Becoming an Ra
Led by artists and architects, the Royal Academy of Arts has stayed true to its founding principles to promote art and
architecture through exhibition and education. Founded in 1768 by a personal mandate from the King, the list of the 34 founder members was dominated by landscape artists and portraitists, including such luminaries as Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, as well as Charles Catton, a keen painter of
animals and heraldic crests.
Since then, artists such as JMW Turner and John Constable, architects Charles Barry and Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, were all elected to be Royal Academicians. A significant number of equine artists have made the cut, Alfred Munnings and George Stubbs being the most prominent (both of whom feature in this summer’s Great
Spectacle). The list also includes
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, George Gerrard, Sawrey Gilpin, Abraham Cooper, John Rattenbury Skeaping and sculptor George Frederic Watts, whose magnificent bronze work of a classical figure on horseback, Physical Energy, an allegory of man’s vitality and humanity’s
quest for betterment, was recast and displayed earlier this year in the Academy courtyard to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth and as
part of the RA250 celebrations.
But such an illustrious heritage does not mean that the RA has failed to move with the times – indeed, its electoral process is sufficiently open to ensure that fresh blood can be injected every year. The number of Royal Academicians has now increased to 80. To be in with
a shot of acquiring the coveted RA honorific through election by the current incumbents, artists and architects must be under the age of 75 and practising in the UK. Candidates must be nominated
by a current RA and supported by a further eight RA signatories. Elections take place three times a year and upon ascendance, the new RA must donate a Diploma Work to the Academy – this is one of the reasons the institution’s own collection is so richly varied. Today’s Royal Academicians include David Hockney, Sir Antony Gormley, Norman Foster and Richard Rogers, plus those who have attained cult status alongside the stamp of peer recognition: Tracey Emin, Gilbert & George (who constitute a
single member) and Grayson Perry.