Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting small exhibition at the National Theatre looking at the five plays by Tom Stoppard put on my the National Theatre prior to the current one “The Hard Problem.” The pays were “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” (1967), “Jumpers” (1976), “Arcadia” (1993), “Coast of Utopia” (2002) and the revival of “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour” (2009).   There was a nice mix of props, costumes, photos, posters and set designs from all the shows. I particularly liked the animatronic tortoise from “Arcadia”. A precursor to Joey the War Horse?! The show was in the new Lytton Lounge which gives wifi access to more information via your computer or phone on the show. This is a great idea and enabled them to show just a few items in the physical exhibition as the space was small but to back it up with much more online. I also liked the fact they encouraged you to look there and then not wait till you got home, which frankly you never do! I am pleased to say I had been to see

Disappointing small exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of recent work by Rachel Levine. I say disappointing as it had a good write up on the South Bank Centre website and sounded really interesting. I knew if wasn’t there main show but thought it might be in the project space upstairs however it turned out to be the show in the café and there were only two items! It even took the nice info desk people a couple of minutes to work out what I was talking about when I showed them the website as I couldn’t find it! However the two items which were there were interesting and I’ll look out for more from this artist. She makes sculptures of everyday articles out of materials which are the opposite of that which they are mode in. So there was what looked like a sheet of insulation foam draped over a rail but it was made in concrete and a towel made of a water repellent material on the wall.

Thought provoking show at the Royal Festival Hall looking at the history of recent migrations to Britain, looking at the stories of different communities that have come here and made Britain their home. The show had a number of interactive section and began with offering you different cards to fill in with your own story depending if you were a migrant, if a grandparent was, if a parents was or if no-one back that far was. I fell into the latter category and the attached photos is my card! Many people like me seemed a bit apologetic about it, adding comments like “but I’ve travelled a lot” or “my best friend is a migrant”! The objects and stories in the show were accompanied by a number of interesting photograph projects many from the Migration Museum’s project to gather 100 images of migration. I loved the first section which looked at why various groups came and there were some great objects from Transport for London looking at the recruitment of workers in the Caribbean

Delightful installation at Croome, a National Trust property near Worcester, looking at lesser-known characters from the house’s history. Set in the basement of this amazing Robert Adam house which is currently being restored, this installation consisted of small works based on the idea of shoes each placed in a section of a shoe rack made in the 1950s when the house was a boys’ school. Each section is done by a different artist and represents a person who was associated with the house. Many of the shoes have the person’s life history written on them. This was a really touching idea and I like the idea the shoes were in a shoe rack but it did mean they were a bit low down to full appreciate and read them but the spot they were in was quite gloomy. I’d love to have had more time to spend looking at the detail on these. Looking at the leaflet again now I realise how much I missed!

Charming exhibition at Hay Castle from this auction to raise money for the conservation of the castle. We found this show by accident and there were some lovely works in it plus it was a good chance to have a look round this fascinating interior as it is being renovated. I am too late to advertise this auction for them as it was held on 11 April but I do hope it went well. Star of the show had to be a drawing for the Harry Potter books by Cliff Wright which I was particularly interested in as a friend is illustrating the new edition. I also loved a stained glass panel of boxing hares by Tamsin Abbott and lovely stone bird bath with carved lettering by Caitriona Cartwright.

Slightly disappointing exhibition at Berrington Hall, the National Trust property near Leominster, of clothes from various film and television adaptations of Jane Austen novels. It was disappointing because the advertising as you drove up made it sound like quite a big exhibition and let’s be honest there were pictures of Colin Firth in “the shirt” which caught my interest, but in fact there were only about 10-12 outfits and none from that particular production.   However it was nice to see outfits you remembered from on screen and to see them in the context within which the originals would have been worn. They did add interest to the interiors. What was not mentioned in the advertising was a really interesting room of original clothes and material used to show different material types and styles. I was amazed at how gaudy some of the fabric looked. There was also a room of original agricultural labourer’s smocks. The different parts of this exhibition could have been

Stylish exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects on the architectural career of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This was a well described and presented exhibition which aimed to put Mackintosh in his professional context and to look at the factors which influenced his practice such as function, budget, process and aesthetics. I loved the timelime at the beginning which included artefacts and photographs and two interweaving lines of his life and world events. I loved the section on his early career and to see what his early style was like plus what projects he worked on which we no longer associate with him. I was interested to see that he had worked on most of the competition drawings for the firm he worked for, Honeyman and Kepple, including an unsuccessful submission for Liverpool Cathedral. The section on houses he built was fascinating with nice short videos showing the buildings now. His architectural drawings are works of art in themselves. There were

Interesting exhibition at the Science Museum looking at how new ways of seeing created by early photography was rapidly used by science and how this work then influenced modern and contemporary photography. Photography was taken up very quickly by scientists partly to produce a very accurate record of the world around them but also because it could be used to record things smaller, further away or faster than the eye could see. There were some wonderful images such as a picture of the moon from 1851 and an x-ray of a foot in a boot with all the stitching showing. I always love the Maybridge images analyzing movement. The modern section looked at how artists began to use these scientific images as inspiration for their work. It also looked at the shift in this period (up to 1979) from an enthusiastic and excited approach to science pessimism and uncertainty about it. There were photographs which started to use unusual angles or magnification to show the abstract in the worl

Fascinating exhibition at the Science Museum looking at Winston Churchill’s interest in and use of science during the Second World War and in his post war government and the legacy that left. I’d popped to see this exhibition as I was passing and, as I’m sure you can tell, I never let a show go unvisited! I thought it would be an overview of Second World War military discoveries and a bit boring however it was fascinating. The sheer breath of war time scientific projects was amazing from the obvious things like radar and the atom bomb to nutritional research and the use of penicillin. Churchill was the first Prime Minister to have a scientific adviser, Frederick Lindemann, to help him understand and investigate new ideas.   He also had a policy of getting scientists from different arenas together through the universities and London clubs to generate new ideas and stimulate debate. I found the post war section really interesting about how the war had built scientists

Review of the sumptuous exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum of the work of Alexander McQueen. I am a sucker for this sort of lavish fashion exhibition and this one of the best I’ve seen! The whole thing was a mix of exhibition and installation. I know the galleries it was held in well but the space was transformed and felt very different. Each section had a theme which cut across his collections and was set up on a different stage set. The whole thing was accompanied by great quotes from McQueen illuminating his ideas such as “I’m not big of women looking naïve.” The clothes themselves were amazing and it was lovely o see them close up and realise the high levels of tailoring and skill involved. I loved his allusions to art history including a grey evening dress patterned with the angel from the Portinari Altarpiece and a jacket made of fabric printed with a Campin triptych. The centerpiece was a great use of the high room at the back of the gallery to create

Interesting exhibition at the Imperial War Museum of work by contemporary artist Hew Locke on the subject of conflict. In particular he looks at naval power including trade, travel and cultural exchange. I loved Ghost Ship which was a model of a war ship floating in a glass case with skulls on chins hanging down from it. The way it sat in the case had a feeling of Damian Hurst’s shark about it. The write up said his floating ships are influenced by the votive ships found in churches donated in thanks for successful and safe journeys. One wall was taken up by a great picture of another battleship with ferrymen rowing it. It was made up of great length of plastic beads some forming the pictures and some just hanging down. It looked very tactile!

Fun exhibition at the Imperial War Museum looking at fashion and clothing during the Second World War and the post war years of rationing. This was a beautifully arranged show with eye catching displays and really good use made of first-hand accounts. The labelling was just enough. It didn’t labour where items had come from except when this related to something else in the case eg where they had a letter from someone and some of their clothing.   There was good use made of paintings of the time, particularly in the early section on uniforms such as Michael Ford’s picture of war weapons week in a country town. I was most moved by the Make do and Mend section as my mother had helped out one of her aunts at sessions by carrying a tray of sample work round the audience to a particular piece of music. For some reason the pathos of this always made me laugh! How amused she would have seen her own life presented as history. Also in the show I learned that Eric Gill had designed t

Fascinating exhibition at the British Library looking at Magna Carta, 800 years after it was issued, focusing on how and why it was written and the effect it has had since around the world. I studied medieval history both at A Level and university so the first section of exhibition was like meeting old friends I’d forgotten about long ago! The range of material the curators had managed to bring together was stunning from a 1213-14 pipe roll with the earliest depiction of Beckett’s death, Mathew Paris’s map of Britain even the slippers of King John’s first Archbishop of Canterbury. I found the section on King John and Magna Carta itself most interesting and was amazed to see early drafts of it and to be reminded that it was actually annulled by the Pope within weeks of being issued. It was a nice touch to include a facsimile of John’s tomb and fun, but grizzly to also have his teeth! The later sections on how the Magna Carta was used were also really interesting includ

Small exhibition at the British Museum of work by the American painter and printmaker Jim Dine Croft who has donated a significant collection of his prints to museum in memory of Alan Cristea, the print dealer and publisher. There were some lovely works including a delightful fine print of his second wife. I also liked “Cincinnati I” the names of people he remembered from his childhood presented like a wall of graffiti. I liked the descriptions of how the works were produced and how the objects in the images such as the bathrobes were stand-ins for the artist described as “autobiography through objects”.  

Excellent exhibition at the British Museum looking at how prints were used to promote the various views of Napoleon in England. Although the view was mainly negative, and this was the great age of caricature with Rowlandson, Cruikshank and Gillray, many people in Britain also admired Napoleon, particularly in his early career. I had needed a good history on Napoleon in this the 250th anniversary year of the Battle of Waterloo and this show provided it. It went through his life story telling it through the prints and cartoons of the time. It was a great visual treat but also have a clear narrative and a well told story. The show was full of ‘fancy that’ moments. I loved the idea of a re-enactment of the Battle of the Nile at Sadler’s Well with real water, represented by a post for the event. Where can I get tickets?! Did you know there was an assassination attempt on Napoleon on his way to the premier of Haydn’s Creation in Paris? I loved the sections which looked at t

Interesting display at the British Museum of aboriginal memorial poles, or larrakitj, made by Wuken Wanambi. Larrakitj are traditionally used as coffins in Northern Australia once a body had decomposed and are placed in the landscape as a memorial. These examples are however made as art works and the group are called Wetjwitj. There are made in threes to show the processes involved. The design shows sea mullets which represent the clan, currents in the water and the power of the bay. The artist visited the British Museum and saw the Reading Room as a memorial pole in the centre of the museum and visitors quests for meaning like the mullet in the bay. This was at interesting precursor to the forthcoming Aboriginal show at the museum.    

Calming exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery of work by Charlotte Dumas looking at horses in American culture. The photographs come from a set called The Wildest Prairies looking at the wild horses of Dayton, Nevada which show the horses wandering round the town scavenging for food and water. This was one of the earliest gold rush towns and the horses symbolise the freedom and dreams of the American West.   In other pictures the horses have been captured and are being tamed by inmates in correctional centres. In the video installation Anima she films the caisson burial horses of Arlington National Cemetery who carry the caskets of fully honoured soldiers. She shows them sleeping in their stables, a lovely calm image you want to go on watching. It did remind me of Sam Taylor Wood’s video of David Beckham sleeping!

Interesting exhibition at the Photographer’s Gallery looking at photojournalistic practice and its impact on human rights using work from the Black Star Collection. The show took the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a starting point and was displayed chronologically. In particular it looks at struggles against racism and colonialism. I found the show good as a history of these struggles but I think it was trying to say something bigger from reading the leaflet which I didn’t get from just looking. It said that the show also gave an insight into the production process and choosing of images but this was not signposted. It might have been helpful to know more about which image from a group was chosen to be published and where it was used. I liked the fact they had large sets of images such as over 60 of a jail break on Achieta Island however I would have liked more explanation of the events. Also I liked the fact the inscriptions on the back of the pictures were

Delightful and informative exhibition at the Wallace Collection using their Reynolds pictures to look at his technique and use of new materials and in doing so also looked at themes in his work. Many of the techniques used by Reynolds have not lasted well and he was known to have to revisit pictures and repair them for clients. This did not stop people commissioning from him and there is a contemporary quote that “Even a faded picture by Reynolds will be the finest thing you have”. His ‘fancies’ pictures of children seem to have been particularly vulnerable.   I was very interested in the changes in composition in the portraits. Sometimes fashion changed faster than painting a portrait so hairstyles had to be repainted to stay in fashion. It also looks like he worked on more than one version of a picture at the same time. I liked the section which looked at Mary Robinson, also known as the actress Perdita, as it gave the chance to tell the story of how her lover fled

Hairy exhibition at Somerset House of photographs by Mr Elbank to celebrate the beard trend which has exploded across the world. These are wonderful, large format pictures in which you can appropriately see ever hair, pores and whisker. It is a mix of famous faces like John Hurt and Gavin Turk and faces you don’t recognise. I loved the picture of Frank Moon, which I show here, wrapped in a Union Jack flag also Nick Wooster, a lovely silver fox. These pictures were originally shared on social media to support charity campaigner Jimmy Niggles who grew a beard to raise awareness of skin cancer to which he had lost a close friend. Over 1200 people came forward to take part.  

Thought provoking exhibition for the second Syngenta Photography Award at Somerset House focusing on scarcity and waste to spark dialogue about our changing planet. I am not usually very interested in climate change issues, sorry I know I should be, but this really got me thinking about the contrast of not having enough of something causing problems while in other areas having too much is the issue!   The quotes around the rooms were as interesting as the pictures such as the fact that in less than two hours the waste produced by the UK could fill the Albert Hall. The pictures of unplanned industrialisation in developing countries was interesting.   It’s great that these countries have developed heavy industries but the cost of doing this in an unplanned unregulated way are shocking such as the sand mining in West Bengal. I was horrified by the city of Cerro de Pasco in Peru which is surrounded by an open pit mine which is expanding and eroding the city. Striking pict

Interesting exhibition at the King’s College Inigo Rooms at Somerset House of work by Maggi Hambling. I loved an installation called “War Requiem 2” which was a room playing Britten’s War Requiem with pictures of faces in spiralling paint   with two mirrors so you are included and a paint splattered chair. It had the effect of an explosion and victims on a battlefield. Another room had the top of a well from the Suffolk coast with sounds coming out of it which was very atmospheric. The final room contained her latest sculptures made in late summer 2013 as a follow up or “Aftermath” to her War Requiem pieces. These were found pieces of wood, remodelled, coated in plaster and then cast in bronze and painted. I liked the effect of these on mass in a large room. All in all an innovative use of this space which can sometimes be quite awkward as it is made up of a corridor and small rooms.

Slightly disjointed exhibition at Two Temple Place of works from North West museums highlighting the collections of industrial magnates. Where can you find rare books, Tiffany glass, beetles, book illustrations and even a Peruvian mummy in one place? Answer this exhibition! Lots of them were interesting but it was hard to join up the narrative of the show. It would have benefited from better biographies of the collectors as that was the reason they were all there rather than anything specifically about he objects. It was however a great opportunity to get into Two Temple Place, which seems to be mainly used as a venue, but in the early months of the year puts on an exhibition of works from little know collections. It’s a wonderful Victorian/Edwardian house with stunning stained glass and a grand staircase. It was used for Lady Rose’s wedding on Downton Abbey and I’m sure I spotted it on Coalition the other night! Reviews Independent      

Lovely exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of picture of women in the First World War. I loved the variety on this show. It not only looked at named women who came to prominence but also group photos of women working in home front roles like munitions work. All their stories were fascinating and it was interesting to see how many had been active suffragettes before the war.   The only female soldier was Flora Sandes who managed to enlist in the Serbian army but you didn’t have to me in the army to be intrepid. I liked Chisholm and Knocher who created medical outposts and died in 1978 and 1981. Also Letitia Fairfield who had qualified as a doctor in 1911 but was a first turned down by the War Office but later went on the work in France. You also had to love the female football team made up from actresses from the Gaiety Theatre!

Novel   exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of copies of Tudor portraits by George Perfect Harding from the late 18th century alongside some of the original versions. These were delightful small pictures produced to fill the demand from collectors for Tudor portraits. In some cases, as they are watercolour and have not faded, they give a better idea of the original colours than the source picture. Harding’s notebooks from this period survive and provide a detailed record of the content of over 250 collections, from castles, country houses, inns of court, university colleges and livery companies. It was also a good chance to see some rarely shown Tudor picture such as the only know work by a painter called Arnold Bronckorst.

Lovely exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at The Duke of Wellington, the men who served with him and his family and friends to mark 200 years since the Battle of Waterloo. There was a nice cross section of portraits of Wellington so you could see him age as you moved through the show. I liked an early one by John Hoppner from about 1795 which had a matching picture of his brother who was Governor General of India. I had not realised that Wellington had been based in India. Of course I loved the Goya which had a wall to itself and I was interested to read how Goya had to keep revisiting it to paint on more medals! I liked the section on the Peninsular War which was based on soldiers sketches particularly Edmund Wheatley’s delightful illustrated diary created for his sweetheart who he later married, the last line was “Never think I have forgotten you”! I also liked Thomas Heaphy’s set of portraits of the generals from the war painted as studies for a larger

Small exhibition at RICS HQ of the winners of the First RICS Infrastructure Photography Completion. I have to confess a bias here as I work for RICS and this show was right outside my office in the Library for a fortnight! The most popular subject seemed to be bridges as I guess they provide a useful framing devise such as Chris Ambrose’s “Bridges over Potato Wharf, Rochdale”.   I loved Mina Waters “Victorian Waters” of Horney Wood Reservoir which appears to go on and on for ever. However my favourite was the winner, Rita Testa’s “Double Travel” which showed two trains on lines outside London Bridge on a new section of overhead lines.   I travel on this section of line a lot so it was interesting to see it from a different angle and I liked the tension of how close the trains are to each other. It was a nice touch to show these alongside archive pictures from the Institution of Civil Engineers and pictures of innovative current projects.

Interesting exhibition at the Fine Art Society which asked six contemporary artists whose practice looks at the social effects of urban regeneration and focusing on London. I loved Thomas J Price’s bronzes of Afro-Caribbean men produced in wonderful detail. My favourite was “Network” of   a man in a sleeveless puffer jacket looking intently at his mobile phone. The attention to detail of the clothes and expression was beautiful. They were mounted on different recycled wooden supports like Victorian pot plant stands or one had an industrial look. I also liked Juliette Losq’s paintings of green urban spaces from odd angles such as “Vinculum” a few down on an urban garden from an upper window. They reminded me of the Lucien Freud pictures of his garden. Laura Oldfield Ford’s work were striking interior scenes washed in a neon coloured light such as a squat in neon pink.

Interesting exhibition at the Fine Art Society of work by the late 19th century sculptors who were part of the New Sculpture movement. This is a selling exhibition to coincide with the current Tate Show of Victorian Sculpture and features major work by many of the artists in the movement including Alfred Gilbert, Frederic Leighton and Sir Hamo Thornycroft. It made a nice overview of sculpture in this period. Most of the works were small in scale and made a lovely display grouped together but there was also a wonderful 8 foot version of the Piccadilly Eros shooting you are you came up the stairs and a version of the Peter Pan in the entrance lobby.