Plans for Royal Academy's summer art fest cause stir

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Soiled sheets and pickled sheep could jostle for space with genteel watercolours at that great bastion of the British art establishment, the Royal Academy.

The change has been wrought by Pop art veteran Peter Blake, famed for designing The Beatles record cover for the Sergeant Pepper album, who is taking over as curator for the academy's summer exhibition, an event that attracts 100,000 people every year.

The exhibition, an essential stopover for socialites on their hectic summer schedule, gives amateur artists a once-a-year chance to have their lovingly crafted landscapes and flower arrangement paintings hung alongside the professionals.

For the year 2001, they are in for a jolt.

At what is billed as the largest contemporary art show in the world, Blake has invited the bad boys and girls of Brit Art to join in from Damien Hirst, famed for his pickled sheep works, to Tracey Emin, who sparked outrage with a soiled bed exhibit.

Blake makes no apologies for his plans to pep up the normally polite art show.

"Apparently I have upset people. But there is always some fuss about the Summer Exhibition," he told Tuesday's Times newspaper.

"I will invite some of the young British artists of today. I have always been sympathetic to and supportive of them since the beginning of the phenomenon -- Damien, Tracey, Sarah Lucas, Angus Fairhurst, Gary Hume, Gavin Turk are all friends of mine."

Traditionalist academicians -- life-long members elected by their peers -- are not amused.

"I very much object," said former Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools Leonard McComb.

British artists are on a wave of stirring sensation around the world with their challenging mix of death, sex and body parts.

In 1999, New York erupted in anger when a British exhibit went on show featuring elephant dung, porn, the Virgin Mary and pickled cow parts.

Britain's Turner Prize consistently sparks controversy. Last year's prize was fought out between an artist accused of plagiarism, another who piled a room full of rubbish and a third who displayed photographs of a splayed male anus.

Copyright 2001 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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