Twenty contemporary art pieces gifted to Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in honour of the Platinum Jubilee will be displayed at The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace.
Gifted by the Royal Academy of Arts to the late monarch, the works of art on paper are by Royal Academicians elected in the past decade. This includes Wolfgang Tillmans, Lubaina Himid, Yinka Shonibare CBE, and the President of the RA, Rebecca Salter. All pieces of art were presented in honour of the Platinum Jubilee.
The work on display includes Wolfgang Tillmans’s Regina – a photograph taken during the Golden Jubilee in 2002. In the image, The Queen is seen in the Gold State Coach as it passes Fleet Street from St Paul’s Cathedral after a Service of Thanksgiving. Visitors will also be able to see a digital print of Thomas Heatherwick’s design for the Tree of Trees project, which was a 21-foot sculpture including 350 saplings outside Buckingham Palace during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Serving as a beacon for the celebration, the sculpture also represented The Queen’s Green Canopy, a national tree-planting initiative. Following the festivities, the saplings were planted across the nation.
The Royal Academy was established in 1768 with the support of George III. The Platinum Jubilee gift follows similar generous gifts to mark other occasions, such as the Coronation in 1953, the Silver Jubilee in 1977, and the Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Artists who have contributed to these celebrations include Stanley Spencer, whose work was a part of the Coronation; Peter Blake, who contributed to the Golden Jubilee; and David Hockney, whose work was a part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.
The Royal Academy Platinum Jubilee Gift is on display through 26 February. Admission is included in a ticket to the exhibition, Japan: Courts and Culture, at The Queen’s Gallery. This exhibit tells the story of 350 years of diplomatic, artistic, and cultural exchange between the British Royal Family and the Japanese Imperial Family.
