6 d. ago Royal Academy visitors blame 'woke' art for plummeting attendance figures amid gallery redundancies

The visitor feedback forms, seen exclusively by the Mail on Sunday, reveal that a mob of angry members, known as 'Friends of the RA', are not returning due to the 'woke' art.

Politics

9 d. ago Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur review – pomposity puncturing gets lost in personae

Wallace Collection, LondonArtworks ‘by’ Perry’s new alter ego – an abuse survivor from the East End called Shirley Smith – sit among works by real outsider artists. His stronger pieces are more straightforwardGrayson Perry is fascinated by outsiders – outcasts, nonconformists, the marginalised and the deviant. He has frequently assumed the outsider position, delivering commentary on class, gender and Britons’ petty snobberies. Across his career, he has pronounced on how his medium of choice (ceramics), his crossdressing, or his engagement with popular culture have excited the disapproval of cliques including the art world. Now, as a member of the Royal Academy, a knight of the realm and a ubiquitous presence on TV, that anti-establishment stance is under some strain. He shall hereafter be referred to as Sir Grayson, to keep him in his (elevated) place.Delusions of Grandeur is a classic Graysonian bluff – a title that carries its own takedown (who does he think he is?). Though it is ...

Politics

1 week ago ‘No more velvet rope’: how New York’s beloved Frick museum opened up – and now even sells coffee

It is a Gilded Age gem full of Old Masters, from Vermeer to Holbein. And now, after a ravishing $300m revamp, it is even more welcoming. Our writer revels in its silk-clad walls and the freshly trickling fountain of its light-filled sculpture court‘If I could have a pound for every person who’s told me that the Frick is their favourite museum, I’d be able to retire already,” says Axel Rüger, the new director of the New York institution, who has just moved there from leading the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Part of the Frick’s appeal is that it is a great museum that hardly feels like a museum at all. Even more than, say, the Wallace Collection in London – one of the inspirations behind the 5th Avenue landmark – the Frick has the feeling of being someone’s home, its contents selected by a singular eye.That’s because it was and they were. Both home and eye belonged to one man, the Pennsylvania-born coke and steel magnate Henry Clay Frick, who was rich beyond imagining. It is not, ...

Politics

1 week ago ‘No more velvet rope’: how New York’s beloved Frick museum opened up – and will now even sell coffee

It is a Gilded Age gem full of Old Masters, from Vermeer to Holbein. Now, after a ravishing $300m revamp, it is even more welcoming. Our writer revels in its silk-clad walls and the freshly trickling fountain of its light-filled sculpture court‘If I could have a pound for every person who’s told me that the Frick is their favourite museum, I’d be able to retire already,” says Axel Rüger, the new director of the New York institution, who has just moved there from leading the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Part of the Frick’s appeal is that it is a great museum that hardly feels like a museum at all. Even more than, say, the Wallace Collection in London – one of the inspirations behind the 5th Avenue landmark – the Frick has the feeling of being someone’s home, its contents selected by a singular eye.That’s because it was and they were. Both home and eye belonged to one man, the Pennsylvania-born coke and steel magnate Henry Clay Frick, who was rich beyond imagining. It is not, thou...

Politics

2 w. ago Gale warnings, gothic fantasies and a masterpiece of a garden – the week in art

Victor Hugo seduces, big names tackles a world in permacrisis and Hélène Binet challenges the Englishness of the country house – all in your weekly dispatchAstonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor HugoThese gothic fantasies and nature studies by the author of Les Misérables transport you to a surreal, seductive inner world. Read the full review. • Royal Academy, London, until 29 June Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo at the Royal Academy review : 'unnerving'

Victor Hugo was a prolific artist as well as a towering author and poet, but his strange work is more interesting and unnerving than truly great

Politics

2 w. ago Protestors descend on London’s Royal Academy over planned job cuts

Protestors descend on London’s Royal Academy over planned job cuts  Art Newspaper

Events

3 w. ago Royal Academy of Arts staff to stage protest over redundancies

Rising costs and shifting visitor behaviours have placed financial strain on the Academy, the charity stated

Events

3 w. ago Royal Academy plunged into financial crisis amid plummeting visitor numbers as iconic art institution announces nearly 100 redundancies

The prestigious art institution in central London is getting rid of staff in a bid to secure its future amid plummeting visitor numbers and a lack of revenue following the coronavirus pandemic.

Events