Interesting.
I'm glad I went.
This is the best of mostly-British artistic talent today, I assume. That said, a lot of it is very conservative. It's also very derivative. A lot of the works are like so many we've seen before.
There are over 1200 works on show, and apart from the big names that you find in the Central Hall, there is very little that is particularly original. I can only assume that the hanging committee had nothing better to choose from. I suppose the artists who enter are self-selecting.
So what was good? Of course I can only comment on the few that caught my eye, since its impossible to examine everything in a couple of hours.
I loved the Interview with Eddie Mair by Bob and Roberta, but then I tend to like everything he does. This was a verbatim ( I assume) transcript of an interview, painted with sign-writer's paint on an assembly of boards, probably 20ft by 10ft. There are three other Bob and Roberta exhibits in the same vein, including his 2011 Letter to Michael Gove, that I have commented on before and his All Schools should be Art Schools placard that I have previously recommended as a mantra.
I liked the Assisted Lines by Rosemary Trockel which comprises vertical lines made from wool (?) tightly pulled over the surface of a canvas. The canvas shows through, so that as you move in front of the canvas you have an optical effect from the interference of the lines (with their shadows?).
After that, as you walk from room to room, its all so-much "so-what?". Nothing much stands out. There are primarily paintings, traditional prints and sculpture here, by and large. The odd photograph.
The only room that, on entry, caused me to pause and feel something close to surprise/pleasure was the (late in sequence for me) room that included a single David Shrigley cartoon. Immediately recognisable among the otherwise more conservative/traditional or already noted (those Bob and Roberta signs).
Where I wondered was the adventure? Where was the risk that you would hope to find in a show that advertises itself with Discover the New - Discover the Now? I didn't find it.
So why did I find it interesting? Why was I glad I went? Because I learned a lot. I took the time to examine some of the more interesting works more closely and came away with many ideas of things I could try myself (not ashamed of being derivative). I also noted the almost-complete-absence of the use of more contemporary media such as video, TV screen and computer-generated works. There was nothing that could be called an installation, an event or a performance. Note-to-self: paint and draw if you want to get hung.
The entry conditions don't explicitly forbid work that is not exclusively a still image or stationary object, but they do go on a bit about framing which generally assumes that you are going to submit a painting or something else that is stationary and can be hung on a wall. That's probably why there were no surprises.
But I did learn a lot. So it was well worth the money and the time.