Brendan Neiland

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Cityscape by Neiland
Cityscape by Neiland

Professor Brendan Neiland was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire on 23 October 1941.

In 1992 he was elected into the Royal Academy (RA).

Professor Neiland resigned as Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools in July 2004 following allegations regarding missing funds from academy accounts. Neiland is the first artist to be stripped of his membership since James Barry in 1799.

[edit] External references

From Artist's own website:

Brendan Neiland is one of Britain's foremost and contemporary painters and printmakers represented in major museums and galleries worldwide including, in Britain, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Tate Gallery London, The Collections of the British Council and the Arts Council of Great Britain.

He has created some of the most memorable images of modern metropolitan existence. His work has been commissioned by leading commercial companies, public service institutions and education establishments and has been the subject of several television documentaries and video programmes.

Informed by the practice of photography yet influenced by a sense of the poetics of lights and pictorial structure which can be related to the work of Braque or Magritte, Corot or Vermeer, the art of Brendan Neiland is eloquent of the enigma of existence as it has been manifest in the modern era.

At once intimate and grand, celebratory and melancholy, his work often features the soaring glass and steel structures typical of the era’s corporate architecture. At the same time, the work embraces a range of spiritual matters. Able to convey the depths of longing contained within a moments reflection – in the mystery of mirrored light, held in creative equipose between worlds of culture and nature, technology and spirit – Brendan Neiland is an artist whose work appeals to both the public and private realm.

Expulsion from the RA

In 2004 Professor Neiland told members that he and his staff had raised and spent money without the knowledge of the RA's finance department to avoid budget restrictions that they felt were unfair on the RA Schools. Fearing a scandal the Royal Academy took a cautious approach, hiring Ernst and Young to investigate. However it quickly became public and the newspapers reported the discovery of a 'secret' bank account and reported a fraud investigation.

The official public response to the scandal from the RA was to publish a statement saying the money was raised from Neiland's consulting work and through the sale of artwork, and that transactions had occurred outside the Academy's accounting systems and without the knowledge of the finance department. It promised its donors it would recover any misspent funds.

In May 2005 the artist Peter Blake resigned from the RA when Professor Neiland was expelled as a member by a vote of 37 to 29 of the 102 Academicians for his financial mismanagement. This vote followed a private report from the high court judge Sir Alan Moses. Acting as a 'friend' of the RA, Sir Alan advised the membership that Neiland had behaved improperly and had put the RA at legal risk. Despite concuring that Professor Neiland had earned much of the money through his own consultancy work, and that the account showed a surplus of £20,000 when it was closed, and that the Finance Director had known about the account four years earlier, the report concentrated on damning Professor Neiland's disregard for accounting responsibilities and recommended expulsion. (Sir Alan Moses is the son-in-law of the late Hugh Casson, President of the RA from 1976 to 1984.)

Peter Blake said he believed that Professor Neiland had been treated unfairly and that innuendos of fraud were grossly unfair. He also said he felt the judge should have taken evidence from Professor Neiland before writing his report. Despite announcing his resignation to the press, the RA continues to recognise Blake as a member.

The Royal Academy has now decided it will not be seeking to recover funds from Professor Neiland, and refuses to comment on the episode. As yet it has not disclosed the Ernst and Young report to the charity commission, the membership in General Assembly or the public.

The RA's director of development, John Nickson, told Radio Four that the money was raised by Professor Neiland's own consultancy work and from the sale of artwork not belonging to the RA. Professor Neiland maintained he had served the interest of the schools at all times but admitted his handling of the funds had been unworldly and cavalier and issued an apology to the membership. A charity commission file remains open on the case.

Many commentators felt the scandal was best understood as a continuation of a power struggle within the governance of the Royal Academy.

Neiland’s resignation was followed by that of the President, Phillip King RA and the Secretary, Lawton Fitt, in November 2004. Phillip King cited ill health, and Lawton Fitt gave an interview to the Independent newspaper saying "I have been repeatedly frustrated in my efforts to make changes, to do some things I think the academy would benefit from, and finally that frustration has told."