Cathy's Art Diary

Lecture at the Royal Institute of British Architects to accompany their current exhibition of Le Corbusier’s Cabanon . The lecture was given by Arthur Ruegg, a co-curator of the Corbusier exhibition at the Barbican which I saw when it was in Liverpool. The lecture focues on Le Cabanon, a holiday house Le Corbusier built for himself on the Cote d'Azur, the only structure he built for his own use. I must admit I found the lecture heavy going partly because I was tired but also because the lecture had a very heavy accent and I found it hard to understand all that was said. I probably needed to bring a bit more knowledge to the event. I did not get a chance to look at the recreation of the hut so I do want to go back.

Super lecture at the National Galley by art history poster boy Andrew Graham-Dixon. In this lecture he looked at the background to the paining of the Sistine Chapel and its iconography. Delivered in an easy popular style he wandered up and down a large slide of the ceiling pointing out different ways of looking at it. This was the first time I’d been to a Friday late night at the gallery. It’s recently changed its late night from Wednesday to Friday. I must admit I was not happy at the idea but I must say the atmosphere was great so I think it was a good move.

Exhibition at the Royal Academy which looks at the life and work of Andrea Palladio. The tape tour admitted straight away that it is strange to have an exhibition about architecture in a gallery as you can’t show their major works there however it pointed out that it was going to concentrate on the influences on him and how he influenced others. The tour was worth taking as the layout of the exhibition was a bit confused as it was in quite a small space and the tour directed you to the next piece and gave you a route around the works. I loved the models of buildings. They were all built on the same scale so you could tell their relative size. The rooms were beautifully decorated to match the themes. I loved moving from the slightly austere classical early room into the luscious red Venetian room. I hadn’t noticed it coming so it came as a surprise. I had thought I would go round quickly but was in there for about two hours as there was so much to see and discover, I thought I knew my ...

Small exhibition in the café at the Royal Academy of the work of Vicki Reynolds who died last year. These pictures were very abstract but as I sat and supper my coffee I felt they decided they were expressive landscapes and lo when I read the blurb at least a selection were called Spanish Expressive Landscape 1- however many! They were rather beautiful and I’d have happily given them house room!

Excellent lecture given by Irving Finkel, one of the curators of the Babylon Exhibition at the British Museum focusing on the period of the Jewish exile in Babylon. This was an amazingly detailed talk and yet delivered in a light hearted manner which carried you along. It looked in particular at where archaeology or texts supported the bible stories of this period. A sign it was good was that I covered 6 sides of notes and questions went on for about half an hour even though the lecture had overrun.