RA Magazine

Nov 15, 2024 | royalacademy.org.uk | Sarah Dunant

On the surface such a catalogue of creativity suggests an altogether confident Florentine state. The political reality, however, was very different. By the turn of the 16th century Florence was a long way from the glory years of the first generations of Medici rulers, Piero and his son Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Jul 8, 2024 | royalacademy.org.uk | Neil Walton

From the Summer 2024 issue of RA Magazine, issued quarterly to Friends of the RA. As an art educator who has worked extensively with children and young people, I often reflect on what a privilege it is to spend time with the amazing and unexpected things they create. Walking into the RA’s Young Artists’ Summer Show – an annual open-submission exhibition of work by pupils aged 4 to 19 – is a wonderful, joyous experience, with artworks of all types and sizes covering walls and floor.

Oct 15, 2023 | royalacademy.org.uk | Kelly Grovier

With Marina Abramović taking over the Main Galleries at the RA, we look at some other artists who have shaped the history of performance art. 1916 Cabaret Voltaire’s artistic anarchy According to legend, modern-day performance art was born in the backrooms of a tavern in a rundown district of Zurich, Switzerland in 1916.

Oct 5, 2023 | royalacademy.org.uk | Sam Phillips

Our magazine turns 40 this autumn. Editor Sam Phillips looks back through the archive to pick out his highlights from the past four decades. The one that started it all RA President Sir Hugh Casson launched the Friends membership scheme in 1977 and by 1983, with burgeoning numbers, the scheme had outgrown its modest newsletter – a proper magazine was needed.

Aug 24, 2023 | royalacademy.org.uk | Sinead Gleeson

In this long-read, performance art pioneer Marina Abramović speaks to Sinéad Gleeson from her New York home, ahead of her long-awaited show. Born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1946, Marina Abramović is something of a matryoshka figure: an endurance artist within a performance artist within one of the most significant art practitioners of the 20th and 21st centuries.