Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating exhibition at the Photographers Gallery looking at the role of photography in the Mass Observation Archive. Mass Observation was set up in 1937 as an experiment in social science, art and documentary. It aimed to collect anecdotal evidence from people’s everyday lives and experiences. The exhibition looked at the main photographic studies within this such as the study of working class life in Bolton and Blackpool and the two books which came out of MO on an Exmoor village and British circus life. In the upstairs gallery the focus moved to more recent projects such as the “One Day for Life” project held on 14 August 1984, to raise money for cancer research which asked people to take an submit one photograph on that day. There is also an ongoing project which issues directives for people to write about or picture a topic. Review Telegraph    

Enlightening exhibition at the Photographers Gallery of a photographic documentary project by Mark Neviile looking at the town of Corby, its people and culture and the effects of environmental pollution that led to several babies being born with birth defects. It forms a lovely picture of a town and sets up some interesting conversations such as the pictures of various night clubs in the town set beside pictures of the Grampian Club for an older generation. It also recognises the Scottish heritage of the town. I loved the lovely triptychs of boys bursting balloons. These are so clever because you delight in the detail with which the balloon’s various stages of bursting are recorded and the delight in the boys faces. It is only on a second or third look that you realised they both have a deformed hand.  

Small exhibition at Handel House looking at one year in the life if Handel. This is one of a series of exhibitions looking at significant years in Handel’s life. This year saw the year he received his first royal commission in England and the granting of a pension from Queen Anne. You were taken through the opera’s Handel wrote that year and the unfortunate incident early in the year when the impresario putting on his opera “Teseo” fled with the takings! It also looked at other significant events that year such as the production of the play “Cato” by Joseph Addison which was later a favourite of Washington’s and played to the US troops at Valley Forge. It was nice to have recordings of the music mentioned to listen to as you went round each section. I found the exhibition gave the museum the narrative it had been lacking   and I will definitely look out for further years in the series.

Workshop at the National Gallery in their “A Look Inside” series looking at Seurat’s “The Bathers”. This morning was led by Ben Street, a lecturer at the gallery, and examined whether the picture was of or against it’s time. It put it in the context of the impressionists but also looked at his more academic influences. We also discussed the social context of the picture and the fact it was painted the same year as “Sunday Afternoon at the Island of Grand Jatte” and whether the pictures could be viewed as a pair. We ended by spending about ¾ hour in front of the picture looking at the techniques in detail and sharing ideas from the session. A great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Interesting exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the life and work of the architect Richard Rogers. The exhibition was a bit dense and wordy but did introduce interesting ideas about buildings and their effect on the space around them. I was particularly interested in his ideas for improving London both those suggested in the 1980s and his latest ideas. I understood the way the exhibition was arranged in themes but at times the story being told on the shelf round the room didn’t seem to match that being told above. Also it became a bit repetitive to see the same buildings in each section. I did have a moment where I thought I’d scream if the Pompidou Centre was used again. It reminded me a bit of the elBulli exhibtion at Somerset House as it was as much about the creative process as the buildings themselves. An interesting new theme in exhibitions? Reviews Telegraph    

Lovely installation exhibition at Tate Modern of this work by Meschac Gaba consisting of 12 rooms which sort to look at the nature of a museum and European perceptions of African art. I loved this exhibition as it really got you thinking and introduced an idea. I loved the desk with money set into the top with pictures of great artists on which I guess was saying something about art and money. I also liked the art and religion room which looked at how spiritual objects are displayed in museums out of their context. I also loved the chandelier made out of old books in the library room and the fact it was based on an old African saying that when an old person dies it is like a library burning. Isn’t that lovely!

A retrospective at Tate Modern of work by Ibrahim El-Salahi, a leading artist of the modernist movement in Africa and the Arab world. This artist was an excellent draftsman and I loved his early portraits and his work as a book illustrator but the bulk of the work was more abstract. I liked the idea that he incorporated Islamic script into his work as he had studied calligraphy but as I don’t know much about it it was hard to tell when it was being used so I could have liked a bit more commentary.   A general gripe about this exhibition and the others I saw at Tate Modern on the same day was the fashion to put the descriptions at the end of run of pictures. It was good to be able to look at and compare the work unobstructed but it was hard to match the right description to the picture particularly with abstracts.

Retrospective of the work of Ellen Gallagher at Tate Modern. I find this exhibition hard to describe as it is hard to define what the artist does as she works in so many media and I found it hard for a while to see the pieces as a body of work but by the end I had had more of a vision of what she does. The main themes were than she often works on penmanship paper which absorbs ink and paint so that an image is created on each side of the paper. It can also build up to create a textures surface She also used a lot of collage based on magazine. I particularly liked the works where she had created a filigree effect with the cut our paper. However although I understood the what by the end I am still not so sure of the why however I found the works very beautiful particular the Watery Ecstatic series at the end. Reviews Times Telegraph Evening Standard  

Interesting retrospective of the work of this Lebanese abstract artist at Tate Modern. There was a mix of painting and sculpture shown side by side.   It was interesting to see one picture damaged by the bombing of Beirut in the 1980s and remember the context of these peaceful works. I was most drawn to the early less abstract work. The first picture, a self-portrait from 1943, was a stunning slightly cubist face.   I also liked the series she did called Les Peintres Celebres of naked women sitting round drinking coffee and reading art history books. I guessed she was looking at the idea of a model or muse taking more control but I just thought it sounded a fun thing to do! Review Guardian Independent Evening Standard  

Innovative exhibition at Somerset House looking at the elBulli restaurant and the work done there by Ferran Adria. It seemed odd at first to be looking at an exhibition about food particularly when you couldn’t taste or smell it! I must admit I didn’t know much about the experiments in food at elBulli but I did notice that others at the exhibition were there in a sense of awe! There were some very clever ideas such as the screen projection onto a white table cloth taking you through a meal being server and eaten. And who could fail to love the dog made of icing. However by the end I decided it was actually an exhibition about creativity rather than food. The exhibition talked you though the creative processes used in their food workshop and how they developed a “creativity audit” as a standard procedure to assess the degree of excellence of an idea. Reviews Times Independent Evening Standard  

Retrospective of work by the photographer Miles Aldridge at Somerset House. These photographs showed perfect women set off by bold saturated colour and an emotional ambivalence giving an almost Barbie like effect. The photographs were beautifully displayed in a large format alongside sketch books. I must admit I found the fashion photographs a bit difficult as sometimes it was hard to tell what the fashion item was being shown off. I preferred the more art based ones such as the mock Renaissance portrait with butterflies and the room in which he explored the idea of the image of the Madonna.

A thought provoking exhibition at Somerset House created from the participation of thousands of young unemployed people living in the UK by Alexander Augustus and The Bite Back Movement. Young people can add their details and photograph to a website, www.adangerousfigure.co.uk , like applying for a job but instead they are merged into a single character, a face that represents their combined hopes, fears, frustrations and latent potential. The exhibition was in the evocative new space under the fountain called The Deadhouse and consisted of copies of CV’s hanging from the ceiling, a sound track on people’s thoughts and experiences and a video of the photos of faces merging into each other. It did really make you think about the 1m people under 24 who are unemployed, whether their expectations have been falsely raised and what the future holds for them. Many thanks to the volunteer on the door who kindly got the video fixed for me. When I first went it was just showing...

Small exhibition at Somerset House by members of the Print Club London. To coincide with the Film4 Summer Season at Somerset House, 16 illustrators were asked to design a post of one of the films on show. My favourite was Steve Wilson’s poster for “The Untouchables” because the design filled the whole poster incorporating a pin stripped suit, a gun and an Italian Renaissance colonnade. However I also had a sift soot for “Badlands” by Rose Stallard but probably because of the loose Bruce Springsteen link.

Interesting exhibition at Canada House of contemporary art from the North of Canada and the Inuit populations from the collection of TD Bank Group. I loved the fact that old skills and materials were still used but showed modern subjects for example the lovely sculpture in stone and antler by Samonie Toonoo’s “Hip-hop dancer”. I liked a big picture by Tim Pitsiulak of a whale hunt which was a long portrait style composition with blocks of colour.

Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries of work from members of the Hesketh Hubbard Art Society, the largest and longest running life drawing society. I must say the standard of work in this show was very patchy with some good works but some frankly bad one too. I like the work by the winner of the best life drawing picture Clarissa James and R Markwick’s “Body Image 01.13” which was a a life size nude against a geometric background. My favourite was Catherine Sizer’s “Study for Jazz Café” which was well composed watercolour.

Interesting exhibition at the ICA of works on paper from artists since the 1940s who have used traditional and commercial drawing techniques to challenge specific social, political or stylists conventions. Many of these artists used comics, a fashion and illustration to revitalise drawing in the visual arts. I mainly visited because I knew there was some Tom of Finland on show. I am sure he is meant to be seen as shocking and ground breaking but I just find many of his figures rather sweet! I loved one of a man having his inside leg measured at the tailors while his sugar daddy looked on. I was interested in the work of Antonio Lopez who had been influential in turning 80s designers and super models into household names but also documented a society being changed by Aids. I was introduced to lots of new artists in this exhibition who I suspect I will come across again. Reviews Evening Standard

Nice little display at the ICA of work by the Granchester Pottery, a decorative arts company where the artists’ work under the name of the group not their own names in the tradition of the Omega Workshop. I did think a lot of the work had quite a feeling of Omega and could have sat quite happily in Charleston Farmhouse from the stencilled wall paper to the wonderful painted screen. The ceramics reminded me of Quentin Bell in utilitarian mode! I’d like to see more from this group!

Nice exhibition at the Royal College of Art in Kensington of work by Ian Dury done between 1961 and 1972. I had come across Ian Dury as an artists in the Peter Blake exhibition at Pallant House and wanted to see more so I was delighted to see this exhibition advertised and even more delighted to fall on it by accident after a trip to the Serpentine Gallery! I was struck by the quality of the drawing in the worked and loved a portrait of his wife from 1971. The pop art aspect of the work seemed to be parodying   1960s soft porn. I loved the use of sequins to provide a texture and glitter in the background of the work. A slightly Klimt like effect. I was interested to see that he had done a lot of illustration work for magazines and I loved his William the Conqueror and Harold from 1966! Review Guardian

Exhibition at Serpentine Gallery of work   by Sturtenvant looking at the relationship between repetition and difference. This is another exhibition where I have to admit I didn’t get it! I am building up a fairy good knowledge of contemporary and late 20th century art but needed help to know what work was being copied/repeated in these exhibitions. A bit more commentary might have helped me! I liked the video of a dog running but that was because it was a dog running not because it was a work of art. Reviews Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Sculpture in the grounds of the Serpentine Gallery by Swiss artists Fischli/Weiss. It is based on a Norwegian idea that he simplest thing you can do to assert yourself in a landscape is to put one rock on top of another. I guess it therefore figures that it’s a bigger gesture if they are big rocks! I did like this though it just sits there being what it is while people queue up to take their photo next to it!  

Annual Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery which this year was designed by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. It is designed like a big adults climbing frame and it is amazing to see people sitting on sections which don’t look accessible but you start to realise there are glass steps with arrows on showing ways to climb to get to seats. The roof is clear round discs which you barely see but I suspect keep off enough of the rain to be able to sit in it in all weathers. All in all rather fun! Reviews Times Telegraph

Exhibition for this annual competition for press photography held at the National Theatre. The exhibition covered works from 2011 and 2012 and looked at an amazing array of subjects. Some, such as an executed man with St Sebastian like wounds, were really difficult to look at, but it showed the strength of a photograph in a news story. Other pictures showed real joy such as the one of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge watching Sir Chris Hoy win gold. The section on the Olympics seemed strangely nostalgic already and I loved the picture of the Olympic rings on Tower Bridge with the moon making a 6th. My favourite picture was one of the Duchess of Cambridge pushing a shopping trolley a couple of weeks after her marriage. There was a wonderful clarity to it plus she looked so beautiful. However as I suspect it was taken in an off duty moment I did feel there was an element of the paparazzi about it and I wondered if it should be in the exhibition.

Stunning exhibition at the National Theatre of pictures of the Thames by Dale Inglis. These were mixed media work, mainly with wonderful, slightly Whistler like pictures of the river painted on recycled materials. I spotted envelopes, Christmas cards and packing material in there. This gave the works a rough finish. They worked best when either very large or in massed ranks of 9 or more images. I so wanted to buy one but most of the reasonably prices ones had sold already. I travel to work by Thames Clipper so I see the river in all lights and these pictures really spoke to me. Some big company near Cannon Street need to buy the large picture of the bridge as it needs to sit in a big space but with the chance to see the real view at the same time!

Sweet display on the South Bank of a mini wheelbarrow garden organised by The Edible Bus Stop. Each barrow was planted and it tended by a volunteer who gets to keep the barrow and it’s contents at the end of the display. This display is very restful and has upturned barrows among the planted ones to use as seats.  

Really interesting discovery at the Hayward Gallery of work by Nek Chand. It consisted of lovely mosaiced figures and a film about the rock garden he is building in Chandigorh, India. The garden is to be full of these figures made by a group of workmen he has trained, many of whom now live in the garden.   It felt like a mix of Gaudi and the terracotta warriors! It was part of a series of exhibitions by The Museum of Everything which is a British charity for international, untrained, unclassified artists. The whole thing was very peaceful and personable.    

Intriguing exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of work by the work of self-taught artists and architects, fringe physicists and visionary inventors. Unfortunately I’ve lost my notes on this exhibition and the detail was a bit complicated however generally it was bizarre because you found yourself getting sucked into to very weird ideas with art works then being based on them. But once you like the art work you seemed to start believing that the idea might be right when it was patently barking! I loved the architectural section downstairs which produced some beautiful fantasy architectural drawings and models. I was not so keen on the invention section upstairs although did love the little robot pulling a cart which I was lucky enough to be there to see it going for a walk and to be slightly freaked out when it followed me! The last bit seemed to be about identify and relationship with people. There was some serious odd photos of models of children which the artists had ...

Interesting exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum of some of their drawing collection featuring some fabulous work. I did however this the exhibition lacked a bit of a theme. It was laid out chronologically with some commentary on how drawing and its role changed and the works were stunning but I just felt it needed a bit more narrative. The page by Michelangelo which included sketches for the slave sculptures took my breath away, what an amazing insight into the creative process for these iconic works. There was also a study by Carpaccio for the St Giobbe Altar piece in the Academia in Venice. I loved the free informal drawing by Rembrandt of his wife Saskia in bed and a lovely Gainsborough of a woman from behind showing all the intricate folds in her dress. An interesting picture was a fan shaped drawing by Pissarro and it seems that was a popular shape at the time and Degas had hoped to have a room of fan shaped pictures at the Fourth Impressionist exhibition. ...

Fascinating exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford looking at the life and work of the violin maker Stradivarius. I loved the way this exhibition gave you good practical information such as how a violin is made, why Cremona where he worked was the centre of violin making etc but also treated the lovely instruments as art works , displaying each in a case on its own so it could be seen from all sides. The commentaries told you when the instrument was made and what made is different but also gave you its history including who had owned it and played it. Needless to say this is an exhibition where you need the audio guide as that includes recordings of each instrument being played. The exhibition would be a little dead if you couldn’t hear the pieces speak!

Delightful exhibition at the Turrill Sculpture Garden in Oxford, nestled behind Summertown Library showing work by Eve Shepherd. I know Eve’s work from her Open House in Brighton and had discovered to my delight that she was going to show in Oxford in this garden organised by a family friend. What a coincidence! I am a great fan of Eve’s work and it was wonderful to see it in another settling and to see a few pieces I had not seen before. A piece which was new to me was of 3 kneeling blindfolded figures and their reflections. It was great to see “Face off” again, an intriguing work showing a boy contemplating his reflection. If you are anywhere near Oxford go and have a look and spend some time with lovely art works in a tranquil space!  

The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy was a particularly good one this year. As the friend I went with said it was if the little pictures which are usually corralled in the two Weston Rooms had broken out and taken over the whole space. There was a much better mix between the large statement pieces and the smaller accessible work. Two unconscious themes seemed to appear this year. There were a lot of works which references the Old Masters and I particularly liked “Art class chart” by Nelly Dimitranoval. There were also lots of pictures showing the Shard from every angle! There were lots of pictures I could have bought and lived with this year but my winner was “Living under blue skies, autumn sun” by Judith Green which was a wonderful picture of colourful roof tops with real depth to the composition. I have to mention of course the amazing Grayson Perry tapestries! I had loved the TV program and been wanting to see the finished tapestries for a while. I will...

Interesting exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery looking at contemporary works on and made in paper. I preferred the more innovative sculptural work as this seemed to be a more interesting use of paper than just drawing on it although I did like the rather Sims like kicthcen plans by Anne Toebbe made in collage which could be viewed any way up. People seemed fascinated by Yoekn Teruya’s little paper tress made by cutting an intricate tree shape from a paper bag and displaying it inside. There was quite a queue of people to gaze into each of these small works. My favourite was Jodie Carey with very beautiful flower arrangements with flowers made out of newspaper. Reviews Independent Evening Standard

Slightly disjointed exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery giving an overview of contemporary art in Britain. I didn’t find much of this work grabbed me and on the whole I did find it a bit lack luster and drab. I did like the sculpture by Wendy Mayer which had a feeling of the sewing box about them. The rest I am afraid left me cold.   I must also admit to being very annoyed at this exhibition as the first time I went one of the galleries was closed for another exhibition. I thought fair enough and did the other exhibition but decided to go back and finish this one. When I went back a month or so later there was another temporary exhibition in the same space so there are some works I’ve never seen despite two visits. I did express my dismay to the attendant but just got a shrug! Review Times Telegraph Independent Evening Standard