A new page of A Humument marks the death in November of Marvin Sackner. The major patron of my book and with his wife Ruth, an early dedicatee.

Marvin's daughter Sara emailed me the day after and invited me to join in a funerary zoom, which I felt should be a family occasion as with a touching address from the rabbi it proved to be as I saw in the video later. Yet I did make a guest appearance via the showing and reading of some well chosen pages from A Humument: a surprise and a moving honour.

Luckily the bulk of the Sackner collection had recently been acquired by the University of Iowa whose chief archivist Margaret Gamm soon contacted me to ask if I could write a note on my long relationship with the Sackners. This accompanies a picture of the signature work I made for their Miami home and describes how they met my work and I them, the beginning of a warm friendship for almost half a century.

 Homage to John Cage, archival print with silkscreen. Edition of 25, 55 x 59 cm

Determined that its unbroken record of 252 Summer Exhibitions must not be curtailed by Covid 19, the Royal Academy of Arts has opened it’s doors again to the Summer in Winter 2020 Summer Exhibition which features 5 new prints by Tom Phillips. The academy is open daily from 10am to 6pm but booking in advance is essential even for members. For those of you unable to visit you can still browse and buy online at the Summer Exhibition Explorer website until 3rd January 2021.

New painting by Tom Phillips: Two Roads oil on canvas 158 x 107cm

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2019 is now open each day until 12th August 2019 from 10am - 6pm with late opening until 10pm on Fridays.

You can also browse and buy online at the Summer Exhibition Explorer site.