Disappointing selection of life skills
Exhibition From Life Royal Academy of Arts ★★★★★
‘What was meant to be an eloquent, sprightly defence of working from life proves to be excessively mumbling and indistinct’
It’s a common complaint about contemporary art: artists these days have forgotten how to draw. A new exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, however, seeks to scotch this stale notion, by demonstrating the ongoing importance of working from life for artists today.
The premise of From Life is simple. From at least the 18th century, life drawing, like copying plaster casts of ancient sculptures, was an essential element in the education of artists.
With the rise of modern art, however, the emphasis on studying human anatomy diminished. By the Eighties, the discipline was so unfashionable that, in some art schools, it was banned.
As this exhibition suggests, though, many contemporary artists relish working from life, and often do so vigorously. In a sense, then, this small show in the Sackler Wing amounts to an amuse-bouche before the main course of All Too Human, a major exhibition devoted to 20th-century British figurative painting that is due to open at Tate Britain next February.
The trouble is, at the RA, what was meant to be an eloquent, sprightly defence of working from life proves to be excessively mumbling and indistinct. In the opening gallery, for instance, we find an “unfinished” painting by Lucian Freud, on prominent display. Given how little of the canvas has been touched by the artist – it would be more accurate to call it “barely started” – it is, at best, a tantalising curio.
In the second gallery, things warm up, to a degree, as Jeremy Deller presents a cheeky collaborative project involving 22 students from the New York Academy of Art, whom he invited to attend a life-drawing class, with Iggy Pop posing as a model.
The resulting drawings are stylistically diverse. The best of them are bold and self-assured. The worst, though, are formulaic and forgettable – hardly a persuasive advertisement for working from life.
Elsewhere, we find predictable work by Academicians Yinka Shonibare and Antony Gormley. The portraitist Jonathan Yeo, meanwhile, presents a bronze head (a self-portrait), realised using Google’s Tilt Brush software. Unfortunately, it is far less cuttingedge than it purports to be: nobody could argue that Yeo’s use of Google’s technology has pioneered an exciting new aesthetic. Consequently, this moment in the exhibition smacks of product placement.
Likewise, the related artistic “experiments” with virtual reality (VR), which visitors experience by donning headsets, downstairs in the Tennant Gallery. Although fun, these works feel uncomfortably like glossy promotions for various VR brands.
Back in the Sackler Wing, in the final room, there are stronger works to savour: a beautiful drawing, with a fascinating backstory, by Humphrey Ocean; imposing paintings by Jenny Saville and Chantal Joffe.
In general, though, From Life feels too scattershot and stop-and-start. At times, it is like a commercial showcase for a select band of Academicians.
Which is a shame, because, as a result, it is unlikely to dissuade reactionary types from denigrating modern art for a perceived lack of skill.
Until March 11. Details: 020 7300 8090; royalacademy.org.uk