Viewing prints in the Royal Academy Library

Short course

Collecting Prints

Part four of a four part 'How to' course

Tuesday 30 June 2015 10.30am - 12.30pm

RA Library, Burlington House

£295.

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Summer Exhibition 2015

Go to the exhibition

Are you interested in collecting prints or building on your knowledge of collecting? In this four-part course, you can interact with the Royal Academy’s leading experts and Academicians and discover the practical processes behind print-making, as well as commercial and theoretical approaches to print collecting today.

Tuesdays 9, 16, 23 and 30 June; 10.30am to 12.30pm each day.

Explore a variety of prints in the Royal Academy Library with the RA’s Director of Collections, visit a working studio with a Royal Academician to see print-making techniques in action, and engage in discussion and discovery with a cross section of voices from the art world. In the final session of the course, Norman Ackroyd RA, member of the Summer Exhibition Hanging Committee and curator of the Print Rooms within the exhibition, will lead a guided tour of the galleries, which will also provoke a discussion examining his selections.

Week 1 - June 9th: In the first session, Nick Savage, Director of Collections at the Royal Academy, will introduce the course by providing a practical grounding in the history of printmaking, including reproductive vs. original prints, and the elevation of printmakers into fully-fledged artists, traced through the RA’s print collection. The second part of the session includes a presentation on the foundations of the print market spearheaded by Albrecht Dürer in reference to the RA’s copy of The Apocalypse by Hilary Williams, British Museum.

Week 2 - June 16th: The second week’s session will take the group out of the Royal Academy and on a site visit to printing studio Advanced Graphics in Southwark. The group will meet at the studio, which was originally founded in Leather Market in 1967 by Chris Betambeau, and moved to its current site in Long Lane in 2003. Bob Saich and Louise Peck, partners at the studio, will lead a practical printmaking demonstration, accompanied by Allen Jones RA, whose work has been printed at the studio for many years. Within the session the group will examine the print making process, different print media and also the creative collaboration between artist and technician and how that can influence work.

Week 3 - June 23rd: Art historian and Director of the London Original Print Fair, Helen Rosslyn, will be joined by RA Patron and private collector Brian D Smith, who will discuss the nature of the print market, the role of events such as the London Original Print Fair, what to look for when purchasing prints and commercial investment vs. personal taste. Brian D Smith will also discuss his own personal approach to collecting and what he looks for when making a decision about what to purchase, illustrated by images from his collection.

Week 4 - June 30th: The course will conclude with a tour of the Summer Exhibition print room with Norman Ackroyd RA. Norman will discuss the decision making process when selecting for this year’s exhibition, as well as his own personal insights into his work as a printmaker, and his own collecting processes. This final session will be followed by a wine reception.

This is part of a series and cannot be booked individually.

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