Catching up (the second installment): London

London.  I suppose it was all about PRINT, our own exhibition with thirteen of us from Hot Bed Press showing at the RKB Gallery.  That, too, has now been and gone, but I think we had a pretty good time, and it gave us plenty of opportunity to learn how we might do things better another time.  And we sold a good handful of work, which was very gratifying. 

I saw more of London in one go than I have done since I was there on courses for four weeks when I first started work, and on the whole (allowing for the low-level unpleasantness of the tube, and a sore and therefore very tiring leg) I enjoyed it. You get into the rhythm of it, don't you - I ought to go back sooner rather than later, before it all starts to seem too much all over again.

Of course, it would be silly to go all that way and not take at least some advantage of the utter landslide of art on offer only in London.  Inevitably I missed much - for instance, the Sonia Delaunay exhibition at Tate Modern, which has come with rave reviews from everyone who's been - but I decided to make my first ever visit to a Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.

It was truly enjoyable.  Too much for one visit, really (when your leg hurts, moan moan) but I soldiered on (and even went up to see the Joseph Cornell exhibition upstairs).  Like the annual Bath Society of Artists show, everything is cheek by jowl, and just sometimes it seemed terribly cramped, pinched even, but much of the rest of the time it was glorious.  With so much art and so much wall to work with, they could do inventively shaped hanging, such as a right angle triangle of pieces here, or a column of smaller works next to an enormous one there, and have such playfulness shown off to advantage by the amount of space still around. 

What did I like?  Well, I really enjoyed the strongly coloured walls, especially the rich turquoise of the Wohl Central Hall and an amazing view through arches meaning I could see three coloured rooms in a row.  I had serious doubts about the screaming magenta in gallery III, however - purely because I felt it seriously skewed how some pieces appeared.  I think I might have been quite peeved if I had been showing this piece (left), for instance.  The third quarter along is a very delicate shade of pale green, but that background wall distorts the colour and drains it away almost completely.  It would have looked utterly different against a white wall.

I liked the William Kentridge room (somewhere worth far more attention than I gave it) and the panel of Norman Ackroyd miniatures (as well as his other works); I inevitably gave plenty of attention to the two print rooms, but all sorts of original prints were scattered everywhere.  Here's a little selection from my favourites:

Then there was the hanging piece 'Applied Project Rig' (Liam Gillick) in the Wohl Central Hall (because it looked so good against the dome), and the incredible 'Erebus (man on Fire version II)' (Tim Shaw) in the sculpture room, and all the intricate models in the architecture room, and the overwhelming collection of pages from Tom Phillips' 'A Humument' that for whatever reason made me want to read the original book, A Human Document.  Or at least start it.  And so very many other pieces of work. 

I chose a favourite piece, by Ian McKeever, quite early on in my tour of the exhibition, and in that pink room of all places.  While I would be reluctant to call anything The favourite, it definitely remains up there, and it's not even a print!  I tried to capture the marks in those rich burgundy areas too, but they came out improbably pink in the photo, which did them no justice. 

After that, Joseph Cornell.  Too much in one day, though, I think, and I rather rushed round - I'm glad I went, but I can't say I retained much of what I saw.  Instead I derived pleasure from the stairwell, and later from the lights in the Grand Cafe, and then I sat in St James' Park, eating icecream and spotting green parakeets - an excellent way to wind down.