Picture: BBC

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2009

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2009, showing Wednesday June 17th on BBC 2 at 7:00pm

Andrew Graham-Dixon, Lauren Laverne and Mark Kermode present a special edition of The Culture Show devoted to the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.

The hour-long special will showcase the very best of this year's exhibition and look back at its history to uncover the secret of its enduring appeal.

Held every year since 1769, the Summer Exhibition is unique. Running from 9 June to 16 August, it is the biggest open submission contemporary art exhibition in the world, and the longest-running annual art event. The show displays a wide range of new work by both acclaimed and completely unknown artists in all media - including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and architecture.

Andrew Graham-Dixon tracks the progress of four unknown artists who have submitted work for consideration this year. He loves their work, but will their pictures make it through the make-or-break judging process and into the final show?

The Culture Show talks to some of the leading artists exhibiting this year. New Academician Michael Landy - famous for having destroyed all of his possessions - talks about why he's now making portraits. The programme also follows two legends of the Sixties art scene, painter John Hoyland and sculptor Allen Jones, as they prepare work for the exhibition; and video art sceptic Mark Kermode talks to Richard Wilson, who is curating the Summer Exhibition's first room dedicated to video art.

There is also exclusive access to the judging of the Wollaston Award and the winner of the £25,000 prize is revealed. Previous winners include David Hockney, the Chapman brothers and Jeff Koons.

The programme also features a spectacular performance by art lover Beth Ditto and her band, Gossip, who play for the crowds at the Summer Exhibition's glamorous preview party.

View the full review

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