Royal academy

The Royal Academy of Arts turned 250 years old only last week and I was there on the day admiring the 16th century art exhibition on display in their annex. Fortunately, my sister works at the Royal Academy of Arts, situated in Piccadilly circus, which means I can have access to many of the exhibitions, sometimes even for free.

In this article I shall talk about why I like the Royal Academy, what makes its so special compared to other museums and why you should visit the RA instead of an art gallery. Somewhere down the line, I would love to be able to write reviews for the Royal Academy and their many exhibitions, so this shall be the first of many articles to be written about the Royal Academy.

When you first visit the RA you might notice that it is very well hidden and tucked away. One can so easily walk straight past the Academy if you are immersed in your own world. It can also be confusing if you look it up on google because it is also called Burlington House, which is where members have their private quarters.

One must not forget that The Royal Academy is a teaching institution and is focused on the arts and helping artists find their artistic talent, wherever it is hidden. Moreover, the Academy itself is comprised of many societies within one building. It is also rumoured to contain a secret poet society somewhere within its walls, which I have yet to discover!

I always enjoy visiting the Burlington entrance as they have a fantastic new space to hold unique art in a new light. Moving on from this, near the Senate Rooms they have tucked away another wing of art. This is where the first painting I fell in love with is held; Lucifer summoning his legions. I am a huge fan of this painting. I thought that the eyes of the devil were very haunting and I could easily write a article just about how haunting the eyes looked, as they cast a spell on me. I was captivated by those eyes as I was admiring the painting in all its hellish glory. I often wondered why they had not placed this magnificent portrait of Lucifer at the front entrance until I later learnt that many of the artists in the academy were Christian and therefore would rather not be greeted by a portrait of the devil, understandably.

I have been to a few exhibitions at the Academy like the recent one on Renaissance nudes. I felt that the Renaissance nudes was a strange exhibition, partly because of personal preference, as I thought they would have done better with putting on a exhibition dedicated to William Blake or Leonardo Da Vinci or even Raphael. The reason I also found it a bit odd was because it focused on the artists' obsession with the naked form, which I did not care for.

The Summer Exhibitions are by far the best and the Oceania exhibit at last year's Summer Exhibition was one of the best ones yet. I rather enjoyed learning about the pacific culture and how the British Empire changed it in ways which meant it would never be the same again. I liked learning about Captain Cook and how Westerners changed the Pacific Culture. It was a very beautiful culture as they were Island based and they navigated by canoes using the stars to help them on their journeys.

I also have very special memories of the Oceania Exhibition as they let me play on their amazing and special piano that was on tour from New Zealand. The whole point of the piano, which was studded with pearls from New Zealand, was to show that even those beyond our perceived "civilised world" had the education to create such beauty and art. The Piano demonstrated that New Zealand could build beautiful and rare pieces of art just like Britain and the West.

On one of my many visits to the wonderful Royal academy I bumped into my sister. We started talking about the origins of the Academy . She tried to catch my off guard by asking me who was the very first President of the Royal Academy. By pure chance my mind happened to be working at this moment in time and the answer came to me from the tip of my tongue. In my wonderful deep voice I responded "The First President of the Royal academy was Sir Joshua Reynolds." Joshua Reynolds was born on 16th July 1723 and lived until 1792. If one can remember just one small fact from this article remember that one!

Joshua Reynolds was knighted by George III in 1769 for his dedication to art. He was educated in Balliol College Oxford, which I have also visited. (As an aside, a small fun fact is that Boris Johnson also went to that college. I also think it is one of the few colleges in Oxford that is worth visiting as it still has medieval battlements. I also really liked their garden which is well maintained.) So from this we can gather that Joshua Reynolds was rather bright and that the King supported the Royal Academy (hence it being attributed the prefix "Royal".)

My Grandmother has been a member of the Royal Academy for eons, my sister works in the bookshop of the Royal Academy and I am a very keen art lover and a member of the Royal Academy myself, so I feel as though my generation are continuing the family tradition! I feel very lucky to have been able to visit the RA from a young age and that it has always been a part of my life.

I like regularly visiting the Royal Academy because it is a hidden gem in London, plus they have a lot of Renaissance art. The Royal Academy was built for artists in the Victorian age so it belongs to that time too in many ways. I have always enjoyed the exhibitions they have put on although I think they should focus on some english artist from time to time like William Blake.

Overall, The Royal Academy is top notch and if you have not seen it, add it to your bucket list immediately. It is a daunting place to visit because of its baroque styled architecture. It is also massive, so for a first time visit just visit the courtyard and the main exhibition room, otherwise it is too much information to digest in one sitting. One of my rules when visiting museums is to realise when your mind has had enough. Plan what you see before you visit. I hope you have learnt a lot of useful information about the Royal Academy and I hope you are now dying to visit it yourself.