Closing soon

The story of my year has been missing the shows I wanted to see by leaving visits to the final week, then getting caught up in something that prevented me from being in London. So this month I'm catching up on some of the exhibitions that are still on. Yesterday I made it to the RA Summer exhibition in its final week.

I hate not being able to take pictures in galleries - unless visitors are setting up tripod and state of the art kit, what's the harm? - but the Barry Flanagan bronze hares in the courtyard, the Roman sculptures outside the John Singer Sargent show and Tracey Emin's prints in the Friend's Room were all legitimately up for grabs. There was even a copy of my Emin owl print to admire over a large slice of chocolate torte with pecans (other women in the tea queue gasped audibly over my self-indulgence). Unfortunately, I discovered that the artist's proof status I thought guaranteed the exclusivity of my purchase is as common as chips - they only had artist's proofs of the print left on sale at the RA (and considerably cheaper than what I paid at auction - I hope Cass Fine Art students appreciated my donation!).
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hugh-casson-room-for-friends/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/01/barry-flanagan-obituary
http://splitbyscene.blogspot.com/2010/05/ought-to-be-bought-3.html

This is mine ...