Royal Academy shows art for adults only

The Royal Academy is to take the unprecedented step of making one of its galleries an "adults only" space for its exhibition of avant-garde young British artists, Sensation, which opens this week.

The room, to which under-18s will not be admitted, will feature the brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman's work Zygotic Acceleration, which displays androgynous children with aroused genitalia instead of faces.

But other controversial works, including a portrait by Chris Ofili of the Virgin Mary surrounded by explicit photographs from hard-core porn magazines, a canvas by Matt Collishaw showing a bullet hole in a human brain in extreme close-up to resemble female genitalia, and a painting by Marcus Harvey of the Moors murderer Myra Hindley, will be on general view.

People buying tickets for the exhibition will also be warned that some of the artworks could be thought "distasteful" and that "parents should exercise their judgement in bringing children to the exhibition".

The health warning, unique in the Royal Academy's 230-year history, comes amid growing protest about the Sensation exhibition. Much of the protest has centred on the painting of Hindley. But it remains that the controversial Hindley painting could yet be withdrawn from the exhibition before it has its press view tomorrow, creating yet more problems for the troubled institution.

Such a move would mean further friction between academicians and the management of the RA. Last week the academy voted narrowly for the painting to be kept in the exhibition.

It is understood that Royal Academy officials are to contact Winnie Johnson, mother of one of the Moors victims, and may bow to her wishes to have the painting withdrawn. That could leave academicians who voted in favour of the painting being exhibited feeling that their wishes were irrelevant.

One senior academician , the sculptor Michael Sandle, 61, has already resigned over the Hindley painting and the way the Academy is being run. He said some of the Sensation exhibits were "appalling" and showing them "grossly offensive". The Royal Academy was, he said, "totally out of control."

But visitors to the exhibition - a selection of Young British Artists on loan from the collection of the advertising mogul Charles Saatchi - will find that there are exhibits just as shocking as Marcus Harvey's painting of Hindley, some notably more so.

The Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili, 29, is juxtaposed with photographs of female genitalia. Even the critic Waldemar Januszcak, a passionate advocate of much contemporary art including the Turner Prize, which he brought to television when he was at Channel 4, said: "When you get close and see the pornographic photographs, it is clear it has no purpose other than to shock."

At their private meeting last week academicians rounded on David Gordon, secretary of the RA, and Norman Rosenthal, the exhibition secretary. Some said the exhibition was offensive and unworthy of being at the Royal Academy. Others pointed out that Mr Saatchi is a dealer and it is therefore inappropriate to show his collection at the Royal Academy. In addition it is rather unfair on talented young artists who do not happen to be in the Saatchi Collection.

Damien Hirst, whose animals in formaldehyde will be in the Sensation exhibition, said last week he had been asked to become a member of the Royal Academy but had refused. The Royal Academy denied the claim. In the present issue of Time Out magazine, three other artists in the Sensation exhibition, Fiona Rae, Gary Hume and Richard Patterson, say that if they ever were asked to join they would also refuse.