Cathy's Art Diary

Neat little exhibition at the National Maritime Museum looking at how the caricaturists of the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries portrayed the navy and naval exploits. The introduction pointed out that broadside means both the simultaneous firing of all guns on one side of a war ship and a sheet of paper printed on one side as advert or satire. The small gallery was divided into three themes the inequalities of officers and men, Nelson and Lady Hamilton and John Bull and Britannia. It featured pictures by all the main caricaturists of the time including Rowlandson , Gillray and Cruikshank. I thought it was a really nice touch to have a Steadman cartoon from 1995 at the end to show how the works had influences modern cartoonists.  

Nice exhibition at the National Maritime Museum looking at the work of the American photographer Ansel Adams and featuring water as the subject in all forms, sea, river, snow, falls, ice, geysers and clouds. Through various exhibitions I have been to recently I am getting interested in the early use of photography. The early Adams pictures show how by about 1910 photographic modernism was taking over from the pictorialist style ie a sharper focus and sense of reality rather than trying to reproduce the effects of paint. The exhibition showed many techniques such as using photography to show the effect of water as a mirror and trying to capture the movement of water in a still medium. Adams sometimes used the idea of a sequence of 2 or more frames to show how the water changes such as the surf sequence from 1940 shown here. There were lots of stunning images such as Maroon Bells, a study in texture; a big print of Mirror Lake, California; minimalist submerged trees from

Imaginative exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at costume in Hollywood films. It look various themes   such as how clothes can build up how we look at a character, the relationship which often builds up between a director and their costume designer and how various genres have used costume. The most interesting section was on how actors use work with designers and use costume focusing on Meryl Streep and Robert de Niro. The display had about 6 costumes for each actor then a life sized video of each of them sitting down telling you about each piece. As for favourite pieces it is hard to choose! I cried slightly on seeing the green curtain dress from “Gone with the Wind” as it is so iconic. I loved a red sequined number from “The Bride wore Red” a 1930s black and white film which had been lit with a light which changed so you could see how it would have appeared in screen as a black dress. I was fascinated by the detail of thought which went into t

Annual exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery for this award for portrait photography. This year I preferred the commissioned work such at Hilary Mantel by Michael Birt and Michael Stipe by Matthew Lloyd. There were also a nice selection of Olympian’s, obviously the subject of many features this year needing photographs. However my favourite picture had to be “Dahlia” by Mark McAvoy. It’s a picture of his 7 week old daughter taken for her passport photo and a wonderfully funny picture of a rather serious baby. I had to buy the book to have a copy of this picture but I’m not sure why I find it so funny. I guess it’s because you don’t often see an upright baby and therefore look at it face to face as you would an adult. Review Evening Standard

Charming exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the life of Prince Henry eldest son of James I and heir to the throne whose death lead to the succession of Charles I. I am increasingly attracted to this period of history which seems to get forgotten between the great reign of Elizabeth I and the Civil War. In many ways it was the heart of the British Renaissance. The renaissance of thought came with Henry VIII but I think this period shows the renaissance in art. In examining the life of Prince Henry the exhibition looks at Jacobean portraiture. I loved the double portrait of Henery and Robert Devereux by Robert Peake showing the two boys out hunting. However Peake’s world was a studied symbolic one. This contrasted with the pictures by Mierevelt which seemed to the next step up with a wonderful realistic skin quality. It was interesting that Henry’s friends kept trying to persuade this artist to come to England. The exhibition also gave a view of a Renaissance

Innovative exhibition at Somerset House looking at the life and work of the designer Valentino. The exhibition was in the sections the first looked at the life of Valention through his own archive and the last looked at the craftwork involved in creating the clothes. The most exciting section was of 130 outfits displayed as the front 2 rows of a catwalk show putting you in the place of the models looking at the audience. This was a really innovate use of the long gallery upstairs at Somerset House and gave a real sense of occasion. It also gave you space to look at the outfits from all angles. They were arranged in lovely colour blocks with sections on day and evening ware. Of course the evening ware was the most stunning. It was interesting how many designs from the 1950s Valentino kept and did not make up until the 1990s. The use of embroidery was stunning and it was good to get close to see the detail in it. My favourite pieces came from the 2011 collection and were m

Interesting exhibition of narrative pictures by John Bartlett at the Guildhall Art Gallery. Some of the pictures were Dr Who like visions of London. Others were quite disturbing images such as “History Painting” a study of the poll tax riot in Trafalgar Square. The centre piece was a work in progress “Rise of the Invisible” which is being worked on during the exhibition. It would have been more interesting to go at a time when the artist was there as that would have livened up the space. When I saw it it was white chalk on black. I would be interested to see the finished work. I preferred the drawing for his work including a lovely head study for “History Painting”.

Fascinating exhibition at the National Gallery examining the dialogue between art and photography in the early years of the technology and how contemporary artists have used it to reflect the old masters. It was arranged via the various genres of painting such as portraits, still life etc and created a very interesting dialogue between works. Works which stood out for me were Oscar Rejlander’s “The Two Ways of Life” a wonderful early photograph giving a louche tableau based on the School of Athens and made up of separate pictures pieced together. I loved a video by setting up an image of Lady Eastlake, reproducing the original photo but showing all the stages including the model eating here lunch! There was a nice twist at the end which raised a laugh from viewers. Unusual in a gallery to share a moment like that with you fellow visitors. It was amusing to realise that as soon as you get photography you get nudes both artistic and not so artistic. How like the st