Cathy's Art Diary

Novel exhibition at the Cartoon Museum of new work by 12 leading contemporary cartoonists responding to the global events leading up to the start of the First World War. I liked the range of events which were represented from the suffragette’s the situation in Ireland and the fact this was the year Ghandi left South African to move back to India. A really novel idea created in conjunction with the Radio 4 programme of the same name.

Interesting exhibition at the Cartoon Museum telling the story of the First World War through cartoons of the time and since. Some of the most memorable images of the war were the cartoons and even the famous Kitchener post began life as the cover of a magazine.   Cartoons had a major propaganda role. Some of the images also became icons of the time with Bruce Bairnsfather’s “Old Bill” becoming the face of the Tommy. I liked the fat they included trench journals such as the Wiper’s Times as well as some journals which only had one or two issues. I also liked the inclusion of comic postcards as they were the works being bought by the troops and their families. I wasn’t so sure of mixing in pictures from the Horrible History book on the First World War. It was a nice idea and made it more accessible to children but in quite a small cramped exhibition it would have been nicer to keep it cotemporary to the time.

Nice exhibition at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre of work by Susan O’Bryne and Ostinelli & Priest who both make sculptures of animals and birds in ceramic. I slightly preferred O’Bryne’s work which had both a realistic and a patchwork effect. I loved the small birds and had to fight the urge to buy one as I couldn’t work out where to put it! I wasn’t quite so convinced by the ones with wool hair! I also loved the life sized sheep in loved pastel colours. So real looking even though they look like they are wearing a patchwork coat. I did like Ostinelli & Priest too. Their work had a slightly rougher finish but I particularly liked their dogs which had wonderful expressions which showed a real knowledge of dogs!

Innovative exhibition at the Foundling Museum showing four contemporary artists variation of a theme of the “Rake’s Progress” alongside Hogarth’s original. There is a really good little brochure with the show which explains the story in each picture and it was the best description I’d seen of the Hogarth set. They are so rich in detail that you could look at them for a long time. Grayson Perry’s Tapestries “The Vanity of Small Differences” more than matched the detail of the Hogarth. I met a nice lady in front of them and we spent quite a lot of time pointing new things out to each other and laughing at things we owned in them. I’d seen the Hockney prints recently but it was nice to see them again in a different setting. He makes himself and his first visit to New York the core of the story. I also thought I’d seen Yinka Shonibare’s work before but with hindsight I think it might have been his take on Dorian Grey so in fact it was good to see a work by him I’d not see...

Public art trail around London presenting benches in the form of famous books often with a link to the locality they are placed in. This week I did the Bloomsbury section. I’d heard about these but fell upon my first one by senate house and loved it. It can be slightly annoying at times when you find people are sitting on them eating their sandwiches! I suppose what they are for! It was fun to find family groups wandering around with a map spotting the benches. In Bloomsbury I found “1984”, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “Pride and Prejudice”. But most moving for me was finding “MRs Dalloway” in Gordon Square where Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell first lived after their father died and where, it can be said, the Bloomsbury Group was formed.

Interesting exhibition at SOAS, University of London looking at the role played by Sikh’s in the First World War. At the outbreak of the war Sikh’s made up 1% of the population of India but came to make up 20% of the Indian Army and their role was critical in the early months of the war. I have always been fascinated by the role of Indian’s in the war as my grandfather served with them and admired them. The exhibition was well laid out with lots of information and great photos round the walls. Most interesting was the recording the German’s made of Sikh prisoners of war. Although I couldn’t understand the language is was magical to hear a voice directly from the First World War. I’ve seen lots of photos, painting and films over the last few weeks but that was the first voice I’d heard! I would like to have seen more objects from the war but the photo and commentary more than made up for this.

Fascinating morning at the National Gallery on a seminar in their “A Longer Look” series looking at Poussin’s “Adoration of the Golden Calf” led by Jacqui Ansell. I must admit it’s not a picture I’d ever looked at and I often found Poussin a bit dull but I like this series and they always make you look at pictures in a different way. We began by looking at Poussin in this period and why his reputation had ebbed and flowed over the years. We discussed the story of the Golden Calf and how it was told in this picture. I’m not sure I would have spotted the Moses coming down from the mountain in the corner if it had not been pointed out. In the second half we went and sat in front of the picture and decoded it further, moving on to look at other Poussin’s in the same room. I came away wanting to know more about the artist. I loved the complexity of the symbolism, like a big puzzle!

A wonderful exhibition at ContiniArtUK of sculpture by Igor Mitoraj. These works had a classical feel to them with an almost archaeological feel. Like classical sculpture I didn’t see these works as threatening parts of bodies but broken whole which my eye sort of completed. I loved the pieces that had other elements stuck on like the torso with a small rectangle cut out just above the crotch and two tiny feet set into it. The pieces were in marble, bronze and aluminium and worked well as a set as there were elements in each work in others which set up a dialogue. My favourite piece was “Piede con Mano” which was a hand holding the ankle of a foot so the hand was almost like a spur! I want to see more by this artist and I would love to see the work in an outdoor setting.

Lovely exhibition at the Fine Art Society of new work by Bartholomew Beale. These works had a ghostly quality with dark but brightly coloured backgrounds and ethereal figures such as “The Hyacinth Girl”. I loved “Where do you wait?” which looked like a man in a corn field but I felt it had an implication of death. The title piece is of a ground of down and outs roudn a shed with their scattered belongings. One of them has a solid body but no legs and there are squares of colour floating over the whole picture. I liked the air of melancholy about these pictures. I am not sure what they meant but I liked them! Review Independent    

Interesting exhibition at the Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) which brings together work by artists from the African continent. There were some interesting techniques in his show such as AMBI   who burns holes in paper to make pictures as he sees fire as creative not destructive.   Also Victor Ehikhamenor who produces wall sculpture from African style cloth. However I really loved the pictures by Nyemike Onwuka which were shown at the far end of the gallery and really grabbed you attention.   There were three of the same girl called “Memories of Mpumalanga” done in muddy colours but she wears bright accessories which standout. To one side were two more of a woman in white with orange jewellery which just leapt out of the picture.

Small show at Flower Gallery of figurative works by nine prominent Scottish artists. This was a nice follow up to the Generation exhibition I had seen in Edinburgh particularly as there was a picture by Alison Watt in the window. It wasn’t her usual drapery but a female nude holding apples in a swathe of white material. I loved Peter Howson’s “Wages of Sin” a drunk priest holding a bottle in the air with a cross on a hill behind him. I also liked Adrian Wiszniewski’s picture of two boys reading a book with lots of patter. The one boys striped top mirrored the striped chair the other boy sat on and the flowers on the sofa were also on the cover of the book.

Tasty exhibition at the Pace Gallery at the Royal Academy which looks at how contemporary art responded to the way society represents, consumes and obsesses over food. I liked the series of photographs by Roe Ethridge of almost hyper real Masterchef style food which was so glossy it looked inedible.   Also Elad Lassry’ still life photographs of food. I found Mat Collishaw’s picture of the ingredients for the last meals of prisoners on death row very moving. They were set out like Dutch still lives, photographed again black and given a formal frame.   They were beautiful pictures but you couldn’t forget what they were. And of course who can resist a 10 foot tall fork with a meat ball and spaghetti on it (Oldenburg/van Bruggen) or a bronze kebab machine (Keith Coventry).

Fascinating exhibition at the Royal Academy of Photographs by the actor Dennis Hopper, taken between 1961 and 1967. The show was set out to create the exhibition of Hopper’s work held in 1970 so consisted of white display case around three large white rooms. All the pictures, bar two, which were in that show were here and wherever possible they had used vintage prints. As the layout was based on the original show then the two missing prints still has their labels and were show with a white square. The show became as much about how a 1970s exhibition would have looked as about the pictures. The pictures themselves were fascinating as they were a snap shot of a time and place. Hopper was also an artist so there were a lot of pictures of people in the LA art scene at the time. There were also sections on the civil rights movement, hippies, bikers and some lovely portraits. I did find the show a little misogynistic as there were few pictures of women and a number of those that...

Fun exhibition/installation at the Royal Academy looking at the history of the Martini and who has drunk it! You picked up a nice little booklet which described various famous Martini drinkers and you then went round the six pictures or installations, read a poem from the booklet and guessed who the picture or whatever and guessed who it represented. I must admit I got most of them wrong which was a bit silly as they were quite easy! I loved the cupboard which had been made up to represent Ernest Hemmingway with contemporary decor, a radio and a typewriter. It was like peeping round a door at a little world. Of course the life sized Martini glass you could get into was wonderful but I resisted the temptation! There were also two globes on stands which contained evocative aromas to remind you of a martini type life,. I love dthe one called Progress and Cgange whichnwas tobacco, smoke, leather and jet fuel. I want to try to go back one evening as there is a bar whi...

Charming exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the life and work of the architect Norman Shaw who designed the Victorian extension to the building as well as lots of other houses and public buildings. There were exquisite drawings, many of them made as part of the contract for a piece of work. I had never realised that architects used colour coding in drawing for the different materials which would be used. As new printing techniques cam in it was possible to use his drawings in books and magazines and this spread his style through Europe. I was intrigued by a house he designed for the children’s author Kate Greenaway which had a studio and tea room on the top floor! I also liked the series of pictures for a fireplace at Cragside from the early sketches of an idea, though the contract darwaing and finally the print version. There was also a photograph of the fireplace which was, frankly, hideous! Most touching though was the cradle he made for the son of his frie...

A surprisingly good exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at abstract art in South America in the early 20th century. If you read me a lot (I’ll be amazed if anyone does!) you’ll know I’m not keen on abstract art so I came to this because I go to everything and you can always learn, but found I really liked it! I think it was because it was all logical and geometric so the pieces often had a calm simplicity. It made me start to understand how abstract art is partly about show colour and space work together. I would recommend the tape tour as the commentaries on the pictures were quite short and learned a lot more from listening to the tape. The leaflet was very extensive but actually too dense to read as you went round. The two artists who came out of it best for me where both women. I liked the work of Lygia Clark from Brazil starting with a lovely painting of multi-coloured squares and rectangles which my eye seemed to see as a green picture. She also did sculptures ma...

Interesting xhibition looking at the Starnd Gallery looking at film posters for pictures due out between now and Christmas. The blurb said the show “explores how individual designs ‘cut through’ and attract different responses from different viewers”. I’ll admit I didn’t get that from it as any commentary on the poster was about the film not about the art work! A bit about why each image was chosen to represent the film might have been interesting. However it was still a good opportunity to see what’s coming out! I can’t wait for Mr Turner and Colin First seems to have been busy even if he is no longer the voice of Paddington, which incidentally had the most adorable poster!

Small exhibition of just three pictures at the National Portrait Gallery looking at what a court favourite was by focusing on three from the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a nice touch to pick paintings which showed the favourite full length in their robes of the Order of the Garter as reward for the loyalty and support was often to exclusive groups such as the Order of the Garter. It was interesting to see that although the trappings of the Order are archaic that somehow they did change with fashion. The three men chosen included Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds who was chief minister to Charles II but was imprisoned in 1679 for negotiating a pro-French treaty even when taking an anti-French stance on Parliament. There was also George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, favourite to James I and later his son Charles who after various military failures was killed by a soldier.   Finally John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute who had been responsible for George III’s education, ...

Really good outdoor exhibition in St James Park of photographs by Michael St Maur Sheil of what First World War battle fields look like now. Michael is a photo journalist and a battle field guide. The photographs were really beautiful and it was fascinating to see the scars which can still be seen in the landscape. My favourite was one of Tyne Cot cemetery in the snow and there was a fabulous one of trees reflected in water in the base of a German artillery turntable. However the exhibition was much more than this. Each picture had not only a commentary on the scene but also succinct pieces which built up to a really good history of the war. As a First World War geek   it had something about everything! You think of a subject within a couple of stands you’d find something! It also showed aspects of the war which I had not known about such as the fact there was fighting in Kenya. There were also nice piece on yellow background telling the stories of local people. T...

Innovative installation at the Photographers’ Gallery on their media wall looking at the 2011 case where someone stole Facebook profile to photos to which they applied face recognition software and posted them on a dating website sorted by their facial expression as a social experiment/media performance. Following media attention there were treats of law suits and questions were raised about the use of facial images online. The centre of the display outline the story then one the right there was a scroll of very small versions of the photographs in question and underneath changing screen with some of the media coverage and the lawyers’ letters. Hence one media performance and bred another one. What next?

Interesting exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery looking at colour photography in Russian both from a technical point of view but also to show the social history of the country. I loved the early works which were hand tinted. You couldn’t help but look at formal late Victorian pictures without a sense of foreboding as to what was to come. My favourite was a picture of a lady in a bustle out collecting flowers with a basket but behind he was a bare foot peasant boy carrying her bag and umbrella. All very Tolstoy and yes there was a photograph of Tolstoy! It was interesting to see how this fashion for hand tinted family photographs came back at least twice in the twentieth century bringing with it a sense of nostalgia. The revolutionary section was very purposeful. I liked the fact that the show included pictures of food which had been produced to go in cookery books to try to education the population on nutrition. The photographer had done his best with a pile of l...

Rather engaging exhibition at the Photographers Gallery of work by Lorenzo Vitturi. It was a mix of photography, installation and sculpture coming together as a celebration of his local market in East London. Most of it involved sculptures and photographs of the sculptures made from things he’d found in the market. This meant that most of them were piles of fruit and vegetables in various stages of decay. I found them rather lovely with a slightly Caravaggio quality. It was an interesting contrast to the very perfect Dutch still life exhibition I’d seen the week before. I was also interested to find some of the same work and some new pieces in the Flowers Gallery later in the week. Review Evening Standard    

Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery which invites young people and contemporary artists to respond to pictures in the collection. This year it looked at portraits and biographies of people who   had connections to Ealing. It was really interesting to see brought together people from a specific area who you might not associate with each other. Of course it covered the fact that the Ealign Studios were there but it also included Sir John Soane who built a house there, Angus McBean, the inventor of mauve, Peter Crouch who lived in the area for the age of four and Freddie Mercury who studied there. The students and the artists, Eelyn Lee produced a video in response to what they had learnt. I loved the creativity sequence where the students acted some of the characters in a dark space but the characters didn’t interact with each other. Review Guardian  

Slightly contrived but attractive exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the work of the painter Sit Matthew Smith and the sculptor, Frank Dobson. I say contrived because the only link between them is that they were close contemporaries. They don’t seem to have met or influenced each other! Smith was friends with Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and hence the exhibition includes a lovely picture of their daughter Angelica Garnett. There was also a nice picture of Raold Dahl in his RAF uniform. The most interesting Frank Dobson pieces were the plaster head of Osbert Sitwell and the polished bronze finished version. It has a stylish art deco style. According to the blurb Sitwell was planning Façade at the time of the sittings and Dobson ended up designing the back drop. Review Telegraph  

Good display at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the famous entertainers, comedians and singers from the years of First World War. The display looked at the two aspects of these performers both their role in recruitment and their morale boosting. Many soldiers went to London theatres when on leave and some of the entertainers went out to the trenches to do shows. It was hard not to have all the familiar tunes running through your head as your read the commentary. If only it had been in a separate room it would have been great to play a recording of the show “Oh What a Lovely War!” which used most of the songs mentioned! All the artists were fascinating, Vesta Tilley, known as “England’s greatest recruiting officer”; Basil Hallam who was killed on the Somme and Gertie Millar, pictured with her dog, who went on to come become Countess of Dudley (Gertie that is not the dog!) It pointed out that after the huge losses at the Dardanelles music became more senti...

Fascinating display at the National Portrait Gallery on suffragettes to mark 100 years since their campaign of damaging pictures in public galleries. On the way to the display, the gallery is currently showing a lovely portrait of Christabel Pankhurst in a pale green satin evening dress wearing the suffragette purple, green and white sash. It’s almost an action shot of her proclaiming something. There is a very similar photo of her giving a speech in the display so maybe she always stood like that! The display itself has a great selection of newspaper photographs such as the one of Mrs Pankhurst being carried off from a protest outside Parliament with her legs kicking. The main section was given over the surveillance pictures of women in prison which were circulated to galleries to warn them these women might come in and do harm. One of the women had been force fed 236 times! The pictures often looked slightly odd until you realised the women were often being held by ...

Interesting display at the National Portraits Gallery looking at the photographer Rupert Potter, father of Beatrix Potter. As well as being Beatrix’s father Rupert was also a good friend of Millais and often took photos graphs of his studio plus works in progress in the studio. There were also some instances where Millais had Rupert photograph models in poses which he later used for paintings. Some of the pictures were a bit like holiday snaps but great quality Victorian holiday snaps. I liked the way he photographed people who came to visit their holiday home in Perthshire by an old market cross in the grounds. The cross remains the same but the people round it change.

Slightly muddled exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands looking at the significance of bridges in the London landscape. I’ve had to get that that description off the museum’s website as I wasn’t quite sure what story the exhibition was trying to tell although it had some great pictures in it and was very visually stimulating. Was it talking about the history of bridges, the building of them, the social impact or just how nice they look? It seemed to be a bit of all of these which meant as a whole it lacked focus. I liked the idea put forward that that the river both unites London, as it runs from east to west but also divides the north from the south. Also the idea that bridges are part of views, can frame views and can be the place from which you view a scene. I loved some photographs by George Davison Reid in the 1930s taken over three years and representing a walk along the river. Also Piranesi’s design for a bridge at Blackfriars although he never came to Lo...

Fantastic new refurbishment of the Imperial War Museum. The museum seemed to have been shut for ages but it was worth the wait as the new lay out is really good. It took me a while to realise that one floor has been removed dropping the large objects down to what was the basement. This gives a great view looking down on them as you come in. This then gives new gallery space to one side, where the First World War galleries are, and the inevitable bigger café space. Top tip if you just want a cup of coffee and cake there is another quieter café on one of the upper floors. There is also an impressive grey staircase running up the atrium which has releieved pressuer on the back stairs. I like the roof terrace space inside at the top of the building but I was a bit unsure what it would be used for. On the old ground floor the new gallery, round the end of the atrium, now tells the story of the Second World War with large objects. I did find the information boards here q...

Stimulating new galleries at the Imperial War Museum to mark the centenary of the First World War. These galleries really had everything you might want if you are, like me, a First World War geek! They go through the war chronologically but use certain events to pick up themes, for example grouping pieces about medicine in the war at the point of a battle with large numbers of casualties. Many of the sections had a feeling of being not just a museum gallery but an installation such as the almost futurist cut out of marching me onto which was projects poppies and men falling in battle. Also the recreation of a trench with a real tank poised above it. I liked the way they often used reproduction of items but put them in your space not in a cabinet which gave a feeling of immediacy and also the fact that there were sometimes flip boxes of photographs so you could discover more or the odd pull out draw. Although it was too crowded when I went to pull the draws out! T...

Small exhibition at the Imperial War Museum of photographs and film by Mark Neville. Neville makes art projects in collaboration with communities facing problems and in 2010 he joined the 16 Air Assault Brigade on duty in Helmand Province. The pictures showed young soldiers and children they brigade encountered on patrol and compared and contrasted them. The commentary made the point that 60% of people in Helmand are under 25 and many of the soldiers are in their late teens and early twenties. I loved a picture called “Supplies for two Scots Regiments” in which a young soldier is unloading supplies. There are shells on one side but he carrier Iron Bru! I also found a picture of an Afghan toddler running round rather poignant as it was so like the small child who had been running round the gallery next door giggling!

Wonderful exhibition at the Imperial War Museum looking at the art of the First World War. Quite early on in the First World War the idea arose of using art to commemorate what was happening. This began with Kennington’s wonderful “The Kensington’s at Laventie” which used the unusual style of painting with oil on the reverse of glass! The Government introduced the idea of official war artists some of whom went out to the battle fields to record life there. There were rooms for different styles of art with a good room of Vorticist works including a picture of a Dazzle ship by Ferguson which uses the colours of the ship to create a Vorticist pattern. Next was a room of artists influences by Giotto such as Henry Lamb and Stanley Spencer. As ever I loved Spencer’s “Wounded arriving at the Dressing Station” where the figures converge on the light of salvation, in this case the operating theatre. There was also a room looking at memorial which was worked round the permanent...