Cathy's Art Diary

Slightly confusing exhibition at the Ara Pacis in Rome which looked at the work of a Inarea Identity and Design Network, “an international network of independent designers, architects, strategists and consultants, specializing in the creation and management of identity systems”. OK I’m quoting from the website as I was a bit confused. I think they design brand identities and the exhibition included a display of these iconic images. It also had a selection of wonderful models of major buildings made in odd materials such as Big Ben made of pencils.

Wonderful exhibition at the Borghese Gallery in Rome using works by Lucas Cranach to compare the Southern and Northern Renaissance. The gallery used the works in its own collection of Southern Renaissance works to contrast with works by Cranach. On the whole the Northern works stood up well although you had to bare in mind that the Northern and Southern views of beauty were different. It would have been good to have more time. We were booked into the limited 2 hour slot and had to do the exhibition and the gallery which sadly needed at least half an hour with the Caravaggio’s! Oh for a longer holiday when we could have gone back!

Small exhibition at the Capitoline Museum in Rome to mark the loan to the museum of a terracotta ‘sketch’ of two wrestlers by the Casa Buonarroti in Florence. The small sculpture was displayed in the middle of a beautiful room under heavy security. You were able to walk all the way round and study it in detail. There was a fascinating video on how it was packed and unpacked. I would have liked to see a bit more background information putting the work into context. It was displayed as a beautiful thing.

Charming exhibition at the British Museum looking at the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. It had many examples and the exhibition not only looked at the meaning of the different spells but also the iconography and the people who had commissioned the books. The book of Ani was particularly beautiful with detailed illustrations. The artefacts were lovely too and a nice touch was that the one mummy in the exhibition had her clay slabs with her in the correct position. I loved the fact that people chose different spells from a list. I fancied the one to turn me into a lotus and the one to kill beetles! Reviews Times Daily Telegraph Evening Standard

Excellent lecture at the Royal Academy given by Tony Jones, Chancellor of the School of Art Institute of Chicago, to compliment the current Glasgow Boys exhibition. The lecture looked in detail how the Glasgow boys together, what their connection with Glasgow was and what were the influences on them. My only criticism as that it ran well overtime as it started to be 2 good lectures. He went on to talk about how the Glasgow Boys influenced those who came after them particularly MacIntosh and the Glasgow Girls. This was fascinating but he was starting to rush as some of the audience was getting a bit restless!

Second exhibition in a new series at the Royal Academy entitled “Artists Laboratory” which showcases more unusual work by Royal Academicians. This one featured work by Stephen Farthing which examined famous paintings and produced works in response to them. There was a lovely big picture of the Atlantic sea which reminded me of one of the large Monet water lilys. It was very calming. He had also done a history of art represented by a tube map.

Exhibition at the Royal Academy of the work of this school of painters based around Glasgow in the late 20th century. The exhibition concentrated on the work they produced, what influenced it and how it challenged the art market of the time. I found it odd that as a group they had challenged the sentimentality of Victorian art and yet I found many of the pictures very sentimental. I want to like the Glasgow boys but I can’t quite manage to. Reviews Guardian Independent

Small exhibition at the Cornerstone in Didcot of works by Ron Freeborn, a local artist. I found this exhibition very interesting as Ron had been head of the art department at my school, not that I studied art! Family friends have a large picture by him dominating their dining room. He’d not lost his touch over the years and there were some lovely landscapes.

Fourth in a series of lectures at the National Gallery complimenting the Channel 4 “ Genius of Art ” series . This one was given by Sir Roy Strong and discussed what defines England and proposed that it is the land and how it is represented in art via landscape. It looked in detail at the 18th century landscapes of Constable and Gainsborough and comparing to John Piper in the war years. The questions after the lecture were fascinating. Roy Strong had argued that the English more than the Celtic nations focused on land for their identity and this idea was challenged by the audience particularly ones with Scottish accents.

Wonderful exhibition about French art at the cusp of the Renaissance in France at the Galeries Nationales, Grand Palais in Paris. It focused on the reigns of Charles VIII (1483-1498) and Louis XII (1498-1515), and was dominated by the personality of Anne de Bretagne, successively the wife of both kings. The first section looked at the different noble courts and difference influences on them, the next at major projects and the final section looked at Northern and Southern influences. I think this my favourite period of art where the Medieval is reaching a final glorious culmination and just developing into the Renaissance. People in the art look like archetypal medieval types in tights and pointed hats. My favourite section focused on the work of Jean Hey, a Flemish artist working in France who probably studied under Hugo van der Goes.

Exhibition of photographs by father and daughter photo journalists, Pierre and Alexandra Boulat, at the Petit Palais in Paris. I preferred the fathers work on the suburbs of Paris, women in America and WestPoint to the daughter’s work which focused on current war zones. I am sure her work was the harder hitting but somehow by focusing on the brutal side of war I found myself being desensitised. My favourite picture was by Pierre of two soldiers dancing at WestPoint. He had a vey honest eye.

Exhibition at the Louvre of contemporary Russian art. This was rather imaginatively displayed in the medieval Lourve so very modern art was set against the foundations of a medieval keep. I love the space so it was fascinating to see it used in this way. The most dramatic exhibition projected flames into an alcove of the architecture. I loved a series of Staffordshire style ceramics by the AES & F Group contrasting opposites in society such as an anarchist and a policeman.

Second in a series of lectures at the National Gallery complimenting the Channel 4 “ Genius of Art ” series. This one was given Gus Casely-Hayford and explored William Hogarth’s revolutionary pioneering of art for the people. In particular he speculated on how his ancestor, a newly arrived freed slave in 18th century London would have related to them. In particularly enjoyed the discussion following the lecture as the questions were are erudite as the answers.

Lovely exhibition at the National Theat re of photographs by Ianthe Ruthven of familiar animals and birds on London buildings. These were super photographs and a nice mix of familiar faces such as the lions in Trafalgar Square and carving you had not notices before. Personally I am off to look for the lion and unicorn sliding down an arch on Westminster Abbey!

First in a series of lectures at the National Gallery complimenting the Channl 4 “ Genius of Art ” series. This one was given by David Starkey and looked at the way the British Monarchy have used portraiture seeing Holbein and the Tudors as the epitome of this. David Starkey was a lively speaker and attracted a big audience. He made interesting points and set unusual images beside each other such as a Testino photo of Princess Diana next to the portrait of Christina of Denmark.

Lovely exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse of small intimate pictures by Quentin Bell drawn for his children. Many of the pictures were bound into books complete with stories. The pictures were fine and detailed and full of princesses. I loved a history book including a 1900 picnic!

Exhibition at the Cornerstone Arts Centre in Didcot of work by Andrea Bates of landscape pictures in oil and pastel. On the whole the pictures worked better from a distance but I liked the ones of fields on hillsides.

Exhibition of the work of this pioneering early photographer at the National Portrait Gallery . I must admit although I am sure the works were innovative at the time but I did find the works quite boring! I did like the London scenes but found the endless portraits dull. It did however give a good view of a photographic business at the time and I loved the fact they had a dress which his wife wore in one set of images. Reviews Guardian Evening Standard

Annual exhibition for this prize for portrait painting at the National Portrait Gallery . I thought this years exhibition was very good as there were less abstract works than previous years. Here seemed to be an emphasis on busy backgrounds such as wallpaper or skulls and quite closely cropped faces. Despite this my favourite was “Mary” by Wendy Elia which was a picture of her mother aged 87 with her favourite things around her such as her grandchild, her dogs and her Land Army medal. I must admit the baby was a bit scarey! Reviews Times Independent

Small temporary exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery bringing together 2 portraits of Elizabeth I, The Phoenix portrait from the gallery’s own collection and the Pelican from the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. This was a rare chance to see these works together. The gallery had studied them closely while they were there and decided that they are by the same artist who was probably Nicholas Hilliard. I loved comparing the jewellery and think the collar is the same in both pictures and also appeared on other pictures around them. It had different pearls hanging from it but was the same basic collar. Reviews Guardian

Small exhibition at the Royal Academy of works on paper by Sir Henry Rushbury. I was struck by the fact that the works encompassed both Edwardian classical topographic works and contemporary Second World War factory scenes. I found the works a bit soulless but this may be because I had already done the colorful Sargent sea pictures.

First exhibition in a new series at the Royal Academy entitled “Artists Laboratory” which showcases more unusual work by Royal Academicians. This exhibition looked at works by Ian McKeever inspired by a move from London to Dorset. There were lovely black and white photographs of every day objects such as tea cups which concentrated on how light hit the objects and was reflected by them. There were also big paintings inspired by the landscape but I must admit I didn’t really get those. The lovely thing about the exhibition was that is was in the two Weston Rooms and very quiet so I have the magical experience of having these two beautiful rooms to myself for about 5 minutes. It was a wonderful contrast to the clamor in these rooms during the Summer Exhibition! Reviews Evening Standard

Nice concentrated exhibition at the Royal Academy of sea pictures by John Singer Sargent. Sargent’s sea pictures tended to be his early works and in later life almost his holiday pictures. He shows a wonderful understanding of the sea and an ability to catch the idea of movement in water. I particularly liked 2 galleries which looked in detail at a picture and the studies which were done for it. In each case “En Route pour la peche” and “Neapolitan children bathing” the pictures looked spontaneous but were in fact completed in the studio and based on extensive studies. My favorite picture was one of an Atlantic storm from a steamship which gave a real sense of mountainous waves and dipping sea. I felt slightly queasy looking at it! Reviews Times Daily Telegraph Independent Evening Standard

Garden in the courtyard at the front of the British Museum to highlight the wealth of plant life in South Africa . This is organised by the museum and Kew Gardens and follows on from last years Indian garden. It is lovely to see the space outside the museum used and to have living things in it. I love the vista’s through the garden of the buildings around it.

Classy exhibition at Somerset House marking the 20 th anniversary of the Paris fashion house Maison Martin Margiela. I must admit I couldn’t visualise myself in the clothes but I felt they were clothes as art. I loved the trompe l’oeil works especially the boots which looks like sandals with legs! More importantly it was a wonderful laid out exhibition which was also an art work in itself. I liked the display of the shoulders of jackets to show tailoring techniques and the room upstairs with easy chairs from which to watch videos of fashion shows.

An exhibition at Somerset House of work by 100 young people aged 14-16 attending Saturday morning art and design classes at Cleveland College of Art and Design, Hereford College of Art, Leeds College of Art and Plymouth College of art. It was just a small exhibition but I felt a buzz for the children that they had a show at a prestigious venue. In particular I liked the groups which had made plaster casts of their torsos and decorated them.

Exhibition to show the six shortlisted finalists for the next competition to find an art work for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square held at St Martin in the Fields . I love the idea of using this Plinth for modern public works of art so rushed to the exhibition on its first weekend. It was a small exhibition in a nice space and it was great to hear people talking about the works and enthusiastically voting. I’d seen press coverage of the finalists the day before and made my mind up which one I liked best. But on the day I changed my mind and voted for “It’s never too late and you can’t go back” by Mariele Neudecker . This was a mountainscape on stilts. From the press coverage I had though it would look dull from below as all you would see would be the bottom however I’d not appreciated that the plate of the bottom was a map of Great Britain . As one of the two winners will be in the Square during the Olympics I felt this was appropriate. Reviews Times Guardian Daily Tel

Nice exhibition at the British Library looking at the history of maps concentrating on how they were used and displayed. I liked that fact they were displayed as they would have been categorizing the display areas as the rooms in which they would have been shown and that it looked at them as objects rather than concentrating on how they had been made. It was also good to see the old and new mixed and I spent ages looking and laughing with the Grayson Perry Mappa Mundi. My favorite piece was a tapestry from the 17th century which was one of a series made for a landowner. I was intrigued to find that the tapestry on show was of Oxfordshire, where I was born and brought up. I loved the small depictions of the local towns and villages. Reviews Times Daily Telegraph

Plenary lecture to mark the end of the first week of the Courtauld Summer School . This was given by John House who had recently retired from the Courtauld and looked at the work on Van Gogh focusing on his time at the Yellow House and comparing his outlook on art to Gauguin’s. Van Gogh had invited Gauguin to Arles thinking they thought the same way about art but this lecture pointed out the differences and the almost inevitable conflicts which emerged.

A nice exhibition at the National Gallery examining the Acts of Mercy pictures by Frederick Cayley Robinson which were rescued by the Wellcome Trust from the Middlesex Hospital when it was demolished. It was lovely to see these pictures again as I’d last known them at the Middlesex when I visited a friend having an operation. The exhibition put them into context with examples for the sort of work Cayley Robinson had seen in Italy and based these on alongside other works by him.

The week has gone so fast! You just get a rhythm and routine and it’s over! The morning’s lectures begin with looking at the landscape tradition in the Italian and German Renaissance. It looked at how the practice of landscape came from the Netherlands to Italy and then fed into Germany. We saw how in Germany there was a culture of representing the forest and discussed the allegory of this. The second lecture took the same area and period and looked at portraits. Again the Netherlands led the way but we looked in detail at how Venice developed this tradition. We discussed the social changes which were reflected by the growth in portrait painting. The afternoon trip was the National Gallery where we looked at the wonderful set of Cranachs there moving on to the Holbeins and the Altdorfers what may be the first landscape study in art. We then looked at the Italian side concentrating on the Titians. So what have I learn this week? Sadly that I’m not sure I like German art! I now understan

Fantastic exhibition at the British Museum bringing together the Italian Renaissance drawings from its own collection at that of the Uffizi. Where do you start?! Possibly by saying I was there for 2 1/2/ hours! It was very good at looking at why artists drew and the different techniques used while still letting the pictures speak as works of art. It was well paced and never felt too crowded. Every artist you’d want to see was there and actually I loved seeing the Titian, Carpaccio’s, Signorelli’s etc more than the big hitters like Leonardo! It was great to see the Bellini sketchbook from the British Museum as it’s such an iconic Renaissance object. Reviews Times Daily Telegraph Evening Standard

Today was a bit different as we did the gallery bit in the morning by going to the Strang Print Room at UCL. This was fascinating as I’d never come across it before. Open to the public it givens access to UCL’s art collection including the archive of the Slade. On this course we were looking at prints by Durer and his contemporaries. It was a great chance to compare the different techniques he used wood cut, engraving and etching. I loved getting up really close to the Madonna and the monkey and seeing all the subtlety in it. The afternoons’ lectures began with Lucas Cranach taking him as a comparison to Durer and looking at why he painted I the style he did when there is evidence that he could use a finer approach. After tea we looked at the work of Grunewald, in particular the Grunewald altar piece, again as comparison to Durer.

Exhibition at the V&A in which the museum invited architects to submit proposals for structures that examine notions of refuge and retreat and selected seven submissions to construct at full-scale. I must admit I wasn’t too sure about this exhibition. I didn't really understand what it was trying to do but I must admit I only had time to see 4 of the works. I did love the work in the gardens which was meant to be a climbing structure but did remind me from a distance of a big elephant. Also the big book tower at the bottom of the stairs to the library. I want one! Reviews Times

Gosh this enjoying yourself is really tiring! Today’s lectures merged into each other either side of the coffee break. First was a talk on Gothic sculpture in Germany which was fascinating as I knew nothing about it before. It focused on the big altar pieces and looked at the difference between the polychrome and monochrome ones and why each was used. After coffee we looked at why this style continued so long in Germany and how the Renaissance style began to creep in and why. The afternoon was a trip to the new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries to look at the German sculpture there and the little bit of Venetian. We then went upstairs to look at how Durer prints had influenced design and other forms of carving.

Another really stimulating day at the Courtauld Summer school. Today’s lectures look at art in Venice when Durer arrived. It focused on the use of colour in the pictures and in particular how they used colour to create light effects. The second lecture looked particularly at Durer in Venice. It examined what the Venetian’s knew of him before he arrived. They knew his woodcuts which by this time were circulating throughout Europe. We then looked at the work he did while he was there focusing on the “Madonna of the Rose Garlands” painted for the German church. Finally we looked at what he took away from the trip. The afternoon was a visit to the National Gallery. We began with the small picture of St Jerome by Durer which I’d never really looked at before and moved onto the Venetian pictures. Although I’d looked at many of these works on the course last year this put them in a new context.

An insightful small exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery which examines the role of works created from a stand point of faith in a more secular world. The exhibition is curated by students on the Courtaulds’s MA in Curating the Art Museum. I liked a small room with a small devotional picture and ivory which put them back in their original context of an object to be examined at close quarters and in detail.

Small exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looking at works they have acquired since moving to their Somerset House site 20 years ago. It included a Joshua Reynolds of Cupid and Psyche which I last saw on a trip to the Courtauld conservation section when it was on an easel being cleaned! There were some pretty water colours and a focus on pictures of the building when it was used by the Royal Academy. There was an interesting room of20th acquisitions and gifts which included works by most major contemporary artists. It is lovely to see that it is a growing collection.

It’s so nice to be back at the Courtauld Summer School and to see old friends from previous years. This year is the Durer and Venice course lead by Dr Richard Williams. I chose it as a friend has joined me this year. He wanted to do Italian art, I wanted to do Northern so this seemed a good compromise. It’s proving to be fascinating as we bring enough visual knowledge of Venice to it but the Durer side is new and exciting. The first day’s lectures set the scene. The first looked at the background of Germany and Italy at this time and the relationship between the two. The second looked at how Durer related to the Italian renaissance before he went to Venice, what he knew about it and where he was in his career. As ever there was a gallery talk given by one of the research students. This year I opted for early medieval sculpture which was fascinating. The student (whose name I failed to get) had worked on a large Madonna and child in room 1 of the Courtauld Gallery and managed to ascerta

Lecture at the National Gallery on the collection of Charles I. The lecture was in the ‘Wine and Nibbles’ series and was given by Norman Coady, a free lance art historian. It was a hot night which slightly threw the speaker but things improved as the air conditioning kicked in. It was a fascinating insight into the works acquired by Charles I either inherited, purchased or given to him as gifts. It was amazing how many great works of art were in England in the early 17th century. Despite the fact that I’ve always seen myself on the Parliamentary side in the Civil War, maybe if it hadn’t happened we would have an art gallery bigger than the Prado and Louvre put together! I would like to have heard a bit more about the disposal of the works and reacquisition of some of them.

Lecture at the National Gallery given by Betsy Wieseman on the current exhibition ‘ Close Examination’ . Betsy is curator of the exhibition and of Dutch painting at the gallery. The lecture focused on a few of the pictures in their exhibition and their stories. I was particularly interested in why the gallery bought some of the pictures which were later proved quite easily to not be by the old master they were assumed to be by such at the ‘Holbein’ they bought because that were so desperate to have a good Holbein. The lecture made me want to revisit the exhibition even though I had only just been!

Interesting exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the scientific work done there and how it has shed light on some of the gallery’s works. It covers works which were bought as the work of an old master and have since been found not to be such as a rather odd pictures believed to be a Botticelli. Some of these are fakes others were just misinterpreted. Another gallery focuses more on success stories such as Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks which have been identified by scientific work. The exhibition provides an interesting way of relooking at pictures and I want to read more about some of the works. Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Independent Evening Standard

Small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery by Steve McQueen who is an official war artist. It consists of a large cabinet with vertical pull out shelves which each have a mock up set of stamps of it baring the faces of soldiers filled in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. It was originally commissioned by the Imperial War Museum and has travelled the country. The repetition of the faces on the stamps is a moving reminder of the soldiers who have died. There is now a campaign to get these mock stamps taken up by the Royal Mail and made into real stamps. Sign the petition to make it happen.

Small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of recent works by New York artist Alex Katz. The first room was a wonderful installation portrait of flat cuts outs of heads on a shoulder height table. Arranged in 5 layers it is like looking into a crowd or across the room at a party. I liked the fact you could walk round it and discover the face of the back of the head you’d seen earlier. I was not so keen on the second room which had three large pictures which were not as intimate. Reviews Daily Telegraph

Nice exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the tradition and role of portraiture in India from 1560 to 1860. The exhibition was arranged by court with pictures of emperors, holy men, scribes and courtiers. Many of the pictures are of groups and events and include a portrait. These are wonderfully dense pictures with elaborate borders. One the whole the pictures stood on their own merits but at times attention was drawn to the influence of Western art. I love the later pictures as the British move in and to see how they were viewed and portrayed. My favourite picture was one of a elderly scribe which is a picture of age and concentration. It could be a picture from any place and any time and it would remain true to its subject. Reviews Times Evening Standard

Seminar on new technologies to enhance the experience of musuems and how they deliver information organised by the International Society for Knowledge Organisation UK (ISKO UK) and held at the Christopher Ingold Chemistry Lecture Theatre, University College London. I am cheating a bit here as this was an event I attended for work but as it was about museums etc I thought I'd count it for the blog! I found it fascinating and although some bits made me ask why, Anthony Hudson-Smith's web project to tag objects and record memories associated with them, Tales of Things , others made me want to sign up to help such as the Transcribe Bentham porject at UCL which is asking the publci to help them transcribe the papers of Jeremy Bentham. Anyway here is a list of all the talks : Shaping Up : 3D documentation and knowledge in cultural heritage by David Arnold – Department of Computer Science, University of Brighton Tales of things : archiving and viewing the cultural heritage of everythi

Exhibition at the National Theatre of the best entries in a competition launched by RIBA and Design for London to seek out unused areas of London and suggest new uses for them. This was a fascinating exhibition consisting of photos, models and mock ups of the new uses. I particularly liked a swimming pool made in an old tramway exit. It would be wonderful if some of the ideas were developed!

Talk at the Charleston Festival on colour by Julian Bell and Frances Spalding. This was a fascinating talk which began with each of them talking about their recent books. Julian Bell’s is called “Mirror of the World : a new history of art” and Frances’s in “John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art”. They then discussed the nature of colour and what it’s role has been in 20th art. They looked at how the start of the century had seen earth colours but as the century progressed the use of colour came over from France. The question an answer session was really interesting with questions on how fashion influences colour in art and the role of light.

Small exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse of photographs by Nigel Shafran. Oh dear I can see what he was doing but I’m not sure it was worth doing! These were photographs of his kitchen compost bin over 2 years. As a group they said something but I’m not sure any of the works would stand on their own.

Nice exhibition at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery of works owned by Bobby and Natalie Bevan and kept at their home Boxted House. I loved the fact it was arranged in rooms with the pictures in the same groupings as they were in in the house. Both Bobby’s parents had been artists and his father was a member of the Camden Town Group so their works featured heavily. Bobby also collected works on paper and there was a super room of these. As the title suggests there was a Sickert, a few Gertlers, a Ginner and Cedric Morris.

The newest public art work to be put on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square is a model of HMS Victory in a bottle with African inspired batik sails by Yinka Shonibare. I went up to see it on the day it was unveiled and it’s great! The shape and size fit the plinth well and it is lovely to have some colour in that space. From a distance it is sometimes difficult to see the ship for the reflections on the bottle and having read some of the reviews it is a shame it is hard to see the wonderful detail on the ship from below. However all in all it is a wonderful addition to the Square and I look forward to seeing it every day on my way form work to Charring Cross. Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Independent

Small exhibition at Cornerstone in Didcot of works by local artist Chris Perrett. The works were mainly landscapes in bright colours. I particularly liked the seascapes and the contrast between cliff and sea.

Small exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum of pictures of elephants from India dating from 1570 to 1750. The pictures range from portraits of favourite animals to elephant fights and hunts. I liked the pictures of named elephants because without this picture they’d have been forgotten! I loved a finely drawn black one called Khushi Khan. Incidentally this was my first trip to the refurbished Ashmolean which had been my local gallery as a child, and it looks fabulous. I love the wall of 18th busts and the casts in the atrium which you can see from very floor.

After last years obsession with The Plinthe I apologise that now that I’ve become addicted to Elephant Parade! This consists of 250 brightly painted life-size elephants located over central London to raise awareness of a conservation campaign which spotlights the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant. I’ll report back each week with photos of what I’ve seen.

Nice exhibition of Paul Nash landscapes at Dulwich Picture Gallery . I had forgotten how abstract Paul Nash’s work is but I liked it and your eye quickly got use to the oddities. I loved a photo of a ploughed field next to a painting of a similar field called ‘Earth Sea’. I went on Bank Holiday Monday and it was great to see the gallery so busy! Reviews Guardian Daily Telegraph Independent Evening Standard

Exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery as a sister to the current Michelangelo exhibition. This looks at how other Renaissance artists were responded to Michelangelo’s work both by copying it and by its influence. I loved a seated boy by Pontormo in the pose of one of the figures on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Also some sketches by Tinteretto of bronze models he bought of the figures on the Medici tombs.

Wonderful intelligent exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery focusing on a presentation drawing called “The Dream” by Michelangelo for Tommaso de Cavaliera. It brings together a number of drawings done for Tommaso alongside leters between him and the artist. It also had different versions of the drawings and sketches for them. It was an amazing chance to see these works together. It also included drawings of the Resurrection done at the same time by Michelangelo and works which copied or were influenced by him Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Independent Evening Standard

Contemporary graphic art fair at Somerset House . I enjoyed the section upstairs looking which features the work of design studios. They gave a real idea of the work of these companies. I also liked the fact that there were people working and showing off the techniques. There was one lady doing very fine paper cut-outs. The selling exhibition downstairs was very expensive. Id id go round wondering of they were joking!

Small exhibition of works from the Flemming Collection , the largest collection of Scottish art in private hands at Somerset House . The exhibition focuses on scenes of city life both real and imagined and range from historic to contemporary works. There were four pictures by the colourist Peploe including a self portrait. There was a striking Jack Vettriano of a party scene. My favourite was a modern picture of Bristol station by Nina Murdoch which imagined going through it as speed. A really dynamic picture.

Small exhibition at the National Theatre of pictures by Doug Patterson. This follows three classic artistic journeys and records the buildings of three major religions, the Orthodox monasteries of Mount Athos and Meteora in Greece to the Buddhist Dzongs of Bhutan, and the Islamic mosques of North Africa and northern India. I loved the watercolors on buff paper of the Greek monasteries on the top of great cliffs. The details were picked out in gold paint that just lifted them.

Nice exhibition of photographs at the Royal Academy of pictures from the 1870s and 1860s commissioned by Society for the Photographing of Relics of Old London to record buildings that represented old London threatened with destruction. It included wonderful building both of buildings which have since disappeared and some which are still standing. I loved the photos of one of the last coaching inns with its balconies and courtyard. I also liked one of an old timber frame building which was all made in a tongue and grove type effect.

Nice small exhibition in the Café Gallery of the Royal Academy of recent works by Andrew Potter . It consisted of lovely sensual still lives of fruit alongside nice males nudes. Luckily the one I fell for of a mans back with a gold background had sold as I could not afford it but it was very like a female nude by a different artist I bought with a friend a while ago.

Good exhibition at the Royal Academy bringing together pictures by Van Gogh with his letters. I loved the fact that most of the labels for the pictures were taken from the letters so instead of an art historian telling you about the works the artist does. You feel a real sense of a dialogue about art particularly as he sold no works in his own life time so all about creating art not selling it. It is fascinating to watch the works get more vibrant as Van Gogh mature but almost a shock at the end that he kills himself as you don’t really see it coming in the art. In the works I felt a saw quite a cheerful man whose work was still developing. I loved the portraits and having read “The Yellow House” it was a real treat to see the two matching ‘portraits’ of Van Gogh and Gauguin represented by their chairs. As a block busting exhibition it was very busy and crowded but breath in, be ready to find your own rhythm and go for it! Reviews Times Observer Daily Telegraph Evening Standard

Delightful exhibition at the National Gallery of the work of Danish painter, Christian Købke. I wondered why is was being shown at the same time as the Delaroche Lady Jane Grey however quickly realized they were contemporaries but were doing very different things. Købke painted gentle uneventful scenes with no narrative. They reminded me of the later works by Wilhelm Hammershoi. They felt very peaceful. There were some lovely nudes and great portraits of his friends. I like the one of Christain Holm, a sculptor who shared Købke’s studio. He looks out with such a friendly face and Købke has included the background as it is so familiar to him. Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Independent

Small exhibition at the National Gallery to compliment the “Painting history” exhibition. It features a Delaroche picture of Charles I which was believed to have been irrepairable damaged in the 2nd World War. It has however recently been unrolled and the gallery are working to restore it. It is being shown half way through the conservation process so we can see the process. It currently looks battered with recently repaired tears still showing but the force of the picture still shows and it will be interesting to see it again once finished.

Nice exhibition at the National Gallery which put the painting “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey” by Delaroche into the context of its time. I must admit I was not very excited at the idea of this exhibition but it was really good. I knew very little about the art world at this time and learnt a lot which made me appreciate the picture more. I was interested in the way the art reelected the theatre of the time but then the theatre started to base works on the pictures. It is very easy to look at pictures with a modern eye and forget what was happening around them when they were painted. I was also interested in the idea that although these were paintings of stories in history they also reflect how people were reacting to current events of the time. I had always found the picture quite kitsch but put into context it is a more rounded piece of work. Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Evening Standard

Exhibitor at the V&A which looks at the latest developments in digital and interactive design, from small screen based graphics to large-scale installations. I made the mistake of doing this exhibit at the weekend and it was heaving with people. It’s very interactive but you had to queue to try most things. It was also full of children and push chairs in quite a cramped area. The art may have been good but the experience was rather unpleasant. Also it’s coming to the end of the run so a couple of items had broken down. However I did like the digital clock made up of photos uploaded by visitors via the web which showed numbers and the mirrors in the main galleries which picked on someone looking at them and followed their movements.

Really nice exhibition at the V&A looking the house Horace Walpole built in Richmond and the collection he kept in it. I was fascinated to see how many of the works of art I had seen before on other exhibitions and then to realized that they had all been together at one point. It was a study both of a house and of a collector. It was lovely to see the Grinling Gibbons cravat made for Walpole again. The house reopens to the public in September and I’ll be trying to go as soon as I can. The architecture looks so wonderfully silly and like an amazing Medieval fantasy. I loved the ticket which had been issued to look round the house and the rules which went with it saying ‘no children’! Reviews Times Daily Telegraph

Wonderful exhibition at the V&A of British quilts. Where to start really it was all so good! I loved the way a number of quilts were shown on beds so you could see them from many directions. The early quilts were so moving as these are probably the only thing left of the women who made them and yet, on the whole, we don’t know who they were. I hadn’t realised that patchwork began as an upper class hobby as it showed off the lavish material they had access to. It was only with the spread of machine printed cotton that it became a working class occupation. I liked the fact that old and contemporary quilts were shown together so a dialogue began between them. There was a lovely modern one called “Punctuation” based on a letter the artist had found in her mother’s belongings. Favourite quilt was one called the Garden of Eden with super biblical scene such as Jacob’s ladder. The bottom border was small fish and shells. I have to admit I cried at one point! I found the video of the maki

Open exhibition at the Cornerstone in Didcot by showing local artists’ responses to the theme Flora and Fauna. On the whole this was poor with slightly wonky vases of flowers or pretentious close ups of leaves however I did like an installation I the middle of specimen dried flowers in jars and a painting of a garden by Linda Benton.

A nice small crafts exhibition at the Cornerstone in Didcot . There was a nice variation of crafts ranging from jewellery to ceramics. The best was a wood turner in the far corner, however I’m a bit biased as he’s a family friend, Richard Shock .

Lecture at the National Gallery to accompany it’s current exhibition “ Painting History: Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey ” . The lecture was given my Leanda de Lisle the author of “The Sisters who would be Queen” a joint biography of Lady Jane and her sisters Catherine and Mary. It was a romp through Jane’s life painting her, not as the victim seem in Delaroche’s picture, but as a politically aware, religiously committed young woman.

Nice small exhibition of the work of Oxfordshire artists at the Cornerstone in Didcot . The artists involved are Dawn Benson, Lendon Scantlebury and Stuart Roper. Having been born and brought up in Didcot I am stunned that work of this quality and price is being displayed in the town and very impressed at the super new venue in town. I liked Lendon Scantlebury’s work best. He was born on Barbados and he brings the light of that island to the Oxfordshire landscape. If I had £600-£1000 and space on the wall I’d have bought one!

Small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of Twiggy to mark her 60th birthday last year. It included works by all the main fashion photographers of the late 20th century including Cecil Beaton and Norman Parkinson. The nicest aspect of this exhibition was that all the labels were written by Twiggy and told you something about the sitting and her relationship with the photographer.

Small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of portrait drawings bought by the gallery in the last ten years. The centre of the display is formed by a substantial group of portraits by William Rothenstein which include wonderful pictures of Vita Sackville West and her husband Harold Nicolson. I was particularly impressed by the self portrait of Carrington and her sketched for the Lytton Stratchey portrait which hangs in the same room.

Small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at images of Lady Jane Grey, both possible contemporary ones and Victorian images which moulded her into an image of an idealised woman. This will be a nice companion to the forthcoming National Gallery exhibition on Delacroix’s picture of her execution.

Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of the work of photographer, Jane Bown. These were nice journalistic portraits and included a wonderful one of the Queen actually smiling. With my Bloomsbury leanings I loved the one of Angelica Garnett sitting in the studio at Charleston.

Exhibition for this competition which shows very best in contemporary portrait photography at the National Portrait Gallery . I found it was a bit heavy on Eastern European works and photographers which gave it quite a stolid feeling. However there were some wonderful images. My favourite was “Tiger, Rag, Johnny and Emma” by Martin Usbourne which shows two dog walkers and their clients! As you may realise from this blog I am a sucker for a dog in art! This is from a series on dogs and their owners in Hoxton which I am going to have to Google! Reviews Times Guardian Evening Standard

New portrait at the National Portrait Gallery of Prince William and Prince Harry currently displayed alongside other portraits of the royal family. This is a beautiful picture showing the two young men in uniform but very much as brothers and friends. I think it works better from a distance but you are forced to view it close up due to how popular the gallery is.

Talk by Neil MacGregpr, Director of the British Museum, at the British Museum in the first of a series of winter lectures for the London Review of Books. This was a very amusing event but I did find it wandered around quite a bit. He seemed to spend a lot of time telling us what he was not going to tell us. However once he got onto the politics of objects and how countries use objects to redefine themselves it became fascinating. The funniest story is how the Scots are claiming back the Lewis chess men when they were made in Scandinavia and were en-route to Ireland when they were washed up on shore in Scotland. He also talked about the reworking of museum island in Berlin and the plans for a new museum there to reflect Germany’s new unified and peaceful state.

Exhibition at the Royal Academy featuring the work of artist and designer, Stuart Haygarth. This was run by the gallery Haunch of Venison based at the RA buildings in Burlington Gardens. Hagarth has spent years gathering found objects such as spectacles, car mirrors and bottle tops which he has made into wonderful objects and art works. I loved the lamps made of spectacle arms and the chandeliers made with their lenses.

Exhibition at the Royal Academy examining the subject of climate change. It featured the work of 35 leading contemporary artists looking at their responses to the theme. Some works were made for the exhibition but others were earlier works on the topic. This is in a series called GSK Contemporary and was in the RA building in Burlington Gardens. My favorite piece, which in fact I had gone to see, was Anthony Gormley’s Amazonian Field. I’d seen this twice before and I just love it. Thousands of small statues all looking up at you. I always find it hard to walk away from it. There were other discoveries though such as Darren Almond’s Tide, a wall of digital clocks all showing the same time and changing in unison. It’s amazing how different 15.34 looks to 15.35! I also likes a video by Tracy Moffatt bringing together sections from disaster movies! Reviews Daily Telegraph Independent Evening Standard