Cathy's Art Diary

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