Cathy's Art Diary

Retrospective of the portrait work of Gerhard Richter at the National Portrait Gallery . I’m sorry to say I did not enjoy this exhibition. Maybe I had already done too much (Picasso and Constable) so my eye was not ready for contemporary art, or maybe it was my middle aged eyes which got a bit confused by the out of focus nature of the work, but I found I could not connect with it. I found myself walking too fast and not concentrating. Reviews Independent Evening Standard

A sweet exhibition of the portraits of John Constable at the National Portrait Gallery . The labels pointed out that Constable had been a direct contemporary of Jane Austen and I had a real sense at looking at an Austinian society. One picture “The Ladies of the Mason family” could have been the Bennett girls! Alongside the portraits were small landscapes of views from houses in which he had lived. They reminded me slightly of works by Spencer plus Francis Bacon of gardens and views form houses in Hampstead. Particularly poignant was the fact that Constable had been married at ST Martin in the Fields, which is of course one of the first things you see as you leave the gallery. Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Independent Evening Standard

Small sister exhibition to the main Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery showing prints by Picasso which were influenced by other artists. It was nice that in a few cases these prints were shown with the prints which had influenced them including a couple of Rembrandts. I liked a series of proof prints based on “Déjeuner sur l’Herbe’” by Manet which showed the different versions and different colour schemes.

Great exhibition at the National Gallery investigating how Picasso was influenced and reacted to the works of other artists. I always find with Picasso that I don’t find many of the individual images beautiful but I love the dialogue he is having with himself. I don’t feel they are images for public consumption but a genuine artistic need to express himself and pursue ideas. The tape tour was on PDA’s so that you could see the images that he was influenced by and it made you slow down and really think about the images. My favorites images were the more conventional ones such as a self portrait called “Yo” showing Picasso as a brooding young man, the wonderful brown portrait of his first wife Olga and a blue cubist seated nude. Reviews Times Daily Telegraph Evening Standard

Lecture on the recent redisplay of the painting from the tomb chapel of Nebamun at the British Museum given by the project leader of the redisplay Richard Parkinson. This was a fascinating lecture as it not only looked at where the paintings came from and their history but also how they have recently been conserved and what decisions were taken in re-exhibiting them. I had popped to see the new gallery before the lecture and would never have guessed that the paintings are supported on steel mounts with a mask over the top to make it look as if they are still on a wall. Very clever! Review of the gallery Times

Small exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery bringing together sections of an altarpiece by Veronese from the Italian town of Lendinara. One piece is owned by Dulwich but the others are spread between the National Gallery of Scotland, the National Gallery of Canada and the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas. The exhibition showed how the pieces had been retouched to make the sellable and to erase the St Michael and the Devil from the middle section. Following cleaning this was rediscovered and the head of St Michael rediscovered in Texas. As you may realize from previous blogs I like exhibition which bring works back together which have been split up so I found this fascinating. Reviews Independent

Nice exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery looking at the work done by Sickert during his stays in Venice in the late 19th century. Starting with his views of the city it also looked at the models he found there and his relationship with them. There was a bit of a sense of mass production about some of the work and a real sense that it was painted to make money but he also did different versions of the same view in the same vein as Monet’s Rouen Cathedral pictures. However try as he might he paints in sludge brown! Reviews Guardian Daily Telegraph Evening Standard

Exhibition at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen’s gallery at Bovey Tracey in Devon. This exhibition showed the work of five crafts people who won bursaries under the Contemporary Craft Fellowship Scheme. It shows experimental work and finished work. I didn’t note the name of the person but I like the small paintings on ceramic of views from windows.

Small exhibition of works by Isabel Merrick at Coleton Fishacre a National Trust property in Devon. This was a very small exhibition of still lives and abstracts. They were quite nice but did not really go with the ambiance of the house.