Royal Academy Of Arts

Royal Academicians Cathie Pilkington, Eileen Cooper and Tess Jaray, and RA Schools student Gergana Georgieva, contemplate their own experiences of forging a career as a female artist in the 21st century.

The daughter of artist Richard Diebenkorn, Gretchen Diebenkorn Grant, speaks about the life and art of her father, giving an insight into his personality, career and the environment in which he produced his exceptional body of work.

Rubens, with his “audacious and fantastic palette”, provided an important model for the revolutions in mid-19th century French art. In this lecture, independent art historian and curator MaryAnne Stevens explores the impact of the great Flemish master’s colour and technique on Manet, and Impressionists such as Monet, Renoir and Cézanne.

In this lecture, Nico Van Hout explains why the caricature of Peter Paul Rubens as a painter of “fleshy, voluptuous women” is only part of the story, focusing in particular on Rubens’s influence on Rembrandt and Jean-Antoine Watteau.

David Hills of architectural practice DSDHA discusses with artist and author Edmund de Waal the stunning studio they recently designed for him in south London as a creative backdrop to his evolving work. The studio is the result of a long-running conversation between architect and artist, which includes earlier collaborations on de Waal’s previous studio in Tulse Hill and other architectural commissions.

Award-winning and best-selling novelist Sebastian Faulks CBE reads a short story selected in response to ‘Rubens and His Legacy: Van Dyck to Cézanne’. In association with Pin Drop. Image caption: Sebastian Faulks / Photo: Muir Vidler

“Now, the idea is to get everything right – it’s not just color or form or space or line – it’s everything all at once.” Richard Diebenkorn Whether landscape or abstract canvas, the work of American artist Richard Diebenkorn captures a sense of the light and place in which he worked, and reveals his mastery as a consummate colourist. The palette and pentimenti of his works are at once quiet and uproarious, subtle and unrestrained. Curator Sarah C. Bancroft explores Richard Diebenkorn’s consuming attention to detail and improvisational process that led to his magnificent compositions. Image caption: Sarah C. Bancroft standing in front of the Richard Diebenkorn painting 'Ocean Park #117' (1979) / Art work © 2015 the Estate of Richard Diebenkorn. Photo courtesy of Sarah C. Bancroft

“Chair and similar sculptures by Allen Jones attracted controversy for different reasons, but questions about their relationship to pornography were persistent.” (Stacy Boldrick) Boldrick, curator of Tate Britain’s exhibition ‘Art Under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm’, chairs this debate, which discusses reactions to Chair then and now. Invited speakers include conservator Lyndsey Morgan who worked on Chair after it was sabotaged with acid in 1986, fashion commentator and feminist Grace Woodward, and Edith Devaney, curator of ‘Allen Jones RA’ at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Curator Amanda Doran introduces the illustrator Charles Stewart (1915–2001), who was haunted by the Victorian novel 'Uncle Silas' for over 40 years.

Curator Arturo Galansino helps us to understand the influence Rubens had on his fellow artists, up to and including the 20th century.

The term ‘Rubenesque’ has defined the representation of the female figure in art since the Baroque period, but what role does visual art play now in creating and communicating body image? Feminist and academic Professor Germaine Greer joins sociologist and disability rights advocate Dr Tom Shakespeare and artist Grayson Perry RA to discuss the representation of the body in the visual arts and wider society. Professor Mary Beard, the RA’s Professor of Ancient Literature, chairs this panel. Watch the video of the event: http://bit.ly/1EYel5W

In collaboration with the Folio Society, novelists A. S. Byatt and Lawrence Norfolk venture together into Germany’s dark woods to discover witches, goblins, lost children and treasure.

Contemporary portrait painter Jonathan Yeo – best known for his portraits of celebrated figures in the arts and politics, including Damien Hirst, Dennis Hopper, Malala Yousafzai and Tony Blair – discusses Moroni's psychological realism in relation to his own work.

Panelists Christian Weikop, Lara Day and Andrew Renton reconsider Anselm Kiefer’s 1969 book ‘Heroic Symbols’ which documented a provocative performance art project known as ‘Occupations’.

Jonathan Jones of The Guardian explores the reasons why Giovanni Battista Moroni’s portrait ‘The Tailor’ is one of the greatest paintings in London.

Dr. Arturo Galansino, curator of 'Giovanni Battista Moroni', reveals the artistic qualities that separated Moroni from his contemporaries, and demonstrates why Moroni was the foremost portrait painter of his day.

Painter and Royal Academician Frank Bowling discusses his life and work with Mel Gooding (Art critic and author of the Royal Academy’s monograph on Frank Bowling) and Courtney J. Martin (Assistant Professor of History of Art & Architecture at Brown University and Specialist in 20th Century British Art).

In a discussion chaired by the RA’s Tim Marlow, Anselm Kiefer and David Chipperfield RA explore the ways in which art and architecture interact in Kiefer’s practice. Watch the video: http://bit.ly/1T3ToOQ

In 2014, the RA held a major retrospective of the works of German artist Anselm Kiefer, and a host of debates and lectures exploring his work. This panel discussion reconsiders Anselm Kiefer’s 1969 book ‘Heroic Symbols’, which documented his provocative performance art project known as ‘Occupations’. Panelists include art historians Christian Weikop, Lara Day and Andrew Renton.