Cathy's Art Diary

Small display featuring two paintings of the Frost Fair of 1684 at the Museum of London. I seem to be going to quite a few exhibitions at the moment which look at the River Thames and as I travel to work by the Thames Clipper each morning I find them fascinating. One of the pictures looked towards Southwark and showed great blocks of ice in the river and showed how river men who were deprived of their income rowing people across the river tried to make an alternative living by controlling the routes down and looking for payment for showing people across safely. The other gave a better overview of the fair in a flatter area near Temple with rows of stalls, people playing o the ice and a big crowds watch cannon’s being fired. I just knew I’d have gone along to see the fun!

Nice display of modern jewellery made in London at the Museum of London to compliment the Cheapside Hoard exhibition. There was some lovely work and some of it was interestingly display in a recreation of a studio which was particularly nice as it mirrored a display in the Hoard show. My favourite piece was a bracelet made of small galloping horses that carefully curves round to form the loop. I also liked a long ring shaped like an animal’s rib cage which was hinged at the knuckle. The ethos of the work was summed up in a nice quote from one of the craftsmen, Jordon Askill, “Jewellery is like a sculpture that’s small enough to carry round with you.”

Small but interesting display at the Museum of London looking at how a suit jacket is constructed. There are four jackets from different 20th eras which have been cut down to show the internal structure of them and an excellent video taking you through the different tailoring features. It talks about building up the shoulders and while leaving room for the arms to move smoothly as well as about how the front of a jacket is strengthened to give a smooth line which gives a variety of men’s shapes a similar silhouette. My only criticism would be that I’d have like to have something to tell me the date of the suits so I could compare how styles had changed.

Exquisite exhibition at the Museum of London showing the complete hoard of Stuart jewellery found in Cheapside in 1912 for the first time. The exhibition put the work into context looking at what Cheapside was like in the period including a wonderful print of Edward VI’s Coronation passing along the street and showing the gold items in shop windows and people handing clothes from the windows like you see in Venice for the regatta. There were portraits from the Goldsmith’s company of leading jewellers of the time and a number of the old shop signs including the Black Boy. It then showed the hoard in a lovely dark space, showing similar items together, almost like a shop window. All round the edge of the gallery were portraits showing how the piece would have been worn and examples of the clothing and accessories of the time. I loved the case of pendants of small carved stones shaped like bunches of grapes. Each pendant had about eight stones falling from them and there...

Intriguing exhibition at the National Gallery which seeks to look at the Renaissance German art in its collection, how that art came to be in the collection. The exhibition also looks at why the gallery did not actively collect German art until fairly recently and how that gap in the collection may have affected how history has viewed the art. I was nice to see German Renaissance worked pulled together as a genre in its own right with some comparisons being made between different artists and regions. It was also fascinating to learn about how the collection grew and about how much of the German work came from the collection of Prince Albert who has also commissioned studies of the subject. I was interested in the room which showed how German artists had often taken unusual subjects and I liked the selection of paintings of Christ taking leave of his mother and getting a chance to compare them. I think that the exhibition tried to address too many questions and p...

Fascinating exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery of work by Andy Warhol. Warhol was only given a camera in the 1970s even though photographs had inspired him for much longer. I loved his street pictures of New York and he showed a good eye for composition and juxtapositions of people and things. He also did a series of pictures where he duplicated the image and had them sewn together to create a repeated picture like the screen prints. I loved one of items on a pantry self and another of the side of an ice cream van. Of the three exhibitions on at the moment I found this the most interesting possibly because it was a visual artist working in another visual medium. Reviews Independent Evening Standard    

Interesting exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery of work by the author William S Burroughs to mark the centenary of his birth. Burrows took photographs throughout his life and according to the commentary his visual style often mirrors his writing style. I have to admit though that I have not read him so I can’t judge. I did however find some of the images really interesting. I loved the set of a car accident in New York recording all angles of it and even turning away from it to record the buildings round about.   I also liked the self-portrait section as he never showed himself full face but in shadow or just seeing his reflection in a mirror, very clever. Reviews Guardian Independent Evening Standard  

Bleak exhibition at the Photographers Gallery of pictures taken of factory and industrial scenes by David Lunch, the film director. This was one of a three shows on at the moment of photographs by people best known for work in other genres. Review of the other two will follow! These were black and white photos and showed exteriors and interiors of disused factories. They were bleak images and I could see the link between them as images and back drops for a film. However they didn’t really work for me photographs. I might have found it better if the labels had been closer to the works. In all three shows the works were described at one end of a display so if you wanted to know more about a work you had to walk back to read it. I guess this made you look at the images as works of art and not as a picture of something but I found it a bit irritating after a while. Reviews Telegraph Independent Evening Standard  

Excellent morning’s workshop at the National Gallery looking in detail at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers with Gill Hart. We started by looking at how the picture was painted for Gaugin’s room at the Yellow House and then at how it was painted, taking a close look at the surface of the working and thinking about its composition. We then moved into the galleries to look at other works from the same period but particularly the picture of the chair. We discussed how it loo had a simple composition and many of the same techniques. Unfortunately we couldn’t look at Sunflowers itself because the current exhibition is so busy. After coffee we talked about the role sunflowers played in Van Gogh’s work and how they appear in pictures throughout his career. And finally we looked at why Van Gogh made copies of two of his sunflower pictures and why is it so interesting to see the London version and the Amsterdam copy together. All in all a fascinating morning and I can’t wait to do th...

Stylish exhibition at the Design Museum looking at the life and work of Paul Smith. I loved the lay out of the show and the fact that all the labels were in Paul Smith’s voice. The central section of the gallery was a wonderful eclectic collection of pictures collected by Paul Smith as inspiration for his work. It looked like how my flat would look if only I could get round to putting up my pictures. The left hand galleries looked at the creative process with wonderful recreations his study and studio space to show how ideas became designs. There was also large section on collaborations such as the striped mini car and on the design of his shops. It wasn’t until you got to the right hand galleries that you looked closely at the clothes for which Paul Smith is most famous and there was a lovely long room with garments set up as if on either side of a fashion catwalk. It finished with a video about a recent catwalk show. This exhibition was so good at not only show...

Outdoor exhibition outside London City Hall of photographs by Nigel Milllard of the life and work of the RNLI. I spotted this was on from the twitter feed of the RNLI at the Tower (@TowerRNLI) and was pleased to pass it while walking between galleries. I always like to see this sort of outdoor exhibition and watch how people interact with it. There was a nice mix of portraits, seascapes and action shots showing the work of this organisation and I particularly liked a picture of a boat being built and one of rescuing a crew from the Fastnet Race. The pictures easily held their own against the fabulous backdrop of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.  

Interesting selling exhibition at Eames Fine Art of prints from 20th century masters. This complimented the Artist Textile’s exhibition up the road at the Fashion and Textile Museum as it included many of the same artists. I was particularly taken with the set of prints from the Old Testament by Chagall and a Dali from 1971 of a sleeping princess and a prince. It is always interesting how artists we consider to be great painters work in different mediums.

Interesting exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of work by Chinese conceptual artist He Xiangyu. I can sometimes find conceptual art a bit annoying and lacking in craftsmanship but I loved some of the work in this exhibition. Well in particular I loved the life sized deflated tank made of leather! I am not too sure what it was saying but it was a fascinating object. It was beautifully made and very detailed and I loved the honeycomb tread on the wheel chains. The lovely smell of leather added to the whole effect and made you realise how rarely smell is a factor in art. I wasn’t so convinced by the pink room with casts of what he felt feeling the inside of his mouth with his tongue looked like. I think it got a bit lost in translation!  

Delightful exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of photographs and sculpture by Darren Almond. The photographs were on a huge scale and were taken around the world over 13 years all using the light of a full moon and a long exposure. They gave a wonderful modern twist on the romantic idea of the sublime in landscape. They gave you the feeling of being in the landscape. I loved one of a dark navy rocky landscape and another which was almost a study in mist. In contrast they were shown with small bronze cylinders about a foot high and shown at floor level. These carried on the moon them and were engraved with astronauts’ initials.   The handout said these were like standing stones and represent a connection between man and moon. I liked them but I am not sure I would have understood what they were without the explanation. Reviews Independent Evening Standard

Colourful exhibition at White Cube, Bermondsey of new work by Franz Ackermann. The exhibit consisted of 11 works displayed in a gallery painted with bold abstract shapes which gave the whole thing an installation feel. The works themselves were depictions of urban landscapes physically layered in different ways. Sometimes glimpses of the townscape were visible though gaps in the top surface and at other the abstract shape was in this lower level. It gave the effect of showing the complexity of a city and how it works.   My favourite one was of an airport with glimpses of the departure boards, seats and trolleys through the gaps in the upper painted level.

Interesting   display at the fashion and Textile Museum looking at recent designs for textiles by Sarah Campbell. Sarah Campbell worked with her sister Susan Collier for many years but following her sister’s death in 2011 has begun a solo career. The display looked at how she develops her ideas showing inspirations, sketches, swatches and pictures of finished products on single display boards. I will look out for her designs for M&S bed linen as I have a small Collier Campbell study for material in my bedroom which I bought at a retrospective of their work at the National Theatre. It would seem appropriate to show it with some Sarah Campbell bed linen!

Fascinating exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at how many artists in the 20th century designed for textiles. The range of artists that did this was amazing including Picasso, Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Andy Warhol and Eduardo Paolozzi. Of course I loved the fact there was a Duncan Grant material in the first room and an Omega stool. I was most interested in the section on the 1950s when there seems to have been a conscious effort both in Europe and American to improve design in textiles by involving artists and I loved the section on Horrockses. My mother was a great fan of the company. I was also interested to see that Eduardo Paolozzi and his wife Freda formed an Omega like company with Adrian Stephen’s daughter Judith, i.e. niece of Vanessa Bell! I was amused at the late 1950s and 1960s designs as I could see how they influenced things I remembered from my childhood which showed me how cutting edge design works its way into everyday life.

Informative exhibition at the Science Museum looking at the history of the study of how nerves and the brain relate to thoughts’ behaviour and mental health. It began with a grizzly preserved nervous system from the 1650s varnished onto a dissecting table but rapidly moved on to the work which John Wesley did on the use of electricity to treat nervous disorders. I loved a painting of a woman being treated in her home surrounded by her family with her chair on upturned glasses to control the flow of the current. It also looked at how the complaint of nervous exhaustion grew more prevalent at the end of the 19th century which led to the study of the link between nerves and behaviour and how psychiatric drugs were discovered after the Second World War with the depression being seen as a chemical imbalance. My favourite object though had to be the souvenir picture of Pavlov’s dogs! They all looked very happy!

Selling fair and exhibition at the Science Museum of prints, drawings and water colours. This year’s show had some lovely things in it but I managed to leave without buying anything, partly because the items I liked best were too expensive. I think the best piece there was Nevinson study for a now lost picture called “Strand at Night” closely followed by a portrait of Stanley Spencer by his brother Gilbert used as a study for Gilbert’s “Seven Ages of Man” from 1914. It’s always a good place to find new work too and the Wren Gallery was showing two super artists Dionne Seivewright and Angela Fielder who both did landscapes with lots of foreground and depth.   I also liked some architectural watercolours by Gerard Stamp.

Disappointing exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of works by David Bailey. I was really looking forward to this show but I was unimpressed! I’m sorry I feel like I am bucking against the trend and the hype but I have to say it. When I realised how big the show was I thought I’d be there for hours but in fact I did it in about half an hour as I found there was very little I wanted to linger over and in some places there was just too much to look at such as in the room on his wife where one wall was thickly hung with small pictures. It had the effect on me of just not wanting to invest time in each image. In the end I came away feeling it had been an exhibition about celebrity and ego more than about the works as art! Generally I would have liked a little more description both of the sections and of each work, maybe some context about when and why the pictures were taken. In the end I found I liked pictures of people who I like and admire already but   just dism...

Surprising exhibition at the Mall Galleries of work by the Russian artist Sergi Chepik. I had not come across this artist before and was really engaged by his work. Much of the subject matter was fantasy based which is not usually my scene but these were done in such an interesting way that I was drawn into them. Some of the work reminded me of other artists such as a Nevinson like picture called Big Circus and some Degas like pictures of dancers.   I think I liked his landscapes and townscapes best and quite early on in the show there is a lovely Klimt like picture of a lake with real depth and interest. His pictures of Paris are wonderful particular those aerial views looking along the river. I was also fascinated by his semi religious works looking at the history of Russia in 20th century as well as his truly religious pieces. I loved “Golgotha” of the crowd witnessing the Crucifixion with just the shadows of the crosses in the foreground.

Fabulous exhibition at Somerset House of photos of actors by Andy Gotts to mark the EE British Academy Film Awards next weekend. These were amazing photos. Shown in a big format they showed every detail of the actors faces as well as capturing their personalities. I was stunned by the picture of Billie Whitelaw which showed every hair on her hair and every wrinkle. It was a wonderful study of the beauty of an older woman. I have to admit though my favourite was the Brad Pitt I’ve attached. Not the greatest photo but it stopped me in my tracks! The whole thing was so good I bought the catalogue and I was also luck enough to bump into the photographer and have a good chat to him about the exhibition and some of the people in it. Spoiler alert : This was so much better than the David Bailey exhibition! Review Evening Standard

Interesting exhibition in the Inigo Rooms at Kings College based at Somerset House marking 20 years since the death of Derek Jarman. This was a very innovatively displayed exhibition which took you from his early influences to his later films and the garden at Dungeness. I was fascinated to see how interested he was in all things Medieval and that made me understand some of the later work better. I also loved the note books he’s kept for projects detailing his ideas and the creative process. I liked the section on his work in Docklands before its redevelopment and the artistic community which grew up there. Some of the photographs reminded me of the Whistler exhibition at Dulwich which I’d seen a few weeks ago.   Review Evening Standard

Lovely exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery comparing and contrasting works by German and British landscape artists in the early 19th century. I went to this exhibition twice last week. The first time was a guided tour by the curator Dr Rachel Sloan which was fascinating and gave me much more insight into the works than I would have got from viewing them on my own. In particular she pointed out the political background of the time with the Napoleonic wars and how this affected what British and German artists wanted to show in the pictures and how this differed. I then popped back the next day to spend more time with the pictures. This is not a period or subject I know much about but I found the work fascinating. I preferred the approach of those working from nature to the made up landscapes. I loved a picture by Palmer of a tree at Lullingstone for the detail of the trunk and the wonderful lighting effect along the horizon. My favourite was a double page from a sketch book ...

Small exhibition at the NuEdge Gallery in Holetown, Barbados of paintings by Terence Rupert Piggot. These were soothing abstracts of paint built up in layers which your eye started to make into landscapes. I particularly liked the ones which used gold paint which would have worked beautifully in a modern Barbados flat. One can but dream!