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
> 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 Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
Francis Bacon: “I’m always labelled with horror”
Listen to Francis Bacon talk about how he paints and how his images form.
RA Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
Kawanabe Kyōsai: the demon with a brush
Kyōsai blurred the divide between the popular and elite art of 19th-century Japan. Christopher Harding introduces the master of satirical and traditional painting as a rare collection of Kyōsai’s art comes to the RA.
RA Exhibitions
< 3 years ago
13 things to know about Francis Bacon
Think you know Bacon? Here’s our guide to the life of the 20th-century master.
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 Exhibitions
< 3 years ago
Video: Annette Fernando at the Summer Exhibition 2021
Annette Fernando – a first-time exhibitor at the Summer Exhibition – talks us through her work, ‘Stop being so damn understanding’ which is so intricate, it’s often mistaken for a photo.
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 Exhibitions
3 years ago
Light Lines Tour with Hélène Binet
Explore the exhibition of stunning architectural photographs.
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.
Artists
> 3 years ago
In the studio with Michael Armitage
Tristan McConnell reports from the Nairobi studio of RA Schools alumnus, Michael Armitage, whose solo exhibition at the Royal Academy is due to open May 2021.
Artists
> 3 years ago
“Like a portrait painter with their sitters, I have the feeling of a real relationship with the flowers I paint”
100-year-old artist Diana Armfield RA writes about the joy of painting the flowers in her garden.
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
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
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
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 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.
Artists
> 5 years ago
Frank Bowling: the artist who put abstraction on the map
The British-Guyanese artist spent decades in New York at the forefront of experimental abstract painting. Now, at age 85, he’s finally celebrated in a retrospective show at Tate Britain. We trace how he got there.
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
> 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
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
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.