Royal Academy of Arts
245 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago - ★★★ - 7 ratingsSubscribe for art and ideas. We host conversations with artists, architects and other leading creatives – and we've just posted podcasts from recent Festival of Ideas. Enjoy.
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Episodes
Writing Architecture
November 23, 2016 13:53 - 1 hour - 91.6 MBHow do we use writing to help us understand architecture and communicate our experience of it? Our panel discuss. With Professor Adrian Forty (The Bartlett), Dr. Kester Rattenbury (University of Westminster) and Professor Vyv Evans (Bangor University).
Architecture: Infrastructure for the 21st Century
November 08, 2016 11:37 - 1 hour - 79.4 MBLooking beyond traditional notions of infrastructure, speakers put forward a range of propositions for ensuring London maintains its status as a global city over the next few decades.
Portraits: Tacita Dean in Conversation with Tim Marlow
November 02, 2016 10:44 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MBArtist Tacita Dean discusses her work, including her 16mm film 'Portraits' with RA Artistic Director Tim Marlow.
Introduction to 'Abstract Expressionism' with Edith Devaney
October 19, 2016 11:27 - 56 minutes - 51.3 MBCurator Edith Devaney introduces the ‘Abstract Expressionism’ exhibition and examines the key concepts behind this artistic phenomenon. From the moment that it first emerged in the late 1940s, Abstract Expressionism has been a subject of debate. Although perceived to be a unified movement, in reality it was a much more complex and fluid phenomenon. The Abstract Expressionists broke fresh ground with their attitudes towards scale, colour and composition. Artists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rot...
Portraits: Tacita Dean RA in conversation with Tim Marlow
October 19, 2016 11:21 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MBPortraits: Tacita Dean RA in conversation with Tim Marlow by Royal Academy of Arts
International Architects Series: Heneghan Peng
October 19, 2016 10:07 - 49 minutes - 45 MBInternational Architects Series: Heneghan Peng by Royal Academy of Arts
International Architects Series: John Wardle
October 04, 2016 11:07 - 1 hour - 64.9 MBJohn Wardle, one of Australia’s leading architects, explores the ways his buildings weave together landscape, history, memory and materials.
Floating Ideas: Plug-In To Housing
October 04, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 80.8 MBFloating Ideas: Plug-In To Housing by Royal Academy of Arts
Floating Ideas: Architecture On The Edge
October 04, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 130 MBFloating Ideas: Architecture On The Edge by Royal Academy of Arts
John Partridge RA in conversation with Elain Harwood
September 12, 2016 10:00 - 1 hour - 158 MBAs a tribute to John Partridge RA, who passed away this summer aged 91, we present this podcast from our archive, in which the architect is in conversation with Elain Harwood, senior architectural investigator for Historic England. Photo: Dennis Toff
Portraits and Perceptions
July 22, 2016 14:48 - 59 minutes - 54.7 MBA portrait can be defined as an artistic representation of a person, with an intent to display their likeness, personality and even their mood. But who determines what we really see? As a collaboration between subject and artist, to what extent do they each influence our perception of the person who is being presented? Portrait artists James Lloyd and Daphne Todd, and philosopher Nigel Warburton discuss the roles of the subject, artist and viewer in how we understand a portrait. This event i...
An introduction to David Hockney
July 22, 2016 14:48 - 48 minutes - 111 MBCurator Edith Devaney introduces David Hockney’s portrait exhibition, giving an insight into this remarkable series of work and Hockney’s relationship with portraiture as well as her experiences of being one of Hockney’s subjects.
Sandy Nairne on Contemporary Portraiture
July 22, 2016 14:39 - 47 minutes - 43.2 MBWhile many contemporary portraits demonstrate a respect for the traditions of portraiture, others are places for experimentation and play, employing various media and different approaches to depiction. Writer and curator Sandy Nairne, former director of the National Portrait Gallery, explores developments in contemporary portraiture, and examines how this well-established genre within Western art has been used by artists such as Hockney to innovate.
Summer Exhibition Stories
July 22, 2016 14:31 - 46 minutes - 42.4 MBDiscover the origins, characters, behind-the-scene stories as well as the experiences of visitors and artists in the history of the RA Summer Exhibition, the world’s largest open submission of contemporary arts, with the RA Senior Curator of Collections Helen Valentine. Image caption: The 163rd Summer Exhibition, 1931: Sending In Day and works of art are being moved into the Academy for selection. / Unidentified photographer working for Sport and General Press Agency Photo credit: © Royal Ac...
Richard Wilson RA In Conversation with Tim Marlow
July 22, 2016 11:23 - 49 minutes - 113 MBRichard Wilson RA is internationally celebrated for his interventions in architectural space which draw heavily for their inspiration from the worlds of engineering and construction. He is best known for his provoking and playful installations, such as 20:50, a sea of reflective sump oil which is permanently installed in the Saatchi Collection. Here, the artist discusses his celebrated career with Tim Marlow and some of his ideas behind the coordination of this year’s Summer Exhibition. Pho...
Cartoons, My Dad and Dementia: Tony Husband
July 22, 2016 11:22 - 40 minutes - 36.9 MBWhen Ron Husband started to forget things - dates, names, appointments … daft things, important things - it took a while to realise that this was ‘a different form of forgetting’. But it was just the first sign of the illness that gradually took him away from the family he loved. In support of Dementia Awareness Week Tony Husband talks about his work as a cartoonist and his inspiration and journey through creating the book 'Take Care, Son: The Story of My Dad and Dementia', a touching illust...
RA and Pin Drop Short Story Award 2016, with Juliet Stevenson
July 22, 2016 11:18 - 48 minutes - 111 MBCritically-acclaimed British actress Juliet Stevenson reads this year’s winning story of the RA and Pin Drop Short Story Award. With this special literary award, the RA and Pin Drop offer a unique platform for emerging and established writers to showcase their short stories. Photo: Portrait of Juliet Stevenson, courtesy of Pin Drop
Giorgione and his World: Problems of Attribution
May 04, 2016 13:08 - 47 minutes - 43.8 MBGiorgione was one of the greatest artists who ever lived, yet it is difficult to establish exactly what he painted. Art historian Professor David Ekserdjian examines in detail the works by Giorgione as well as the artistic influence of this enigmatic master.
Provocations in Art: Portrayals of Age and Beauty
May 04, 2016 13:07 - 54 minutes - 50.2 MB“That fair face will as years roll on lose its beauty, and old age will bring its wrinkle to the brow” - Ovid Beauty is habitually associated with youth, especially for women, and artistic portrayals of age and ageing have long been a contentious issue in our society. Painted during his all-too-brief artistic career, Giorgione’s La Vecchia is a rare example of a realistic portrayal of an elderly woman in the early 16th century, a period in which portraits of young, idealised ‘beauties’ were ...
An introduction to ‘In the Age of Giorgione’
May 04, 2016 12:59 - 52 minutes - 48.1 MBThough Giovanni Bellini was still the leading artist in Venice at the turn of the 16th century, a younger generation, including Giorgione and Titian, started to emerge from his shadow. Their innovations, combined with the influence of visitors such as Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci, ushered in a new dawn of Venetian art. One of the first artists to arise was also the most mysterious: little is known about Giorgione’s life, and few works can be definitively attributed to him, yet the el...
The art of horticulture: planting and painting the ‘modern garden’
April 18, 2016 10:00 - 1 hour - 63.5 MBMeet Monet protecting his peonies with straw, Caillebotte inspecting orchids in his hot-house, Liebermann planning his Wannsee rose-bower, and Matisse thumbing the latest seed catalogues, in this podcast by Clare A.P. Willsdon, Professor of the History of Western Art at the University of Glasgow. Image caption: video still of the dahlias in Emil Nolde's garden © Royal Academy of Arts
Easels in Eden: Monet’s gardening and painting at Giverny
April 18, 2016 09:57 - 52 minutes - 48.2 MBFrom the 1890s until his death in 1926, Monet created over 500 paintings of his private paradise at Giverny. In this talk, Dr Eric Haskell (Scripps College, Claremont University Centre, California) places the Giverny period within the context of the painter’s phenomenal trajectory, then examines how Monet moved beyond representation to abstraction and thus prefigured the Modern aesthetic in the most subtle of terms. In this podcast, Dr Eric Haskell highlights the relationship between Claude ...
"My most beautiful masterpiece": Monet and his garden
April 18, 2016 09:56 - 33 minutes - 30.3 MBClaude Monet lived at Giverny for 43 years, from 1883 to his death in 1926. A passionate horticulturalist, his garden became a work of art as well as a subject for his paintings. From the Iris garden to his huge waterlily canvases, the garden at Giverny was the focus for some of Monet’s greatest works of art. In this podcast, James Priest, head gardener at Giverny, is in conversation with garden designer and writer James Alexander-Sinclair, discusses Monet’s cultivation of and relationship w...
The Future of Housing: What’s the Future of Public Art?
April 13, 2016 16:39 - 50 minutes - 46 MBIn conjunction with Historic England’s exhibition Out There: Our Post-War Public Art (2 February – 10 April 2016), which explores the connections between public art and architecture in the post-war decades, this podcast looks at the future of public of art in Britain. What are the ideals and motivations behind the creation of public art? What are its uses? How can we protect public art threatened by redevelopment? Should we be doing so? What, ultimately, does public art say about us as a soci...
Mavericks: The Artist as Maverick Architect
April 13, 2016 16:37 - 1 hour - 57.4 MBSean Griffiths, co-founder of FAT, one of the architects featured in Mavericks, chairs this discussion exploring the different perspectives artists can bring to the making of architecture. Architecture is no longer solely the domain of architects, but of artists too. Recent years have seen the work of a number of different artists cross into what we usually class as architecture, in some instances as far as whole buildings. Whether working on their own or in collaboration with architects, as...
Mavericks: A thing of the past
April 13, 2016 16:34 - 49 minutes - 45.2 MBIn this debate about architectural education and opportunities for young architects, our panel explore if there is any future for mavericks in architecture. What marks out mavericks from other architects is the way they embrace risk – whether professionally, by striking out on their own, or creatively, by refusing to conform to the norms of architectural taste or convention. Recent years, however, have seen the risks for young architects grow considerably. Seven years’ training leaves most a...
Mavericks: Does Architecture Need Mavericks?
April 13, 2016 16:32 - 59 minutes - 54.7 MBBeginning with an introduction by Owen Hopkins, curator of Mavericks: Breaking the Mould of British Architecture, a panel debates the role of mavericks in architecture past and present. What makes an architect a maverick? What uses do mavericks and maverick positions have? How has the meaning of maverick evolved over history? What, above all, does it mean to be a maverick architect in today’s world of parametric design and building information modelling? Speakers: Charles Holland – Director...
The Future of Housing: A return
April 13, 2016 16:20 - 48 minutes - 44 MBOne year on from a major season on the ‘Future of Housing’ in the UK, we look again at this ever more urgent question. In the lead up to last year’s General Election, the RA organised the Future of Housing season, which looked with a critical eye at the various possible futures for housing in the UK. One year on, we survey the changed political landscape, and a housing crisis that, if anything, has only intensified. As the Housing Bill, which notably extends the right to buy to housing assoc...
Mavericks: After the Age of ‘Starchitects’
April 13, 2016 16:18 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MBThe idea of a maverick in architecture – and arguably in art, literature and even science – is inextricably associated with the myth of the creative genius. From perhaps Leonardo da Vinci onwards, creative genius has been popularly associated with disregard for social conventions, isolation, and of the individual overcoming adversity – traits that are often understood in masculine terms. In architecture, the creative genius trope has helped give rise to the ‘starchitect’, the name given to an...
Short stories with Lionel Shriver
April 13, 2016 16:13 - 1 hour - 64.5 MBOrange Prize-winning novelist Lionel Shriver treats us to a short story reading. Shriver ('We Need to Talk about Kevin' and 'Big Brother') reads her short story 'Vermin'. On performing her short stories Shriver says: “When it works I like [the works] better. I like being able to deliver a line well… It’s nice to be able to deliver passages in the spirit that I wrote them, so that you can hear them as I hear them.” In partnership with Pin Drop.
Contemporary Urban Gardening
April 01, 2016 16:00 - 1 hour - 56.3 MBThis panel event explored the current state and future potential of contemporary urban gardening. Chaired by journalist and horticulturist Alys Fowler, the subversive and exciting work of guerrilla gardener and author Richard Reynolds, forager John Rensten and artist Wendy Shillam are brought to the table. Image caption: video still of the dahlias in Emil Nolde's garden © Royal Academy of Arts
A Work of Art: Colour and the Garden
April 01, 2016 15:59 - 1 hour - 55 MBMonet and his fellow artist-gardeners applied their artistic eye to the composition of their gardens, using nature’s palette of flowers and foliage to create horticultural works of art. In this event, we consider how the artistic principles behind the use of colour and composition can be applied to planting and landscaping to transform garden design, creating harmony or contrast, and evoking different moods and a sense of space. Garden designers Dan Pearson, Tom Stuart-Smith and Sarah Price,...
Revolutionising the Garden, Revolutionising Art: An International Perspective
April 01, 2016 15:55 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MBClaude Monet’s artistic and horticultural achievement at Giverny was not unique. Other contemporary artists sought similar fusions between garden design and art. In this talk, MaryAnne Stevens touches upon artists’ gardens in Spain, Germany and Denmark, concluding with one in Norway which sought to provide artistic motifs as well as to fulfil economic, ecological and national ideals. Art historian and curator MaryAnne Stevens discusses the role that the gardens created by artists such as Sor...
An Introduction to Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse
April 01, 2016 15:53 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBExhibition curator Ann Dumas examines the different ways that artists ranging from Claude Monet to Henri Matisse painted the garden in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Image caption: video still of the dahlias in Emil Nolde's garden © Royal Academy of Arts
Women in Focus: Perspectives of a Female Artist
April 01, 2016 15:47 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBIs the gender of an artist significant in the creative process? Does being a female artist influence how a work is created and perceived? How significant is ‘the female gaze’ in contemporary art – work that is presented from a female perspective or reflecting female attitudes. As part of our International Women’s Day 2016 celebrations, a panel of artists discussed what it means to create work from a female perspective in today’s contemporary art world. In this podcast, Eva Rothschild RA, Va...
Short stories with Ben Okri
April 01, 2016 15:43 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MBThe RA and Pin Drop welcomed Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri for an evening of short fiction and storytelling, inspired by the exhibition ‘Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse’. Ben Okri has published eight novels, including The Famished Road and Starbook, as well as collections of poetry, short stories and essays. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been awarded an OBE as well as numerous internatio...
Architecture and freedom: Farshid Moussavi
March 22, 2016 17:26 - 1 hour - 68.3 MBIn the final lecture of the series, Farshid Moussavi discusses architecture’s function as an agent in shaping everyday life. For Moussavi, architecture “produces platforms for the way people engage with uses of buildings” – an idea which she has explored through practice, education and research. A co-founder of Foreign Office Architects, which won international attention with the Yokohama Ferry Terminal, Moussavi established her own practice in 2011, which has since completed the acclaimed C...
Architecture and Freedom: Spaces Of Freedom
March 22, 2016 17:25 - 52 minutes - 47.6 MBSpaces of freedom are typically seen as synonymous with public space, where freedom of assembly and expression are inherent rights. Increasingly, though, public space, especially in cities, is being eroded by private, often commercially driven forces. At the same time, we have seen the rise of the digital realm heralded as a new free and democratic space for self-expression and debate. This, however, is also under attack through both corporate and state-sponsored surveillance and data collec...
Architecture and freedom: Reinier De Graaf
March 22, 2016 17:23 - 53 minutes - 49 MBIn this podcast, Reiner de Graaf reflects on architecture’s different roles in today’s globalised world. An architect, academic and writer, de Graaf is a partner of OMA and director of AMO, the practice’s think tank and research studio based in Rotterdam. AMO’s work extends beyond architecture to encompass media, politics, sociology, renewable energy, technology, fashion, curating, publishing, and graphic design. In addition to his work for AMO, De Graaf is responsible for a number of the OM...
Architecture and freedom: Architectural Ethics
March 22, 2016 17:22 - 37 minutes - 43 MBIn this podcast, our expert panel consider what architecture’s responsibilities should be to the public good and whether it is time for architects to adopt a new code of ethics. Today with architecture in thrall to private interests to a greater degree than perhaps ever before, it is time to reassess architects’ responsibilities beyond those to the client, and to the broader public good. Do architecture and architects require a new code of ethics? If so, what should be the parameters and who...
Architecture and freedom: Patrik Schumacher
March 22, 2016 17:20 - 1 hour - 118 MBArchitect and theorist, Patrik Schumacher, considers the various parameters for architectural practice today. One of architecture’s foremost designers and polemicists, Schumacher is a director of Zaha Hadid Architects, which he joined in 1988, and is involved in all the practice’s projects, playing an active role in each phase of design development. He has taught at architecture schools across the world and has been co-director of the Design Research Laboratory at the Architectural Associati...
Architecture and freedom: Jürgen Mayer H
March 22, 2016 17:19 - 1 hour - 66.2 MBThe work of the German architect Jürgen Mayer H stands at the intersection of architecture, design and digital technology. His practice operates across scale and typology: from master-planning to buildings, product design to art. For Mayer, emerging media and materials allow a fundamental rethinking of how we understand space and the potential for new forms of human activity and communication. Mayer kicked off the season with a discussion of his work and its reflection on the potential for a...
Jean-Etienne Liotard In London
March 22, 2016 16:36 - 1 hour - 55.2 MBWhen Liotard travelled to London, his reputation was at its summit. This podcast, with curator William Hauptman, examines Liotard’s astonishing portrait work while there, his impact on the London art scene and his connections with the Royal Academy between 1773 and 1774.
Jean-Etienne Liotard: The evolution and conservation of pastel painting
March 22, 2016 16:34 - 55 minutes - 50.8 MBIn this podcast, Tate conservator Rosie Freemantle and conservation curator Jo Crook discuss the development of the medium of pastel in the 18th century.
Jean-Etienne Liotard: pastel pioneer
March 22, 2016 16:33 - 1 hour - 55.2 MBIn this podcast, curator MaryAnne Stevens gives an introduction to the work of the artist Jean-Etienne Liotard. Travelling across Europe to Constantinople, patronised by rulers, aristocrats and the professional middle class, Liotard was internationally acclaimed for his mastery of pastel and his unflinching observation of reality, which he brought to his portraits, genre scenes and exceptional trompe l’oeil compositions.
Chris Wilkinson and Humphrey Ocean discuss drawing
March 22, 2016 16:30 - 1 hour - 58.1 MBArchitect Chris Wilkinson RA and painter Humphrey Ocean RA discuss what it is to draw, and why the process is central to their work.
Ai Weiwei and the stuff of Chinese art
March 22, 2016 16:24 - 47 minutes - 43.9 MBAi Weiwei has used and reused a wide range of materials throughout his career, including Han dynasty urns as well as modern porcelain sunflower seeds, and the columns of demolished Ming temples alongside pearls and plastics, marble and gilding. In this podcast, Craig Clunas, Professor of Art History at the University of Oxford, explores this materiality in the context of Chinese art of the past and present.
Ai Weiwei and architecture
March 22, 2016 16:23 - 1 hour - 142 MBIn this podcast, curator Philip Tinari and architects Daniel Rosbottom and Simon Hartmann explore Ai Weiwei’s architectural practice. Architecture is an important but perhaps lesser-known aspect of Ai Weiwei’s practice. Along with a huge number of buildings realised over a decade with his studio FAKE design and in collaboration with international architects, architectural thinking permeates his art, writing and curatorial practice.
The "readymade" and destruction in art
March 22, 2016 16:21 - 38 minutes - 35.5 MBIn this discussion, artists Christian Marclay and Cornelia Parker RA – with historians Professor Dario Gamboni and Dr Ros Holmes – discuss the impact of the “readymade” and the destructive process in art, as seen in the work of Ai Weiwei. Many of the strategies that Ai Weiwei employs as an artist can be easily aligned within the legacy of iconoclasm and the notion of art under attack. Works such as Dropping a Han-Dynasty Urn (pictured below), Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo and Kippe all...
An introduction to Ai Weiwei
March 22, 2016 16:19 - 52 minutes - 48.4 MBIn this introductory podcast, exhibition curator Adrian Locke explains how Ai Weiwei, since his return to China in 1993, uses his art, not just his words or cyberspace to comment on contemporary Chinese society today. Locke also explores the meanings and stories behind his materials and methodologies, including his use of found rebars (steel rods used to hold buildings upright) in the deeply moving installation Straight.