Cathy's Art Diary

I think I’m slowing down a bit! Wednesday from 5pm to 6pm was a woman with a flip chart who I assumed was sending messages to friends however as she is anonymous on the website I’ll never know! Thursday at the same time was Oliver L who was a text machine for an hour. He wore his mobile number so people could text him and he read them out through a megaphone. Saturday saw two visits. 3pm to 4pm was Dousty who raised awareness and collect funds for The Rural Libraries of Peru by having a banner and hitting leaflets into the crowd with a badminton racket. 4pm – 5pm was Lois P who dressed as a pigeon.

Very small exhibition at the National Gallery to celebrate the conservation of a picture by Titian. The picture is round one representing the Triumph of Love shown as a cupid on the back of lion. It was a cover for a portrait so is shown alongside Titain’s “Allegory of Prudence”, the wonderful picture of three ages of man which may also have been a cover and the reverse of other works. It is a nice small study of a niche subject. It complimented my Courtauld Summer School as it had been owned by the Vendramin family who feature in the great Titian family portrait in the gallery. Reviews Evening Standard

The Royal Academy have been lent W.P. Firth’s “Private View at the Royal Academy 1881” and are displaying it in the Lee and James C Slaughter Room. It is a wonderfully busy picture which puts the viewer in the place of one wall of the exhibition. You look at the crowds of visitors much as you would do now. Alongside the picture is a key to who the people are and they include the great, good and notorious of Victorian London. You can imagine the equivalent today on those Evening Standard magazine pages which show celebrities arriving at cultural events!

Small exhibition of the work of Robert Austin in the Tennant Room at the Royal Academy . Austin, working in the mid 20th century, specialised in prints and engravings. These were small works but very detailed with a Dureresque quality. There was a beautiful cropped image of a woman in landscape format which was stunning. My favourite was of two nun’s called “Sisters of Assis”.

Nice exhibition at the Royal Academy of the work of John William Waterhouse. This was much better than I’d expected. I must admit the finding Waterhouse a bit chocolate boxy but I’d missed placed him as a late Pre-Raphaelite and not realized how much later he was. He brought together the ideas of the Pre-Raphs with the Impressionist techniques which were coming in from France. I had not realized that by the end of his life he was contemporary with Picasso and Cezanne. It was worth taking the tape tour as it brought out the sociological ideas behind the pictures and how they reflect the changing roles of women and the Freudian theories which were coming in. The pictures were not as glossy as I expected but had a rougher freer finished. I would like to have known more about the dresses in the pictures. In one case I felt one was used again which implied to me that they might be real not imagined. The exhibition however did not work in the space it had (Sackler Wing). I went on a Saturday

A photographic exhibition at the National Museum of Wales examining photography in Britain from 1967 to 1987. Taken from the collections of the British Council and Arts Council the pictures from the 70s looked at the public world whereas those from the 80s examined commercialism and individualism. I loved a set called The Visitors which were portraits of visitors to Tintern Abbey in the 70s. They seem to have mainly been women in hats! I must say though that the photographs made Britain look a much gloomier place than I remembered. How did we not all cut our throats? I obviously wore rose tinted spectacles!

Retrospective of the work of New York photographer Diane Arbus at the National Museum of Wales . These were rather intense photographs of people described by the blurb as “a self conscious encounter between sitter and photographer”. Most were slightly odd and not what they seemed at first glance. One featured a giant, another a dwarf. There was picture of a crying baby which could not fail to move. You really felt the old cliché of “every picture tells a story” was correct in this case.

Small exhibition at the National Museum of Wales looking at artists who fought against the academic artistic traditions in 19th century France. There were some beautiful pictures in the exhibition such as a Cezanne still life of apples and a teapot and a Monet water lilies however I found the theme got a bit lost. I wasn’t too sure if this was an exhibition or just their Impressionist gallery so probably did not pay enough attention to the labels! The write up on the website was really interesting but it all passed me by in the room.

Nice little exhibition at the National Museum of Wales looking at the time Gwen John spent in Paris as Rodin’s lover. It featured sketches and paintings by Gwen John alongside sculptures by Rodin. There was a lovely contrast between her subtle delicate pictures and the more passionate sculpture. As ever I loved the pictures she did of aspects of her room and studio. They have a Vermeer like quality of tranquillity and repetition.

Tuesday 5pm to 6pm was Fast Eddie , a man in wellies with a cone on his head riding a hobby horse. Well why not! Wednesday in my usual slot (5pm to 6pm) was Helen B raising awareness for Fibromyalgia in a bright yellow dress. Friday at the same time was Robert I who used his time to discuss climate change. A shade tedious but nice big banner!

A quieter week this week! In fact I only made it to it one evening, Thursday but I did fit in three plinthers. 5pm -6pm was Kevin M 1 when I saw him he was campaigning to get Abbey Crunch biscuits reinstated! I must admit they hadn’t gone. He was good fun and got the crowd involved cheering for the biscuit! 6pm to 7pm was Joe M who was broadcasting to Roundhouse Radio. Sadly you can see me on the video wandering off with my feet stuck out when his co-presenter takes over on the ground! 9pm to 10pm was Antonia who was an Agony Aunt with a mega phone taking peoples problems by text and from the crowd. I must admit I couldn’t tell this when I was there. Update OK I got it wrong I was there earlier in the week too I just forgot till I looked more carefully at the photos! Monday 5pm-6pm was Bridget C who wrote messages and thoughts on a flip chart and shared with the audience. Tuesday at the same time was Fiona C1 who sketched the view despite t

Monday between 5pm and 6pm was Deryck H who seemed to sit in a chair and read a book on being a groom. Tuesday between 1pm and 2pm Ben1 who took a flip chart up to communicate with the crowd when I passed he was playing Hangman. 5pm to 6pm was Jan _S_1 who promoted the Blood Donor Service. Friday between 12pm and 1pm was Clive H who was raising awareness of the Lary Project which meets the needs of voice impaired people, by standing with balloons. Between 4pm and 5pm is a mystery as he’s not on the website! There is no active link. It was a man in a deckchair with laptop.

Plenary lecture to mark the end of the Courtauld Institute summer school . The lecture was given by one of the professors at the Institute Paul Hills. He discussed the effect of trade with the East on colours in Venice. In particular he seemed to concentrate on the effect of the imported blue and white ceramics. I must admit he lost me at this point. I couldn’t make the leap from blue and white pottery to the role of blue and white in pictures. I felt those colours were more about sunshine and blue skies on the lagoon. I felt the argument wandered around a bit and just showed how good our lecturer for the rest of the week had been.

Can’t believe the course is over already. You just get into a routine and it’s finished! Today’s first lecture was Tintoretto v Veronese. I’d never really understood Tintoretto before but, although I’m not sure I’ll ever respond emotionally to it, I get what he was aiming for and like some of the images in the iconography, I’d not really understood that his works tend to be for and full of the tradesman of the city. We did Veronese quite quickly, but it turned out the lecturers phd was on Tintoretto’s church Madonna dell’Orto so maybe a bit if bias crept in! Second lecture was on the counter reformation. As usual I realised this is where I start to loose it with religious art. Things just become too prescriptive and a bit violent, I think I like my religion peaceful. As part of the session twpo members of the class read the dialogue between the inquisitor and Veronese regarding the “Feast at the House of Simeon” (or is it?) This really brought the topic to life and we followed it with

Superb exhibition at the British Library looking at the life of Henry VIII. It had the original of everything you’d want to see! There were wonderful portraits including the Holbein original of Edward VI from Dresden. It was a highly intelligent exhibition put together in a very academic fashion and yet it wasn’t dry. The coverage of the Reformation was fantastic. There were two or more cases of the books Henry collected to find evidence to support his divorce. It was amazing to see the hand he had drawn in a copy of Leviticus pointing at he passage about not marrying your brothers wife. I will say you need to give it a lot of time in fact I’d suggest two visits! I spent two hours and was getting slightly hysterical! I’d done the young Henry, the Reformation, the Field of Cloth of Gold, various wars and six wives at which point we then seemed to ruin into trouble with Scotland! At the point I started laughing in a slightly desperate way and had to speed up! I was with a friend so thi

Wow it has seemed a long day as I’ve packed things in! Two lectures this morning. We started with portraits with a debate on what a portrait is and isn’t. We then looked at the role of Netherlandish art, the difference between public and private portraits and the place of women in portraiture. After coffee was the role of the Terra Firma in Venetian art. It was an interesting discussion about whether the influences came from city to country or visa versa the conclusion was that they influenced each other it was not just one way. This gave us a chance to look at some less well-known artists such as Lotto and Pordenone. This afternoon was a wonderful trip to the British Library to look at books printed in Venice in the 15th and 16th centuries. These had been retrieved for us and we looked at them in a room upstairs. The curator there was really knowledgeable so there were some great discussion between our lecturer and him. It was great to get a chance to handle the books and have a reall

Joint exhibition between the British Museum and Kew Gardens to showcase the plants of the Indian subcontinent. It shows how the landscape changes and the different plants which grow there. It was really nice to see the familiar space outside the British Museum used in this way and I must admit, as you’ll see from this post, I had fun with my new camera there!

Today’s lectures were excellent. As one fellow student said “At last we’ve left religion and found sex!”! We began with the mysterious Giorgione who we know very little about and who only left a handful of pictures as he died young, however what he did leave was remarkably significant and seemed to introduce a new style of pastoral art to Venice. We tried analysing some of the more mysterious pictures but who knows what they mean. After coffee was Titian with particular emphasis on the mythological series. The themes in these became more and more racy. In one series he seems to have admitted that one of the reasons for the figures in them was to show naked women from all angles! The trip this afternoon was the Print Gallery at the British Museum which I always enjoy. We were able to look at Gentile Bellini’s drawing for the big procession in St Marks Square, a Ttitan drawing, two Carpaccios, a Veronese and a Tintoretto. It is so nice to be able to compare style and technique that clos

Small exhibition at the National Gallery of French 19th century landscapes from their collection. I must admit this exhibition did not turn me on! Sadly I suspect it was all that greenery and countryside. I am too much of an urbanite not to panic when I see all those tress, I lived up once the Impressionists came on the scene placing people in the pictures and looking at countryside on the edge of the city. I could start to smell the smoke! Reviews Independent Evening Standard

Another good day at the summer school! The first lecture was on devotion in painting focusing on the development of the altarpiece in Venice. We looked in quite a lot of detail at what wasn’t an altarpiece, ie private devotional works. Altarpieces in this period went through three phases the gilded polyptic form through the sacred conversation style to the large narrative pieces. It was great to see lots of images which I knew well so a bit like studying old friends. The second lecture was on the Scuole, the Venetian version of confraternities, and the art they commissioned. They developed a wonderful narrative tradition which often places miracles and biblical events into a contemporary setting. The afternoon was a session in the National Gallery looking in particular at the Bellini’s most of which in the collection were for private devotion. We discussed the changing nature of private devotion, the influence of Flemish and Netherlandish art and the early development of portraiture. I

Super small exhibition at Somerset House which paired up 18 designers of men’s clothing with 18 contemporary artists to produce a suit to challenge the form of men’s suits. The suits were fascinating but it was as exciting to see the way they displayed. The figures were headless and looking into mirrors so you saw the outfits from many angles. Quite spooky! Of course I loved the Anthony Gormley/Aquascutum metal suit which was as perfect and interesting on the inside as the outside. I loved the shoes on the Paul Smith figure with pointed toes and different coloured laces. Reviews Evening Standard

Lovely exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery o f the work of the Omega Workshop. Established in 1913 by the painter and art critic Roger Fry, the Omega Workshops were an experimental design collective, whose members included Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and other artists of the Bloomsbury Group. The exhibition included wonderful drawings of the designs and many examples of finished works. It was great to see a “Lily Pond” screen and table together. I particularly liked the textile designs and it was wonderful that the curator had managed to bring together most of the colour ways of each design. Reviews Evening Standard

Today has been my first day of this year’s week at the Courtauld Institute’s summer schools. This year I am doing “Painting in Renaissance Venice” which is being led by Michael Douglas-Scott. It was nice to see some familiar faces and there are at least five of us who did Michael’s course last year. Today has been two lectures. Firstly setting out the background of Venice in this period looking at how the city had set up a myth of itself, the role of the Doge. the nature of the Republic and the role of citizens. The second lecture looked at why the nature of Renaissance was different in Venice. There was still a sense of the coming of antiquity and humanism but in Venice it fused with the Gothic and Byzantine rather than replacing it. The day ended with a choice of gallery talks. I went to one on the second floor of the Courtauld on the coming of Modernism. In essence it looked at the Impressionists and discussed what they were reacting against and what themes they portrayed. All in a

Ok this week’s Plinths visits! To sum them up the thing to do seemed to be to blow up balloons and raise awareness of something. It’s a good idea but does get repetitive. I am starting to realize that another art work will emerge from this which is the photos people take of their experience and the things they make. It could go on for ever! Monday between 5pm-6pm was Paul_D-1 a man in a black suit billed on the web site as a ‘last minute replacement’. He was quite friendly and engaged in conversation with passers by. In watching his slot he seemed to have had five minutes notice and was called on because he worked in a building nearby. I think he may be my favorite so far probably because he’d not over thought it and just enjoyed the moment! Tuesday between 5pm and 6pm was Shawn the Sheep who inflated and released balloons to raise awareness of CLAPA an organization which helps people with cleft palettes. Between 6pm and 7pm A Denholm who took a photo of the Square eve

Exhibition at St Martin in the Fields of prints from a bible commissioned by St John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota . This was the first handmade illuminated bible to be commissioned since the advent of the printing press. It uses bright colours and works together pictures and words to form the illustrations. The frontispiece to the Creation was seven bright panels representing the seven days. The exhibition was a real find!

Exhibition for the thirteenth annual portrait award currently sponsored by BP at the National Portrait Gallery . I always love this exhibition. This year there seemed to be a move against the abstract and towards super realism which I love. Favorites were : “Hats and Scarves” by Tim Oramura, a picture of three female friends who he invited to pick a hat or a scarf for the picture. It is a picture of three strong flamboyant black women who you want to meet and talk to. “Guillem” by Miriam Escpfet, a picture of he rather gorgeous brother. “Imagine” by Jose Luis Corella, a picture of a young girl with her hair pegged to a clothes line. The detail in her knitted jumper was stunning. Reviews Independent Guardian Evening Standard

Wonderful exhibition come installation at the National Portrait Gallery which brought together a set of pictures collected by the artist Francis Alÿs of reproductions of a lost 19th century picture of Fabiola, a 5th century saint. Set in two small rooms painted in dark green these profiles of woman in a red scarf were just stunning. The sense of repetition was wonderful and the idea that most were amateur products made with love gave a deeper resonance. Reviews Guardian Independent

Photographic exhibition National Portrait Gallery in which ten prominent gay figures were invited to each choose six figures who had been inspirational to them. There were some great photos and I thought my ‘gay’ knowledge was pretty good but I came away with lots of authors and figures I want to look up. The best aspect was the labels on the pictures which the person who had chosen the picture had written. It therefore told you as much about the people doing the choosing as the people they had chosen. Reviews Times Guardian Independent Evening Standard

Display of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery taken by Barry Feinstein on Bob Dylan’s 1966 tour of Europe. These photos reminded you of how good looking and fresh faced Dylan was. My favorite were those of him with Liverpool children. The BBC have recently found these children and recreated the picture now.