Royal Academy Gift To The Queen Goes On Display At Buck-House

Royal Academy

The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace is holding a special exhibition of works titled Gifted: From the Royal Academy to The Queen. More than 100 works by Royal Academicians are on display from 1 November.  It includes a selection of prints, drawings, and photographs, to works in oil, watercolour and mixed media, the portfolio of works on paper was presented to Her Majesty The Queen by the Royal Academy of Arts last year to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee.  It has an impressive line up of names by some of the most high-profile Academicians, including Tracey Emin, David Hockney, Anish Kapoor, Cornelia Parker and Grayson Perry among others.

The Royal Academy was founded by George III in 1768, and Her Majesty The Queen is the current Patron.  The Academy has presented gifts to The Queen on two previous significant occasions in Her Majesty’s reign.  The first portfolio was given to mark the Coronation in 1953 and contained work by Augustus John, Sir Alfred Munnings and Stanley Spencer.  The second was presented in celebration of The Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 and included works by Peter Blake, Dame Elisabeth Frink and Carel Weight.  Nine Academicians, including Olwyn Bowey, Bernard Dunstan and David Tindle, have contributed to both the Silver and Diamond Jubilee portfolios.

The gift was presented to The Queen in November 2012 by the Royal Academy’s President, Christopher Le Brun, and its Secretary and Chief Executive, Dr Charles Saumarez Smith.  The Queen most recently visited the Royal Academy of Arts in May 2012 when she attended a ‘Celebration of the Arts’ reception to mark her Diamond Jubilee.

For the Diamond Jubilee portfolio, several Academicians have given works inspired by The Queen’s reign.  These include Professor Tracey Emin’s HRH Royal Britannia, a monoprint portrait of The Queen, and sculptor John Maine’s Westminster Abbey Sacrarium, a drawing of the Abbey’s Cosmati Pavement, the spot where The Queen was crowned.  The architect Michael Manser has contributed a drawing and photograph of The Queen’s Suite, Heathrow Airport, which he designed in 1988.

Other highlights of the portfolio include: Gillian Ayres, Festive 1; Basil Beattie, Janus Series; Olwyn Bowey, Susie; Sir Anthony Caro, Seated Figure; Maurice Cockrill, Treasure; Eileen Cooper, From the ‘Couples’ series; David Hockney, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee, iPad drawing ; Anish Kapoor, Untitled; Sonia Lawson, Twin Forms; Leonard Manasseh, Daylight; David Nash, Yellow; Humphrey Ocean, Birds at Ngong; Grayson Perry, Design for Kenilworth AMI; Tom Phillips, Sixteen Appearances of the Union Jack;  Richard Long, A Day’s Walk across Dartmoor; Dhruva Mistry, Head; Joe Tilson, For Her Majesty The Queen a P.C. from Venice; Cornelia Parker, Spitting Sugar; Richard Wilson, Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea!.

The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace  1 November 2013 – 16 March 2014

There are also two Olympic-themed works – Zaha Hadid’s gouache and charcoal work Olympic Aquatics Centre, and Anne Desmet’s wood engraving Olympic Shadows

Gifted: From the Royal Academy to The Queen is at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 1 November 2013 – 16 March 2014, with Castiglione: Lost Genius.

Photo: © Artlyst 2013

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