Artists criticise Royal Academy for ‘anti-Palestinian censorship’

More than 750 artists have signed an open letter criticising the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) for “anti-Palestinian censorship” after it removed two artworks related to the Israel-Gaza conflict from its Young Artists’ Summer Show.

The RA took the works down in July after a letter from the Board of Deputies of British Jews raised concerns about their content.

In response to the removal of the works, Artists for Palestine UK published an open letter this week saying: “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.”

It added: “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 letter called on the RA to “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”.

It continued: “The International Court of Justice has recognised the plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and condemned Israel’s underlying system of apartheid and occupation. We call on the Royal Academy and all arts institutions to end all complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid, including by ending their silencing of artists who speak out against it.”

Signatories of the letter include 100 Jewish creatives, as well as visual artists Nan Goldin, Rosalind Nashashibi and Adam Broomberg, curator David Campany, and writers Natasha Walter, Kamila Shamsie, Sabrina Mahfouz, Fatima Bhutto and Gillian Slovo.

In addition to the letter, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK (PSC) has sent an e-action to its 300,000 supporters calling on them to complain to the chief executive of the RA. 

A spokesman for Artists for Palestine UK said: “By failing to stand up to deplorable bullying and ludicrous accusations against young artists, the RA is in breach of its ethical responsibilities and duty of care. This needs urgent repair.” 

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said last month that three works on display in the exhibition featured “antisemitic tropes and messaging” and had caused “significant concern to members of our community”.

The works in question include a painting of a screaming woman and a swastika, which the artist said drew on parallels between the current conflict and the Nazi era, and a work featuring the phrase “Jews say stop genocide on Palestinians: Not in Our Name”, which the board said “appears to be a submission from someone non-Jewish”.

The third work cited in the complaint, called The Mass Slaughter of Women and Girls Is Not How You Deradicalise Gaza by the RA academician Michael Sandle, remains on display.

The board said the three works featured “highly charged and controversial messages” and made “no attempt to present any context”.

At the time of the removal of the works, the RA said it had “discussed the matter thoroughly and have also received external guidance" before making the decision to take them down.

In a statement this week, the RA said: "The Royal Academy is committed to freedom of expression, it is one of our founding principles. We are also committed to the safety and wellbeing of our artists and visitors, especially our youngest, such as those currently exhibiting in our Young Artists’ Summer Show. Safeguarding is both a principle and a legal requirement of the RA as an independent charity.

"We should not have chosen to display two works that relate to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and are subject to varying interpretation, in the Young Artists’ Summer Show. We recognised that an exhibition for young people and children aged 4 to 19, without opportunity for real context and discussion, is not an appropriate environment to invite volatile public discourse, at the RA and online via social media.

"We have a duty of care to the artists we exhibit and the visitors to our galleries, particularly our youngest. We made the decision to remove these artworks on Monday 15 July. We made this decision based on our duty of care and independently of any correspondence from external organisations.

"The RA followed its internal procedures for managing this issue. We shared our decision with the schools who had submitted the work of the respective young artists, and they supported the RA’s course of action. It was not a conclusion we came to lightly, and we considered the implications carefully, but safeguarding the young people involved in our activities is paramount.

"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."