Cathy's Art Diary

Second session in a six week course at the National Gallery on the period covered by the Sainsbury Wing roughly 1260 to 1500. This week the course leader Richard Stemp looked at the role of society on art in this period. He looked at who was commissioning art and how that was reflected in the works. He looked at the type of people who seem to have been attracted to the different styles. He also looked at a lot of the detail in the Crivelli Annunciation and how it was influences by events and patrons. In the second half Carline Campbell, Curator of Early Italian art at the gallery, discussed art which was made for domestic settings focusing on wedding chests. This was fascinating but I would have liked more on other domestic art forms but time was limited.  

Thought provoking exhibition at Somerset House looking at four photographic commissions that has arisen from the Prix Pictet, a leading prize in photography and sustainability. The photographers were Munem Wasif, Ed Kashi, Chris Jordan & Simon Norfolk who were each given a theme of water, earth, growth and power. These were powerful photographs and beautifully displayed. It was a shame that one set were just displayed on a screen as I found it more powerful to see them as individual art works. The most moving were the photographs of dead elephants who had been killed for their tusks. These were stunning pictures of texture and great beauty which only heightened the emotional effect of the mutilation.  

Fascinating exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery recreating a display from 1905 which accompanied a lecture by the art historian Aby Warburg where he described his idea of Pathosformel or the pathos formula in Renaissance art. This theory held that artists in the Renaissance not only drew on life but also used the classical vocabulary of gestures. There were some lovely works and the commentary each one pointed out the part it played in the argument. There was of course a “Battle of the Nudes” which I think of as the Mornington Crescent of Renaissance art. There were also four lovely Mantegna prints and I particularly liked his Bacchanal with Wine Press which included a figure based on the Belevdere Apollo which had been excavated at this time. It also had some drunken cherubs which I always find amusing!

Interesting, intellectually produced exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looking at early drawings and prints by Durer produced in his journeyman years.   The centre of the exhibition was the Courtauld’s own double sided drawing with a wise virgin on one side and sketches of Durer’s own legs on the other. The show then looked at other works of the time of the wise and foolish virgins and on pictures in which Durer used images of himself or parts of himself. I loved the woodcut of a men’s bath house used as a way of showing the naked male body from a variety of angles and also the print of the Prodigal Son which showed every hair on the boars. I am fond of Durer so it was nice to see an exhibition concentrating on him and looking at one small period of his career. It gave a chance to see less known pictures. Reviews Guardian Telegraph

Small exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery of works from British Land’s collection of works on paper by leading British artists. This was the last of a rotating display and I wish I’d seen the other displays.   There were only five works in it but they were an interesting selection focusing on artists who had been at the college. I liked the Damien Hurst of concentric circles and a nice, bright, Julian Opie of London traffic.

Nice exhibition of portraits from the City of London collection at the Guildhall Art Gallery. The exhibition not only had some good pictures but was also a study of an acquisition history and people of the borough. It was in a rough chronological order and had works by some great artists such as Reynolds, Lawrence and Lely. However I preferred the latter section which included more pictures of residents of the city. My favourite was the picture of PC Harry Daley by Duncan Grant. Daley was a gay policeman whose memoirs were published after his death.   I am a great Bloomsbury fan so it was exciting to see this picture I had not seen before.

Fun exhibition at the Guildhall Gallery looking at contemporary artists response to the Victorian period. This exhibition ticked all the Victorian boxes of sentimentality, the importance of family, science,   craft etc. From the statue surrounded by insects as homage to the Victorian fairy painter Richard Doyle thought to mock Victorian Alphabets the whole thing was a delight. My favourite thing had to be the ordinary looking armchair with two stuffed foxes in the back by Miss Pokeno. However I also loved the Grayson Perry items including the photo of him in a bonnet and the series of items subverting the Victorian fashion plate. The exhibition paid particular attention to the fact that modern comic books were looking back to the Victorian era and I laughed out loud in one of the alphabets where the final item was a squiggle labeled “The artist formally known as Prince Albert”! Reviews Independent

First session in a six week course at the National Gallery on the period covered by the Sainsbury Wing roughly 1260 to 1500. This week the wonderfully dry course leader Richard Stemp gave us an overview of the period, looking at how diverse the period was an comparing the Siennese, Florentine and Northern countries and dropping in on other cities to show how they were similar but a variant on the main theme. In the second half he read us a paper he’d written with a botanist on the flora and fauna in Signorelli’s “Adoration of the Shepherds” in the National Gallery. His premise was that for one of the first times these plants had not just been painted to add to the symbolism but had been shown in their natural habitats. It was super to pop up and see the picture after the talk and focus on this more unusual aspect. I have to say that at last I am doing a course where my generic picture on my blog is spot on in period and style!  

Neat exhibition at Eames Fine Art of screen prints and etchings by Victor Passmore. I found these a little like Miro, I think because of those with thin black lines cutting across the works. I liked the ones where these lines broke the frame of the inner square of the print. As anyone who reads my blog knows I am not a big fan of abstract work but I liked the way some of these had expressive titles such as “Anxious Moment”. I found myself trying to make real shapes out the works seeing a backbone in “Reason Dreams”!

Elegant exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum celebrating the Bellville Sassoon couture house. There were some beautiful clothes in this show dating from the 1950s to now. The house started off making debutant and ball dresses and the early dresses are very classically glamorous. It was fascinating to read who had lent these to the exhibition, almost a who’s who of the grand dames of the British aristocracy who had been bright young things when the items were bought in the 1950s. The house has its own in house embroidery studio and many of the works had very fine embroidery and bead work which I love. It is great to see real craftsmanship in clothes. I was also interested to see that they had used painted fabrics in the 1970s. My favourite outfit however was a lovely short dress from 2009 in turquoise crepe with white polka dots in a design of cross body frills. It sounds ornate but was actually a very simple light dress. I loved the room of royal outfits ...

Lovely exhibition at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre of work by Halima Cassell. These ceramic works were very sculptural and are made by carving from a block of dry clay. There were interesting geometric patterns making plaques, bowls and vases. As they looked so tactile it was nice to be able to handle them and feel the clean lines but rough texture. I particularly liked a piece called Vaulted Keep, which was a round bowl shape with a deep square, flower like interior.

Nice display at the British Museum taking one object, in this case a screen from the Yoshiwara , the most famous brothel district of Edo (modern-day Tokyo), looking at the context in which it was made and the image on it. This was a beautiful   screen painted in the 1780s and showing five courtesans and eight trainees. It is an elegant image and the commentaries round it explain what each figure holds and its significance. The commentaries also look at the sort of lives these women would have lived. It gives you a real sense of peeping into a private, past world.    

Small display at the British Museum of drawings and prints by Frank Auerbach. There were some lovely drawings of London which seemed odd as he is so known for the thickly painted works full of texture. Somehow the drawings, even though flat, manage to convey this sense of texture. There were also some interesting portraits, full of expression and three lovely dry point nudes. Sadly I couldn’t find anything about this display on the British Museum website.

Fascinating exhibition at the British Museum of as the BM website puts it, ”taboo art form within Japanese social and cultural history” but I think we really need to call it erotica. The term Shunga means Spring Pictures and the works cover the period from 1600-1900. They are explicit images but after a while you become immune to the images and start to look at the style and detail in them. I loved the sense of humour in them which you don’t see in official life in Japan at the time. I loved the fact they were sold openly but you could also rent the books or images to give more variety! Many of the works were parodies of more serious works and it was fascinating to see the two side by side.   Also to learn more about the Yoshiwara, the licenses pleasure quarter where theatres and brothels lived side by side and overlap. I also liked the final section which looked at how they had influenced Western art in things like Picasso’s Vollard Suite which was shown in the s...

Introspective exhibition at the National Gallery looking at portraiture in Vienna around 1900. I liked the fact that it wasn’t just the expressionist artists you might expect but also included more classic works. I also liked the fact that it was arranged in the themes but it did mean it jumped around quite a lot chronologically and it covered a much wider period of time than the title implied. The familiar space of the Sainsbury Wing exhibition space was broke up in a different way by false walls which gave an interesting claustrophobic feel which matched the art. It gave a real view of the society at the time looking both at what it wanted to show to the world but also at the problems they faced. I liked the room of self-portraits of artists and the room on death was morbid but fascinating. My favourite picture was “Nude portrait of Mariette” by Bronica Koller, a picture of an artist’s model but presented as a portrait with her head against a gold square. There were...

Fascinating talk by Anna Whitelock at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the role of the bedchamber and the women of the bedchamber in Elizabethan England. She discussed the importance of Elizabeth’s body to the state and how it was presented but also the importance of the women who spent so long with her to help create this image of the Queen. She described a feminised court where women were in a strong political position because of the access they had to the queen. She also described the role the women of the bedchamber played in upholding the queen’s virtue at a time when rumours of her possible indiscretions where circulating in Europe.  

Fascinating exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at Elizabeth I and the people living during her reign which places portraits alongside since artefacts from the time. It was arranged by class of people starting with the Queen herself but then moving through the gentry, the yeomanry, the middle classes and artists with a small section on the poor. The exhibition was a really touching look at a group of people and how they wanted to express themselves to the generations, like us, who follow them. I loved the portrait of Elizabeth Vernon either dressing or undressing which showed a real insight into the clothes and accessories of the time but it was magical to have it hung by examples of the accessories such as an almost identical comb and even pin cushions. My favourite section was the one on middle classes where the artefacts were show in cases like contemporary shop windows. That room also brought back together people who knew each other in life and als...

Interesting but slightly confusing exhibition at the Science Museum celebrating the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing. I say confusing because of the space it was shown it which meant it wasn’t obvious which way round to go and where it started. Hence I seemed to be looking at his death before I’d done Bletchley Park. Once you found the start and the leaflet’s it was obvious but the start wasn’t the way you approached it. A bit of signage would have helped! However despite that, and whatever order you did it in, it was fascinating to see the full spectrum of Turing’s work and life. I know about the Bletchley Park work but that was all really so I did come out informed and wanting to know even more.    

N ostalgic exhibition of photographs by Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr at the Science Museum. As I was a child in the 1960s I found it quite strange for life then to be looked at almost as an anthropological project! I much preferred the work of Martin Parr which had warmth and humanity about it. I particularly like his work from around Hebden Bridge as it is an area I know well and I though he captured the close nit communities there. I found Tony Ray-Jones work more mocking. He seemed to specializing in picking an image which showed a person in isolation within a crowd and big events like carnivals but with few people at them. Oddly works of his chosen by Martin Parr had a warmer more sympathetic side to them. Reviews Guardian  

External exhibition by on the terrace at Somerset House by street artist JR of blown up versions of photo booth pictures laid out on the floor. It includes a mobile photo booth where you can have you picture taken and choose which site of this travelling installation you’d like it to be shown at. There were some lovely images in this display and I loved the overall effect of standard black and white images filling this space almost like a black and white checked floor. Sadly the booth wasn’t operating when I passed so I will not be appearing on a floor near you soon!

Interesting exhibition at Somerset House looking at ideas for regeneration projects for neglected sites sin London as well as a look at schemes that had happened. In the section on schemes that had happened I loved the mobile Cricklewood town square. As the town didn’t have a square there is a town hall on wheels which contains tables and chairs which travels round the area settling up at different spots. In the imaginative projects I loved the idea for street structures around London which would put high flares in the street powered my methane from the sewers.   I also love the concept of a Centre for Forgotten Beers! My favourite was the ideas for resurrecting the Fleet River at St Pancras and I was particularly attracted as it used Seurat’s Bathers to show what it might be like. I wasn’t so convinced by the idea of ladders up trees to sitting places, I feared a health and safety nightmare! However best of all was the use of the Deadhouse at Somerset House ...

Exhibition for this independent jury selected illustration award at Somerset House. This was an interesting selection of work from the short list of the award and often showed how pictures can be used to express a complex idea or information.   A good example of this was Ed Baldry’s picture of how Liverpool’s history as a centre of trade and culture has influenced the scouse accent.   I liked the style of the exhibition to display original art round the walls but then show in display cases how the work had been used. I was drawn to John Riordan’s graphic poem “Capital City” displayed as individual works and the book it came from. My favourite was Joe Caslin’s use of portraiture to elevate young men in Edinburgh by enlarging exquisite portraits and putting them on buildings. In the accompanying film the boys whose images were used compared themselves to celebrities on boll boards.   I liked the fact that they had been involved in putting the images up. ...

An stimulating study morning at the National Gallery focusing on their picture by Hieronymus Bosch of Christ being mocked after his trial. The session was led by Sian Walters and she began by putting the picture in context both of the life of Bosch, of which little is known, and the period. She also looked at its composition. We then went on to look at the symbolism in the work such as the role that grotesque figures played, the anti-Semitic implications and the references to the church at the time. I was fascinated by   some very high resolution photographs she had which had been taken with a microscope of the fine detail of the detail of the work showing how the smallest brush stokes which can’t be seen by the naked eye build up the image such as the small swipe which becomes a button hole which you hadn’t even noticed on a first glance. She also involved a group of dancers who are in residence in the gallery at the moment as part of a wider project looking at B...

A delightful evening opening at the Wallace Collection taking the form of following the Grand Tour round Europe. You began with a glass of wine which you could take round the gallery with you while you dropped into various talks on aspects of the collection themed to match the night. My friend and I did the French section, which looked particularly at objects such as a Rocco chest of drawers and some Sevres porcelain, and the Italian section, looking at Canaletto and how you might spend your time in Venice on the Grand Tour. We missed the Dutch talk as by then we were musing on life! There were also unstructured activities such as a wine tasting, creating a postcard or a masque and period make up. I loved the period make up section as it basically amounted to face painting for adults and as the evening wore on more and more people emerged with glittery masques drawn on their faces!

Amazing small exhibition at the Eykyn Maclean Gallery looking at the two years that Van Gogh was in Paris. This was a free exhibition but you had to book in advance. When you got there is was in a nice town house but just with a plain front door and no sign that there was a gallery there. Once in you went up in   a lift to be greeted by a plain white door however once in this was an amazing exhibition. There were six works by Van Gogh including a self-portrait and one of his pictures of his boots. Alongside these there were pictures by his contemporaries in Paris including a Monet, a Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec and more. This seems to have been the great period of pointillism so there was a wonderful picture of haystacks by Charles Agnard. However my favourite picture was one by Lautrec called “The Laundress” a stunning picture painted when he was 23 of a woman in a white blouse leaning over looking out of window. The effect of the light on the white blouse was beau...

Magical exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery of new work by the glass artist Dale Chihuly some of which were created for that display. I hadn’t seen this advertised at the front of the gallery so went up to a room at back assuming there would be more prints in it from the main exhibition but instead found this magical room of coloured glass. I loved the Sunset Red Persian Table, a wonderful red glass installation in a black table and the wall of water lily like blooms. I had seen “The Light Princess” at the National Theatre a few nights before and it reminded me of the scenery of act two of that.

Useful exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery looking at the role prints have played in art from the etchings of Durer and Rembrandt to works by modern artists. Although this was a selling exhibition it went out of its way to also offer an overview of the subject with excellent commentaries on the works and two walls giving definitions of the terms used in print making. It showed how artists increasingly saw print making as an art form in its own right. There were sections on the Old Masters, Impressionist and modern European, British and American works. I had not known that Pissaro worked quite extensively in prints and in fact saw his prints quoted in another exhibition later in the week. I loved the Matisse prints particularly a lovely simply drawn face called “Grande Visage”. But most surprising to me were the Warhol prints. I confess I don’t usually like Warhol but I loved two prints of grapes and a set of prints of shoes.

Fascinating exhibition of the work of the German artist George Grosz at the Richard Nagy Gallery focusing on his years in Berlin. Grosz is generally known as a satirist but bringing these works together showed what a good draftsman and observer he was too. They provide a wonderful snapshot of Berlin in this post First World War period when the country was coming to terms with the damaged caused by the war. I liked the pictures of street scenes including women in see through clothes which I took to imply how the men saw the women in their imaginations. Also the fact that in many of the scenes of middle class life a poor man or woman looks on as a silent commentator. Reviews Times Independent      

Small exhibition at the Royal Academy of drawings and works on paper by John Carter. I think this exhibition would have been fascinating if I had known John Carters work as it would have been more of an insight into his creative process. As I did not know his work I found the drawings and works in themselves slightly dull. I did like a blocky collage using paper with pictures and words on and two yellow blocks with thin strips cut out of them.   I will look out now for his work and try to put this into context but the exhibition might have benefited from a bit more explanation for the uninitiated.

Interesting exhibition tracing 200 years of Australian art at the Royal Academy. I thought there were some lovely works in this exhibition but apart from the Aboriginal art I didn’t think I had much sense of what made Australian art different. It seemed to follow the same structure as European art with a romantic period, an Impressionist period etc and the history seemed to follow a similar pattern to American, early settlers, exploring the country, growth of the cities. It didn’t have much new to say except for ‘look it was all happening over there too’. However as I said I thought there were some lovely works. I loved the first view of Sydney by Thomas Watling and the wonderful detailed landscapes of John Glover which seemed to show every tree. I also liked Ethel Carrick’s Manly Beach, an Edwardian beach packed with ladies in round hats. Also at the end I loved the sardine tin sculptures by Fiona Hall. In the Impressionist section I was struck by the stories. Who ca...

Nice exhibition of photographs by Chris Arthur of the early days of the National Theatre at the theatre to mark its 50th anniversary. Arthur had started in the lighting department of the theatre but began a photographic record of the company and took up a full time career in photography. The photos were a wonderful record of some of the early productions as well as being super images in their own right. I loved the skin quality in a picture of Anthony Hopkins but my favourites had to be those of a rather lovely young Derek Jacobi dressed in string as Adam in Back to Methuselah! As well as the theatre work Arthur recorded the street life around the theatre in a period of great inner city change in the 1960s.

Fun exhibition at the National Theatre to mark 50 years since its foundation telling its history via cartoons, satire and critics. This had a lovely balance of history and humour and I admit I did laugh out loud at a couple of points. I didn’t know a lot of the early history with wonderful committee rows and strange fund raising events. Even after the foundation when it came to building the new theatre the site and foundation stone moved so often the Queen Mother claimed it was on castors! I first went to the theatre in 1978 and went a lot in the mid 80s so I found this section the most interesting bringing back many happy memories of shows I’d seen.   Incidentally I added to the good memories that night with a trip to see “The Light Princess”!

Retrospective of the work of conceptual artists Ana Mendieta at the Hayward Galley. Mendieta had a relatively short career which concentrated on being a dialogue between the landscape and the female body. She is most known for her works called Situeta where she formed a silhouette of her body in the country it often settling fire to the image. I rather liked these and oddly seem to now be seeing versions of this sort of image in other exhibitions. It seemed at first strange to have an exhibition of conceptual artist as what you want to see is the thing happening not the photograph of it however this show cleverly reproduced her first solo shows, showing work from it in the same order and environment as the original which gave a clearer idea of how she saw the work. I liked the last section best which was more sculptural and included rough planks with burnt designs and floor sculptures. Reviews Telegraph Evening Standard

Exhibition for this prize for figurative and representational painting and sculpture for artists working in the UK and Continental Europe held at the Mall Galleries run jointly between the gallery, the Federation of British Artists and Threadneedle Investments. There were some really nice pieces in this exhibition and was refreshing for all being representational and not abstracts. A number of images will stay with me but I voted in the people’s choice vote for Margie Andrew-Reichelt’s “100 heads, all the same but different” which was a wooden grid holding a small sculpted head in each box. A close second was a stunning picture called “Surrender” by Raoof Haghhighi which had an almost photographic quality and showed a woman lying naked on the floor of a modern kitchen with a portrait of a man on the wall. It made you build narratives in your head.  

Thought provoking exhibition at St Martin in the Fields by actress/photographer Kathryn Prescott. Kathryn began to wonder after she had appeared in Skins why people looked at her and said hello as she was famous and yet would talk to or even see the homeless. To make the point she photographed famous people to pose as damaged and destitute to try to break own stereotypes. This was a clever idea as the faces were familiar enough to make you look carefully at them and try to work out who they were which we should do with everyone. The only shame was that as these were shown in a café gallery it was hard to look at some as people were having coffee underneath, they deserve a proper show. Limited edition prints are for sale in aid of the Big Issue .

Interesting exhibition at St Martin in the Fields of the latest six contenders to occupy the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. I liked all the works this time and have now learnt that the scale may vary slightly in the finished work to make sure the work fits esthetically onto the plinth. I voted for Hans Haacke’s “Gift Horse” a large skeleton of a horse which would have a ribbon round it’s leg which would show live stock market reports from the Stock Exchange. I liked it because the plinth was destined for a man on a horse so this uses the horse idea plus I liked the idea of something on it which changes. My least favourite was Ugo Rondinone’s “Moon Mask” which I thought was very effective from the front but the back was quite dull and the object needs to work from all sides. Reviews Times Guardian