The Secret to a Good Life
- Submitting institution
-
London Metropolitan University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 12.32
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- The Royal Academy of Arts
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- -
- Year of first exhibition
- 2018
- URL
-
https://issuu.com/arts_londonmet/docs/pb_the_secret_to_a_good_life_v4
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
2 - The Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The Secret to a Good Life was commissioned by the Royal Academy (RA) to mark its
250th anniversary. Authored by Royal Academician, Patrick Brill under his pseudonym
Bob and Roberta Smith, the exhibition used the work of his mother and father alongside
several new pieces created in collaboration with his wife and daughter that question the
historically strained relationships between women and the RA.
The project addresses the following key research questions;
● How does sculpture and painting reposition gender within institutional narratives?
● What scope is there for defining a role - similar to that of a ‘public intellectual’ – for
the artist: a ‘public artist’?
● Inasmuch as artworks may function to celebrate everyday life, to what extent is the
layering of biography and history in this work insightful?
Brill’s established visual methods problematise the inherent politics of institutions such as
the RA, providing insights about our understanding of critique within art practice. The work
extends its reach into new audiences via populist forms and articulated modes of
engagement, by mapping his personal biography against a public and historical context.
Due to its national and international reputation, the Royal Academy welcomes
1.28M physical and 3.4M digital visitors per year. Footfall for this exhibition can be
reasonably estimated at up to 300,000 visitors throughout its run. Brill ran a series of
related workshops open to the public and published an accompanying book Bob and
Roberta Smith: The Secret to a Good Life.
The exhibition is a meaningful contribution to Brill’s ongoing activism for access
and equality in art education. When discussing art as advocacy in 2015 he said: ‘Objects
are very vulnerable when people have forgotten their stories’. By bringing to debate his
own family story, he strengthens this agenda in relation to society, education, and our
institutions today.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -