The first Royal Academy Summer Exhibition took place in 1769 and contained 136 works by 57 artists. Nowadays, around 1000 works are selected from entries by some 5000 artists. In this survey, Blake, himself an RA since 1981, presents a fascinating barometer of changing tastes.

On 1 May 1780, England's Royal Academy of Arts opened its twelfth annual exhibition, the first to be held in the magnificent rooms of William Chambers's newly built Somerset House. For the next fifty-seven years, the Great Room of Somerset House effectively defined the centre of the London art world - the place where viewers had to see and be seen, and where artists fiercely vied for the attention of potential buyers. Such great exhibition performers as Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Lawrence, John Constable, J. M. W. Turner and David Wilkie sharpened their skills during these stimulating decades. In this extensively illustrated book, seventeen renowned experts revisit and assess the Somerset House years, a period of great achievement and central importance in the history of British art. The book's contributors view the Somerset House phenomenon from a broad range of perspectives. They deal with the physical nature of the exhibitions, the audience, the role of the press, the Royal Academy's place within the larger world of urban entertainments, and how the conditions of display shaped and even transformed patterns of art production. In addition, they explore such topics as the tactics of exhibitors in different genres of painting, the exhibition histories of works in other media and the impact on foreign artists and observers of an increasingly self-confident national school of British art.

Every year, tourists, art lovers, and art buyers flock to the Royal Academy of Arts' Summer Exhibition, making it among the most popular attractions in London -- and one of the best places to buy new art. Now, for the many Americans who follow this celebrated annual event, the catalogue for the world's largest open contemporary art exhibition is being published in the United States for the first time. Overflowing with bold color illustrations, the volume offers a unique view of the best new works by leading painters, sculptors, printmakers, and architects of our time, one of whom will win the Charles Wollaston Award, one of the most prestigious art prizes in Britain.

Every year a selection of works from the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition is reproduced in The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Illustrated. Around 170 works are illustrated in this book.