Bronze at London's Royal Academy of Arts

Exhibition Review: Bronze, Royal Academy of Arts, London, until December 9 2012

For more than 5,000 years, bronze has been used as an artistic medium for creating sculptures, from antiquity in the Middle East, China, Egypt and Greece to rising prominence in Asia, Africa and the rest of Europe.

First used for tools and ritual items, its versatility as a material has given it enduring popularity in the decorative arts.

The Royal Academy of Arts celebrates this long inheritance with this unique and wide-ranging exhibition featuring an eclectic and diverse selection of 150 of the most outstanding bronze sculptures in the world from prehistory to the present.

It includes everything from statues of Buddha and Hindu and classical gods to sexually-explicit satyrs, stylised reliefs of backs by Matisse and a vast Japanese incense burner made for a trade fair.

Rodin, Giacometti, Ghiberti, Henry Moore and Tony Cragg are among the artists. A compelling range of sculptures in a variety of styles show what a great centre of bronze working Nigeria has been.

The thematic arrangement - different rooms are devoted to animals, figures, objects, gods, groups, reliefs and heads - creates some unusual juxtapositions: the Etruscan Chimera of Arezzo - a fantasy creature comprising a lion, a goat and snake - keeps company with a giant spider by Louise Bourgeois, while a comic-looking baboon by Picasso, with a face modelled on his son’s toy car, stands beside a majestically realistic turkey by Renaissance sculptor Giambologna.

Early masterpieces such as the 14th century BC Chariot of the Sun and the nearby 7th century BC Hallstatt period Chariot of Strettweg contrast greatly with the simplicity of some of the more modern works, such as Jasper Johns’ ale can and Jeff Koons’ basketball.

The earliest pieces in the exhibition are a set of royal objects including a sceptre, crown and mace head from 4500-3500 BC, found in the Judean Desert; the most recent is a huge, shiny lacquered copper-alloy mirror made in 2012 by Anish Kapoor.

There are also sculptures demonstrating the advantages of bronze. Frederick Remington's Off the Range (Coming Through the Rye), with its four cowboys galloping with guns in the air and reins flying, balances on only six of the horses' legs, a feat that would be impossible in another medium, such as marble.

The first time attempt at such an all-encompassing exhibition succeeds by crossing both cultural and chronological divides. With works from across the world, many of which have never before been seen in the UK, this is a demonstration of the huge role the medium has played in the history of world art.

• Open 10am-6pm (10pm Friday). Admission £3-£15.50. Book online. Follow the Royal Academy on Twitter @royalacademy

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