Congratulations to all The London Group members who are exhibiting this year.
The first Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy took place in 1769. It has been held every year since then without exception and is the longest continuously staged exhibition of contemporary art in the world. The curator for this year’s Summer Exhibition is Ann Christopher RA.
Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1
18 June – 18 August 2023
London Group Members exhibiting: Anthony Whishaw RA, Susan Wilson, Peter Clossick, Vaughan Grylls, J. Yuen Ling Chiu, Darren Nisbett, Charlotte C Mortensson, Sumi Perera Jeff Lowe, Gary Clough, Frank Bowling OBE RA and Anthony Eyton RA.
Serenity, Darren Nisbett LG
A drone photo of the mulberry concrete docks in Normandy which formed a landing platform for the D-Day operation. The low early morning sun cast the shadow over the structure giving the image a serene feeling and reminded me of a church.
Across the Road in Winter, Peter Clossick PPLG
‘THE DRUNKEN CLERGYMAN’ Vaughan Grylls LG
A photograph I took in 2024 of a sculpture I made back in 1967 and which I still own – a 2-foot high fibreglass sculpture, half filled with an appropriate liquid that makes slurping noises when you push it. My children and now my grandchildren adore it.
For this 2024 image for the Royal Academy, I surrounded The Drunken Clergyman with empty space and tipped it on its side to show its instability.
Here is where the idea started:
One day in 1967 I was hitchhiking home to Nottinghamshire. On the way I stopped at a Berni Inn, new in those days with glossy brochures containing photographs of meals and a thing called an ‘Irish coffee’. I’d never seen anything like that before so I ordered one. Nice. And then another. And another. And I kept going.
Much later, I staggered out, finding a bench in a churchyard opposite, laid down and nodded off. I think it was opposite.
“Are you feeling all right, old chap?”
A rotund vicar was peering down at me….
A Crossroads, Kingston 3, Jamaica and A Table, A Life, A Chair (Trench Town), Charlotte C Mortensson LG
Spinney with Startled Birds, Anthony Whishaw LG
Whishaw will also be showing 6 works one of which is the recently completed ‘Spinney With Startled Birds’.
To The Memory of David Davies, Susan Wilson LG
This tribute to the late David Davies is a copy of the painting in the Met Gallery NY.
I was drawing St John on Patmos in the National Gallery, here when a student at the RA Schools. David Davies would sit by me and talk to me about El Greco, Velasquez, Zurbaran, as I worked. Before I went to art. School, I had travelled from Lima Peru to La Paz Bolivia overland on trucks and buses. Then on arrival into London I took a bus to Spain and hitchhiked for six weeks right around that country. One hot afternoon my friend Yael and I were dropped above the castle of San Servando ( see high on left). I had never seen, in golden late summer light, anything so lovely. Inside Toledo I saw “The Burial of El Conde Orgaz”. That changed me forever. I’ve never lost my deep love for Spanish Painting and David through the simple kindness of many conversations helped me continue and deepen my knowledge.
The Architectural Uncanny Inside Out – Outside In and Blurred Lines – Blue Nude Descending Stairs III [A], Sumi Perera LG
Act of Instance no.6, Jeff Lowe LG
Façade and Quadrant, Gary Clough
Silver Slipper, Frank Bowling OBE RA LG
