Royal Academy Summer show.

Forgot the pictures.

Honestly? Ghastly!

Awful, talentless …. Not artistic, although some would argue that it’s getting a reaction that makes it art.

I love the Summer Exhibition and go with younger son every year. I have bought things in the past but this year I bought something in advance! I was sent an email with a link to this year’s exhibits and chose a print which was selling like hotcakes. I won’t have time to frame it until I get back from Helsinki. I’m still going to the exhibition!

I had a look at Jim and Nancy Moirs' online shop and one of them, or possibly both, is/are very skilled at representational illustrations of birds.

It is all too easy to dismiss non representational pictures and other artwork as rubbish and this has been going on for years.

I don't feel as though I can judge except from my own, very narrow, perspective.

Yes Bumface Jim Moir does fabulous bird paintings.
I understand that art can be whatever the viewer finds it to be. However I don’t think I will ever understand why anyone would pay thousands of pounds for some coloured lines and a few splashes.

I quite like the one on the left, it would look good in a Scandi house.

It’s in the eye of the beholder, or so they say.

I used to go every year and always enjoyed it, and have a few purchases. But since Covid my travels have been fewer. No plans to go this year (yet).

Shameless boasting. My DD and her DD ( my GD) both have paintings in this year’s RA show.

That’s exciting vegansrock. Would love to see their entries some time.

Wow, vegansrock, your shameless boasting is completely justified.

Last year I was taken to the RA summer show by my DS and BiL, whose interest and knowledge of modern art is far more developed than mine. I do not mean by that that I only enjoy representational art, but that I am very selective about what abstract and conceptual art I enjoy.

Apologetically, half way round, I said to my sister, that I had yet to see a single piece of art that I wished to smuggle out and take home - and she agreed with me, as did my BiL.

Too many rooms were the personal choice of well known RA members who have a high media profle which they needed to maintain and I felt that their choices were chosen to impress a certain specific artistic group rather than what they really really liked.

However it was a great day out and a good giggle when discussing it on the train home

My DDs and GDs paintings are not abstract so cannot be dismissed as a few splashes of colour. BTW my DDs painting sold on the first day of opening, my GDs painting is not for sale, it is a portrait of her father. I haven’t been to the whole show yet - going next week, but I am very excited and will take a photo of myself in front of each of their paintings!

I used to love going to the summer exhibition. Can't make it now. Mixed feelings regarding those those paintings. I'm not keen, except for the use of bright colour which I like. I don't think i would pay good money for them, but I do think the more varied an exhibition is, is great.

I went for years as I paid for a membership and enjoyed many shows. However as the years went by I found that buying a programme was the only way to enjoy some of the rubbish that was presented as art. You could then laugh at the ridiculous prices that some of the work was demanding. I cancelled my membership during Covid and reinstated it the year before last but what was being shown was disappointing. Also I wasn’t keen on the renovations and new lay out as a lot more walking was necessary. Went one time and took my tired legs up to an exhibition by an artist who presented his portraits as a blank oval for the faces. The blurb described him producing several paintings a day. That said it all. Eventually I cancelled my membership as saw nothing to tempt me to make the journey.

I think it is rather like books. If you are well known you get promoted. Whatever you turn out.

Dh is a member and I’ve been before (not this year though) - there have always been masses of all sorts. Anything I really liked, reasonably priced, was always already sold, though. Favourite last year was a man sitting on a sofa with a glass of beer, with a dog snuggled up beside him. I do not have the most sophisticated tastes!

But last year my outstanding memory, I’m afraid to say, is of walking away right afterwards, and seeing a couple of hundred naked cyclists (nearly all male) cycling down Piccadilly! It was baking hot, too - I did wonder whether there’d be a plethora of sunburnt willies later.

The thought of all those naked men in such close contact with cycling saddles and cycling makes my eyes water just at the thought.

Same old story... celebrity sells.

My daughter-in-law worked at the Royal Academy for many years, and was very involved with the Summer Exhibition. She now works freelance. I quite miss the connection.

My granddaughter had a piece in the exhibition a few years ago, only around 7 or 8 at the time. It was a sketch that she did in her lunch hour because she forgot she was supposed to have done something over the wknd. It was far from anything special except to parents and GP's but she was thrilled.

If those entries were done by members of the public they wouldn’t stand a chance. The cult of celebrity allows all sorts of third rate offerings to be fawned over because they are by celebrities. Is it just me that is sick and tired of celebrities being put on a pedestal?

Amazing what passes as art these days.