miss.
RA Recommends
< 5 years ago
10 exhibitions worth travelling to in 2020
From the largest-ever assemblage of works by Jan van Eyck, to the unveiling of the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum, 2020 promises to bring into focus some of the finest achievements in cultural history.
RA Recommends
< 5 years ago
The great art quiz of 2019
What a year. Have you kept your paintbrush dipped in the ever-colourful palette of the art world? Or did you abandon it in the corner to get dry and crusty? Only one way to find out…
RA Recommends
< 5 years ago
10 art exhibitions to see in December
Come in from the cold this December with our recommended picks of exhibitions to see across the UK.
RA Recommends
5 years ago
10 art exhibitions to see in November
From David Bomberg’s fascination with the Old Masters to Kiki Smith’s first solo show in the UK, here are 10 exhibitions not to miss this November.
RA Recommends
5 years ago
10 art exhibitions to see during Frieze week
The beginning of October marks the start of Frieze week, and with it a slew of exciting new shows, installations and more popping up across London. Read on for our recommended list of what to see both in and beyond the fairs this month.
RA Recommends
> 5 years ago
10 art exhibitions to see in July
From Bridget Riley and the dazzling canvases of the Op-Art movement, to the culinary artefacts of the ancient world, here 10 shows across the UK that we recommend this month.
RA Recommends
> 5 years ago
Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio: “The city is a public resource”
This year’s RA Architecture Prize winners, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, are responsible for New York’s High Line, MoMA, Lincoln Center and The Broad – among many buildings. With two projects in London on the way, the American duo met Edwin Heathcote to talk punk, surveillance, disagreements and resistance.
RA Recommends
< 6 years ago
Four art-making apps for kids
Smartphones and tablets are becoming canvases for creativity, thanks to new apps. Charlotte Mullins tries some out with her family.
RA Recommends
6 years ago
10 art exhibitions to see in November
This month see art that spans a millennium. From the 11th-century Domesday Book, to Japanese surimono prints and empty swimming pools, here are 10 exhibitions to check out this November.
RA Recommends
> 6 years ago
7 new art galleries to visit in 2018
With the new RA now open, we’re also celebrating other exciting art gallery unveilings this year – some brand new, some renovated, some finding new homes in unlikely places from swimming baths to an observatory. Here are a few to visit while you can still smell the fresh paint.
RA Recommends
> 6 years ago
The punk feminist icon who found her magic in Cornwall
The artist Linder Sterling went from designing notorious artwork for the Buzzcocks to conjuring mytho-poetic forces on a beach in St Ives. With a new show at Nottingham Contemporary, we explore the pioneering punk’s two very different defining moments.
RA Recommends
> 6 years ago
Sondra Perry on blackness, gender and internet culture
The American artist is making waves on both sides of the Atlantic, including a show at London’s Serpentine Galleries this spring. Here, she talks JMW Turner, memes and burying flags.
RA Recommends
< 7 years ago
The great art quiz of 2017
Gather round, friends – it’s time for our annual bonanza of art-related quizzing! Play with your family over tea and mince pies, or just take the ruddy thing right now! Let’s see what you remember from the year gone by…
RA Recommends
< 7 years ago
Did you see these? 10 top articles of 2017
This year we inspected the fine line between the Muppets and fine art, explored a gooey-looking painting technique from ancient Egypt and quizzed you on your knowledge of artists’ musings – versus those of Donald Drumpf. These are some of the RA articles and videos you loved most in 2017.
RA Recommends
< 7 years ago
Think you know Surrealism? Meet Egypt’s radical dreamers
Salvador Dalí may have made Surrealism famous, but an overlooked group of artists, writers and activists in 1940s Cairo made the movement their own. Here we look at their pioneering work, currently on show at Tate Liverpool.
RA Recommends
< 7 years ago
“Now it is out”: the 1930s painting that declared lesbian love
In 1936 British artist Gluck painted herself and her lover in a radical depiction of same-sex partnership. With a show at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery exploring her life and work, we look at the story behind the painting.
RA Recommends
7 years ago
“Like a bomb going off”: how Albert Irvin found abstraction
In the 1950s when British painter Albert Irvin RA caught a glimpse of the explosive New York Abstract Expressionism scene, he abandoned his still-lifes and began conjuring pure sensation and emotion on his canvases. A new show at Whitford Fine Art looks at these early forays into abstract work.
RA Recommends
7 years ago
Take a look inside the buildings on the Stirling Prize shortlist
On 31 October, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) will announce the winner of the Stirling Prize. From a seaside pier to a Scottish college, we take a look at the projects vying for the prestigious award.
RA Recommends
7 years ago
10 computers, 2000 hours, one photograph: making pictures with Thomas Ruff
With four decades of his photographs currently showing at Whitechapel Gallery, the artist divulges the hidden world of his virtual darkroom.
RA Recommends
7 years ago
Feminist, socialist, embroiderer: the untold story of May Morris
The pioneering artist and designer has been overshadowed by her father for over a century, but a new show at William Morris Gallery is stitching together the threads of her own remarkable career.
RA Recommends
7 years ago
Four art biographies to read this autumn
Art critic Michael Prodger recommends the best new biographies of artists and art lovers – from Renoir to Peggy Guggenheim.
RA Recommends
7 years ago
Jean-Michel Basquiat: downtown stray to international star
As a retrospective of the 1980s icon opens at the Barbican, art historian Morgan Falconer traces how the artist cracked the New York art scene and chased his wildest dreams.
RA Recommends
> 7 years ago
10 art exhibitions to see in August
From an exploration of recent LGBTQ+ art to a vibrant celebration of tulips, here’s our pick of the best new exhibitions to see this month.
RA Recommends
> 7 years ago
Perfection on paper: Raphael at Oxford’s Ashmolean
Rather than being supplementary to his paintings, were Raphael’s drawings works of genius in their own right? RA Magazine’s Sam Phillips argues the Ashmolean Museum’s once-in-a-lifetime show offers a rare chance to reassess this aspect of his work.
RA Recommends
> 7 years ago
Protest power: 11 artworks that spilled into the street
As protest marches find renewed relevance and the Imperial War Museum looks back at 100 years of peace protests in its latest show, here are 11 images by artists that have come to the aid of political movements from the 1950s to today.
RA Recommends
> 7 years ago
The best art books for foodies
Rebecca Salter RA brings her artist’s palate to matters of taste, in a delicious round-up of the best books on art and food.
RA Recommends
< 8 years ago
Did you see these? 10 top features of 2016
Did you find out which Abstract Expressionist you are? Did you see Antony Gormley’s best advice for becoming an artist? Catch up now, in some of our most popular articles and videos of 2016.
RA Recommends
< 8 years ago
The tidemarks of Florence’s great flood
Fifty years since Florence was hit by the floods that destroyed not only lives but invaluable art treasures, Claudia Pritchard reports on the legacy.
RA Recommends
< 8 years ago
The best art books for kids
Eight gift ideas to awaken the imagination and dazzle the senses… Bob and Roberta Smith RA chooses the best children’s books about art and design.
RA Recommends
< 8 years ago
Rauschenberg and the most celebrated goat in art history
Simon Wilson deciphers the enigmatic work of American artist Robert Rauschenberg, as a major retrospective opens at Tate Modern.
RA Recommends
< 8 years ago
Five of the best London archives
The RA archive is a treasure trove of stories, memories and recordings about art and artists from the past 250 years. In honour of Explore Your Archive week, we introduce some of its highlights and four more London archives to explore, holding everything from American performance art footage to rare Japanese prints.
RA Recommends
8 years ago
Tales and talismans: the supernatural in Islamic art
A spellbinding show of ritual objects and calligraphic images from the rich pantheon of Islamic art enchants Kamila Shamsie.
RA Recommends
8 years ago
Hats off to Picasso
Picasso’s friends and family are the focus of an exhibition showing how portraiture pushed the artist forward, writes Christopher Baker
RA Recommends
8 years ago
Three female gallerists who changed the course of British art
Despite the image of art dealing as a man’s world, women played a crucial role in the display, promotion and sale of 20th-century British art. Gill Hedley profiles three female gallerists who promoted British artists.
RA Recommends
8 years ago
James Christie: the eloquent auctioneer
As Christie’s auction house celebrates 250 years of wielding the gavel, Martin Oldham tracks down its founder James Christie, a man who turned the humble auction into the spectacle it remains to this day.
RA Recommends
8 years ago
Alternative roots: How tribal art influenced Modernism
Modern artists rejected the Western canon in favour of tribal art, writes Simon Wilson, as he takes in shows in Vienna and Berlin.
RA Recommends
> 8 years ago
Our pick of this week’s art events: 15 – 21 July
From redefining black masculinity to celebrating the joy of playing, we guide you through the best of this week’s art events and exhibitions.
RA Recommends
> 8 years ago
From Soho to sunshine: the Francis Bacon you never knew
We know him as the doyen of dingy 1960s Soho. But a major exhibition in Monaco reveals the British painter in a more Mediterranean light, showing how he drew inspiration from the French Riviera. The editor of RA Magazine takes a visit.
RA Recommends
> 8 years ago
What’s the best way to learn about the history of art?
Anna M. Dempster, the RA’s Head of Academic Programmes, assesses the different approaches, from a chronological survey and a theory-led perspective to the handling of artefacts.
RA Recommends
> 8 years ago
The poetry of paint: an interview with Etel Adnan
For Etel Adnan, art world success came late – in her eighties. Anna Coatman met the writer and painter in Paris ahead of a major show in London.
RA Recommends
> 8 years ago
Botticelli: A touch of the divine
Botticelli was a huge success, then virtually forgotten before his resurrection by the Pre-Raphaelites, reveals Simon Wilson ahead of a lavish V&A show.
RA Recommends
> 8 years ago
Delacroix: Revolutionary fervour
As an exhibition opens on Delacroix and his legacy, Martin Oldham draws out three qualities that mark him as a modern artist.
RA Recommends
> 8 years ago
Hilma af Klint: The spirit moved her
The Swedish painter Hilma af Klint was making abstract art before Kandinsky, but her spiritualist methods have undermined her standing in art history. Now her work is being reassessed at the Serpentine Galleries.
RA Recommends
9 years ago
A walking tour of London’s must-see public art
From Ai Weiwei in the City to Barbara Hepworth in Battersea, we take you across London on a tour of the city’s best outdoor art to see for free. Realistically, dip in and out – or it’s one long hike.
RA Recommends
10 years ago
Dark arts: From Renaissance woodcuts to the Chapmans
As Halloween looms, galleries across London and the UK are putting on exhibitions of a notably gothic nature.
RA Recommends
> 10 years ago
Lorna Simpson, Michael Craig-Martin and contortionist office workers
From Lorna Simpson’s photographic explorations of gender and race to hallucinogenic visions of deserts and streetscapes; everything worth seeing this week.