Salon des Refusés Party

From 4th to 14th June, TAG members put on an exhibition of rejected entries to the RA at the Art Workers’ Guild. This culminated in a jam packed private view party on the final evening. Concurrent with this ‘Salon des Refusés’, fragments of classical architecture by this year’s Kingston students were also part of the exhibition. These ranged from vast base mouldings, capitals, consoles and cornices, all made from a variety of materials and painted a uniform white. They made a stunning body of work and it was inspiring to see students taking direct inspiration from the ancient world.

Speeches were given by both the chairman, Francis Terry and Professor Lucien Steil of Notre Dame University. Francis started off by congratulating Simon Hurst for all his tremendous work putting together the exhibition which he did almost single handedly. He went on to say that following a vote at the TAG AGM, Professor David Watkin has become the first and a very worthy winner of TAG’s lifetime achievement award. He then handed over to Lucien who gave an impassioned and entertaining speech celebrating the refused work for its quality and defiance against current trends. He also urged exhibitors not to adopt a victim mentality, our strength he felt, was the joy in what we do, and this could be clearly seen in the excellent work exhibited.