770 artists and public figures have signed an open letter criticising the Royal Academy’s decision to remove two works from its Young Artists’ Summer Show earlier this month.
‘We artists and human rights defenders, many of us Jewish, condemn the shameful decision of the Royal Academy of Arts to censor artworks by young artists that respond to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,’ the letter states.
Signatories of the letter include artists Nan Goldin, Tai Shani and Rosalind Nashashibi, musician Brian Eno and writers Natasha Walter, Ken Loach, Kamila Shamsie and Sabrina Mahfouz, among others.
The RA’s removal of the two works followed a complaint raised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. In a letter published on X/Twitter, its vice president Andrew Gilbert writes that three works on view show ‘antisemitic tropes and messaging’. The said works include a drawing that depicts a faceless pilot with a Star of David insignia over a pile of bodies in burial shrouds, another one which show women embracing in fear under a swastika, as well as a photograph that shows an individual holding a sign that reads ‘Jews say stop genocide on Palestinians: Not in Our Name.’
‘Far from protecting Jews, the RA is lending support to a racist, anti-Palestinian campaign that aims to silence expressions of support for Palestinian people,’ the open letter writes. ‘The Royal Academy must explain the measures it will take to repair the harm it has done by stigmatising the work of the young artists it removed from the Young Artists Summer Show and by dehumanising Palestinians.’
