Cathy's Art Diary

Annual exhibition of new works at the Royal Academy . OK as ever I loved the two small Weston Rooms with their works of art piled high up the walls. It was nice this year that one wall in the small room was devoted to black and white pictures. A lot of the rest of the exhibition was very abstract. I don’t mind the odd abstract but there seemed to be rooms of them! It was a relief to get to the end and see figurative and landscape work again. This tear the two I would have stolen were at the end “Lat August, Hertfordshire” by Ben Levene was a very green landscape with a hill and “Figs” by Mary Feddon, a rather minimal still life of figs. I did however also fall against my better judgement for the Damien Hirst St Bartholomew figure. It showed the saint having skinned himself and contrasted the exposed muscles, the loose skins and the smooth scissors. The whole thing was made in silver and was just stunning. Reviews Times Daily Telegraph Independent Evening Standard

Interesting project at the the National Museum in Stockholm which is using the ongoing renovation programme to look at works of art in a new way. The works on show when I was there had the theme of “Light and Movement” and consisted of two displays of sculpture in natural light. The first room I came across was full bodies displayed on crates and scattered around the room. There were no labels except for numbers but you could pick up a leaflet detailing all the works. It made you look at the works in a new way. The other room was heads on a scaffold structure, some in natural light and some under spotlights. This display made you look at the works as faces rather than slightly blocks of marble. This was a lovely imaginative way of relooking at art.

Exhibition of the portrait photographs of Hans Hammarskiold at the National Museum in Stockholm . This was a beautiful exhibition of black and white photographs including pictures of the Swedish royal family and other famous Swedes. I loved a picture of art historian Ragnar Jospehson which placed his defined profile next to that of a sculptured head. Hammarskiod’s use of light and shade was emphasised by a picture of Dhor Hjorth who looks down so only his hand and tip of his head are in the light.