Cathy's Art Diary

Charming exhibition at the Royal Watercolour Society of work by Tony Foster exploring ideas of time. The works, spanning a number of journey's and his home county of Cornwall,   look at four types of time, geological, biological and human as well as fleeting moments. The delicate paintings were often framed with samples of rock or flora or paintings of leaves. Closed 20 December 2025 Review Times

Interesting online lecture from the Foundling Museum discussing an image of John Blanke, a black trumpeter at the court of Henry VIII. Michael Ohajuru introduced us to Blanke who is the first person of black African descent for whom we have a historical record and an image. He explained how black trumpeters where not new but had been known in the Holy Roman Empire and took us through some images of them. He then led us though the “Great Roll of the Tournament at Westminster in February 1511” explaining what the event was and how it was depicted. In particular he pointed out the two images of Blanke. Finally he looked at the documentary evidence we have on Blanke including records of him playing at Henry VII’s funeral and Henry VIII’s coronation. The talk was a great example of using images and documents together to give a insight into history.

Complex online lecture from the National Gallery speculating on the influence of Darwin’s ideas on the artist Georges Seurat. Emmelyn Buttterfield, Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, talked us through this complex argument focusing on Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grand Jette” of 1886. Noting that the ideas of Darwin were being widely discussed and that the anatomist at the Ecole de Beaux Artes was an advocate of them she outlined visual links in the picture. This argument mainly revolved around the figure of the monkey as Darwin was often depicted as a monkey in cartoons and in some examples had a similar serpentine tail to the one in the painting. She also discussed how the woman holding the monkey’s lead can be seen as a sexualised figure mirroring ideas of reproduction in Darwin. As you may have guessed from my tone I didn’t fully understand the argument and felt it may have been conflation of ideas around at the time which may not have been c...

Fun public artwork outside the Hayward Gallery by Nicola Tyson. I always like to go to see these annual outdoor pictures. This one speaks to the Gilbert and George exhibition that was on in the gallery as it featured two figures. Are they dancing? Is one surrendering? Why are they against a yellow wall? There are lots of questions, but I found it a cheerful work which raised a smile as I walked past. Closes June 2026

Bright almost overwhelming exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of works by Gilbert and George made since 2000. I do like Gilbert and George and have been to a few of their exhibitions over the last few years, so I recognised quite a lot of this work. Each piece worked well but shown on mass it got diluted and became almost cartoon like. You had to slow down and look at and read the details. It became repetitive after a while. The pieces which worked well were a couple of series of four which built more of a narrative across them. They looked good in the large white space. Closes 11 January 2026 Reviews Times Guardian T elegraph Evening Standard

Useful online lecture from ARTscapades looking at the life and architecture of John Vanbrugh. Charles Saumarez-Smith, former director of the National Gallery and author of a book of the same title as the lecture, led us through Vanbrugh’s remarkable life, a story of confidence and opportunity. He told us how he was imprisoned in France returning to England with no career prospects in 1693 aged 19 but by 1705 he had written and translated plays, designed Castle Howard, was appointed Controller of the Office of Works, planned a West End theatre and been invited to design Blenheim Palace. He talked about how he got the prestigious architectural commissions and what he brought to them from his theatrical background.