This is a review of the 213th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours - which is currently being held at the Mall Galleries (26th March 2025 - 5th April 2025)
This is the first exhibition since this art society retained its Royal Patronage following a review of the Patronages of the Late Queen. You can also see two paintings by King Charles in this exhibition - albeit completed while he was Prince of Wales.
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| Feature Wall in the East Gallery |
See yesterday's post for why this review is late.
I attended the Private View last Tuesday evening - which was my second major exhibition of the day. It was so crowded, there was nowhere to sit down and my feet and knees hurt so much the next day I could barely move - such is life with osteoarthritis. I also could only photograph some of the exhibition because of the numbers of people present. However I did go back on Friday afternoon to take photos of the exhibition for the galleries I create on Facebook so that all those who can't get to see the exhibition in person can see what the artwork looked like on the walls.
I'll be posting links to my Facebook Galleries below after I've finished and published this review. (They take a bit of time to create).
- West Gallery
- East Gallery
- North Gallery
Since I visited I've heard the views of a number of people who have visited and their impressions were generally very favourable.
Analysis of artwork hung
This is the biggest exhibition of paintings in water colours in the UK - and this year it's even BIGGER than normal!
In terms of the 476 artworks hung, these divide up as shown in the Table below.
This indicates:
- a strong affinity between traditional watercolour media and traditional subject matter
- when compared to acrylic and mixed media which favour more contemporary subjects
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NOTE the media numbers total to a different number
when compared to the total in the analysis of subject matter |
The overall impression is that
- most of the artists in the show, on the whole, are very much more inclined to paint natural scenes associated with the outdoors - and have a distinct preference for more traditional media.
- More contemporary artwork has a low profile in the show and tends to favour acrylic and mixed media.
As I said last year
.....if you want to find "very edgy, fresh, new and very contemporary" you probably need to go the pop-up galleries or do what Charles Saatchi does - and go to the degree shows!
National Art Societies are emphatically not edgy and tend to just look very foolish when they try to be!
Note: The two paintings by King Charles are of landscapes. He very much prefers to paint landscapes in watercolour having been taught by the extremely popular artist Edward Seago (1910-1974)
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Paintings of people are not typically portraits per se
A more apt term would be figurative |
Good but....
The main changes in this year's exhibitions are the number of artworks and where they are hung. Gone is the central wall in the West Gallery - which I am not a fan of - and we've seen a reintroduction of the more traditional bays
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| A welcome return of of the Bays in the West Gallery - which I much prefer |
From my perspective, I think it is generally a good exhibition and well worth a visit
- many of the artworks in the exhibition are of a very high standard and
- some are absolutely amazing in terms of the expertise on display
However I have some reservations this year.....
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| Viewing the Candidates Wall |
- The Candidates Wall - I liked, as ever, the Candidates Wall where all those aspiring to become a member can see the work of those who are applying to be members. It's not the same as saying these are the ones who have made it into the Society - but it's somewhere to start if you aspirations. It did make me wonder whether
- it would be nice to single out the NEW MEMBERS in the exhibition i.e. those who managed to jump all the hurdles in their first year of exhibiting as a member. I think that might be even more helpful to all those who aspire to be members.
- it might be very constructive in relation to future applications if there was an explanation on the Candidates Wall of what's required of those wanting to apply to be a member of the Society (see How to Join)
- Media: Most of the artworks are in conventional watercolour (337) or gouache (12) plus just one egg tempera. There are quite a few acrylic paintings (48) and some mixed media which often including acrylic (76).
- In general, I'm not a fan of those who don't paint like watercolourists. I particularly don't like paintings in an exhibition like this one which are trying to avoid looking like watercolour.
- I think those painting in acrylics should exhibit in a society for acrylics.
- The Royal Institute of Oil Painters have now shown acrylics the door and I do wonder whether it is time for the Painters in Watercolours to consider whether it might be wise to do the same thing. Those wanting to paint with an opaque paint have opaque pigments and gouache as options. Or at the very least insist that if acrylic is used it must be used as if was watercolours on paper.
- I still think all work should be done on paper (or vellum).
- Number of artworks: I found the exhibition much larger than usual. In 2023 and 2024, they exhibited 450 artworks which is to my mind tis absolutely he upper limit of tolerable. I couldn't find any good reason for increasing the number - see next section.
- This year there are 495 artworks listed in the catalogue, which to my mind is too many. Non-members apparently make up almost half the artworks.
- I gather not all artwork which was selected was hung - so there is in fact 476 listed on the Mall Galleries website as for sale.
- The Hang: The number of artworks always influences the nature of the hang
- However I'm not a fan of some of the tricks for including all the artwork on the wall. Artwork hung above my head is emphatically not OK.
- My rule of thumb is everybody can get up close and personal without having to make a huge effort - hence no "skying" and no "challenges for the knees". More than two rows are only acceptable when artworks are small.
- My guideline for hanging height should be the height of an adult i.e. don't hang too far above head height for an average size individual.
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| West Gallery: Too many artworks? Too many rows in a gallery with more height? |
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North Gallery: Lower ceilings and just two rows
BUT the people are the same height in both!! |
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Mezzanine Wall: Traditional home to smaller paintings
Multiple rows when paintings are small is much more acceptable
Nothing is too far above head height |
- Quality of the artwork: There are a lot of very good watercolours in the show. However, that said, there is also a significant amount of quite ordinary but not outstanding artwork. Not bad as such - but, I would argue, not Mall Galleries worthy.
- I think it very likely that by increasing the quantity of artwork, the Society has ended up including some which would have been pruned very fast if the selection panel had limited the artwork hung to previous numbers of no more than 450 - or even if they pruned further to 425 or 430.
- I'd include pruning members' artwork if it didn't meet a good standard.
- Tradeoffs: Bottom line when there are too many paintings it's harder to view those that are hung - and sales probably suffer (as happened with the RBA Exhibition earlier this year). When you curate a show to include the very best, everything hung elevates everything else that is hung - while the reverse applies when there are too many weaker paintings in the show. They can depress quality - and sales.
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West Gallery - look how high some of the paintings are!
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- Sales of artworks:
- To date, the RI has sold 54 paintings out of the 476 hung - which is 11%.
- Last year, they They exhibited 450 artworks and sold 87 paintings (19%) so they need to make some sales this week to equal last year.
- Artwork which sold last year also had a very strong theme to the subject matter - almost all were landscapes - see Pricing your art for Open Exhibitions - a review of a sample of exhibition metrics for 2024
- I'll be doing my normal analysis of paintings sold after the end of the exhibition - but hanging more artwork tends to depress rather inflate the number of sales. It'll be interesting to compare artwork sold to artwork hung.
Another reminder from last year's review, which I keep pushing is also relevant.
.....the Mall Galleries serves what I have very frequently characterised as a very large population of people most easily characterised as "Middle England, Middle Aged, Middle Class with a Middle Income" audience for the most part. They tend to be solid buyers of not overpriced artwork when the economy is not experiencing turmoil and uncertainty.
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The feature wall at the end of the West Gallery jarred on me
- simply because it is not representative of the rest of the exhibition |
You too can see the exhibition:
Very sadly, there is no e-catalogue to browse online this year, which I think is a big mistake. Despite the fact I have all the catalogues for all the exhibitions, I very frequently refer to past online catalogues when wanting to check out an individual artist and how they have progressed over time. Saves a huge amount of time and effort finding the right catalogue!
ARCHIVE: RI Annual Exhibition 2007 - 2024
I've been visiting and reviewing this exhibition for the last 18 years - since 2007.
You can read them below.2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2008
2007
