Royal Academy of Arts

Wolfgang Tillmans RA (b.1968) is regarded as one of the most influential figures working within photography today. In 2000, he was the first non-British artist to receive the Turner Prize. Since the early 1990s Tillmans has been challenging the potentiality of making pictures. His work has epitomized a new kind of subjectivity in photography, pairing intimacy and playfulness with social critique and the persistent questioning of existing values and hierarchies. Through his seamless integration of genres, subjects, techniques, and exhibition strategies, he has expanded conventional ways of approaching the medium, and his practice continues to address the fundamental question of what it means to create pictures in an increasingly image-saturated world.

Marie de Brugerolle is an art historian, curator and author. She has worked in many institutions at Mnam-Pompidou center, the MoMA in New York, the CNAC-Magasin in Grenoble, France, Carré d’art Nîmes. Her work focuses on the history of performance art, from the 1960s to its current state of dematerialization and absorption by the society of the spectacle. This complements her theoretical project, Post Performance Future. She is the leading authority on the French-born Californian artist Guy de Cointet and has been instrumental in introducing Californian art to Europe (first retrospectives of Allen Ruppersberg (1996), Guy de Cointet (2004) John Baldessari (2005), and Larry Bell (2010).

Eventually Dust: On the Particulars of the Present as Seen Through Its Devices': visual culture and the idea of the end of history, the emergence of the device, the antipathy of the device to dust. Esther Leslie (b.1964) is a lecturer in English and Humanities at Birkbeck and Co-Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities. Her research interests are Marxist theories of aesthetics and culture and critical theory, with a particular focus on the work of Walter Benjamin and TheodorAdorno.

Eventually Dust: On the Particulars of the Present as Seen Through Its Devices': visual culture and the idea of the end of history, the emergence of the device, the antipathy of the device to dust. Esther Leslie (b.1964) is a lecturer in English and Humanities at Birkbeck and Co-Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities. Her research interests are Marxist theories of aesthetics and culture and critical theory, with a particular focus on the work of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno.

Charlie Fox (b. 1991) is a London based writer and curator. Curator of My Head is a Haunted House, Sadie Coles HQ 5 June - 31 August 2019 ‘When I was a weird little kid in suburbia obsessed with horror of all kinds, my grandfather (who isn't alive anymore) built me a haunted house. I could pretend I was a ghost or a bat or a werewolf crying blood over a cardboard tombstone. It was a make-believe world where my imagination could get deranged and it was magic. My Head is a Haunted House grew out of that hallucinogenic memory and its psychic hold on me.’

As the last final year exhibition that will take place in the RA Schools before it enters a significant renovation project, this year’s show celebrates the programme that inhabited the current architecture. Created by Rebecca K. Halliwell-Sutton, this 44 minute audio work is comprised of fragmented audio from the RA Schools lecture programme. The Class of 2022 selected various talks, lectures and seminars that have stayed with them since they started on the programme in 2018, to be included in the archive, as a way to open up the private space of the lecture room and academic programme. 00.00: Helen Mirra 01.15: Marie de Brugerolle 02.48: Phyllida Barlow 04.12: Wolfgang Tillmans 09.09: Frank B Wilderson III 16.24: Esther Leslie 20.41: Phyllida Barlow 22.07: Frank B Wilderson III 26.56: Nina Trivedi / Atlanta Season 2 28.33: Charlie Fox 29.31: Wolfgang Tillmans 31:56: Federico Campagna 38:07: Amelia Groom 43:39: The End

Recorded during our exhibition Lucien Freud: The Self-portraits, Tracey Emin CBE RA and David Dawson(Lucien Freud's assistant and model) discuss their memories of the artist, as well as Emin and Freud’s shared ability to innovate, provoke and soul-search.

Our panel, chaired by art critic, writer & curator, Sacha Craddock, and including Alistair Hudson, Director of the Whitworth and Mariam Zulfiqar, Deputy Director and Chief Curator at UP Projects, questions where sculpture is best exhibited and what impact sculptures have on the spaces they are presented in. Do sculptures act as catalysts for social change and can people connect better with a place when it contains a work of art? Part of 'Where language ends: Antony Gormley’s discourse series'.

Antony Gormley discusses his career spanning over 40 years and explores how his series of installations within the RA’s Main Galleries encouraged visitors to slow down and become aware of their own bodies and environment. Part of 'Where language ends: Antony Gormley’s discourse series'.

Theoretical astrophysicist, Priya Natarajan, joins Semiconductor, the artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt, to discuss how artists contribute to our understanding of the world around and the relationship between physics, cosmology and art. Part of 'Where language ends: Antony Gormley’s discourse series'.

Anthropologist and director of the documentary 'Inside Australia', Hugh Brody discusses how geology, anthropology and humankind’s connection with the land are represented in Gormley’s work.

Artist and singer/songwriter Michael Stipe talks about his life-long passion for photography and its potential to produce a defining image of our times.

World renowned designer Sir Paul Smith discusses his humble beginnings, what inspires him, and the lessons he's learnt throughout his career.

As part of our 'When Science Meers Art' series Mathematician Professor Marcus du Sautoy OBE FRS, artist Conrad Shawcross RA and BBC presenter Samira Ahmed discuss how experimentation, curiosity and creative thinking are central to both science and sculpture. Download slides from this lecture: https://roy.ac/gh4d4

Catch up with this panel discussion featuring political satirist Steve Bell, artist Bedwyr Williams and artist duo John Wood and Paul Harrison as they explore humour and satire in art, discussing how it's impacted today’s contemporary art world.

Catch up on this conversation with the artist behind this year’s Summer Exhibition courtyard installation, Thomas Houseago, and the show's curator Edith Devaney. Ranging from monumental to smaller-scale works, Houseago’s sculptures simultaneously convey states of power and vulnerability. He uses mediums traditionally associated with classical and modernist sculpture – including carved wood, clay, plaster and bronze – as well as less traditional materials like rebar (reinforcing steel bars) and hemp.

Catch up on this conversation between Peter Blake and the Director of London Original Print Fair, Helen Rosslyn. They discuss Blake’s new project 'Ways of Making', which investigates the diversity and range of processes at the disposal of an artist. Recognised as one of the founders of British Pop Art, painter and printmaker Sir Peter Blake is renowned for his connection with the music industry, having created iconic album covers for the Beatles, Paul Weller, The Who, and Oasis.

Mali Morris discusses her latest exhibition and display at the RA, as well as her career and practice, with author and poet Martha Kapos. Acclaimed artist Mali Morris RA focuses on the expressive possibilities of abstract painting. Her work draws on many sources but constantly explores how colour can structure light and space.

Award-winning director Ken Loach discusses the politics and processes behind his films, as well as the effects of Brexit on the british film industry with writer and critic, Francine Stock.

Actor, writer, comedian and presenter, Michael Palin explores the life and work of under-appreciated artists with journalist and broadcaster, Martha Kearney.