Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at Hogarth’s “The Inspection” from his “Marriage-a-al-Mode” series. Matthew Morgan, art historian and innovator, placed the painting within the artist’s career and talked about how he wanted to paint contemporary moral subjects. He emphasised how the works didn’t preach but set out what would happen if you made the wrong choices. This painting looks at venereal disease both the consequences of it and the medicines available at the time. Morgan told us how the doctor in the image was probably based on a famous doctor of the time and talked us through some of the cures. In the Q&A he tried to broaden this out to look at modern medicine and how medicine can both help and enable taking Ozempic as an example. It was an interesting idea but sadly most of the listeners preferred to ask about the details in the painting as we would have done in a more conventional talk.

Superb exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of new projects by Theatser Gates. One piece in particular, a huge shelving unit full of vases, took my breath away and I’m not sure why. I have no idea what it meant but I am a sucker for ceramics and I loved the monumentality of it. I think a good summation of the show was that I didn’t really understand it but that didn’t stop me being moved by it. There was a link to the archive of late Japanese journalist Ei Nagata and his partner Haruhi Ishitan who were at the assignation of Malcolm X in 1965 and who went in the collect material on his final months and impact and to bring that to the Japanese people. Aesthetically the show brought together Japanese culture and the Black Liberation Movement. A strange mix but it worked! Closed 6 April 2025 Reviews Guardian  

Fun exhibition at Eames Fine Art of new prints by Mychael Barratt. I love Barratt’s witty, bright prints which up to now have added dogs to famous art works creating a pastiche of the previous artist’s style. He has now branched into cats! I don’t think they are quite as successful as the cats are slightly cartoon like so they seem less of a nod to the original artist plus I’m more of a dog person anyway! Closed 2 March 2025  

Pretentious exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the style magazine The Face. The magazine ran from 1984 to 2004 and the blurb says it "played a vital role in creating contemporary culture". I'm afraid hadn't been part of my personal culture although I did recognise a number of the iconic images from it. The show emphasised the role of the photographers for the magazine both of celebrities and fashion and most pictures were accompanied by a quote from the photographer and I quite liked that geeky aspect of it. However I would have liked to have had a bit more information on the subjects of the pictures both the people and the clothes. The show was party a reflection of the history of a twenty year period but I felt that could have been brought out more. I did go on the members' preview day so I will give it another try and might take a friend to see the reaction of someone of a similar age to me. Maybe I'm just not ready for my 20s t...

Strange exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery focusing on the drawings of Henri Michaux done under the influence of the drug Mescaline. These were abstract works affected by the taking of a psychedelic drug in 1955. Michaux considered them to be a reflection of the inner workings of the mind and continued to produce work influenced by the experience into the 1960s.   He published various books and a film on the topic. The works themselves were quite repetitive consisting of packed images of fine lines so the more interesting aspect of the show was that it told the history of the use of these drugs in therapy and by artists. Closes 4 June 2025 Review Guardian  

Excellent online lecture from the London Art History Society looking at the 15th century German sculptor, Tilman Riemenschneider. It was refreshing to hear about an artist, medium and place that I knew very little about. I could relate it to other art that I know but the specifics were all new to me. This was made all the easier by Thomas Abbott’s clear style and beautiful illustrations. Abbott started by outlining Riemenschneider’s life and influences then limited talking about is career to the three masterpiece altars which allowed him to talk about them in some detail. I thought this was a good approach to take to a lesser known artist as it gave you a flavour but left you wanting more and wanting a trip to Germany to see them in situ.

Impressive exhibition at the King’s Gallery looking at Italian Renaissance drawings from the Royal Collection. The show struck a good balance between appealing to the art history geeks like me and being more popularist by including three artists in residence and tables for you to draw at within the show. I liked the way the show was themed, focusing on the subjects of the drawings ranging from studies of bodies, though nature, religious and secular compositional studies and designs for objects. Complimenting this they discussed why and how drawings were made. I liked the small displays of artists materials throughout the show. One moan, which is a common one for me, was the way the lighting reflected off the glass, making it hard to see the detail without seeing lights or looking at yourself! Highlights were this wonderfully complex Guilo Romano tapestry design, a beautiful portrait by Fra Angelico, a study for the Raphael Vatican tapestry using figures in contemporary dress a...

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades looking at salon culture in 18th and 19th century Japan. The talk focused on a display in the Japan galleries at the British Museum so Rosina Buckland set the scene outlining the museum’s collection room of Japanese artefacts and prints. She also talked us through some recent acquisitions. Akiko Yano then talked about salon culture defining it as privately formed groups of men and women who practiced the same art form or had the same hobby. She talked about how these grouping often but across the rigid class structure of the country. Yano had some lovely illustrations of the idea but they felt a bit random at times rather than forming a narrative. I need to pop up the galleries to take a look for myself. Update: I never got to it.  

Interesting display at the Royal Academy looking at how artists have approached representing the body in art from the Academy’s foundation to the present day. The display related to the body in different ways, in some it is a trace of a figure, or a suggestion of one. I must admit when I was at the show I didn’t realise the older works were part of the show as I had seen them before in that gallery but was impressed how they picked up a similar theme! Oh well it had been long day. I liked the fact the display included the caste of the Belvedere Torso which is cropping up a lot in a course I am doing at the moment on the High Renaissance. There were some nice contemporary works including this lovely picture by Elinor Stanley which at first look looked abstract then I realised it was a figure from above. I also like liked this wooden torso by John Skeaping. I loved the use of a beautiful Jenny Saville circular drawing to fill the space vacated by the Michelangelo tondo which was...

Fascinating exhibition at the Royal Academy focusing on the years in the early 16th century when these three great Renaissance artists were working in Florence. I have done various courses and lectures which have covered this period and I was grateful that I had as I would have liked a bit more scene setting in the narrative and display. A roundup of what the two established artists, Michelangelo and Leonardo, had done before this point would have been useful as well as some more sense of what the city was like and where it was politically. That said, to an art history geek like me, the show was a joy, focusing on a short period of time and covering some iconic projects. I liked the contrast between the mature artists and the young Raphael who was learning from looking at their works. The first room looked at Virgin and Child works and how they were influenced by the “Taddei Tondo” owned by the RA. I liked the depth of this examination. It led into the second room which looked i...

Interesting exhibition at the Royal Academy featuring work by three second-year students studying at the Royal Academy Schools. I   like to see these annual series of shows but do wish they would offer some explanation of the works. They are often conceptual work which you do need a bit of help to understand. I liked Lolly Adams’s weird sculptures using found objects centred, in both cases, on a bright pink mannequin head. One seemed to be a fountain and as the friend I was with said, it was a shame it wasn’t working. I also liked Dwayne Coleman’s large blue work made up of a patchwork of blue material. Was it a statement on Indigo and colonialism which is a common theme in contemporary art? His two smaller works seem to have had sound associated with them but I missed that. Maya Gurung-Russell Campbell offered a strange wall sculpture which looked like a discarded fishing net. Some help would be appreciated! Closed 16 February 2025  

Confusing exhibition at the Royal Academy in their Architecture Window space looking at a nomadic studio commissioned by Ukrainian arts foundation in exile, IZOLYATSIA, to offer a space for artists visiting Kyiv. The work is a collaboration between artist James Capper with designer Thomas Pearce and architect Greg Storrar, and is an 8m long inhabitable space on hydraulic legs so it can move. It seems to contain tools and set into the walls and the outer shell shows their outline. It all seems like an interesting idea but I couldn’t work out if it had actually been made or was just a prototype. I know the arts are important to morale in the Ukraine but I wasn’t convinced this was the answer to the country’s problems. Closes 29   November 2025

Bright exhibition at the Redfern Gallery of new work by Danny Romeril. There was a mix of large and small paintings based on imagined or remembered places, mainly shop fronts. I particularly liked the tiny postcard sized works which drew you into the imagined space. A quote on the exhibition webpage from Romer says “I like to work in the in-between space of the known and the unknown, if the places are real they are abstracted through the painting process to become unfamiliar again.” Closed 21 February 2025

Confusing   exhibition at Hauser and Wirth highlighting a video installation by Mike Kelley. I'd struggled with the retrospective of Kelley's work at Tate Modern and I'm afraid this didn't make much more sense to me. I've just reread the webpage and I think I understand the show   bit more. The heart was a video "Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #36 (Vice Anglais)" and the show included paintings of the characters in it plus sculptures made from the props. However the video being shown was actually a companion piece "Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #36B (Made in England)" . No wonder I was confused! Closed 19 April 2025  

Opulent exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum which looked at the golden age of Mughal art which lasted from about 1580 to 1650. The show was clearly described and included a fabulous selection of art and objects which were beautifully displayed. I loved the way dramatic large carpets were used both as exhibits and as feature walls in some of the spaces. I love the small Mughal paintings which remind me of Medieval illuminations. As these are small, they did create some bottle necks but showing them around the edge of rooms with objects in the centre helped the flow. There were some stunning items such as these enamel dishes, a beautiful selection of jewels, a shield which was in the armory of Grand Duke Ferdinando I de Medici in Florence and some fabulous rock crystal. As this is the same period as lot of the Western Renaissance art I study, I couldn’t help but make comparisons. I was interested to see mention of where the art was influenced by Western prints or where ...

Classy exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum exploring the career of fashion model Naomi Campbell. In looking at Campbell this also became an excellent overview of the fashion industry since the 1980s particularly in the beautiful open display on the upper floor. The show highlighted aspects of the industry which were unique to her, such as being the first black model to appear on the cover of Vogue France, and her relationship with the designer Azzedine Alaïs. I loved seeing some of the iconic outfits we associate with Campbell including the reuniting of the Vivienne Westwood shoes and outfit in which she fell on the catwalk as well as her pink 2019 Met Ball dress. My one criticism is that the strong lighting and the use of light boxes set up bad reflections on the glass displays. There was a fun recreation of a room at Clarridges, full of clothes, which was impossible to look at without also seeing the av presentation opposite it. Closed 6 April 2025 Reviews Tim...

Interesting exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum showcasing the finalists in this award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic culture, history, society and ideas. This year’s edition was devoted to moving images and digital media. I thought this limited the scope of the award and made the display a bit samey consisting mainly of videos. My favourite was the winner Khandakar Ohida's video “Dream Your Museum” about their uncle, Khandakar Selim, and his collection of more than 12,000 objects amassed over the past 50 years. The video was shown in an installation with some of the objects. It makes you look at the objects around you at home. I liked Marrim Akashi Sani’s bright photos of her Detroit community during the Islamic holy month of Muharram capturing domestic interiors. I found Sadik Kwaish Alfraji’s layered animations about her parents moving shown with drawings of her mother’s hand based on   family photographs. Closed 16 March 2025 Review ...

Moving video installation at the Imperial War Museum reflecting the psychological experience of drone warfare. Based on eyewitness testimonies and research undertaken by Dr Beryl Pong at the Centre for Drones and Culture the short film, shown over three screens, surrounding you,   take you from the sky into and though a building then into a market square beyond. I’m not sure just from seeing it that I would have associated this with drones except that the filming feels like it is done by drone. However the way you see images give a sense of walking through a house and surrounding area which has been abandoned following a bombing. The end where you seem to walk up steps and look over a square was particularly moving. Closed 16 March 2025  

Thoughtful exhibition at the Imperial War Museum looking at the psychology of war. The show was cleverly sectioned into why we go to war, how to get soldiers to fight, how to support them when they are fighting and the aftereffects on soldiers and civilian populations. It used a good array of artefacts as well as excellent av presentations of recent and ongoing research on the topics. It was a shame that a lot of the graphic material was reproductions rather than original works but I guess they are a lot easier to display. Highlights for me included a doll made by the British agent Odette Sansom in prison, soldiers’ care packages from Afghanistan and the First World War, a German war crimes calendar also from the First World War and one of the first commemorative poppies. Closed 27 April 2025 Review Times

Interesting exhibition at the Imperial War Museum looking at how Churchill was represented in cartoons throughout his political career. This show acted as both a biography of Churchill and a history of cartoons in the 20th century. Each was clearly described with details of the cartoonist, a description of it and an outline of the context. It was mainly British cartoons but they did also look at how other countries portrayed him. The Second World War was of course the centre of the show with a range of work from the highly artistic pieces by E.F.Shepherd of Winnie the Pooh fame to an early piece by Giles for the Daily Mail. His earlier and later career were also well covered and I liked a work by Neville Colvin to mark Churchhill’s 83rd birthday and one from the First World War by Bernard Partridge of him helping Neptune by blowing ships in the Channel. Closed 23 February 2025 Reviews Times Telegraph  

Fascinating online lecture from Christ’s College, Cambridge looking in detail at a medieval cup in their collection linked to their founder, Lady Margaret Beaufort. Mary Franklin, honorary keeper of the college’s plate, outlined her current research on the cup starting by looking at its original owner, Duke Humphrey, son, brother and uncle of Henry IV, V and VI and how its iconography links to him and the Lancastrian cause. We then looked in detail at the plants shown on the cup and their symbolic meanings from oak leaves to Forget-Me-Nots. She discussed an unidentified leaf which she speculated could be Rocket or Moonwort both of which could bring subtly different interpretations of the work.   She also discussed how cups like these would have been used at feasts and their role in showing magnificence , defined as “fitting expenditure on a great thing”. I had seen the cup in the British Museum’s Medieval Women exhibition but did revisit the show after this talk and felt I...

Excellent three-week online course from the National Gallery focusing on Parmigianino’s “Vision of St Jerome” from 1526 which was the subject of a small exhibition at the gallery at the time. Richard Stemp used the six sessions to gradually broaden out from the painting itself to the life of the artist and then onto themes which the painting highlighted. It was cleverly structured and covered a lot of ground. Week one focused on the painting and the exhibition discussing its context, influences and composition. He then looked at the life of the artist and his other works. In week two we looked at the role of women linked to the painting beginning with a useful overview of the history of painting the Virgin Mary and the different archetypal images placing this work within ideas of the Immaculate Conception. We then looked at women as commissioners of art as this work had been commissioned by a widow, Maria Bufalini in memory of her husband. Stemp ran though examples of paintings ...