Latest news with #RoyalAcademyofArts
TimesLIVE
08-08-2025
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
Rolls-Royce Phantom celebrates 100 years with art collection
The Rolls-Royce Phantom, the marque's pinnacle nameplate, celebrates its centenary year in 2025, though the British luxury brand was founded in 1904 by Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. More than eight generations and 100 years, this car has been owned by some of the most famous creatives in modern history. Masters including Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Christian 'Bébé' Bérard and Cecil Beaton all travelled by Rolls-Royce while Dame Laura Knight, the first woman elected to full membership of the Royal Academy of Arts, used a Rolls-Royce as a mobile studio, painting from its interior. With the Phantom's 100th birthday in mind, and the close links with the arts, the marque has selected the story of the eccentric Spanish artist Dalí and a Rolls-Royce car to commission two special artworks inspired by Dalí's moments with a Phantom — the first a cauliflower-filled Phantom on a cold winter day in December 1955 and the other inspired by Andy Warhol — one of the most influential artists of the 20th century — seen by many as Dalí's natural successor.
West Australian
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
Turning heads on a 250th anniversary
Joseph Mallord William Turner — often better known simply as J.M.W. Turner — is revered perhaps more than any other artist to emerge from Britain. And this year, the 250th anniversary of his birth, will see events and exhibitions taking place across the island. Here are some of the key places paying homage and which showcase some of Turner's best watercolours, oil paintings and sketches. Born into a working/lower-middle-class family in the Covent Garden district of the capital, and keeping a Cockney accent all his life, Turner is the face of the £20 note and a star turn at some of London's top galleries. The Tate Britain has the largest free collection of Turners anywhere, and it's also compiling a comprehensive catalogue of his 37,500 works, which will be available to browse on its website. Meanwhile, the National Gallery by Trafalgar Square boasts what is frequently touted as Turner's most famous painting, The Fighting Temeraire (1838), which features his distinctive brushwork and trademark shafts of colour and light, depicting an old warship being towed at sunset on the River Thames. You'll also find Turner pieces at the Royal Academy of Arts, the prestigious institution that enrolled him as an art student when he was 14. Other spots on London's Turner trail include the artist's former country retreat, now a museum between the south-western suburbs of Richmond and Twickenham (this year it's exhibiting a batch of his watercolours of animals, birds and fish) and St Paul's Cathedral, where he was buried after his funeral on December 30, 1851. Lauded as a romantic landscape painter, Turner was also attracted to the sea, and spent a lot of time painting on the south coast of England, particularly in Kent, where the town of Margate is home to the Turner Contemporary. This striking 21st-century gallery, on the site of an old guesthouse where Turner used to stay, is on the Margate seafront with inspiring views through its floor-to-ceiling windows of the sea and the broad sandy beach. Exhibitions by artists — local and global — are held here, and this year, on loan from Tate, Turner's 1840 piece, Waves Breaking on a Lee Shore at Margate (Study for Rockets and Blue Lights), is on display, accompanied by activities to celebrate the artist's connections with the town. One highlight of the year-long festival is a poem by Margate artist Tracey Emin, a kind of love letter to Turner, which is projected at the gallery. Margate, incidentally, featured in the 2014 biopic, Mr Turner, with Timothy Spall in the lead role, although the coast of Cornwall stood in for Kent on screen. Stocked with one of the most important collections of Turner watercolours outside of London, the Whitworth Gallery is a gem in Manchester's leafy university district. One of its big exhibitions for 2025, supplemented with loans from Tate Britain, is Turner: In Light and Shade. Last presented here more than a century ago, it focuses on the 71 prints from the artist's Liber Studiorum project, which Turner crafted in the first quarter of the 19th century. Comprising an evocative cluster of sepia-toned drawings, etchings, mezzotints and copper plates, it features mostly land and seascapes that Turner captured across Britain and Europe, including pieces from the north of France, Italy and the Swiss Alps. You can ponder what you've seen at the gallery's glass-fronted cafe, which overlooks the trees and sculptures of Whitworth Park. Turner's legacy is such that the UK's most acclaimed annual award for contemporary art is named after him. This year's Turner Prize is taking place in Bradford, the 2025 UK Capital of Culture (and the birthplace of another well-known artist, David Hockney, who once curated an exhibition of Turner watercolours at Tate Britain). Also set in a lovely park, and containing a special gallery dedicated to Hockney, Cartwright Hall is hosting the Turner Prize 2025 exhibition from September 27 to February 22, 2026. Visitors will be able to peruse work from the shortlisted contenders: Nnena Kalu, a Glasgow-born artist who makes cocoon-like installations using materials like fabrics, paper and cellophane; London-based photographer Rene Matic; Zadie Xa, a Korean-Canadian who now resides in London and weaves painting, mural, textile and sound; and Mohammed Sami, who's originally from Baghdad and best-known for his large-scale paintings about war, memory and loss. Also in Yorkshire, Harewood House, an elegant pile outside Leeds that Turner once painted, has an exhibition that celebrates both him and Jane Austen, who was also born 250 years ago this year. It looks at their shared interest in the society and culture of the British country house and its landscape. In England's north-west, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool will host Turner: Always Contemporary (October 25 to February 22, 2026), tracing both the artist's own work and his enduring impact on later generations, covering themes like travel, landscape, and artistic experimentation. Scotland was another place that enchanted Turner. He painted its lochs, mountains and castles, and also portrayed the streets and setting of Edinburgh on canvas. If you happen to be in Scotland's capital next January, pay a visit to the Scottish National Gallery. For more than a century, it has showcased the watercolours of Turner throughout the first month of the year — respecting a wish by Henry Vaughan, an art collector and Turner fan, who gifted 38 works to the gallery in 1899. + To plan a trip to Britain, see
Spectator
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Why do my outfits make people so angry?
I have always cycled everywhere in London, not because I want to save the planet but because I want to get to my destination on time. I ride a big heavy Dutch woman's bike: practical, less nickable and I can wear pretty much anything while riding it. On this occasion I was wearing frilly pink nursery-print dungarees, pink patent bootees, a sweet little jacket with puffy pale-blue bows down the front, a pink cloche hat and a pink-and-blue shiny PVC backpack. I was just locking my bike to the railings on Charing Cross Road when an angry man approached. 'Are you a paedophile?' he roared. 'Why are you dressed like that?' This is not the first time one of my outfits has elicited this kind of reaction and my initial proposed response is: 'Having watched the news, paedophiles tend to look more like you than me.' But this time I thought better of it and just replied: 'I don't think paedophiles tend to advertise.' He stormed off. Still on two wheels, I motorcycled over to Hay-on-Wye for the festival to do a presentation called 'The Joy of Singing' with my vocal coach Juliet Russell. I have worked with her for six years and, as someone who had never sung before, I have found our lessons to be emotional and revelatory. To sing well one has to make oneself very vulnerable. It took a year before I could sing in front of my wife. Juliet is very encouraging but also has to deliver tough feedback. Another of her pupils once praised her to me: 'She serves the best shit sandwich in London.' The beginning of June heralds the opening of the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, an event which has been a fixture of the London season for more than 250 years. The preview party is always a glorious spectacle. The first time I attended I felt as if I were on an acid trip, overwhelmed by golden rooms swirling with colourful art and fashion. I always save my most paparazzi-friendly outfits for the occasion. This year I wore a cartoonish orange-and-yellow number with a giant blue nappy, purple wig, orange tights and my highest cerise flatforms. The event was very well attended but I thought a plague of chromophobia (fear of colour) had swept in. The artworks were as bonkers and bright as always, but a lot of the crowd looked as if they had just popped in from work – a sea of black, navy and grey. Dressing up for a party is like pimping your front garden: you don't just do it for yourself, you dress up so everybody feels they are at a fun event, not a conference sponsored by LinkedIn. Disappointment in someone's dull attire can be a creative force. In 2005 I was on the number 38 bus dressed as a housewife in M&S when I bumped into a friend. Natalie Gibson, always a vision in popping colour, teaches fashion print at Central Saint Martins art school. She looked me up and down and said, 'I think my students could do better than that.' Over coffee we conceived the Make a Dress for Grayson Perry Project. So every year Natalie and I and the staff at CSM coax the students to design and make me an outfit featuring print. Over 20 years I have had more than 500 made for me and have probably bought about half of them. This year I decided would be the last. So the day of the final, final crit arrived. It is a joyous occasion. I model all the outfits and award trophies. Some of the students were not born when we started the course, and Natalie has taught there since 1964. The arts endure. I was sad to hear of the death of Alan Yentob. My experience of him was always as a champion of the arts and the talent working behind as well as in front of the camera. He was someone I was always pleased to encounter for a funny chat at some arts do. He had an endearing/infuriating habit of incessant name-dropping and loved hanging out with what I call 'cerebrities'. I once arrived early at some big arts event and immediately encountered Alan. We chatted and then he wandered off only to return ten minutes later. 'Couldn't you find anyone more famous to hang out with?' I asked. 'No,' he said.
New York Post
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter's daughter Nell makes rare red carpet appearance
Nell Burton is all grown up. Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter's rarely-seen 17-year-old daughter made a rare public appearance at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Preview Party on Wednesday night in London. Nell was joined by her famous mom, 59, as the pair posed for red carpet photos at the Royal Academy of Arts. 9 Nell Burton and Helena Bonham Carter at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition Preview Party 2025 on June 11 in London. Darren Gerrish/WireImage for Royal Academy of Arts 9 Helena Bonham Carter with her teenage daughter at an event in London. Brett D. Cove / The teenager wore a red dress and held a white purse, while Bonham Carter had on a black floral dress with sunglasses and black shoes. Bonham Carter and Burton, 66, welcomed Nell in 2007. Their son Billy, 21, was born in 2003. 9 Helena Bonham Carter and her daughter Nell Burton. REUTERS The former couple met while filming 2001's 'Planet of the Apes.' They dated until 2014 and agreed to joint custody after their split. Since Nell and Billy were born, Bonham Carter and Burton have made it a point to keep their children out of the spotlight. In October, Nell and Billy made a rare public appearance with their dad at the opening of The World of Tim Burton exhibition at The Design Museum in London. 9 Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton attend the Lulu Guinness and Rob Ryan Fan Bag launch party in London in Nov. 2010. Getty Images 9 Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Burton with their children at the 'Ocean of Stars' launch in London in March 2013. Jonathan Hordle/Shutterstock In 2020, Bonham Carter spoke to The Guardian about how their kids had finally gotten used to their family dynamic. 'It's taken us some time to adjust, but I think it's really very good now,' she shared. 'And the kids are fine, they get to have a dual life.' 9 Tim Burton and his kids Nell Burton, Billy Burton at the Rome Film Fest 2021. Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images 'At first it's a horrible thing to get used to, not having your children around,' the 'Enola Holmes' actress said about sharing custody. 'The cruelty of divorce is extraordinary. But then you get to a point where you're like, Oh, I get this week off! Some parts are very much to be recommended.' 9 Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton at the 'Planet of the Apes' premiere in New York in 2001. WireImage On the 'Therapy Works' podcast in Dec. 2022, Bonham Carter reflected on her 'painful' breakup with Burton, which she referred to as a 'divorce' despite the exes never marrying. 'It was a long-lasting thing. That's the other thing, it's not that finite,' she stated. 'It never ends. Even if you divorce somebody, it's a kind of marriage if you have children with them. The relationship has to change.' 9 Helena Bonham Carter at the 2024 BAFTA Television Awards. WireImage 9 Tim Burton at the 2024 Primetime Emmy Awards. Getty Images 'Part of the grieving is letting go and it takes a longer time than people expect,' she added. Before dating Burton, Bonham Carter had a relationship with Kenneth Branagh while the British filmmaker was married to Emma Thompson. Branagh and Thompson divorced in 1995, and Branagh and Bonham Carter stayed together for five years until they separated in 1999. The 'Edward Scissorhands' director, for his part, has been dating actress Monica Bellucci since 2023. She starred in his 2024 horror comedy 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.'
The Herald Scotland
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Inside a Bearsden home that's been housing an art gallery for 25 years
This year's Big Summer Show, featuring more than 600 paintings from around 110 artists runs until June 15. 'I see the gallery as the Scottish equivalent of the Royal Academy of Arts in London – without the vast space and hanging committee, of course,' says Ken, smiling. 'At its heart, though, that is what we are trying to do – to make a broad mix of art, of real quality, accessible to as many people as possible.' In 2000, the era of the dot com boom, Ken and Susan took a leap of faith into the online art world, driven by their own passion for and knowledge of the Scottish art scene. Ken's grandson Angus helps with some paintings (Image: ken lemond) 'I have three degrees, none of them in art,' says Ken, smiling. 'I was an accountant before I gave it up to run the gallery full time. 'My interest in art comes from my passion for reading about it and collecting it.' He adds: 'Neither Susan nor I could ever have imagined how it would take off, or that we'd still be doing this 25 years later.' Having a gallery in their home happened 'accidentally', says Ken, with a laugh. 'We brought the artworks into the house to have them photographed for the website, but our friends, who were always popping in, would stop to admire and ask questions, and end up buying them,' he says. READ MORE 'For the first three years of the business we didn't open to the public, we just sold through word of mouth. It was very organic, and it just kept growing.' In 2003, the gallery opened four days a year, prompting the birth of its hugely successful summer and Christmas shows, and in 2010, the couple added an extension to their home to expand the space and allow for more solo and two- or three-person shows. The couple's daughter, Kate Fleming, has joined her parents in the running of the business – unsurprising, she laughs, considering how much it surrounded her growing up. 'My sister Kirsty and I were always yelling, 'can you PLEASE move these paintings' because they were everywhere when we were little - on the floor, on the sofa, and we just wanted to watch television,' says Kate, smiling. Ken with his daughter Kate (Image: ken lemond) 'I didn't appreciate art then, but I realise now how lucky we were to grow up in that world, and to be given such an understanding of it at a young age.' Kate is mother to three-year-old Angus and one-year-old Anna, who make regular appearances at the shows to the delight of their proud grandparents, and the customers. She adds: 'I think Angus's first words, honestly, were 'grandpa' and 'painting'….It is lovely, to see them so excited. And I know I will always be very grateful to have had a gallery in my childhood home.' The Scottish art scene is strong, says Ken, and it has changed considerably even in the years since The Lemond Gallery opened. 'I remember the Glasgow artist George Devlin saying to me that when he left art school 'no gallery wants to look at students or graduates, they just want work by dead artists',' he says. 'Today, I think art is more democratic, less elitist. It is more affordable, and accessible. We have watched that change, and I believe, have been part of it too.' One of the joys of the last 25 years, says Ken, has been gently guiding customers as they grow their collections, filling their homes with beautiful artworks. 'We try to be the scaffolding around them, supporting them, pushing them out of their comfort zone when necessary," he says, smiling. "We have also loved spending time with artists, especially those coming out of art school where they don't really teach you how to run a business. 'We cultivate and nurture them, helping them understand how to work with galleries, how to be realistic with pricing, for example, and that has been extremely rewarding too.' The Big Summer Show, like its winter counterpart, is extensively researched and carefully curated, giving art-lovers both new and established the chance to see a broad cross-section of work. Kate has been a great asset to the business already, says her father. 'She presses me to look at new artists – we have seven in this year's summer show, for example,' says Ken. 'It's really important to keep opening up our reach.' Those new artists, such as Glasgow School of Art graduate Euan McGregor, whose paintings and printworks have been celebrated across the UK, and urban landscape painter Cate Inglis, will exhibit alongside Lemond Gallery regulars such as Kathryn Arthur, Alison McWhirter, Stephen Mangan, Gordon Wilson and Jennifer Irvine. As final preparations continue, it is all hands on deck, says Ken. 'It is really exciting for us – we are a bridge between the public and the artist,' he adds, smiling. 'As all the paintings start to arrive, and we unpack and prepare to hang them, I'm like a child in a sweetie shop.'
