The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the summer months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, architectural designs and models, and is the largest and most popular open exhibition in the United Kingdom.
When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768 one of its key objectives was to establish an annual exhibition, open to all artists of merit, which could be visited by the public.
The first Summer Exhibition took place in 1769; it has been held every year since without exception.
Today, around 1,000 works are selected each year from as many as 10,000 entries representing some 5,000 artists. Presently (as of 2008), any artist (living, known or unknown) may submit up to two works at a fee of £25 per piece for selection by The Summer Exhibition Selection and Hanging Committee. Due to the significant increase in the volume of entries over recent years, the number of entries per artist was reduced to 2 (from 3) and the fee was increased £18 per piece. The committee is formed from the Council of Academicians (the governing body of the RA) and is traditionally chaired by the President of the Royal Academy. In addition to those works selected by the committee, all 80 Academicians are entitled to have six of their own pieces in the exhibition.
Almost all exhibited works are for sale; the Academy receives 30% of the purchase price. In 2003, this amounted to a sum of some £2,000,000 for the institution, which receives no financial support from the state or crown.
The 2005 exhibition theme was "Printmaking and the multiple". In 2006, the theme was "From Life." In 2008, the theme was "Man Made". The theme for 2010 was "Raw". In 2011, the selection committee agreed to have no specific theme.
Over £70,000 prize money, including the £25,000 Charles Wollaston Award, is awarded each year at the Summer Exhibition. Winners include Gerard Hemsworth (2000), Marc Quinn (2001), Jake and Dinos Chapman (2003), and Chantal Joffe (2006).
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“This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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If you do not come too close, if you do not come too close,
On a summer midnight, you can hear the music
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The association of man and woman
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—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Work, as we usually think of it, is energy expended for a further end in view; play is energy expended for its own sake, as with children’s play, or as manifestation of the end or goal of work, as in “playing” chess or the piano. Play in this sense, then, is the fulfillment of work, the exhibition of what the work has been done for.”
—Northrop Frye (1912–1991)