Gifted - Royal Collection Trust

In 2012, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, marking sixty years as sovereign. The second-longest-reigning monarch in British history, she is also the first to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee since Queen Victoria in 1897. In honor of this momentous event, Britain’s longest-running art school, London’s Royal Academy of the Arts, presented the Queen with a one-of-a-kind gift: a collection of more than one hundred artworks by Academy members, among them many of the most accomplished British artists of this century.

Gifted: From the Royal Academy to The Queen brings together the works that comprise the Academy’s Diamond Jubilee gift to the Queen. With watercolors, etchings, acrylics, screenprints, collages, and even a drawing done on an iPad, the collection includes works by Elizabeth Blackadder, Tracey Emin, Zaha Hadid, David Hockney, Anish Kapoor, Richard Long, Grayson Perry, and Tom Phillips. An introduction by Royal Collection curator Martin Clayton takes readers through the story of the gift’s creation and presentation. In addition to celebrating the Diamond Jubilee and the Academy’s collection, the book allows readers to share in the enjoyment of the art itself with a jacket that unfolds to reveal a frame-and-keep print by Anish Kapoor.
With its lavish use of specially commissioned photography and descriptions of each item illustrated, Gifted is a unique record of the masterpieces that make up this unique collection.