Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looking at the output of Studio Prints, a leading printmaking workshop founded in 1968 and active until 2011. The workshop was run by Dorthea Wright and Marc Balakjian who had long term collaborations with many of the post war London artists include Lucien Freud, Frank Auerback and Leon Kossoff as well as maintaining artistic careers of their own. The show had some beautiful examples of the work they produced shown around a display of archive material. Who can resist this print of Freud's dog Pluto, but I think my favourite work was this lovely window by Wright herself. Closes 13 September 2026    

Charming exhibition at the Courtauld of photographs of Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson's studio from the early 1930s. The show compliments the main exhibition in the gallery of Hepworth's sculptures in colour from a few years later. The photographs were taken by Paul Liab during a period of intense collaboration and experimentation by the two artists. They included pictures of individual works and ones evoking the artists working in the studio. Liab photographed the work of many artists and his archive was donated to the Courtauld in 1974. Closes 4 October 2026.

Interesting exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looking at Barbara Hepworth's use of colour in her sculpture and drawings. There was a good blend of sculpture and the drawings which Hepworth referred to as sculptures in disguise. The works were beautifully displayed with a good narrative. A shoutout as ever for the Courtauld for the excellent booklet with the label descriptions in which stops bottle necks in the show and is a useful reference to bring home. I think my favourite piece was this wooden version of "(Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red" which to me evokes the sun breaking though a blue sky. I hadn’t realised before that the strings in these works are in a contrasting colour to the paint. I also loved some pieces which I assume were coloured stone but now realise form reading the booklet again that they are painted marble. Closes 6 September 2026 Review Times

Intriguing exhibition at Somerset House investigating how people create public and personal shrines to pop stars and cult icons. The first room looked at public expressions of grief from the flowers for Princess Diana to part of the tree trunk which Marc Bolan crashed into. It would have been interesting to look a further back in this section and maybe look at the idea of leaving objects at the shrines of saints as an investigation of the origins of the idea. The next room looked at personal shrines and people's collections of memorabilia and how they display them. I loved an altar to George Michael by Dot Alma which travels to events in the UK and the idea from Molly Soda that a kitchen fridge can become a shrine to family life. The last room just presented one object, a piece of chewing gum left on her towel before a performance by Nina Simone, rescued and presented as an installation by Warren Ellis. The show did make we think about things which I have kept and how they...

Strange but beautiful installation at Somerset House by Sian Fan. The work consisted of three hanging figures in a dark space who appeared like dancers. It was only from reading the accompanying leaflet that I got the finer detail that the clothing was handmade and they were set against the illusion of the night sky. The heads of the figures are 3D images of the artist. Evidently, they reference the idea of internet folklore, a new concept to me. Evidently on 28 May the work included a performance by the artist. I did feel the work needed some movement in it either possibly a breeze to make the figures sway and move. Closed 12 July 2026

Novel online lecture from the Victoria and Albert Musuem introducing their exhibition on lost music venues. Curator Harriet Reed talked us though the inspiration for the show growing from her own passion for gigs and concern in the pandemic that a lot of venues were at risk of closing. She talked about their importance, not just as places for performance but also as communities of people. She explained how the show is designed like a venue opening with an exterior wall of posters and signs and guided us around the four sections, what they cover and featuring a few of the key exhibits. She also talked about how they put the show together from the museum’s own collection but also put out a call out for new material from venues and the public. They had over 500 submissions of objects and documents. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get to the exhibition as it was closed due to the hot weather and lack on aircon on the day I tried.