Cathy's Art Diary

Colourful exhibition at the Alison Jacques Gallery of new pieces by Sheila Hicks. This was a new gallery and a great space with two rooms on the ground floor and two more in the basement. I didn't know Hicks’ work but she is her late 80s. These are large, ambitious works made of textiles. Upstairs included an example of what is evidently a signature piece for her, "Talking Sticks" where she wraps bamboo in multicoloured fabric. I loved a massive piece which took up a whole gallery and consisted of great bundles of brightly coloured fibre. Downstairs were more monotone fine hangings called "Veil" and subtle woven pictures in pale colours. Closed 18 November 2023    

Gentle but insightful exhibition at The Redfern Gallery of new work by Susannah Fiennes. I'd not come across Fiennes work before but loved it. Mainly they are small works looking at people going about their daily lives. The figures are stocky and faceless but their body language and grouping together says everything. She tenderly catches how people interact. Some show just two figures and were done in lockdown but others show the joy at people being able to get back together again. I particularly like the ones of parties. I thought they had a slight feel of Henry Moore drawings and I had a sense that she painted them then thought of an obvious title for the image. Closed 17 November 2023    

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades on Frans Hals. Clare Ford-Wille led us through the career of Hals and set him in the context of his time. I found her narrative a bit disjointed at times, however in her defence, I have done a lot on Hals around the show at the National Gallery and the previous one at the Wallace Collection so there probably wasn’t a lot more to learn. She did however provide good study notes after the talk which will be really useful to refer back to.  

Excellent online study day from the London Art History Society on Philip Guston. Ben Street took us clearly through the different phases of Guston’s career from figurative painting to abstraction and back to figurative work. He explained the themes of the work and placed the in the context of the times in which they were painted. I didn’t know Guston’s work but wanted to see the exhibition at Tate Modern and was looking for a good introduction to the artist and this gave me a good grounding for when I did see the show a week or so later (watch out for my review of that). Street had covered some themes which didn’t come out clearly in the show and I felt it gave me a chance to view the work without obsessive reading of labels.  

Fascinating online lecture for the National Gallery looking in detail at the role of the demonic in the works of Rubens. Art historian, Timothy Revell, lead us though a detailed argument around the influence of Frans Floris’s “Fall of the Rebel Angels” of 1554 which was in the cathedral in Antwerp and which Rubens would have known well on the composition of the latter artist. He also outlined the influence of Michelangelo and Durer on the work of both artists and how Floris in particular, showed a blending of Italian and Northern styles. He led us through Rubens’ “Last Judgement” of 1618, “St Michael Throwing out Lucifer and the Rebel Angels” of about 1622 and his “The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse” from 1623-4, comparing the imagery to the Floris. He spent some time discussing a Bumble Bee in the latter picture and what it’s symbolism and links to Urban VIII might be. This talk had originally been advertised as “A Halloween Journey Thought the National Gallery Collectio...

A good edition of this print fair held annually at Woolwich Works. I always enjoy this show, not least because it is so close to home. I thought this year there was more curated areas and less dealers’ stands. There was a good cross section of work from very expensive works by the likes of Grayson Perry and Harland Miller to small works you could print yourself. There were also a nice range of demonstrations. Monoprints seemed to be very fashionable this year. Highlights included Nana Shiomi’s “Durer’s Law of Print Making - Two Rhinos”, as anyone who references Durer in a print is a winner with me, Hamish Macaulay’s tall seascapes and Kate Lewis’s pictures of flowers made up of words from newspapers. My favourites were the set of images of Venice by Peter Blake in his signature collage style. Closed 29 October 2023  

Moving exhibition at the Oxo Tower Gallery of photographs by teenagers from around the world. The show was a pop up from the charity Street Child who hosted photography workshops in five countries with 15-year-olds complimenting the charity’s education programmes in those countries. Most of the work followed that same theme of the role of education and what it meant to the teenagers. The participants mainly photographed their friends and family but I found the commentaries by the teenagers interesting. I was brought up short by a comment from a girl in Nepal “Those who haven’t received education are often victims of dowry.” Closed 29 October 2023