Art and antisemitism

A prestigious exhibition of young people's art was corrupted by bigotry

by MELANIE PHILLIPS

I helped chalk up a small victory yesterday in the struggle against antisemitism.

A friend drew my attention to the catalogue of the Young Artists' Summer Show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, which opens today.

The exhibition showcases art works, mainly paintings and sculptures, by children and young people aged four to 19. Most of these works are, as you would expect from such young people, sweet, naive and innocent. There are self-portraits, works depicting family members, animals, food and, among the older children, thoughtful meditations and flights of fancy.

One exhibit, however, struck a horribly jarring note. It was a photograph of a person whose face was obscured by a cardboard placard reading “Jews say — Stop Genocide On Palestinians. Not In Our Name.” It was submitted by someone called Kauser, aged 18, under the title: “Not in our name”. There were also stickers on the placard reading “genocide” and “apartheid”.



Appalled at the inclusion of this piece of propaganda and incitement — and its implication that Jewish support for this calumny was not confined, as it is, to a few cranks in the community — I sent a message first thing yesterday morning to the Royal Academy in which I asked:

Why have you included this photograph, which tells a vicious lie? There is no genocide of the Palestinians, but a war to defeat an Iranian proxy army that committed the atrocities of October 7 and announces it intends to destroy Israel and murder every Jew. There is no apartheid in Israel where Arabs have equal rights. The claims of "genocide" and "apartheid" are lies aimed at demonising and delegitimising Israel.

The message of this photograph incites hatred against Jews as well as Israelis. It gaslights Jewish people -- the vast majority of whom certainly do not endorse the message on the placard -- with the message that "good Jews know Israel does evil". This is shocking given the atrocities of October 7 and the epidemic antisemitism now raging in Britain.

Does the Royal Academy really think it appropriate to hang this message of hatred and incitement in a show which will probably be viewed by young people and is deeply divisive, offensive and threatening towards Jews? Unlike the few other photographs that are included in the exhibition, this has no creative element whatsoever; it merely displays a propaganda message, and is the only exhibit to do so. What is the artistic merit in this exhibit that caused your four judges to include it?

The four judges who selected the exhibits for this show were Rana Begum, RA, artist; Rina Sagoo, assistant curator for artistic programmes, RA collections; Suleman Aqeel Khiliji, RA schools student; and Chris Francis, art teacher and co-founder of ArtPedagogy.

Subsequently, and before I received any reply, I came across another similarly repellent exhibit. This one, entitled “Conflict” by Andy, aged 16, depicted in a charcoal drawing a group of weeping Arab women and a giant Buddha — with a swastika on it. Andy wrote:

I have created this piece of work inspired by the recent conflict in Gaza. For me, art is about voice — expressing myself, unapologetically. Watching the conflict unravel in Gaza draws many parallels with the Nazi's [sic] and Chinese oppression, hence the Buddha symbol and the swastika. I wish for peace; I wish for a better world.



Accordingly, I wrote to the RA about the “Conflict” exhibit:

This one equates Israeli Jews in Gaza with the Nazis, which is a clear example of antisemitism. When you answer my previous questions, please also explain how the Royal Academy justifies including this second expression of anti-Jewish bigotry. Does the Royal Academy have a problem with Israel and the Jews?

Today, I received this reply from the RA:

The Royal Academy’s sixth annual Young Artists’ Summer Show, opening on Tuesday 16 July, displays a selection of works by young artists aged from 4 to 19 from across the UK, selected by a panel of judges including Royal Academicians and RA Schools students. This year, there are more than 300 works on site and over 500 works online, selected from over 21,500 entries. Since the RA’s foundation in 1768, art education has been at its heart. The Young Artists’ Summer Show provides a platform for the skilled and varied work of students, champions the importance of art in education and celebrates the teachers fostering creativity in young people. As an organisation committed to freedom of expression, works in the exhibition often reflect current societal and political topics that matter to young people, from women’s rights to global conflict.

We are aware of concerns about two artworks that relate to the Israel/Palestine conflict. We have discussed the matter thoroughly and have also received external guidance. We recognise that an exhibition for young people and artwork by young people is not an appropriate environment for volatile public discourse. We offer a duty of care to the artists we exhibit and the visitors to our galleries, particularly our youngest and most vulnerable. We chose to include these works in the show. However, having reviewed and considered the matter carefully, we feel that by continuing to display these artworks, with limited opportunity to provide context or discourse, we would risk causing undue upset and could put people at risk. We have therefore made the decision to remove these two artworks from display. We apologise for any hurt and distress this has caused to our young artists and to our visitors. We will learn from this experience and we are reviewing our processes, so we can continue to celebrate the creativity of young artists in a safe and responsible way.

The RA deserves credit for promptly withdrawing these exhibits once these concerns were made known to it; later yesterday, others had also registered similar objections. But how awful — although in today’s savage climate of Jew-hatred, not alas surprising — that young people should have been programmed with these lies, and that the cultural establishment thought nothing was wrong with them.

And it’s far from clear that the RA has really got the point even now. It has understood that these exhibits risked “causing undue upset and could put people at risk”. But there’s no sign that it has understood the truly monstrous nature of the blood libels, demonisation of Israel and Jew-hatred that it chose to include in its celebration of youthful creativity.

And indeed a third piece, by Michael Sandle RA entitled “The mass slaughter of defenceless women and children is not how you deradicalise Gaza,” depicting a faceless and thus dehumanised pilot in an aircraft bearing a Star of David against a background of bodies in burial shrouds, is on display in the RA’s Summer Exhibition.

These examples of the hijacking of art by murderous lies are a further deeply sad illustration of the hateful and self-destructive madness that has overtaken Britain and the west.