Cathy's Art Diary

Small exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at early 20th century sculpture via the works of Eric Gill, Gaudier-Brzeska and Epstein. I liked the fact a room was devoted to each artist rather than combining the work in themes. It meant you got a clear visual concept of the artists work and could see the differences between them. The tape tour added a lot of information about the lives of the men and an idea of the controversy they caused in their day which you would not have got from the objects themselves. Reviews Daily Telegraph

Exhibition at the Royal Academy showing recent work by Anish Kapoor. It had more of a feeling of a ‘happening’ than an exhibition. There were just a few works but what there were were big anf the viewers became part of the exhibition. I loved the big block of wax moving through the galleries but did worry that they might never get the doorways clean. I loved the fact that lots of people stood patiently waiting for the block to clear a door and then all clapped! The canon blowing wax at a wall is exciting but not as anarchic when you realise it goes off every 20 minutes in a side room which you have to queue up to go in. I’m not sure what it was all about but I didn’t care, I just liked it! Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Independent

Lecture by David Davies of the University of London putting the current exhibition at the National Gallery “ Sacred made real ” into context. It was a good introduction to the exhibition which I had viewed earlier that evening. It looked at the political and religious context in which the works were produced. It also went though the various themes of the works explaining their contemporary meanings.

Brilliant exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the dialogue between painting and sculpture in Spain at this period. The objects in the exhibition were amazing and a real discovery for me. I know nothing about polychrome sculpture and was bowled over at how realistic and beautiful they were. The two standing figures of Saint Francis Borgia and Saint Ignatius Loyola were so lifelike that they felt like real people in the room with you. It was lovely that many of the works were not in glass cases but shared the space with the viewer. The paintings were stunning too, in particular the two pictures of St Francis by Zurbaran. But the exhibition was actually better than the sum of its parts. The objects were given space to breathe and to work off each other. The lighting was wonderful with the sculpture casting shadows against the walls. A friend also noticed that were there was an obvious light source in a painting then the lighting of it came from that place. I haven’t done the tap

One and Other has now ended and I am finding I am missing it. There is nothing to pop to look at after work! Anyway I’d better finish my blog on it! Saturday 10 October at 2pm was Hannah G1 who blew up balloons to raise awareness for Action Aid. Monday 12th at 5pm was Marcus G who promoted Fairtrade chocolate. Tuesday 13th at 6pm (my last visit) was Digital JEJ who dressed as two other Antony Gormley work, the iron man on Crosby beach and the electroplated suit made for Aquascutum which I actually saw earlier in the year at an exhibition at Somerset House. This seemed an appropriate place for me to end!

A 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture by Roxy Paine made specifically for the roof of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. This work was like walking through the branches of a tree. I loved the reflections of it in the glass windows and the views of central park through the spaces.

Major exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on the life and works of Vasily Kandinsky. Sadly I’ll be blunt, I didn’t like it. I found the art hard work and it was not helped by the building. It began at the bottom so you were always walking up the slope of the exhibition space and I felt the whole thing felt like pushing a rock uphill. I felt it might of worked better if it had started at the top and worked down. I liked the fact it linked the art to music of the time but sadly it was not music I related to well either! I think I discovered that I really don’t like abstract art I need some sort of figurative element and yet I like Rothko!

Moving exhibition at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in New York looking at John Lennon’s relationship with that city. It looks at a period of his life full of political activism and later on a period which was starting to be very creative again before his untimely murder. There were wonderful exhibits including clothes with accompanying pictures of him wearing them and a good rolling video and music. Most moving was the bag of his effects collected from the hospital after his death and never opened.

Small but beautifully formed exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York to mark the loan of Vermeer’s “Milkmaid” from Amsterdam to mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of New York as New Amsterdam. The exhibition brought together this picture with the Met’s five Vermeer’s and a selection of pictures in a similar genre. I always love Vermeer’s so to get the bonus of an extra one was super. It was very busy so you had to be patient and earn your place in front of the pictures. “The Milkmaid” is an astonishing picture which seems to be a moment of quiet reflection caught in instant in time.

Small exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York looking at how the Japanese represented their new trading partners in the 19th century. It was delightful to see Western figures in beautiful Japanese prints as they start to appear in the country. In the later pictures they start to imitate fashion plates from newspapers and there seems to have been a fashion for western dress. Sadly I could find no write up of this exhibition on the Met’s website.

Oh dear I am playing catch up! This entry is for the week beginning 21 September! In fact all on one day Tuesday 22nd! 5pm was an anonymous person possibly called Kaylou , raising awareness for Huntingdon’s disease. 6pm was Gary_H who worked on his laptop, made phone calls and took photos from his wheelchair. 9pm was JaneGauntlett in a striking bright pink coat communicating with the crowd via flash cards.