Cathy's Art Diary

Strange exhibition at Hauser and Wirth looking at the career of 20th century artist Francis Picabia. I say strange because this gallery usually shows new contemporary work but this was organised with the Comite Picabia and covered his whole oeuvre. Having just seen lots of stunning art from this period at Sotheby's I'm afraid a lot of this felt like a pastiche as he experimented with contemporary styles including Dadaism, Surrealism and Cubism. It seemed to be guided tour of isms. Closed 1 August 2026

Interesting exhibition at Sotheby's of contemporary art. I only say interesting not anything more exciting as I came to most of this exhibition late in my visit and my mind had been blown by this point so a large Hockney print of Yorkshire, a lovely William Kentridge of a café, a Grayson Perry vase and a large Gilbert and George seemed fairly basic. My favourite pieces were three small portrait drawings by Lucien Freud, two of them shown in a hinged frame so you could see the verso. Closed 24 June 2026

Mind-blowing exhibition at Sotheby's of works for an Old Masters sale. If you've been reading these blogs you'll realise I had a really good morning at Sotheby's looking at amazing 20th and 21st century works but then I spotted a darker room at the back and my mind blew at finding Old Masters including a Botticelli and a Memling. I caught the guard's eye and made a head exploding gesture and he grinned. Looking at the catalogue online these just seem to have been a selection of works from a series of sales. I'm not sure my mind would have coped with all of them! Closed 30 June 2026

Confusing but amazing exhibition at Sotheby's of the highlights in a sale of modern art. Modern had quite a broad definition in this case basically meaning 20th century. I say confused as it was unclear in the show which pieces were from the Lewis Collection plus works from other sales seemed to be shown with them but after a while I really didn't care as I came across more and more stunning pieces. Works included Kandinskys, a Gauguin still-life, a Van Gogh drawing and a Picasso of Dora Maar. I think my favourite was this Felix Vallotton of the beach at Dieppe on Bastille Day from 1903 but I couldn’t help to smile at this rude Toulouse-Lautrec! Closed 24 June 2026

Striking exhibition at Sotheby's of work for sale in an auction of modern and contemporary art. All I can really do is list pictures which struck me as the whole thing was almost overwhelming. Start with a beautiful David Hockney from 1988 estimated at between £1.2m and £1.8. It will be interesting to see what it sells for after his recent death. Move onto a Monet Waterlilies and a study by him of his wife Camille on the beach. I loved an Anslem Kiefer with a model boat stuck on it and a Pierre Bonnard female nude and of course an Antony Gormley standing block figure. Oh and a lovely Tamara de Lempicka. Closed 23 June 2026

Stunning exhibition at Sotheby's in advance of an auction of work from the Lewis Collection . Born and raised in the East End Joe Lewis is the majority owner of ENIC Group which in turn was the majority owner of Tottenham Hotspur. He is also a prolific collector of figurative art including amazing pieces. This sale highlighted 25 pieces   but other pieces appear in another sale I will be blogging as well. Estimated at £200m this will be the most valuable single-owned collection ever offered at auction in Europe. I found it a bit hard to tell what was in which sale but using the website I can identify that it includes the wonderful "Sleeping by the Lion Carpet" of Sue Tilley by Lucien Freud, a beautiful Modigliani portrait of a woman, five Picasso's and a stunning Caillebotte of Paul Hugot. I'll certainly be looking out for results of the sale. I was struck though that this might be the last time we see some of these works in public. Lewis has been a generou...