Cathy's Art Diary

Lecture at the National Gallery inspired by the current exhibition by the artist in residence Alison Watt given by Gen Doy. author of 'Drapery: Classicism and Barbarism in Visual Culture'. I must admit I did not find this a very good lecture. It tried to cover too many themes of what drapery has meant in art, classicism, fetishism, materialism, femininity etc and therefore didn’t cover any of them properly. It made some of the themes just sound rather odd and dare I say kinky. Much to my amusement the lecturer insisted on giving the dimensions of many of the pictures which in the context of some of the themes made me want to shout “But size doesn’t matter”!

Small exhibition at the National Gallery by their artist in residence Alison Watt. Taking her inspiration from drapery in pictures in the gallery she has produced a series of large canvases showing the folds of white material. The scale of these pictures is very impressive and the images are calm and tranquil. The images are suggestive of other things without being obvious. Video Guardian Reviews Evening Standard

Retrospective of the work of Peter Doig at Tate Britain bringing together over 50 paintings and works on paper and including many pieces which have never previously been shown in the UK. I had not come across Doig’s work before and found it delightfully relaxing. I loved the large landscapes such as “The House that Jacques Built” in the first room and “Bomb Island” which reminded me of the 3D maps of Venice. A real find and someone I will look out for in the fiture. Reviews Independent Daily Telegraph Evening Standard Time Out

Exhibition of British neo-classical sculpture from 1760-1860 at Tate Britain . Stunningly displayed in the Duveen Galleries this exhibition was as much about the display and the effect of these sculptures than about the objects themselves. To see these cool mainly life sized marbles displayed against black with people modern people moving between them was beautiful and really brought the statues to life. Having seen the Cranach exhibition the day before the Cannova’s “Three Graces” against the black background gave a real resonance back to that show. Reviews Evening Standard

Exhibition of drawings from their own collections at Tate Britain arranged in themes rather than by date. This was a lovely way of viewing the work as it gave you a chance to look at the works for what they were before reading the label from the group to one side and seeing who had drawn them. I think the best way to describe is to list the themes and my favourite in each block. Creatures great and small – “Rosetti’s wombat” by William Bell Scott (Yes it seems to be true Rosetti owned a wombat!”) Stories real and imagined – “Pink and green sleepers” by Henry Moore (One of the underground sketches from the war) Face to face - a self portrait of Stanley Spencer Modern figures – An untitled figure study by Keith Vaughan Studies from art and life – an academy study by William Mulready A wonderful Edwardian male nude complete with moustache. Town and country – “Chimney Stacks and Winding Ways, Whitby” by Fred Cecil Jones Modern and abstract – “Oct 55/Torre de Grillo, Rome” by Ben N

Exhibition at Tate Britain on the work of the Camden Town Group, who introduced Post-Impressionism to Britain. Concentrating on the work of the five founding members of this group Sickert, Ginner, Gore, Gillman and Bevan the exhibiton looked at the themes in their art and how they reflected contemporary life. To put them in context there was good use of film and photographs of the time. I have always loved Ginner’s work so found the exhibition a wonderful opportunity to see so many of his works in one place and to see them alongside the people who were influencing him. I love the way he uses the texture of the paint to build the shapes he is painting and yet still create a finely defined picture. I loved his picture of Victoria Station as it was not much different to now. This was a beautifully hung exhibition with quite a lot of space given to each work. The galleries seemed to be split up in a slightly different way which gave it a different pace. Pictures were also hung well togeth

Exhibition of the work of Lucas Cranach at the Royal Academy . This was a stunning exhibition as it confounded my previously held impressions of Cranach’s work. I’d thought of him as a painter of Adam and Eve’s and slightly dodgy Venus’s however the early part of this exhibition showed him as a talented painter in the Northern European tradition. He became the painter for the court of the Electors of Saxony working not only on paintings but also banners and decorations. The tape tour also showed him as a business man. He became the only apothecary in Wittenberg thereby having access to cheap pigments and controlling the supply. He was also a printer and at that time painted portraits of boards of the same size and wood as the end blocks of books. It also showed his role in the early reformation and his relationship with Martin Luther, however he also managed to continue to work for Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg painting him as St Jerome in his study. To play favourites in the exhibi

Small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the stories behind the production of some of the National Portrait Gallery's recent portraits. The six featured are Tomas Watson’s “John Fowles”, Andrew Tift’s “Neil and Glenys Kinnock”, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi’s “Richard Rogers”, Tom Phillip’s “Iris Murdoch”, Stuart Pearson’s “J K Rowling”, Leonard McComb’s “Doris Lessing” and Yolande Sonnichend’s “Stephen Hawking”. I hadn’t seen the J K Rowling before and its is lovely, a 3D mixed media study in fine detail. The Kinnock picture was impressive in that it is based on nearly 500 photos and sketches of both them and their personal possessions.

A sister exhibition to the “Brilliant women” once also at the National Portrait Gallery showing 21 black and white photographs of outstanding women from different fields of achievement including the arts, charities and business photographed at differing points in their careers all taken by Bryan Adams. I loved the fact that amongst great women in entertainment such as Dame Judi Dench and Annie Lennox the most glamorously dressed person is a political scientist, Dr Scilla Elwrothy. My favourite was the picture of Darcy Bussell with the surface of the moor projected onto her dress. Reviews Evening Standard

Nice small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery focusing on the original groups of intellectual women known as bluestockings looking at how they used portraits to advance their work and reputations. In three sections the first looks at the women, their relationships and how they met and worked. The second looks at how these women were used to represent the muses and the final one at their politics. I loved Richard Samuels “The living muses of Great Britain” which includes a portrait of Angelica Kauffman, one of the female founders of the Royal Academy who I am increasingly finding turning up in shows and in my reading. Most astonishing is that 8 of the nine women earnt their own livings from their work. There was also a good representation of female artist including Angelica herself, Mary Moser, Frances Reynolds (Sir Joshua’s sister) and Elizabeth Vigee-leBrun. However most moving of all was that in the gallery leading to the exhibition is the wonderful joint portrait of the jou

Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of portrait photographs from the magazine, Vanity Fair. It devotes space to both the early works from 1913 to 1936 and since it’s relaunch in 1983. In the early section there is an emphasis on the avant guarde surprisingly at that period the British seem to be that. This included wonderful photos of Virginia Woolf, Augusts John, Adolfus Huxley etc. They also show hints of the later artist styles of photographs such as in the portrait of Gloria Swanson taken through lace. Linking the two periods is an examination of the publications two head photographs Edward Steichen in the early period and Annie Leibovitz in the later one. I have always been fond of Leibovitz’s work and the prize in this exhibition was the picture of the cyclist Lance Armstrong. It is very hard to pick a favourite from this show as all the works are so good but in my list would be the 21st birthday photo of Prince William, the portrait of Jesse Owens and that of Rachel Welc

Exhibition of items from the boy kings tomb at the O2. This exhibition was much better than I expected. I must admit I hadn’t heard good things but it was well set out with some beautiful artefacts. I particularly liked the two children’s chairs, they were so perfect despite their age. The objects were given space to be shown off to their best and often the reflections in the cabinets and across cabinets added to the mystic. I must admit though that the shop must get an award for the tackiest gifts ever! As one friend said “You really shouldn’t do that to a teddy bear”! Pictures Times Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Evening Standard

Lecture at the National Galley by Jacqui Ansell a freelance lecturer to accompany the current Pompeo Batoni exhibition. This talk looked at the clothes worn by the Grand Tourists in the portraits and discussed how they reflected how these sitters behaved and wished to be seen. It was a bit of a repeat of the talk she gave at the workshop morning a couple of weeks ago but did add a bit more to this.

Small exhibition of the work of Polish artist Miroslav Balka at the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. “Entering Paradise” is the footprints of 12 homeless men. These are very poignant as this print may be the only record of them and they show feet which have gone a long way. It is shown with “BlueGasEyes” a video projection of gas flames.

Exhibition of the works of Ben Nicholson at the Dean’s Gallery in Edinburgh put on as a result of a donation by his third wife Felicitas Vogler to the gallery. I loved the room about his family as this put his work in a context. I hadn’t realised before that his mother Mabel Pryde was an artist as well as his father and the works by her were very feminine and family orientated and reminded me slightly of Hilda Carline. I have never really come to grips with Ben Nicholson and this was another good opportunity to try but I still didn’t quite get there. I admire their pale tranquillity but must admit to liking colour and vibrancy more in my art. I did like the etchings of Tuscany, particularly the way none of the side of the plate were straight.

A lovely idea for an exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh which brings together more than 30 prints, watercolours or drawings picked by warders of the Gallery from the Prints and Drawings Collection. Each picture had a write up about who had picked it and why. It gave a different view of the collection and a real insight into the people who worked there. You got a glimpse of a community including a large number of men who had been made redundant from industry in the late 1990’s but had now found a new life. A Van Heemskerk was a nice link to the exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery. My favourite was probably predictably a sleeping dog by David Octavious Hill!

Two painting exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh bringing together Rubens “The Feast of Herod” with Ribera’s “Drunken Silenus”. In the mid-seventeenth century the two paintings were the highlights of the huge collection amassed by Gaspare Roomer, a wealthy Flemish merchant and financier resident in Naples. A nice opportunity to see these two pictures together and muse on what the original owner’s eye saw in them.

Exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery in Edinburgh of Flemish paintings in the Royal Collection bringing together 51 works from the 15th to 17th centuries. This was a stunning exhibition. I love this gallery there is something so calming about its space. I also recommend the tape tour which has the advantage of slowing you down and making you think. There were three main themes to this show portraits, the relationship between Rubens and Van Dyck and landscapes. The real star was Bruegel’s “Massacre of the Innocents”. A striking work from a distance but even more stunning for the detail close-up. The story of the picture and how, because it was painted shortly after a Hapsburg massacre, it was considered to be too inflammatory so many of the massacred babies are painted over with animals somehow gives it an even more menacing feeling. The most stunning portrait was Massys’s Erasmus, painted for Sir Thomas Moore. It shows a face of such intelligence and such beautiful detail in the nails i

Lecture at the National Gallery on their current Batoni Pompeo exhibition by Francis Russell, Deputy Chairman of Christie’s UK. Visually this was a good talk with excellent slides but I did found the content wandered a bit and seemed to end up as a list of sitter’s names and names of art historians in this field. I had hoped to add to my knowledge of this artist but I got little from this which I didn’t get from the exhibition or the previous week’s study morning.