What kind of a year has 2013 been for you?
Being President of the Royal Academy of Arts, there can be extremes even within a single day so 2013 went from tremendous celebration to intricate negotiation all year. I have travelled more than ever but paradoxically found renewed energy in my painting. It’s important that the President is a working artist because that is at the heart of our identity as an organisation and what makes us so exceptional in the international scene.
What has changed for the better and what, if anything, has changed for the worse?
In my life as an artist I am now working with the New York Gallery Friedman Benda with a show scheduled for September 11 2014. I also have a two-man show in Rome with the Italian artist Enzo Cucchi. At the RA, there is definitely a sense that there is a buzz these days and we have elected a tremendous group of new members, including Thomas Heatherwick, Chantal Joffe, Ron Arad and Conrad Shawcross, with more to be announced shortly. It’s a long-term issue, but what has become ever more challenging is the cost of staging large-scale exhibitions and the growing reticence of some institutions to lend their most prized works of art.
What do you wish hadn’t happened this year?
The deaths of four distinguished Academicians: Ralph Brown, John Bellany, Sir Anthony Caro and the former keeper of the Schools, Maurice Cockrill. We feel this keenly. The RA is an intensely human place where widely separated generations, whether young students or senior and celebrated figures, mix and work together.
What do you wish had happened this year, but didn’t?
I do wish more people had seen our Australia exhibition. Whilst it performed solidly in audience terms, I do think that some old-fashioned prejudices about the quality of Australian art kept some people away.
What would you characterise as your major achievement this year and why?
At the top must surely be securing the award of £12.7million from the Heritage Lottery Fund, together with over £7million from other sources. This will make possible the most significant expansion for more than a century, unifying our two buildings and revealing more of the things that make us an academy, such as the Royal Academy Schools and our collections. For me personally, I finally managed, after five years, to see my ten-metre bronze sculpture, The City Wing, installed near the Bank of England.
Is there anything you’d like to have done this year but haven’t?
I’m honestly not sure there is. It’s been such an extraordinarily rich and full experience all year. The issue isn’t to do more but to do everything as well as possible at the highest level.
What would make 2014 a better year than 2013?
Our Sensing Spaces exhibition in January brings together seven international architects to transform our gallery spaces. This will break new ground for the Academy and demonstrate our commitment to architecture. A major investment in our digital presence will enable people to have an improved experience of the RA online and having recently opened the Keeper’s House, our new home for artists and art lovers in the heart of Mayfair, I’d love to see it flourish and be as widely enjoyed as possible.
