Cathy's Art Diary

Travelling exhibition at the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Birmingham is the first venue for this lovely exhibition of 10 drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci from the Royal Collection. They are a perfect selection of drawings to give an overview of his work covering anatomical works, designs, maps and much more. It included iconic images such as the head of Leda and a design for the great equestrian statue in Milan. I went on a quiet Wednesday morning but there was still a small queue to get in and signs round the gallery to show that at peak times, I guess weekends, the queues can be more than 2 hours long. It is great to see art being so popular.

Nice little exhibition of prints at the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery bequeathed by Tessa Sidey, Curator of Prints and Drawings at BM&AG for nearly 30 years who died last year. I am sure this was just a taster of the collection but represented many of the great artists of the late 20th century. There was a lovely Lucien Freud print of a large woman with a tattoo. There was also a nice collection of studio pottery which Tessa had collected and used.

Great to see this exhibition at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery of some of the items found in the hoard of Saxon treasure found in Staffordshire in 2010. Having see the news stories about this I was surprised at how small the items were. It became obvious that it must have been booty from war as it seems as if all the gold had been stripped from weapons. The quality of the garnet and gold work was wonderful and if this was taken during battle what must that battle have looked like with all the gold encrusted weapons. I think the shear quantity means this was off real weapons not just ceremonial bling. I was impressed listening to local people in the exhibition who had obviously been more than once and were telling each other which items had changed since they last saw it. They felt a real connection to the items. It also showed how the conservation work was a work in progress.

Lovely exhibition at the British Library of illuminated manuscripts collected by the kings and queens of England. I had been warned by friends that this was a big exhibition and quite detailed and they were right so I did find I had to pace myself. I loved the opening section of books collected by Edward VI. He had lived in Bruges when in exile and had brought make amazing books from that city. The commentary concentrated on what the books were and who they were owned by. I would have like to see a bit more on their art historic context as I am sure there were links to be made between the illuminations and painting of the era but again that might have been one theme too many! The most magical section was the display with prayer books which had belonged to various queens such as Philippa of Hainault and Elizabeth of York. Just so exciting to think they had held and used those very items. Review Guardian

Fascinating lecture by the curator of the Leonardo exhibition, Luke Syson, at the National Gallery looking at what he had learnt from living with the pictures in the exhibition over the last few months. In particular he talked about what he had learnt about the studio set up and processes. He discussed how new information which had appeared from a copy of the Mona Lisa in Madrid had supported up his idea that often the pictures where not so much copies as a work by a studio assistant painted alongside Leonardo as he produced the original. This is based on the idea that each picture shows the same changes in the under drawings. He talked about a later pictures which were produced by two of Leonardo’s students which showed that it was not unusual for two artists to work on the same picture. This was a lovely way to round of an exciting exhibition and very interesting to see that the curator had continued to learn about the works during the show by looking at them and sharing ideas.

Annual fair for buying art works on paper held this year at the Science Museum. The fair didn’t seem quite as large as the last one I went to but it was not lacking in quality. There were a range of stalls varying from ones with a wide variety of pieces to those taking the opportunity to highlight the works of a particular artist. I was most tempted by a double sketch by Gilbert Spencer but hesitated slightly at the price. There was a stall with lovely 1950s fabric designs which I might have bought if I wasn’t in the process of buying a new flat and wondering where on earth I’m going to hang what I already have!