Wednesday, August 24, 2011

MARTIN AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ART



FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2011

On August 15 we arrived at The Royal Academy of Art in London where Martin was due for an interview as he is participating in the competition "Great Britons". The winner will be decorating twelve of the British Airways aircrafts for the Olympics in London in 2012.
Only ten people were short listed, by all accounts friendly and intelligent artists. We waited some time together in the restaurant before the contestants were taken to a waiting room and I went out and walked around the neighborhood. I felt quite privileged to experience a significant enough event in the art world at a prestigious institution in London.
Martin was well prepared and it all seemed to have gone well. Among others, he shook hands with the eminent artist Tracey Emin. I am not allowed to disclose more about all this before the winner has been chosen and the results publicized.  


Hopeful!
We were able to see the Royal Academy of Art summer exhibition that I wrote a previous blog entry about, and so we got to see quite the cross section of what people create these days. There were a lot of members of the Royal Academy (who have distinguished themselves artistically speaking) and their work sold for thousands - prices around £ 30.000 weren't unusual! These artists also displayed up to five pieces, which to me seemed quite excessive and I believe it's also considered a bit selfish. Some of it wasn't really any good at all, for instance some sloppy drawings of people dancing... By the look of it, it's not impossible to get in as an outsider, and I feel I would like to try this since most pieces of art actually sold! The good thing about seeing the exhibition on it's last day was that we got to see this.

Read all about my impressions of Tracey Emin's art in my previous blog post!

Vivi-Mari Carpelan copyright 2011
I am glad to be in a country where art abounds...
though I worry about the harsh competition.

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