REVIEW: Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📍Royal Academy of Arts

When given the chance to review the Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers: Black Artists from the American South exhibition, I leapt at the opportunity. For me, an institution like the Royal Academy of Arts – or referred to as the RA – is somewhere I’d not necessarily see myself reflected, but this exhibition was pleasantly surprising. Located on Piccadilly, the courtyard you enter through to get to the main building is stunning. There’s a cafe outside, with parasols to shade you from the scorching sun (in this recent spate of weather, it’s a lovely addition – not quite Ibiza, but still!).

Greeted by a cheery staff member of the RA, I was informed that the exhibition was located towards the opposite side to the entrance I’d come in thorough and off I went with my friend inside this grandoise building to find the art displays. As a side note, having completed an undergraduate degree in English and American Literature, I’m very much interested in American art and culture (Tennessee Williams’ works are some of my favourite) and in the American South.

In this exhibition, you can view 64 works by 34 artists from 1950s right up to present day. What really drew me to these were the modes of portraying the artist’s idea included: sculptures, paintaings, reliefs and even pencil drawings. Based in Atlanta (Georgia), these were all mostly drawn at the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. The name is borrowed from the famous poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by American writer Langston Hughes. These artists are no twell known, but the celebrated quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend some arts and crafts folk may have heard of; ultimately, it allows for us to envisage the pain, as well as the joy of what it was like for the artists at the time. The motif of suffrage is still pertinent to the issues of the 2020s as we saw with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. The inspiration is via lived experience, and the modes of outward artistic skill goes far beyond a pencil and paintbrush. Some of my favourite pieces (as included in this blog post) are of the ways we can envisage how paint buckets are used to create a sea of grey but retain colour. the commentary on the injustice is prevalent, and loneliness as well as struggles portray often bleaks motifs.

For anyone who wants to learn, this exhibition is an insightful – and carefully crafted space. Though it does feel a little sparse at times, there are no complaints of the quality of the works on offer and their non-traditional modes of production.