Cathy's Art Diary

Small exhibition at the Louvre as part of an Umberto Eco event there called the Vertigo of the List. This exhibition, whose title is based in Leperallo’s aria in Don Giovanni, at the role of lists in art, from lists by Rousseau and Delacroix to modern conceptual art. I loved “From humanity to something else, from something else to humanity” which was two identical lists of words linking humanity to art in two columns working in opposite directions the common word where they meet in the middle in trade.

Exhibition at the Mussee D’Orsay looking at the ways in which designers have taken inspiration from the Art Nouveau period focusing in 1933, 1966 and 1974. There was a room on the effect the period had on the Surrealists with photos by Brassai and Man Ray of Gaude architecture and another of how two exhibitions at the V&A in the 1960s on Aubrey Beardsley and Alfons Micha influenced the psychedelic movement of the 1960s. I loved the furniture there was a room of chairs of different dates and a wonderful desk by Mollino.

Nice exhibition at the Musse Rodin in Paris comparing the works of Matisse and Rodin. The two artists met in 1900 but were of different generations however there often seems to be a dialogue in their work. I loved the room on dancing. Along the middle were small figures by Rodin of dancers, some in full flight. Alongside were Matisse sketches for La Dance. I also loved four large plaques by Matisse of women’s back which had a Gauguin like feel plus a foot on top toe by Matisse.

Wonderful exhibition at the Louvre in Paris comparing the styles of the three great painters of the Renaissance in Venice. The exhibition was very busy and I found it quite hard to relax at first due to the pushing and shoving but once you learn to fight back it was fine! It also took a while to realise the way the exhibition was a arranged as the first couple of rooms set the scene. After that each room took a subject and looked at how the three artists treated it. I loved the room about mirrors which pointed out that reflections were a way of painters working in 3D and fed into the intellectual argument about whether painting or sculpture was the higher art form. There was a super room of Suppers at Ammaus’s which gave a good opportunity to compare the painters and how they treated a subject. I particularly liked Veronese picture set in a Venetian hose with the family almost ignoring the religious event at the middle of it all! I think Titian came out of it as the greatest artist, T

Installation in the church of St Roch in Paris by the photographer Matthias Schaller . It is a series of photographs of the offices if Vatican priests taken between 2004 and 2008 mounted on a purple backing and placed behind the high altar. I am not sure if you can get any closer to the pictures but I attended a service there and they made a very effective backdrop to the Mass.

Really funky exhibition at Somerset House put on by fashion website SHOWstudio which looks at how the web has influenced fashion and visa versa (I think). I guess it also looked at the cross over between fashion and art. Anyway forgot what it means or represents it’s a series of funky installations/happenings and I really enjoyed it. I loved the table with a projection of the plates at a dinner party and the sounds of the conversation form various people in the fashion trade being played over it. Also great was the film of a groom turning into a bride. I loved the idea that the website published paper patterns from top designers and one section included garments made from them by visitors to the site.

Nice little exhibition at Somerset House to mark the publication of a new book on the photographer Norman Parkinson. Concentrating on portraiture the exhibition ranged from the 1930s to the 1980s and included many fashion shots. I loved the ones which had established the classic 195os new look. There were also picture which were just good fun like two models standing on the backs of donkeys at Blackpool!

Lecture by Peter Cherry of Trinity College, Dublin, focusing on one picture in the current exhibition at the National Gallery “ Sacred made real ”. He used “Saint Serapion” as a way of looking at the live and works of it’s artist Zurbaran. He looked at why he tended to work for the Orders , despite the fact they did not pay well. He also analysed what Zurbaran was good at such as still lives and portraits using other works in the exhibition to emphasis this.