Details for the Royal Academy’s 2022 exhibition programme have been confirmed.
© The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2020. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
The Royal Academy’s newly announced programme of exhibitions for 2022 will begin with its postponed exhibition Francis Bacon: Man and Beast which will be on display from the 29th January. It will chart the development of the artist’s work through the lens of his fascination with animals and its impact on his treatment of the human figure through 45 paintings spanning across the artist’s career from his earliest works of the 1930s and 40s through to the final painting he ever made in 1991.
This exhibition will then be followed by Whistler’s Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan that will reveal the critical role that Hiffernan played in establishing Whistler’s reputation as one of the most influential artists of the late 19th century. Including around seventy works, including innovative paintings, drawings and prints, the display will offer a comprehensive account of Hiffernan’s role as an active participant in Whistler’s creative and personal life for more than twenty years.
From the 19th March, the Royal Academy of Arts will present Kyōsai: The Israel Goldman Collection. This exhibition will largely focus on the art of sekiga, ‘spontaneous paintings’, produced at ‘calligraphy and painting parties’ (shogakai) produced by Kawanabe Kyōsai. Many of the works selected for the display reveal a comical twist which plays on conventions or reflects the artist’s take on society.
The Summer Exhibition is set to return next year from the 21st June. Now in its 254th year, this annual exhibition provides a platform for emerging and established artists to showcase their works to an international audience, comprising a range of media from painting, printmaking and photography, to sculpture, architecture and film.
From the 15th July, the Royal Academy will display an exhibition devoted to the work of Milton Avery. This new display is the first comprehensive exhibition of Avery’s work in Europe. Bringing together around 70 paintings from the 1930s – 1960s, this will provide visitors with an opportunity to see many of the artist’s scenes of daily life, including portraits of loved ones and serene landscapes from his visits to Maine and Cape Cod.
The Royal Academy will then celebrate the work of William Kentridge in a new display which will be open to the public from the 24th September. This exhibition will span all 2 rooms in the RA’s Main Galleries, spilling out into its public spaces, and includes new work created in response to the galleries.It will bring together rarely seen works from the 1980s through to the present day, including the first UK presentation of the new animated film Waiting for the Sibyl, 2020.
The last exhibition to be announced is Making Modernism which will explore the work of pioneering women working in Germany in the early 1900s: Paula Modersohn-Becker, Kӓthe Kollwitz, Gabriele Münter and Marianne Werefkin. This display will introduce their innovative paintings and works on paper, alongside key pictures by Erma Bossi, Ottilie Reylaender and Jacoba van Heemskerk.
For more information about these exhibitions visit: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/