Akademy

We are delighted to announce that Shai Baitel, prominent curator, writer, art entrepreneur and visionary Artistic Director of the Modern Art Museum of Shanghai, has joined the Akademy Circle as our Ambassador. We look forward to more fruitful collaborations and exciting events in London, Dubai, and Miami.

Alongside being the inaugural Artistic Director of MAM, Shai Baitel is also co-founder of Mana Contemporary, a global, multidisciplinary and comprehensive arts centre, the largest of its kind, and a hub for artists and collectors. Baitel has extensive experience in arts and culture, and is a prolific writer and frequent contributor to major publications, including Forbes, Daily News, and HuffPost among many others. He has consulted for the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, among other institutions. Shai conceived and was the artistic director for the Bob Dylan exhibition “Retrospectrum”.

Queen Elizabeth II, 1926 - 2022.
Today we are thinking of Her Majesty’s wisdom and grace. Her profound presence will be long remembered.

The New York Times has prepared a list of books that offer a deeper understanding of the Queen’s life, family and world. Scroll through to see our top favourites or hit the link in bio for the fool book list on The New York Times website.

Last week our members went on a private tour of Raphael’s exhibition with Gayna Pelham - an Art Educator, artist, and art historian with over 15 years of experience.

This exhibition is the first outside of Italy that encompasses all aspects of Raphael’s artistic activity across his career. We learned that Raphael was an artist and architect of the High Renaissance who was very realistic in his paintings. His hallmark in his artwork is very thin oil layers, where you can’t see a single brush.

Raphael had a tendency to adopt other artists’ ideas. For example, in his early work faces of people looked just like Perugino’s. Another portrait of a young woman had a pose based upon Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. Raphael even imitated her crossed arms and veil.

Raphael’s portrait of Pope Julius II set the standards for papal portraiture ever since. Interestingly the background was not green at the beginning; it was blue and consisted of a pattern of teardrop-shaped fields. The next time you visit, look closely at the top right corner where you can see heraldic symbols representing the papal tiara, crossed keys, and another symbol, which was the Della Rovere oak tree (Della Rovere being the Pope Julius II’s family name).

To learn more about events and memberships, please get in touch!

This Wednesday, Akademy members joined a guided tour with Konstantin Pinaev around the Strand where King’s College, Somerset House and the famous Savoy hotel are located.

We saw the twin door of 10 Downing Street, which is the hottest location for all filmmakers.

During the walk, we stopped at Buckingham street, where Samuel Pepys moved in 1679 after being imprisoned in the Tower of London. He is known to be the first blogger for his famous diaries.

Another famous name is associated with the Strand. Charles Dickens used to work in the warehouse that produced bottles of liquid shoe polish. Nowadays, the PWC office is located there.

To learn more about events and memberships, please get in touch!

Happy International Women’s Day from the Akademy’s team💐

On the 2nd of February our members enjoyed a fascinating tour across south London with the amazing Konstantin Pinaev. Konstantin is famous for his private tours across London’s most exciting spots filled with history.

On tour, we learned that London bridge is the capital’s oldest railway station and has undergone many construction changes during its history. In 1836 the first railway station was opened, which ran all the way to Greenwich. It was filled with long commodity parts and endless warehouses on the inside. Interestingly, during the renovation, archaeological remains of old times were found. For example, the London Bridge station has a corner with preserved needles and pins. Those findings prove that small businesses were located in that area. Moreover, small pieces of smoking pipes were found in the Thames, which mostly every Londoner used at the time.

To learn more about our membership programme please get in touch!

This week our members went on our second private tour with Gayna Pelham - an art historian that can talk you through each and every painting at the National Gallery.

We learned that Botticelli’s paintings were often done on wood as part of furniture pieces for the Medici family. The oil technique was not invented then, so he used paint made out of egg yolks, which is why you can see individual stokes if you look closely as it dries very fast.

Eyck was one of the first artists to use oil paints, but his paintings lack colour. This is due to paint pigments being much more expensive in Northern Europe, especially blue and purple. This is how Aquamarine got its name - it is a blue from “beyond the sea”. True purple was even rarer. That is why it is rarely seen in paintings. It took 10,000 rare snails to create just a small amount of colour, hence it was reserved for royalty.

The next time you visit look closely at Veronese’s The Family of Darius before Alexander. We see the family begging for his mercy, but Darius’s wife wrongly fell to her knees in front of Alexander’s chief general. Alexander forgives her mistake and spares the family. Yet in the painting, who is Alexander and who is the General is unclear. This isn’t the only mystery in the painting, and it was amazing to learn about them all and much more.

To learn more about events and memberships please get in touch!

Studio 7 by Cartier opens today! For the very first time, this exhibit will showcase personal Cartier stories and celebrate the Maison’s seven most iconic creations in jewellery and watchmaking through a photographic journey.

Cartier products have a deeper meaning than just a piece of jewellery, with each exchange symbolising a moment in the recipients’ life. For Studio 7, the focus is to recognise these special moments and pay tribute to a century of incredible stories narrated through seven Cartier collections: Santos, Tank, Trinity, Love, Just Un Clou, Panthère and Ballon Bleu.

Each gallery functions as a different part of the larger experience:
- ‘Legends’: a series of legendary historical portraits featuring Cartier creations
- ‘Inspiration’: a new dimension of portraiture that brings to life modern-day friends of the Cartier creations, emphasising a personal meaning close to their heart through a series of black and white portraits
- ‘Studio’: a home to the custom-built Cartier Studio where guests may share their own stories and receive meaningful keepsakes
- ‘Encounters’: a dynamic and evolving space where select portraits are displayed across digital screens

Studio 7 by Cartier is open from today until Sunday 8th August at the Saatchi Gallery.

Yesterday Akademy members had the opportunity to visit the world’s largest collection of privately owned Banksy’s. The Art of Banksy exhibition has welcomed over 750,000 visitors worldwide in Melbourne, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Miami and many more. 

Members visited the exhibition after hours and witness on display prints, canvasses, screenprints, sculptures, unique works and limited-edition pieces dated between 1997 and 2008. The exhibition featured iconic works such as ‘Girl and Balloon’, ‘Flower Thrower’ and ‘Rude Cooper’. 

For more information, click the link in bio.”