0:00:02 > 0:00:05Welcome to this year's Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the 244th,
0:00:05 > 0:00:09which promises to be not bigger but certainly better than ever before!
0:00:09 > 0:00:12There's lots going on in the capital this summer,
0:00:12 > 0:00:14we've already celebrated the Queen's Jubilee
0:00:14 > 0:00:16and the Olympics will soon be kicking off.
0:00:16 > 0:00:21But first, here's a sample of what we've got in store for you tonight...
0:00:23 > 0:00:26I descend into the Royal Academy's vaults
0:00:26 > 0:00:29to select the artists I think will make it into the final show.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32And go behind the scenes of the frantic two-week hang.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35Move this up to...
0:00:37 > 0:00:41New RA member Michael Landy uncovers the weird and wonderful rituals
0:00:41 > 0:00:44that surround the Summer Exhibition.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48And psychotherapist Philippa Perry paints me a psychological portrait
0:00:48 > 0:00:51of those who enter each year.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54To show someone your art, to say, "Accept me or reject me,"
0:00:54 > 0:00:56is a little bit like dancing naked in the street, isn't it?
0:00:56 > 0:00:58It's, "This is me..."
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Andrew Graham-Dixon and Sir Anthony Caro
0:01:01 > 0:01:04pay tribute to the late John Hoyland,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08and actress Emilia Fox gives her verdict on the finished show.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10Plus we reveal the winner
0:01:10 > 0:01:13of this year's £25,000 Wollaston Award.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is a staple of the arts calendar,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22an annual ritual that's greeted with eager celebration by some,
0:01:22 > 0:01:24and knowing derision by others.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26Personally, I am a big fan of the show.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28And, it appears, I'm not alone!
0:01:31 > 0:01:34Well, I love it because it's bonkers, that's what I love about it.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40It's a festival of the abundance of the imagination and painting.
0:01:40 > 0:01:45Where else can you get a mash-up between the village art show
0:01:45 > 0:01:48and the best of contemporary art today?
0:01:49 > 0:01:51And for all that,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54we need to thank the very first president of the Royal Academy,
0:01:54 > 0:01:59Sir Joshua Reynolds, who got the whole thing started 244 years ago.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02In January 1769,
0:02:02 > 0:02:06rules were drawn up for the very first Summer Exhibition.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08Any artist who wanted to submit work,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12had to do so by 6.00 on Friday 14th April.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14No latecomers admitted!
0:02:14 > 0:02:18When the exhibition opened its doors just nine days later,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22139 works were on display in the galleries.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25But of those, only seven were by amateur artists.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30But that was 243 years ago. Things are a little different today.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37The Summer Exhibition is now the world's largest open-submission art show,
0:02:37 > 0:02:42attracting thousands of hopefuls, both amateur and professional,
0:02:42 > 0:02:43from this country and abroad.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47This year, over 11,000 tried their luck.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49My chances of getting in? Small, but you know...
0:02:49 > 0:02:51if you don't try, you never know.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57I like a bet. And... I suppose, I don't know... 25 to 1.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00What's Hockney got that I haven't got?
0:03:00 > 0:03:02HE LAUGHS
0:03:02 > 0:03:05Over the course of a frantically busy week in March,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07they descended on the Royal Academy,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10armed with their treasured artworks.
0:03:10 > 0:03:11It's called The Abuse Of A Continent.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13It's called Strawberry Topping
0:03:13 > 0:03:16and I've made the background to look like cream.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20They're all hoping their works will catch the eye of the judges.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23You've got to make a big impact right off.
0:03:23 > 0:03:24Unfortunately,
0:03:24 > 0:03:27big works aren't quite what the judges are looking for this year.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31It turns out that that the person in charge this year
0:03:31 > 0:03:37is concentrating on smaller works, and mine is huge, but whatever.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41They shouldn't refuse it. If they do, they're just silly!
0:03:41 > 0:03:44But for all the bluff, there's a lot riding on this.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47For some, it's a chance to show the world
0:03:47 > 0:03:49they've taken a new direction in life.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52I want to be an artist. I'm a white van man at the moment.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55I was an economist.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57I was a builder till about three years ago,
0:03:57 > 0:04:00till this recession came along, and I decided I'd follow my passion
0:04:00 > 0:04:02and do what I enjoy.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06Months and sometimes years of hard work are loaded in, unwrapped,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10scanned, and then delivered into the laps of the Gods.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14The Gods in this case are the Royal Academicians,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17whose eye-popping task is to judge every piece submitted
0:04:17 > 0:04:20at a dizzying rate of four paintings per minute!
0:04:20 > 0:04:22They might not get long,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26but all 11,000 works are individually scrutinised.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Can you come a bit closer?
0:04:28 > 0:04:33This morning has been by turns dire and encouraging.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37Some things never go away... kittens, less said the better.
0:04:37 > 0:04:42It's a huge mixture, it goes from the really, really brilliant works,
0:04:42 > 0:04:46of which there aren't that many, to the completely horrendous
0:04:46 > 0:04:49and sometimes those two are rather close, actually.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53In what many regard as the art world's equivalent to Russian Roulette,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56the vast majority of works don't make it
0:04:56 > 0:04:58and are summarily dismissed with an X.
0:04:58 > 0:04:59We have to be tough,
0:04:59 > 0:05:01if we didn't, we'd have 20,000 pictures on the wall,
0:05:01 > 0:05:03you'd be able to see nothing.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06For the few that do meet with the judges' approval,
0:05:06 > 0:05:08they get marked with a rather curious symbol
0:05:08 > 0:05:11that belongs to traditions of old.
0:05:11 > 0:05:12Give that a D.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15This is the D, which means, effectively,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17it's accepted for the time being.
0:05:17 > 0:05:18I wouldn't mind giving that a D.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21D stands for Doubtful, which means we're still thinking.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23As these curious implements suggest,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26the way the selection committee still operates
0:05:26 > 0:05:29has changed little since 1876.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33Or even 1976.
0:05:33 > 0:05:34No.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39No.
0:05:40 > 0:05:41No.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Presidents down the ages have exercised their right to say
0:05:45 > 0:05:48when they felt something was wrong.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50No.
0:05:50 > 0:05:51No, thank you.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54All that nay-saying can be thirsty work.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07Another ritual that's been passed down through the ages
0:06:07 > 0:06:10is the infamous Beef Tea.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13It's very welcome, any time of the day or night.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20I sort of would prefer strong coffee, I think, but I'm game.
0:06:20 > 0:06:21Are we obliged to drink it?
0:06:21 > 0:06:26No, no, we go voluntarily to our early grave!
0:06:28 > 0:06:32The first year I tried the Beef Tea I was rollicking all day,
0:06:32 > 0:06:33quite a lot of booze.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38Newcomer Tess Jaray has rather let the cat out of the bag,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42the Beef Tea's magic ingredients are a fiercely guarded secret.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45I think it's a mixture of Bovril and Sherry.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47I don't know who came up with this concoction
0:06:47 > 0:06:51in the first place, but they're obviously a comedian.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55I'm not a huge lover of Bovril and I definitely don't like sherry.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59Someone who is fascinated by all the habits and history
0:06:59 > 0:07:03that surrounds the Summer Exhibition is artist Michael Landy.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09It's not too bad actually, I thought it was going to be a lot...
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Yeah, that's quite nice, especially the Bovril.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15It kind of hides the sherry. It's actually really quite nice.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21I've drunk a lot worse.
0:07:21 > 0:07:22HE LAUGHS
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Currently Artist In Residence at the National Gallery,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Landy first made his name in the late '80s as one of the YBAs.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32He was made a Royal Academician just four years ago
0:07:32 > 0:07:35but still feels a bit of a new boy.
0:07:35 > 0:07:36It's a weird institution
0:07:36 > 0:07:41and they have all those weird rituals and all those kind of things.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44I think that's... I mean, I didn't really know what I was joining
0:07:44 > 0:07:48when I joined up, you get introduced to the ball machine,
0:07:48 > 0:07:52to sanctioning day, all those kind of things that you kind of learn.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55There's no booklet. No-one gives you a booklet, maybe that would help.
0:07:55 > 0:07:56A booklet to read about it all.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02But I like all those things, that's part of why you join up, isn't it?
0:08:02 > 0:08:05For all those kind of quirky things.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07To satisfy his curiosity,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10Michael went to the Royal Academy's library,
0:08:10 > 0:08:12to quiz Mark Pomeroy, the archivist.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17So how do they select the Summer Exhibition?
0:08:17 > 0:08:21It's an extended, wearying, exhausting process,
0:08:21 > 0:08:25because you have upwards of 12,000 works of art,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28but not everybody gets through, so this is the big...
0:08:28 > 0:08:31But if you're an RA you normally do get through.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34- Yes, you do.- That's a relief. - You're all right, not everyone...
0:08:34 > 0:08:36You haven't seen what I'm going to do,
0:08:36 > 0:08:38so it could be they may make an exception in my case.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41We've got plenty of instances where works from Academicians
0:08:41 > 0:08:43were rejected, so you're not home free yet.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46Oh, really? I could resign on a matter of principle.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Here we've got Augustus John. This is 1938.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52And he says, "After the crowning ineptitude of the rejection
0:08:52 > 0:08:55"of Wyndham Lewis's picture, I feel it is impossible for me
0:08:55 > 0:08:57"to remain longer a member of the Royal Academy
0:08:57 > 0:09:00"and I am writing to Lamb, tendering my resignation."
0:09:00 > 0:09:02So they've rejected a painting
0:09:02 > 0:09:04in the selection for the Summer Exhibition.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07And they've accepted his resignation?
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Well they've begged him to stay, obviously, it's Augustus John.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14This telegram's what he sent.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17"Very sorry, just going away, cannot alter decision. John."
0:09:17 > 0:09:20But it wasn't long before he changed his mind.
0:09:20 > 0:09:21And this is the other thing,
0:09:21 > 0:09:23all these resignations, people like to come back.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26- Oh, they come back?- They come back.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28It's hardly worth resigning then if you're going to come back.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31- It's more fun, because then you can resign again.- That's true.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Now here's a ritual I love to perform each year,
0:09:39 > 0:09:41it's the bit where I get to descend deep into the vaults
0:09:41 > 0:09:44of the Royal Academy where all of the D's are stored,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48to make my selections of works that I think stand a particularly good chance
0:09:48 > 0:09:50of making it into the Summer Exhibition.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58So here they all are! This is the chosen few!
0:09:58 > 0:10:01Over 1,000 works that have already met with the initial approval
0:10:01 > 0:10:02of the selection committee.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06And now it's my turn to play God.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09The game is, I'm going to try and second guess the judges,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12and see if, amongst this lot, I can pick out a few candidates
0:10:12 > 0:10:16that I think really deserve to make it over the final hurdle.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19To help me make my selection, the Royal Academy have loaned me
0:10:19 > 0:10:23two of their expert art handlers.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Where shall we start? Shall we start looking here at these smaller ones?
0:10:26 > 0:10:28Hang on. That's quite sweet.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32Two girls with a man who's naked, with the face of a wolf,
0:10:32 > 0:10:36called The Predators, not sure if they are the predators or he is.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39Look at this!
0:10:39 > 0:10:42I mean that is immediately, technically...
0:10:42 > 0:10:44- It's exquisite, isn't it? - It's really well done.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46And you know what it reminds me of,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48those early Freuds that were so beautiful...
0:10:48 > 0:10:52and this is made using egg tempera!
0:10:53 > 0:10:55That went out of fashion about 500 years ago.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58I think for that reason alone, we should add that in.
0:10:58 > 0:10:59That's a definite.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03The first work that's caught my eye is by painter Robin Lee Hall.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07The title of the piece I've submitted is The Clever Young Man,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11and he came like Greg and just modelled for me from time to time
0:11:11 > 0:11:15and he was a fascinating character because he had a fascinating life.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18He was a very clever guy.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21What appeals to me about egg tempera is
0:11:21 > 0:11:27that it has a quality that no other paint has.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31They haven't yet invented a paint that mimics egg tempera.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34There's this wonderful luminosity to the paint.
0:11:34 > 0:11:41It's basically egg yolk and powered colour put together to create paint.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45It's a very ancient medium, I think the ancient Egyptians used it.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51I would be absolutely thrilled if I got in this year
0:11:51 > 0:11:55because I've probably entered the Summer Exhibition
0:11:55 > 0:11:59about a dozen times or so times over many years
0:11:59 > 0:12:04and I've actually only got in once,
0:12:04 > 0:12:09which was 2008 and I was really happy, really happy, I was elated.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14And that is not what I was expecting to see at all!
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Tomato Stitchup. Genius!
0:12:17 > 0:12:19What the hell is that?
0:12:19 > 0:12:21You do get a lot of fantasies.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25Right, let's move on. Wow, cross-eyed parrots!
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Look at this! We've got to have this in.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31- This is quite impressive. Is this a straight photograph? - It says so here, yes.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33- What's going on here? - It's a digital sepia print.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35Do you think that's been manipulated?
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Yes, it's entitled Choices.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42I suppose you're meant to imagine the many different routes
0:12:42 > 0:12:44you could drive across this, it looks like a desert landscape
0:12:44 > 0:12:46but it feels lunar, doesn't it?
0:12:46 > 0:12:48It feels like the tracks left behind by Armstrong
0:12:48 > 0:12:51and the rest of the brigade that went up to the Moon.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53I think that's quite impressive.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59My second choice is by photographer Scott Mead.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01From the age of 12, 13, something like that,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03I was fascinated by photography,
0:13:03 > 0:13:07and my grandfather was a press photographer and journalist
0:13:07 > 0:13:10and occasionally took me along to photo shoots,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14and around the age of 13, he gave me an old press camera.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17But as I moved into my mid to late 20s,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21I parked that artistic side of myself
0:13:21 > 0:13:27and for the next 17 or 18 years, I lived a 24/7 life, in finance.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31For whatever reason, and I still can't tell you exactly why,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34three years ago, I decided to go up into the attic
0:13:34 > 0:13:41and take a look at the ten or so large boxes of prints, negatives,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44all sorts of paraphernalia that were up there.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49The experience, I have to say, was truly overwhelming.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53I just felt a surge of intensity, passion.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57I felt like somebody who'd been asleep for 25-30 years,
0:13:57 > 0:13:58a sort of modern Rip Van Winkle.
0:13:58 > 0:14:03One of the ones I found was the negative for Choices,
0:14:03 > 0:14:08and what this is about is the process, the journey,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11the choices that we all consider,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15think about and ultimately have to make in life.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20I always had a promise that I was going to make a major change before the age of 50,
0:14:20 > 0:14:25back to those years in my 20s when I'd been living an artistic life
0:14:25 > 0:14:30and that in many ways has been the greatest reward of all,
0:14:30 > 0:14:32to see things again.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35Now what's going on here?
0:14:35 > 0:14:39This is a photograph of a load of classical busts.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41So this immediately feels like I've gone into...
0:14:41 > 0:14:45I'm on a slightly boring trip into a National Trust house,
0:14:45 > 0:14:47being dragged aground my mum and dad when I'm little
0:14:47 > 0:14:50and then there's a pair of female legs
0:14:50 > 0:14:52alluringly appearing around the corner,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55which is actually very clever and quite amusing because of course
0:14:55 > 0:14:59the whole convention of having a bust is slightly odd and arbitrary,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02that your body's cut off from beneath the shoulders.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06I like it, I like that image, I think it's been well composed.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09Let's have it. We'll take that.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11I think that will make it in.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14The third work I've gone for is The Corridor by Liane Lang.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18I started casting figures at the RA schools
0:15:18 > 0:15:20when I was a student there,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23and then I started posing them for photographs.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27That was really the intention right from the beginning,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30that they wouldn't be used as sculptural objects,
0:15:30 > 0:15:32but that they would be part of another work.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36I think of part of my work as performance art without performers,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39there is nobody in the room, I'm photographing essentially
0:15:39 > 0:15:44an empty space and the figure is a suggested presence,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46I think of them as spectral presences,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49like slightly haunted spaces.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52I go into public spaces and I create an intervention
0:15:52 > 0:15:56or I make a change to a public monument
0:15:56 > 0:16:00and it does feel a bit like a thing you shouldn't be doing
0:16:00 > 0:16:02and sometimes you in fact shouldn't be doing it
0:16:02 > 0:16:04and you have to do it very quickly.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has the big advantage
0:16:08 > 0:16:12of attracting a huge audience that you wouldn't otherwise get
0:16:12 > 0:16:14into your contemporary art gallery,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18and that probably otherwise would never see your work.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22And also, you get the surprise of who you're going to be hung next to,
0:16:22 > 0:16:26there's some very exciting artists in the Summer Exhibition.
0:16:30 > 0:16:31Now on to sculpture.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Like the judges when they first view the works submitted,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38I'm going to have to make my selection from photographs.
0:16:38 > 0:16:39Quite a tricky thing to do.
0:16:41 > 0:16:46That I find really disturbing, sometimes disturbing can be good,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49dark can be good, but that one I think I would leave.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53That's a kind of mixture of porcelain and coke bottles.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59Now I'm not sure I like one at all.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03This, on the other hand, is completely bonkers, and good.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08I quite like this, there's a sort of double sculpture of two figs
0:17:08 > 0:17:09and I don't know what they are,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12maybe they're cast in bronze and painted.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15I quite like them because they seem quite surreal.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18I'm going to take a punt and back those figs.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24This pair of bronze figs are the work of sculptor, Veda Hallowes.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28My first career was as a nurse, and then an intensive care nurse,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31and after a bit, I just didn't want to do it any more.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35I took a long, hard look at my life
0:17:35 > 0:17:39and decided I may as well do what I loved, which was the sculpture.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45Initially, I wanted to do figurative work
0:17:45 > 0:17:49but after about ten years I did anthropomorphic fruits,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52I would do a pear and it would look like a pear,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55but was it, because it had a bottom.
0:17:55 > 0:18:01They were very ambiguous pieces, quite sensual in way,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04but very ambiguous.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09I've submitted to the Summer Exhibition about four or five times, I think,
0:18:09 > 0:18:14and I am very aware that with something like the Summer Exhibition
0:18:14 > 0:18:16it is the luck of the draw
0:18:16 > 0:18:20because it depends not only on the quality of your work
0:18:20 > 0:18:22but on who the selection committee is
0:18:22 > 0:18:26and what look they're going for that year.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30So sometimes very good pieces get in and sometimes very good pieces don't,
0:18:30 > 0:18:34and sometimes less good pieces do get in
0:18:34 > 0:18:37because they're looking for a particular thing that year
0:18:37 > 0:18:39and that's fair enough.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45I know it's in the nature of a competitive show
0:18:45 > 0:18:48like the Summer Exhibition that you risk rejection.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50But that doesn't mean it isn't painful when it happens.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53And I should know because a few years ago, I did submit a work,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56a sincere work of art, which I was hoping would get in.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59And I got rejected. And you know what?
0:18:59 > 0:19:01At the time, I felt gutted.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05What I could really have done with is a good old spot of therapy.
0:19:10 > 0:19:11- Hi.- Hi.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Philippa Perry knows all about rejection,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17she's a writer and psychotherapist,
0:19:17 > 0:19:20who also happens to be married to the artist, Grayson Perry.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25I'm quite glad I found you, Philippa,
0:19:25 > 0:19:30because in a sense I am still smarting from the rejection
0:19:30 > 0:19:33I experienced from the Summer Exhibition all those years ago.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37I submitted a work. It was a conceptual portrait of my mum.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40It was a very sort of bulbous jar of red lentils.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45As a child, my earliest memory of my mother, who has red hair,
0:19:45 > 0:19:48was that she prepared in a kitchen not dissimilar to this,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51lots of food using these red lentils, she had red hair,
0:19:51 > 0:19:54and I thought this was an emotional, warm, proper thing,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56that I could submit.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Anyway, the RA didn't get any of that.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01And it got an X, it got rejected.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04And then, how did you feel when that happened?
0:20:04 > 0:20:07I felt a bit upset because there was, I know it sounds ridiculous,
0:20:07 > 0:20:09but there was some genuine thought that had gone into it.
0:20:09 > 0:20:14Am I guessing this wrong, if you feel that not only your work
0:20:14 > 0:20:17was rejected, but they've sort of rejected your mother
0:20:17 > 0:20:20as they've rejected this representation of you mother?
0:20:20 > 0:20:23Was that meaning there as well in the rejection?
0:20:23 > 0:20:28If that meaning was there latently, that subsequently came out for real,
0:20:28 > 0:20:30because the following year - she's an artist herself -
0:20:30 > 0:20:33and she submitted a couple of paintings,
0:20:33 > 0:20:35and both of them got rejected.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition committee does not like
0:20:39 > 0:20:41the Sooke household, clearly, when it comes to...
0:20:41 > 0:20:43Is that what you're telling yourself,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45that they really don't like the Sookes?
0:20:45 > 0:20:48It's chipped away at the self-esteem, yeah.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52You've woven a story there, as though you are disliked,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56and you know how it's done.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59You know they select work that fits in
0:20:59 > 0:21:01with work they're going to show anyway.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05So you can submit the most fantastic work of art in the world,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08and it still might get rejected because it doesn't fit in with
0:21:08 > 0:21:13the theme or the scheme they've got going for that year.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16So couldn't you weave yourself another story around that?
0:21:16 > 0:21:20Well, that would be the clever, mentally strong thing to do but...
0:21:20 > 0:21:25'I realised talking to Philippa, I didn't deal too well with rejection.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28'I wonder if the artists I've selected as front-runners
0:21:28 > 0:21:31'for the Summer Exhibition are made of tougher stuff?'
0:21:31 > 0:21:34What life is about is putting yourself out there
0:21:34 > 0:21:37and being open to new experiences, new challenges.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42That's going to necessarily involve rejection in one form or another.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46All art, I guess, is a reflection of one's own inner self
0:21:46 > 0:21:51and so I feel a little vulnerable sometimes
0:21:51 > 0:21:55putting work out into a large public exhibition.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59I have to admit that when, if I get rejected by someone,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03I do tend to think that there's obviously something wrong with their judgement.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09There are days where you've put in a good piece and you think,
0:22:09 > 0:22:13"Well, God," you know, "I think that stood a chance of getting in."
0:22:13 > 0:22:15And it gets rejected.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17And you do a little bit of soul-searching about
0:22:17 > 0:22:19why did it get rejected?
0:22:19 > 0:22:21You know, what was the matter with it?
0:22:21 > 0:22:26To make work, in a way, it's quite a vulnerable making thing to do,
0:22:26 > 0:22:30to show someone your art, to say, "Accept me or reject me,"
0:22:30 > 0:22:33is a little bit like dancing naked in the street, isn't it?
0:22:33 > 0:22:35It's, "This is me... Aagh!"
0:22:35 > 0:22:38It's a bit scary. Why would you do that to yourself?
0:22:38 > 0:22:41And I suppose it's because of hope.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45Hope that even through I'm dancing in the street naked,
0:22:45 > 0:22:46you might still like me.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50And the other thing is maybe it's a feeling of I belong,
0:22:50 > 0:22:54here's this august institution,
0:22:54 > 0:22:58this very long, nearly 250 year tradition and I belong to it,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01I am part of something bigger than me.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09It's not only the artists I've selected
0:23:09 > 0:23:11who worry about how their works will be received.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15Even Christopher Le Brun,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18the President of the Royal Academy, has concerns.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22As I found out when I went to visit him in his South London studio.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24You've caught me at a very interesting moment,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27I'm genuinely not absolutely sure which pictures I'm going to put in,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30because I tend to leave the decision about the Summer Exhibition
0:23:30 > 0:23:32to the very last moment.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36So, which are the options? Can I give you some help?
0:23:36 > 0:23:40Yes, of course, as long as you don't disagree with me.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43- OK. That sort of help. - That sort of help.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46Well, I think what I'm absolutely sure about is this picture here.
0:23:51 > 0:23:52What's this one called?
0:23:52 > 0:23:54It's called A Letter To Joshua.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57So this is... You're referring to Joshua Reynolds,
0:23:57 > 0:23:59the first president of the Royal Academy, your predecessor.
0:23:59 > 0:24:00Yes, exactly.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05Why do you feel this one is strong enough to submit this year?
0:24:05 > 0:24:08It was the most recent painting I'd finished.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12I also felt the scale of it, and the...
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Well, I thought the strength of the colour would allow it to work
0:24:15 > 0:24:19in the very difficult circumstances of the Summer Show.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21I'm intrigued to see it there.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24So we've got a dead cert. How many do you get in?
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Does the president, do you get any perk?
0:24:27 > 0:24:29No, no special conditions.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31They don't want too many big paintings,
0:24:31 > 0:24:34I've completely broken the rule here with this one, it's much too big.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36I mean surely as president,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39you're guaranteed the showing of your works?
0:24:40 > 0:24:44Yes, but it's an academy,
0:24:44 > 0:24:48you're making decisions in concert with your colleagues,
0:24:48 > 0:24:53so you don't want to force something on the Academy.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Do you have a sense where you'd like this to hang as well?
0:24:56 > 0:24:59That's not up to me, that's up to the chief hanger.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03I've got ideas where I'd like it to be. But we'll see.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12Whose are those?
0:25:12 > 0:25:17The sinisterly named "chief hanger" this year is painter Tess Jaray.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19Her job is to oversee a team of fellow RAs
0:25:19 > 0:25:22who are each responsible for hanging a room.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27They're all feeling the pressure.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30It's week one and everyone is up against a strict deadline
0:25:30 > 0:25:32to finish the hang by the following week.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Move this up to...
0:25:40 > 0:25:43This is the magical and slightly mad moment
0:25:43 > 0:25:45when the hang starts to come together,
0:25:45 > 0:25:47all of the thousands of works submitted by the public,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49the Royal Academicians,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52and also the handful high profile artists invited to show,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55have to make it past the final hurdle.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58They are all jockeying for position, but the thing is
0:25:58 > 0:26:01a small percentage of them are going to fall by the wayside
0:26:01 > 0:26:05and won't actually make it onto the walls at all.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11Humphrey Ocean and Mali Morris have been tasked with hanging a room
0:26:11 > 0:26:17of mainly RAs' work with a smattering of public submissions.
0:26:17 > 0:26:18How are you finding it?
0:26:18 > 0:26:22Um... day one was pretty daunting.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26This room was piled high with stuff.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29I mean, my first instinct was to run away,
0:26:29 > 0:26:32it was just sort of so terrifying!
0:26:32 > 0:26:36But then, you know, it's flight or fight.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40One of the ways we both do it is almost by walking past
0:26:40 > 0:26:43and something connects with something else,
0:26:43 > 0:26:45something just snags your eye and you say,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48"Yes, that's should be over there."
0:26:48 > 0:26:51I mean, Mali just made a suggestion for a picture
0:26:51 > 0:26:55which has been sitting in one spot for the last week,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58and so it's kind of hunkered down there
0:26:58 > 0:27:00and we thought it was unassailable.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03She said, "Why don't we move it over there?"
0:27:03 > 0:27:09And it's like two weeks on a Swiss health farm for me,
0:27:09 > 0:27:13you know, the lightness of being.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22- Peter, hello.- Hello. Here we are.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25- Oh, you've got... Is this..? - This is the real thing.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28- This is the beef tea, the famous beef tea.- This is it.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31I've never had this. It sounds rank.
0:27:31 > 0:27:32Absolutely. It's delicious.
0:27:32 > 0:27:33Is it?
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Traditional fare, secret recipe.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37Has it got booze in it?
0:27:37 > 0:27:40Mmmm. You bet.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43Everything has got booze in it at the Royal Academy.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46But I quite like it. I quite like this.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Peter Freeth and Chris Orr are responsible for the most popular rooms in the exhibition,
0:27:50 > 0:27:52showcasing prints.
0:27:53 > 0:27:54You two do it together?
0:27:54 > 0:27:57- Not every year. - No, no. This year we do.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00- We're like Tweedledum and Tweedledee.- Double act this year. - Dream team.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02Last year I did it on my own, I didn't have Peter's help,
0:28:02 > 0:28:04and it was a bit of a failure, wasn't it, really?
0:28:04 > 0:28:06THEY ALL LAUGH
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Peter had to come and save the day.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12Basically, it works because we have different viewpoints
0:28:12 > 0:28:15and we have very different tastes...
0:28:15 > 0:28:18We're incredibly sophisticated and subtle and a raised eyebrow is
0:28:18 > 0:28:21all the code we need to say, "That's definitely not going on the wall."
0:28:21 > 0:28:25I think Fox underneath the other, what do you think, Peter?
0:28:25 > 0:28:28- I assumed...- Do you want it the other way round?
0:28:28 > 0:28:30Can you hold it up and see which looks best?
0:28:31 > 0:28:35Now it may seem that works are selected completely randomly,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38but believe me, there is a method to the madness.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41- Hello, Tess. - Hello, nice to meet you.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43Nice to meet you too. I'm Alistair.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47'A few weeks ago, I paid a visit to Tess Jaray's London home
0:28:47 > 0:28:51'to get the inside track on how she'd approached the daunting task
0:28:51 > 0:28:54'of co-ordinating this unruly art jumble sale.'
0:28:54 > 0:28:58Is there a vision for the whole show or do you just do it room by room?
0:28:58 > 0:29:01Oh, there is absolutely a vision for the whole show.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04This year, one of the most important themes
0:29:04 > 0:29:08is to concentrate on what we call modest sized works.
0:29:08 > 0:29:14Now it seems to me there is a kind of epidemic of gigantism,
0:29:14 > 0:29:18in museums across the world.
0:29:18 > 0:29:19Are you thinking of the Tate Modern
0:29:19 > 0:29:22where they have very big sculptural installations?
0:29:22 > 0:29:25That's absolutely great, but art is not only that, art is many things.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29And I think small works have been a little bit ignored in recent times.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32I mean, I know Hockney said paintings have to be big.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34I just think paintings have to be good.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38I could say, size is not important... in art.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40THEY LAUGH
0:29:43 > 0:29:46So, time to see if Tess's careful planning has paid off.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Will it be a case of best laid plans
0:29:50 > 0:29:53or will she have managed to see her original vision through?
0:29:53 > 0:29:57- Tess, hiya, how are you doing? - Hello.- Nice to see you.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00Very well, thank you, how are you? Nice to see you again.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03Are you contemplating how things are looking?
0:30:03 > 0:30:04I'm rather admiring, actually.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08- Good, well, that's the response you want!- Yes.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12I really wasn't quite certain until we started to hang them how this would work.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16And I am slightly surprised that with this rather simple
0:30:16 > 0:30:23but nevertheless non-rectilinear form, this wave, it's drawing you in.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Nothing is so high, there's nothing that's gone right to the top -
0:30:26 > 0:30:29what's called skying, we could have filled it in right to the top,
0:30:29 > 0:30:33but, this way, everything has an equal chance of being seen.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40'From small paintings to large, Stephen Chambers
0:30:40 > 0:30:46'faces the perhaps unenviable task of hanging all the big hitters this year -
0:30:46 > 0:30:49'work by leading contemporary artists like Gary Hume
0:30:49 > 0:30:51'and Georg Baselitz.'
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Stephen, my hunch is that hanging a room like this might be quite tricky,
0:30:55 > 0:30:58because there are big names here
0:30:58 > 0:31:00and I'm assuming there are also some quite big egos.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04Yeah, the easiest galleries to hang
0:31:04 > 0:31:08are the galleries that are predominantly open submission
0:31:08 > 0:31:10because everybody is pleased to be on the walls.
0:31:10 > 0:31:12They love you.
0:31:12 > 0:31:17These people know they're going to be hung. They're members.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21They are going to get on the walls and care about where they're placed.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23And I understand that.
0:31:23 > 0:31:30Some are more vocal about letting their dissatisfaction be known than others.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33Are they? So you witness strops and tantrums then?
0:31:33 > 0:31:35Oh, Christ, yes.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39- There is anger.- Foot-stamping? - There is foot-stamping.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42And you tell them where the bike is.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47And that's... Ah, I recognise this because I saw it in the studio.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50This is a difficult one to hang, isn't it?
0:31:50 > 0:31:51This is a sensitive one to hang.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55That should maybe be over there - in a slightly more prominent spot.
0:31:55 > 0:31:57No. He would blush.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00Yeah, but it's a good chance to suck up, isn't it?
0:32:00 > 0:32:02I think he could do without sucking up.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04HE LAUGHS
0:32:08 > 0:32:11Now, last year, the Royal Academy lost one of its biggest names,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14the abstract painter John Hoyland.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17And to commemorate his unique personality and talent,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20they're showing two of his seminal works from the 1970s.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24Andrew Graham-Dixon visited his studio and met Hoyland's widow
0:32:24 > 0:32:28as well as his close friend, the sculptor Sir Anthony Caro.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34# Somewhere over the rainbow... #
0:32:34 > 0:32:38John Hoyland was born in Sheffield in 1934,
0:32:38 > 0:32:43a place where, he himself readily admitted, the sun rarely shone.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46He should have been born in the tropics.
0:32:46 > 0:32:51No other British painter used colour quite like Hoyland.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54He saw colour everywhere - in a doorway,
0:32:54 > 0:32:58a blade of grass, in the sky.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01And he translated that love of vibrant colour
0:33:01 > 0:33:04into large, abstract canvasses
0:33:04 > 0:33:09positively buzzing with energy, with life.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14They earned him the reputation for a while of being England's answer to Abstract Expressionists -
0:33:14 > 0:33:16a kind of Sheffield-born Mark Rothko.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19But it wasn't right to compare John to anyone else.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21He was very much his own man.
0:33:24 > 0:33:29'He satisfied his craving for light and sun by escaping rainy old England
0:33:29 > 0:33:31'for the Caribbean as often as he could.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35'His love for Jamaica, in particular, ran deep and strong.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37'He even married Miss Jamaica.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40'Hoyland's widow, Beverley Heath, who met John in late 1970s,
0:33:40 > 0:33:45'is now the custodian of Hoyland's famous studio.'
0:33:45 > 0:33:47Right, Andrew, so this is it.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50- Wow!- John Hoyland's studio headquarters!
0:33:50 > 0:33:51It's great.
0:33:51 > 0:33:52- I do actually remember it.- Yeah?
0:33:52 > 0:33:56But I don't think there was quite so much paint on the floor
0:33:56 > 0:33:58the last time I came.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01Yeah, that paint has really built up, hasn't it?
0:34:01 > 0:34:04- Is this one of his last paintings? - This is Moon In Water, yeah.
0:34:04 > 0:34:09It's the very last painting he entered in his record books.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13Wow, still as explosive as ever.
0:34:13 > 0:34:15Still as explosive, just a bit darker.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18There's a ghost of it down... Do you think that's the...?
0:34:18 > 0:34:21- Oh, yeah.- That's the ghost of that picture.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25'He never paints upright, he always laid them on the floor.'
0:34:25 > 0:34:28I'm going to try pouring this...
0:34:33 > 0:34:38What a mass of paint pots, all acrylic paint he's using.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41'And all the different methods he used to apply it -
0:34:41 > 0:34:43'the roller, the trowel, the brush.'
0:34:43 > 0:34:47- Look at this one. This is amazing.- That's brilliant.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50HE CHUCKLES
0:34:51 > 0:34:54Now see how that dries.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59There's something quite poignant about how quickly a working studio
0:34:59 > 0:35:02can almost turn into a shrine.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06- Exactly.- It does feel like he's just left. I mean, the shoes covered in paint.
0:35:06 > 0:35:07Look at the ones up there!
0:35:07 > 0:35:10They've seen a lot of action, those boots, haven't they?
0:35:10 > 0:35:14- Yeah.- These boots are made for painting!- Exactly.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20'As a student at the Royal Academy Schools in the early '60s,
0:35:20 > 0:35:25'Hoyland had his entire diploma show ordered off the walls by the then president,
0:35:25 > 0:35:30'Sir Charles Wheeler, who took a rather dim view of abstract art.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34'The irony was not lost on Hoyland when he was finally
0:35:34 > 0:35:38'accepted into the fold and made a Royal Academician in 1991.
0:35:38 > 0:35:45'One of Hoyland's closest friends and contemporaries was Sir Anthony Caro, now also a fellow RA,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48'who has fond memories of those rebel-rousing early days.'
0:35:48 > 0:35:51I'm trying to think when I did first meet him,
0:35:51 > 0:35:55it was probably about '61 or '62.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59He lived in Primrose Hill and he said, "Come and see what I've done,"
0:35:59 > 0:36:02and I knocked on the door.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06And this face came out of the ground floor room and said,
0:36:06 > 0:36:09"You can't get in that way, it's full of paintings."
0:36:09 > 0:36:11I had to go through the window to get in.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14He was painting so much.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18'He'd literally painted himself in?'
0:36:18 > 0:36:20'Absolutely, yeah.'
0:36:20 > 0:36:22'I find it a poignant experience coming back to the RA,'
0:36:22 > 0:36:28because the last time I was here, John himself was hanging a room.
0:36:28 > 0:36:29Really?
0:36:29 > 0:36:32He'd given his own painting a great deal of prominence,
0:36:32 > 0:36:35but right in front of it, he'd put one of your works.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39- So, who's this...?- That's me. - This huge painting in the middle.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42Away with all that false modesty! I'm going to put myself in the middle.
0:36:42 > 0:36:43Absolutely!
0:36:43 > 0:36:48And I like this kitsch Van Gogh that nobody wanted.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51It's looking across at the Caro, you see.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54'There was that sense that he always had,'
0:36:54 > 0:36:57he liked having his work next to your work,
0:36:57 > 0:37:00he felt they complimented each other in some sense.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04Well, we liked each other's work, which was nice.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07We became friends, really,
0:37:07 > 0:37:13when we were both selected to go with the British Council show in Sao Paolo.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17We were sitting on the beach at Rio,
0:37:17 > 0:37:21looking at the passing ladies...
0:37:21 > 0:37:24- As you do!- As John did a lot!
0:37:24 > 0:37:27And, um... and, um...
0:37:27 > 0:37:28He didn't waste time!
0:37:28 > 0:37:30No, he didn't waste time.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32In fact, round the pool also, a bit earlier
0:37:32 > 0:37:37he had met this lady who said she was doing to dance in Port of Spain.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40So John said, "Let's go down and see her dance."
0:37:40 > 0:37:46So we went down and she threw a lot of bottles on the floor.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49She was dancing on broken glass!
0:37:49 > 0:37:54Then she got hold of a snake and then she poured brandy on it, set it on fire.
0:37:54 > 0:37:59And John went pale and said, "I think this is going to be too much for me, this."
0:38:01 > 0:38:04So that was the girlfriend who never was.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06That was the girlfriend who never was, yes!
0:38:06 > 0:38:11Yes, it was always fun, you had such a laugh with John.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13It's a shame that he's not here now,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16but I'm glad they're giving him a send-off.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21I am too. The paintings, in their own right, are wonderful.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25So many of them are real humdingers.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34It's nearly the end of week two of the hang
0:38:34 > 0:38:37and things are falling nicely into place.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42But room must be made for one late arrival...
0:38:44 > 0:38:49The work I have submitted is a yellow bronze bin.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51I sent out a plastic bin to China -
0:38:51 > 0:38:55there's a foundry in China that makes bronze -
0:38:55 > 0:38:57so they cast my plastic bin
0:38:57 > 0:38:58and they made it into bronze.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02They did paint it, but they painted the little tidy man,
0:39:02 > 0:39:06that tidy man that drops the rubbish into the bin, that kind of symbol?
0:39:06 > 0:39:09But they made him into little Chinese figures...
0:39:09 > 0:39:12They didn't like the big Western figures,
0:39:12 > 0:39:15so they made them into little Chinese figures instead!
0:39:15 > 0:39:19I didn't know if they thought it was Western propaganda
0:39:19 > 0:39:24or what it was... Anyway, it's me as a portrait, as a rubbish bin.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27So I'm going to have to ask people if they recognise me when they see it.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30I think it's the spitting image of me.
0:39:30 > 0:39:31Just like the president,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34Michael Landy also has concerns
0:39:34 > 0:39:37about where his work is going to be placed.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41The thing is, obviously, with a bin, there is going to be
0:39:41 > 0:39:43a bit of misunderstanding about it.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47If you put it into the middle of the room at the Royal Academy,
0:39:47 > 0:39:51people will know it's an artwork.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56But if you put it alongside a door, or you put it outside,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59people will think it's a bin.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03So some people will wonder why they have introduced obnoxious yellow bins into the Royal Academy.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09So here is Michael's bin.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12I think this is quite a good position, actually,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14just here by the door. I think he'll be pleased.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17I hope that at least a few visitors are will be foxed
0:40:17 > 0:40:21and that rubbish will appear in there at some point!
0:40:21 > 0:40:23Now the show is finally completed, it's time to find out
0:40:23 > 0:40:28which of the artists I selected from the vaults has made it in.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37'Weeks of suspense are now over.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42'The Royal Academy send out a letter to every one of the thousands of people who submit
0:40:42 > 0:40:47'and today is the day they find out if they've got in or been rejected.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55"Thank you for entering this year's Summer Exhibition."
0:40:55 > 0:40:59"With over 11,000 entries, the competition was extremely strong.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03"However, I'm delighted to inform you that your work, The Clever Young Man,
0:41:03 > 0:41:05"has been selected and hung in the exhibition."
0:41:05 > 0:41:08That's brilliant, fantastic!
0:41:08 > 0:41:11I'm looking forward to turning up and seeing where it's hung!
0:41:11 > 0:41:14That's the next thing, seeing where it is.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17'Unfortunately, it's not good news all round.'
0:41:17 > 0:41:23"On this occasion, I'm sorry to inform you that your two works were not hung in the exhibition.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27"However, they were short-listed, which is a fine achievement."
0:41:27 > 0:41:30OK, well, of course it's hugely disappointing,
0:41:30 > 0:41:34however philosophical I am,
0:41:34 > 0:41:36I'll apply again another year
0:41:36 > 0:41:41and try again and perhaps another time, I'll be lucky.
0:41:41 > 0:41:46"I'm delighted to inform you that your Choices has been selected and hung in the exhibition."
0:41:49 > 0:41:50That feels great!
0:41:50 > 0:41:55- Really good.- Well done!- Thanks.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58'So it's better news for Scott and Liane.'
0:41:58 > 0:42:03Excellent, I'm in!
0:42:09 > 0:42:11It's Varnishing Day 2012
0:42:11 > 0:42:13and, as in years gone by, this is the day
0:42:13 > 0:42:17when the lucky artists who've got in get a sneak preview of the show
0:42:17 > 0:42:19and find out where their works have been hung.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23But, first of all, the show's got to be blessed!
0:42:25 > 0:42:29In a colourful ritual that goes back 244 years,
0:42:29 > 0:42:32the exhibiting artists are led down Piccadilly
0:42:32 > 0:42:38to St James's Church for a special ceremony to launch the Summer Exhibition.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41RA new boy, Michael Landy, is now well in his stride
0:42:41 > 0:42:47and relishing every moment of the Summer Exhibition's unique traditions.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Well, the procession - I just like it taking up the street, really,
0:42:50 > 0:42:53and I'd never been on one before. I just like the whole feel of it
0:42:53 > 0:42:56and it's just a joyful, life-affirming thing.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00ORGAN MUSIC PLAYS
0:43:00 > 0:43:02Although not official RAs,
0:43:02 > 0:43:07Liane, Scott and Robin-Lee are also welcomed into the fold,
0:43:07 > 0:43:10and made to feel part of this holy art congregation...
0:43:10 > 0:43:13Good morning and welcome to St James's, Piccadilly,
0:43:13 > 0:43:18for the Royal Academy of Arts service for artists.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21We come to celebrate and honour
0:43:21 > 0:43:26the work of those who would call us beyond ourselves, by the visual arts.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28We come to give thanks to God
0:43:28 > 0:43:33for new ways of seeing the world in which we live.
0:43:33 > 0:43:38We begin with our first hymn, Now Thank We All Our God.
0:43:38 > 0:43:43# Now thank we all our God
0:43:43 > 0:43:44# With hearts... #
0:43:44 > 0:43:50As a child I used to go to church. But I've never been in a service where the service
0:43:50 > 0:43:55is to bless an art exhibition and bless the artists taking part in the exhibition,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58so I found the whole service very touching.
0:43:59 > 0:44:05After the blessing, it's all back to the Royal Academy for drinks and canapes -
0:44:05 > 0:44:11and a chance for Scott, Liane and Robin-Lee to finally find out where their works have been hung.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13Have you spied it yet?
0:44:13 > 0:44:19- Oh, yeah! Yeah!- You've got it? - Fantastic! It's on the line.
0:44:19 > 0:44:21It's on the line.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23I've never had a painting on the line before.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25So that's a big new achievement?
0:44:25 > 0:44:29Absolutely, I'm really happy!
0:44:29 > 0:44:32- That's great.- Good!- No, it's super. - That's a good reaction!
0:44:32 > 0:44:36- I've shown before and been in that tiny little room.- Yes.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38And I've been like nearly near the ceiling.
0:44:38 > 0:44:43- That's almost the worst spot, isn't it?- It was another small painting.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47- Yes. But at least I was in, so I was happy.- It's like going from sitting in the gods to being in the stalls!
0:44:47 > 0:44:49I know, it's absolutely amazing!
0:44:51 > 0:44:55Scott has no trouble spotting his work...
0:44:55 > 0:44:56I do...I definitely see it!
0:44:56 > 0:45:01Now, I think... Well, how do you feel?
0:45:01 > 0:45:06I think it's really nicely displayed and hung,
0:45:06 > 0:45:11because the whole idea of this work is to draw you in...
0:45:11 > 0:45:14so to have it at this level is just right.
0:45:14 > 0:45:15The level's key.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19I have to say, I feel this is a premium piece of real estate.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24- I'm thrilled. - If I look in here, does it tell me how much you're selling this for?
0:45:24 > 0:45:28- It's selling for £7,500. - Sorry, how much?
0:45:28 > 0:45:30£7,500.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33- I give 100% of whatever I sell to Great Ormond Street Hospital...- Oh, fantastic!
0:45:33 > 0:45:37..where one of my children was cured of a life-threatening illness as a baby many years ago.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40- Well, I bloody hope it sells then! - Fingers crossed.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47Yeah, it's not in this main bit...
0:45:47 > 0:45:50'Liane is in the big hitters room,
0:45:50 > 0:45:52'but is finding it hard to locate her work.'
0:45:52 > 0:45:54Are we going to find it?
0:45:56 > 0:45:57- There it is.- Yep, here it is.
0:46:00 > 0:46:01I think the gift shop is there...
0:46:01 > 0:46:05Almost in the gift shop, yeah, you can't step away from it very well...
0:46:05 > 0:46:08You can't. I mean, it's fantastic it's in,
0:46:08 > 0:46:14it's a really good, very intriguing piece, so that's all good.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17- What's it called?- The Corridor.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19Kind of feels appropriate.
0:46:19 > 0:46:20Yes, I don't think they thought of that.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24Maybe that's a very sophisticated piece of curating on the part of Stephen Chambers...
0:46:24 > 0:46:28Mmm, maybe, do you think that's called The Corridor as well?
0:46:30 > 0:46:35'Michael Landy is also anxious to see where his artwork has been placed.'
0:46:35 > 0:46:39Who put this bin here...? No, that's kind of what I...
0:46:39 > 0:46:42Yeah, that's a good spot for it. It's right by the door,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46so people could mistake it for a yellow RA bin...
0:46:46 > 0:46:51It should say "Royal Academy bin" on it. They should have one in every gallery.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55People have put rubbish in there as well. They've put some napkins.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57Wait, though...
0:46:57 > 0:46:59Yeah, that's bronze, so that's the real one.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01I thought they may have replaced it with a plastic one.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07The Summer Exhibition isn't just about the thousands who apply,
0:47:07 > 0:47:09and the lucky few who get in.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12There's an even bigger prize at stake.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16Each year, the Wollaston Award, worth a whopping £25,000,
0:47:16 > 0:47:20is given to the most distinguished work of art in the exhibition.
0:47:20 > 0:47:25A few days ago, I was given a sneak preview of the short list -
0:47:25 > 0:47:28minutes before the three judges - art critic Jackie Wullschlager,
0:47:28 > 0:47:30art historian Dawn Ades
0:47:30 > 0:47:32and Royal Academician Humphrey Ocean -
0:47:32 > 0:47:37sat down to deliberate and give their verdicts on the four short-listed works.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42First up is Irish-American Sean Scully's abstract oil painting, Doric Grey.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45Twice-nominated for the Turner Prize,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48Scully is well-known for these chequer-board-like pictures.
0:47:48 > 0:47:54Next, a sculpture by British artist and Royal Academician, David Nash.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57This impressive piece is called Hump With A Hole
0:47:57 > 0:48:00and it's a massive lump of charred oak with a hole in the middle of it.
0:48:00 > 0:48:06The third piece is a barcode-like print with horizontal dark lines
0:48:06 > 0:48:08by British artist Tim Head
0:48:08 > 0:48:11and it's hanging next to its lighter counterpart.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15Tim Head's two prints are called Libra and Libra 2.
0:48:16 > 0:48:22And last, but not least, is German artist Anselm Kiefer's powerful piece, Samson.
0:48:22 > 0:48:27It's part painting, part sculpture and Kiefer, an honorary RA,
0:48:27 > 0:48:30is possibly the biggest name in this year's Summer Exhibition.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36So, time to hear what the judges think.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41I can see the judges just over there, I've got a monitor
0:48:41 > 0:48:47and these headphones which allows me to hear exactly what they're saying.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50We've now been round and looked at the exhibition
0:48:50 > 0:48:53and we've arrived at a group
0:48:53 > 0:48:55of artworks and artists
0:48:55 > 0:48:58who we're going to discuss now.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01I really want to argue strongly for Tim Head.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04Ooh, they've got straight into it!
0:49:04 > 0:49:07He works in quite a dangerous way, he doesn't have -
0:49:07 > 0:49:12"this is a Tim Head" - he doesn't do precisely the trademark.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16But I always feel in the presence of somebody very thoughtful.
0:49:16 > 0:49:22It's quite cool and very beautiful, very visual, very optical.
0:49:22 > 0:49:23I agree.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26It's quite polite and muted.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29I was hoping there might be at some point some fisticuffs,
0:49:29 > 0:49:31you know, people getting really passionate, but we'll see.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35Jackie, you were very persuasive about the Sean Scully.
0:49:35 > 0:49:40It's the finest painterly painting in the show
0:49:40 > 0:49:43and very seductive, very tonal,
0:49:43 > 0:49:46he builds up these sort of walls of paint and of colour,
0:49:46 > 0:49:49but then, in this one particularly, he lets the light come through
0:49:49 > 0:49:51and I think it just...
0:49:51 > 0:49:55The painting glows, it's a small, glowing object...
0:49:55 > 0:49:58- Can I go on to David Nash? - I want you to!
0:49:58 > 0:50:01This is a kind of lump of trunk...
0:50:01 > 0:50:03The David Nash sculpture,
0:50:03 > 0:50:05I really hope is going to win, I think it's a beautiful work of art.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08..which has been charred on the outside
0:50:08 > 0:50:14and it's extraordinary, because it's both very harsh as an object
0:50:14 > 0:50:17and very velvety. You really feel you want to stroke it,
0:50:17 > 0:50:23which of course we can't, but it's a very striking work
0:50:23 > 0:50:26and I think the combination of mass and detail -
0:50:26 > 0:50:29I think it's a terrific work.
0:50:29 > 0:50:30Go Nash!
0:50:30 > 0:50:34I'm going to come straight out and say I think the Anselm Kiefer
0:50:34 > 0:50:37is incomparably the most distinguished work in the show...
0:50:37 > 0:50:39Jackie is going in with a strong opinion.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42I think Kiefer is an artist who redefines
0:50:42 > 0:50:46what painting can be, and he really stands on that line
0:50:46 > 0:50:50between painting and sculpture in a very exciting and energetic way.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53I don't think there's another work in the show
0:50:53 > 0:50:57which rises to the sense of our times in the way that that one does.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00Actually, I agree that the Kiefer, for me,
0:51:00 > 0:51:04the Kiefer is the most distinguished work here.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08There is an argument for having three rather than four judges,
0:51:08 > 0:51:11because I am now immediately outnumbered...
0:51:11 > 0:51:15This is a good moment, Humphrey's gearing up for a scrap.
0:51:15 > 0:51:20I have a feeling, slightly, when I'm looking at a Kiefer
0:51:20 > 0:51:25that I'm being grabbed by the jugular and told something -
0:51:25 > 0:51:27"This is..."
0:51:27 > 0:51:31And it's quite heavy, Germanic, there's a feeling of angst,
0:51:31 > 0:51:38but I've really been powerfully persuaded by what you've both said.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41Um, anyway,
0:51:41 > 0:51:47it seems at the moment as though we're going to go for the Kiefer.
0:51:47 > 0:51:54But we can only do that if you feel that you can put your voice behind that, cos otherwise...
0:51:54 > 0:51:57That is a clever move from Jackie.
0:51:57 > 0:52:02..forced into that position if you feel any of the other three are...
0:52:02 > 0:52:09She's inviting Humphrey to bless the decision to go with Kiefer.
0:52:09 > 0:52:16Kiefer needs no help from me, I mean, I think that we have come up - I would say unanimously -
0:52:16 > 0:52:18with Anselm Kiefer
0:52:18 > 0:52:23and his painting, Samson, as the winner of the Wollaston Prize.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31Now the big prizes have been awarded,
0:52:31 > 0:52:35it's time for the great and the good of the art, fashion and music worlds
0:52:35 > 0:52:38to get their first glimpse of the show...
0:52:38 > 0:52:43The Royal Academy is just such a fantastic tradition here in Britain,
0:52:43 > 0:52:47and the artists that have come out of there are some of our greats
0:52:47 > 0:52:52and you see all their work mingled in with the upcoming artists...
0:52:53 > 0:52:57The highlight is it's been hung very differently - usually all the big paintings
0:52:57 > 0:52:58go in the large gallery,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01but this year they've salon-hung all the tiny works
0:53:01 > 0:53:02in the large gallery
0:53:02 > 0:53:06and also some of the walls have been painted very electric colours,
0:53:06 > 0:53:08so it feels quite poppy, the whole thing.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12I love art and I love to see what new things are going on in there.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16Something will catch my eye and I'll think, "Now, that's fabulous."
0:53:16 > 0:53:20I don't know what it will be, but it will catch my eye.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32The Preview Party is the latest ritual in the long and illustrious history of the Summer Exhibition.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36It only really began in the 1980s
0:53:36 > 0:53:40when Michael Landy and his fellow YBAs came to prominence -
0:53:40 > 0:53:44as art became sexy and the money started to flow - along with the wine.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48And it's now the hottest ticket in the arts' summer calendar.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52Time now for me to catch up with a few familiar faces
0:53:52 > 0:53:53to see what they make of the show.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57I've had a quick look round and I like all the little sculptures
0:53:57 > 0:54:01on the big plinths like knick-knacks. I think that's good, quite sweet.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04I like the way they try different things each year,
0:54:04 > 0:54:08because you know it is in some ways a gloriously stable institution,
0:54:08 > 0:54:13the Summer Exhibition, so it's nice to sort of zhuzh it up a bit
0:54:13 > 0:54:14and it's getting better every year.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16How do you feel about it, Philippa?
0:54:16 > 0:54:19I just get very excited to see the whole range of people
0:54:19 > 0:54:23who are making art in Britain today, from the amateur
0:54:23 > 0:54:26to the likes of Tracey Emin.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29It's like the Glastonbury of painting.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35I'm enjoying it so far. I've just got in, I don't know anybody...
0:54:35 > 0:54:39and the amount of artwork is always overwhelming,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42so it's always lots of people and a really good buzz.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46A kind of feeding frenzy about what artworks they're going to buy,
0:54:46 > 0:54:47so that's the nicest bit about it.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55Oh, my! Have you seen how busy that room is?! Shall we fight our way in?
0:54:55 > 0:54:59Despite the heaving crowds, I've decided to jump in
0:54:59 > 0:55:01and have been joined by the actress Emilia Fox,
0:55:01 > 0:55:06an ambassador for the RA, who's keen to show me her highlights from the finished show.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09So you say there's something over here?
0:55:09 > 0:55:14- I wanted you to see this one. I know it's quite traditional.- It is.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16But that's OK, isn't it?
0:55:16 > 0:55:18I would love to have an Elizabeth Blackadder on my wall.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20If you're going traditional,
0:55:20 > 0:55:22the Summer Exhibition is the place to do it.
0:55:22 > 0:55:28The RA been trying quite desperately to begin with to shake that perception,
0:55:28 > 0:55:30but there has to be a place for this,
0:55:30 > 0:55:32cos, in a sense, that's the DNA of the exhibition.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35I love this one, it's completely different
0:55:35 > 0:55:40to my traditional sensibility, like with the Elizabeth Blackadder,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43but I just love this, I find it very peaceful.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45I find it interesting you say peaceful,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48because when I look at this, a see apocalyptic.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51- What?!- It's a flood, there's nobody there,
0:55:51 > 0:55:56this is clearly some sort of shimmery, toxic, nuclear flood.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02I mean, maybe it is, the calm after the Apocalypse.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05Where you can go and get a Buffalo Burger...
0:56:07 > 0:56:10Shall we go and have a look through the architectural models as well?
0:56:10 > 0:56:14- If I am completely honest, I usually find this room quite boring.- Do you?
0:56:14 > 0:56:19I don't really like architectural models very much,
0:56:19 > 0:56:22maybe it's a lack of imagination.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26That may be where we differ as female and male.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30I love it, the detail on them is so incredible, don't you think?
0:56:30 > 0:56:35- I want to live in them. - I am impressed by the detail, but you were talking before
0:56:35 > 0:56:38about having to love something and having a pull to it,
0:56:38 > 0:56:41but I'm not feeling that... What the hell is that weird porcupine thing?
0:56:41 > 0:56:43Well, we can't live in that.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45HE LAUGHS
0:56:48 > 0:56:50- This caught your eye, you like this? - I loved it.
0:56:50 > 0:56:52It's by Cornelia Parker.
0:56:52 > 0:56:57She had a beautiful long run of squashed sugar bowls last year.
0:56:57 > 0:56:59They were levitating just off the floor.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01They seemed to be all about memory
0:57:01 > 0:57:04and they had a very ghostly, poetic presence.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08And I think that this work has a similarly poetic feel to it.
0:57:08 > 0:57:13And then there's a rather ghostly child behind it.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18There's a really macabre, feathered, foetal figure.
0:57:18 > 0:57:19That's what I felt.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21I felt it was rather a sad figure,
0:57:21 > 0:57:26but then I spoke to someone else who said she was sleeping and peaceful.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29I suppose it could be like an angel, if you imagined an angel
0:57:29 > 0:57:33completely covered in feathers rather than just the wings.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37So we're back at the start
0:57:37 > 0:57:41and on either side you've got this piece by Ian Davenport, abstract,
0:57:41 > 0:57:44and then these two enormous John Hoyland works.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47I think these are really strong.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49I mean, they are so impressive.
0:57:49 > 0:57:51I think this whole room is so striking,
0:57:51 > 0:57:56because you've got these incredible contemporary pictures
0:57:56 > 0:57:59up against these very small...
0:57:59 > 0:58:00I didn't even notice those!
0:58:00 > 0:58:05..traditional pictures, as I would again - as you have now realised I have a passion for flowers -
0:58:05 > 0:58:09these are the ones I'd take home, they're the ones I'm just wowed by.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11The Hoylands?
0:58:11 > 0:58:13They're stunning.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17Well, thank you for walking round this with me...it's been good!
0:58:17 > 0:58:19- It's been loud, hasn't it? - It has been loud.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25I think what I really love about the Summer Exhibition
0:58:25 > 0:58:28is that it's completely untamable.
0:58:28 > 0:58:30There are so many works of art here
0:58:30 > 0:58:35that you're unlikely to enjoy everything you see, but in a sense, that's the point,
0:58:35 > 0:58:38this rough and tumble of all these diverse, jostling, different works of art
0:58:38 > 0:58:42is almost a microcosm of British democracy
0:58:42 > 0:58:45and I especially love the fact that through the ages,
0:58:45 > 0:58:48people have their own view of this eccentric exhibition -
0:58:48 > 0:58:53in fact, people really feel that the Summer Exhibition belongs to them.
0:58:55 > 0:58:58We didn't think anything to the one which was just in the corner there
0:58:58 > 0:59:00and seems to be various shades of pink.
0:59:00 > 0:59:03Don't really like abstract art.
0:59:03 > 0:59:06The best bit I like is that.
0:59:06 > 0:59:09I think that Prince Charles over there is too, um...
0:59:09 > 0:59:12- You come in and just see the profile.- Yes, he's lost over there.
0:59:12 > 0:59:14Nobody actually sees him.
0:59:14 > 0:59:17- I don't like that at all! - I don't either.- No.
0:59:20 > 0:59:23But I do think Princess Anne's portrait is beautiful.
0:59:23 > 0:59:26It's almost as if she's going to come out of the picture
0:59:26 > 0:59:27- and speak to you.- Yes, yes.
0:59:30 > 0:59:33Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd