The Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in London features over 1,600 works, with Tracey Emin's painting "The Crucifixion" as the standout piece. The critic describes Emin's work as a sincere, shocking depiction of the crucifixion that reinvigorates religious art, alongside works by Georg Baselitz, Cornelia Parker, Tamara Kostianovsky, George Shaw, Frank Bowling, and Cindy Sherman.
This review matters because it argues that Emin's painting is the greatest new work since Lucian Freud's death, demonstrating how religious art can convey universal human fragility. It also highlights the Summer Exhibition's continued relevance in a moment when avant-garde and conservative art are blurred, offering a unique mix of famous and unknown artists.