Artist to leave after much chaos (7)
I believe the answer is:
farrago
'chaos' is the definition.
'artist to leave after much' is the wordplay.
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'to leave' becomes 'go' (**).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'much' becomes 'far' (I've seen this in other clues).
'ra'+'go'='rago'
'rago' after 'far' is 'FARRAGO'.
(Other definitions for farrago that I've seen before include "Confused mixture" , "A hotchpotch, perhaps of nonsense" , "confused situation" , "Jumbled mixture" , "Mix" .)