Giants of British art to star in Royal Academy summer show

Some of Britain and America's most eminent artists, including Michael Craig-Martin, David Hockney and Jasper Johns, will be showing their work at the Royal Academy from today in one of the most impressive Summer Exhibitions in its history.

Hockney's 40ft scenic painting of Yorkshire will form the largest work of the much-heralded collection, while the creations of the former Turner Prize nominees Tracey Emin and Issac Julien will feature alongside American artists Johns, Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg and Chuck Close.

This year's impressive line up will cement the reputation of the Summer Exhibition on the art industry's calendar.

All the work was chosen from more than 13,000 submissions from the general public. This year's theme was "light", a concept which prompted the inclusion of a whole gallery dedicated to photography for the first time. Every elected member of the RA can submit a work to the annual show and these are shown next to public entries.

Edith Devaney, the head of the Summer Exhibition at the RA, said she was delighted by this year's line-up. "When you explain the Summer Exhibition to people like Ed Ruscha they just love it," she said. "There's nothing quite like it in the world. They like the fact that it's artists who decide how their work is going to be placed, not curators."

Highlights of the show include a self-portrait by Craig-Martin, the teacher of many of the Young British Artists, in bold blue, orange, purple and pink. Marcus Harvey, a former YBA, has produced a trompe-l'œil painting of a door with knobbly glass panels, through which you can see the fuzzy outline of his girlfriend sitting on the lavatory.

The German artist Anselm Kiefer has covered a canvas with baked clay, over which he paints a field of flowers and then attaches the branches of a tree and a battered metal model submarine to the surface. Along with Emin, he is one of the few Royal Academicians to feature in the exhibition.

Sculptural works include the Chapman brothers' dinosaurs and a gallery of works by German sculptors, chosen by the Royal Academician Tony Cragg.

There is a significant inclusion of international artists. Ruscha has produced a black-and-white painting of a cell with a shaft of light falling from a window, while the German sculptor Isa Genzken shows a concrete slab with fired tiles of green and orange.

One of the more surprising works is Michael Sandle's drawing of a naked Tony and Cherie Blair outside 10 Downing Street, which won the exhibition's annual Hugh Casson prize for drawing. The RA's president, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, is expected to highlight Sandle's work at the academy's annual dinner this month, which is usually attended by government figures.

The Summer Exhibition ends on 19 August