Articles

RA Magazine Autumn 2016

James Ensor, The Intrigue (detail)

RA Exhibitions

8 years ago

James Ensor: A man of many masks

The Belgian artist James Ensor painted life through the lens of the carnival, creating unsettling and often satirical works. Michael Prodger searches for the man behind these intriguing images.
Peter Norton photographed by Ida Kar in the mid-1950s

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.
Thomas Gainsborough RA (detail), Portrait of James Christie

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.
Exhibition view of 'Dada Africa: Dialogue with the Other', Berlinische Galerie, 2016 (detail)

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.
Way Out West Berlin (Detail Section at L at Stage E)

Artists

8 years ago

Cities of dreams: Peter Cook RA on the importance of imagination

As the Academy stages a show of Peter Cook RA’s drawings to mark his 80th birthday, Kate Goodwin asks the architect about his vision for urban ways of life.
Mark Rothko, Untitled (Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on White and Red)

RA Exhibitions

8 years ago

How Abstract Expressionism changed modern art

What did the artists associated with Abstract Expressionism do so differently? And how is their work still relevant today? As the first survey of Abstract Expressionism for nearly 60 years is staged in Britain, co-curator David Anfam answers key questions.
Illustration by Yukai Du

Opinion

8 years ago

Debate: Is originality in art overrated?

Should artists bow to tradition, or should they break all the rules? Martin Gayford and Richard Cork go head to head. Vote on the winner below.
Brian Catling RA in his studio

Artists

8 years ago

Brian Catling RA’s imaginary studio

The ebullient, multimedia artist-poet Brian Catling RA is reluctant to identify his studio as a physical space, as Fiona Maddocks discovered when she met up with him in Oxford.