Cathy's Art Diary

Small exhibition at Pallant House Gallery of drawings and prints of nudes from their own collection. Even with just a few pictures this show set up interesting dialogues between the works. There was a nice Sickert drawing near an Auerbach dry point picture of a very similarly posed figure in a Sickerty dark space. I liked a picture by Michael Andrews of three versions of the same figure in various stages of abstraction. There was also a lovely Keith Vaughan of two views of a seated male figure.

Interesting installation at Pallant House Galleries by Michael Petry. I am not sure I saw all this show as it is not due to open until 4 July so there may be more to come but I have to say I liked what I saw anyway! The idea is that it echoes the grand staircase and historic mirrors in the gallery. Over the stairs there was a lovely colourful glass chandelier with twisted rods in a similar shape to the bannisters and scattered round the house were clear versions of these shapes in odd places. I loved the small frames round the bottom of the staircase with speckled glass to look like antique mirroring. I hope you go back and see if more appears!

Interesting exhibition at Pallant House Gallery of works collected by George and Ann Dannatt as well as pictures by George himself. I was particularly interested in this as I work for the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) and George Dannatt was a chartered surveyor! He met Patrick Heron, the artist, when he went to survey his house in Cornwall and through him he met other artists in the area. As you know I’m not that fond of abstract work but it was interesting when looking at George’s work that I did get a sense of structure or was that just me projecting?! I liked some of the other work too particularly a long picture by John Wells “Compositional Variation III” with layers of beige and grey but with one splash of a rather unusual bright blue.

Nice display at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester of some of the mosaic sculptures of Nek Chand. I first came across Nek Chand at an exhibition about him at the Hayward Gallery about a year ago. He is an Indian artist and the creator of the Rock Garden of Chandigarh. The figures were beautifully displayed in the café garden at Pallant House and it was great to see them outside where they are meant to be seen. I loved the line of geese and also of bent figures with baskets on their backs.  

Dull exhibition at Tate Modern of the work of American artist Agnes Martin. This show did not benefit from seeing the colourful Sonia Delaunay just before it. In comparison it was muted and controlled. Whereas the Delaunay show seemed to ooze vivacity this had a sense of solitude and withdrawal. I found he square pictures with the carefully drawn pencil lines almost disturbing in their need for control. By about the fourth room I wanted the artist to break out of this pattern.   By about room eight I could barely engage with it and in fact made no more notes in the leaflet! Review Times Telegraph Independent Evening Standard  

Wonderfully colourful exhibition at Tate Modern on the life and work of Sonia Delaunay. I must admit I’d not come across Delaunay before except for a vague knowledge of some of the larger colourful abstracts but came away with a real sense of the person and a sense of colour, vibrance and friendship. Being a big Bloomsbury fan I was interested in the fact Delaunay not only painted but also worked in interior decoration and built up a group of friends and artists around her.   I wonder if she’d heard of the Omega Workshop as her first shop opened in Spain at a slightly later date. However most interesting was her fashion work, using the same colours and techniques as her art and I realised a lot of my view of 1920s fashion is her work. The wonderfully straight loose dresses made in bright geometrically patterned materials. The show mixed paintings with outfits and interior design work together well so you could see the influences each had one the other. I love...

This year’s Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy seemed a particularly colorful one mainly because of Michael Craig Martin’s curation and painting of three rooms along the main axis in vibrant colours. The pictures just sang again the colour and it created lovely vistas through the rooms. I also liked the mix of large and small pictures in the same space. I do slightly miss the densely hung Weston Rooms but it’s nice for the small pictures to escape! Themes which came out for me were pictures of blocks of flats and the emergence of 3D printing. Favourites this year included “St Paul’s Multiview II” by Anthony Whishaw which was various views of the Dome of St Paul’s in rather muted colours. It may have been enhanced by being shown against a bright pink which picked up the pink tones. Also “Looking South” a woodcut by Pine Feroda which was a picture of the sea with the most amazing shimmering effect on the water achieved purely by the use of white. I think my absolute...

Interesting display at the National Gallery bringing together their El Greco’s to mark the loan of a Crucifixion with two donors from the Louvre. The show included a good cross section of his career works for a small learned audience, to small devotional pieces and the great altar piece.    I’m never quite sure if I like El Greco! Some of the work like this altar piece is exquisite but I am not so sure about the religious works with elongated figures like “Christ driving traders from the Temple” shown here. I think I need to know more. It was lovely to see this Crucifixion which falls into the great Spanish genre of long thin studies of Christ on the cross with dark backgrounds. This one is unusual in adding donors and there are beautifully painted figures. The figure on the left wears the finest thin vestment and the lace on the collar of the other figure is beautifully rendered.  

Excellent morning workshop at the National Gallery looking in detail at the Canaletto picture of the Feast of St Roch in Venice. We began by looking at the picture in detail and the tutor, Steven Barrettt, had some wonderful enlargements of various bits of the picture. It really helped you see the detail. And appreciate Canaletto’s skill. There was much discussion about whether he had used any devices such as camera obscurer to help him. We then looked at Canaletto’s place in Venetian art and in particular the other vedute artists at the time and discussed why and how the British were acquiring these works. We also looked at Canaletto’s time spent in England and his influence on later artists. We ended with time in the gallery looking at the picture in the flesh and at other Canaletto’s in the collection as well as other vedute pictures. I’m hoping to spend some time in Venice next year so this was a nice reminder of how beautiful the city is.

Interesting exhibition at the Design Museum looking at the footwear brand Camper and the part that design of every kind has played the history of the company. I must admit at times this show felt like a big advert! Having said that it was fascinating to see all the different components of the shoes and to watch the film of them being put together. It was also interesting to see how the way people walk affects the design of the shoe. There was also a section on branding with shoe boxes and bags and displays on the innovative design of the Camper shops. At the end was an interesting piece on future developments such as a material which moulds to the shape of your foot and seemed to create a slipped like shoe. Also about how cities are devising safe walking areas as we use public transport so much that there is less reason to walk. It’s sort of making walking a destination activity! Shoes seem to be a big exhibition theme at the moment. I’ve already done Rayne and I have...

Inspiring exhibition at the Design Museum of nominees in the Design of the Year completion with six categories of architecture, fashion, digital, product, graphics and transport. There was a wonderful array of great ideas! My favorites this year included the new take on a kettle which was a rod you put in a cup on a heat conducting pad which boiled water for you, or I think that’s my understanding of it! Most inspiring was a toilet for developing world which could be put in areas with no water supply. These seemed to produce water for washing hands and the waste product could be collected and made into fertilizer and other products. Fun ideas included a street light which records shadow patterns of people passing beneath and replays them. These are already around in Bristol and there was a delightful film of people dancing with other people’s shadows and devising things they could do to create weird shadows.   Things I was not so convinced by included a building i...

Colourful exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of new paintings by Kenyan born artist Michael Armitage. I’d sum up these pictures as Gaugin meets African textile prints and I did like them! They were figurative works often telling a story with great swirls of pattern around the main subject. They were painted on a quite textured canvas which was pitted and raised in places adding to the impasto of the paint. I liked one called #mydressmychoice which drew on the classic art historic image of an recumbent female nude but added in a group of men watching her, represented by their feet at the top of the picture and a group of bust babies in the undergrowth at one corner. These were interesting works and I’d like to see more. It’s nice to find a contemporary painted that wants to tell a story.

Interesting exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of new work by the American artist Theaster Gates. The show included a number of groups of work on the theme of the first amendment of the US Constitution which protects the freedom of speech, the right to peaceably assemble and the free exercise of religion. I’m not always sure I could see how some piece fit the theme but there were some interesting works. I liked the pieces best which had reused material from disused buildings in South Side Chicago such as a wall sculpture made of fork lift truck lifts and panels made from old gym floors with the tape marking left on but now in a different pattern. These felt like then held the echo of the people who had used them before. I wasn’t so sure about the large tar pictures and the ceramics covered in tar but I did find them rather beautiful and mesmeric. I also liked a group of ceramic figures where one had escaped! My positive mind said escaped but it may be that he’d been ...

Fun exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum to promote a new book of the same title by fashion historian Amber Jane Butchart. There was a display case on each of the themes of the book with lovely items to illustrate the themes but pages of the book. The themes were officer, sailor, fisherman, sportsman (preppy yachting look) and pirates. The sailor display had a real paid of bell bottomed trousers and the officer section had both real and theatrical jackets. Displays also included pictures of how designers from Chanel to Mary Quant have used nautical themes.

Delightful exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at clothing worn in and by the sea, looking at how design fabric and attitudes to exposing the body have changed since the late 19th century. From the title I had assumed this would be about high fashion and mainly continental but it was more about the history of British holidays and was so charming. The design was really clever with two great set pieces of a Lido downstairs and a beauty queen line up upstairs. As you walked in their was a lovely line up of outfits from the turn of the 19th century, real bathing belles! The show was full of ladies reminiscing about how itchy knitted bathing costumes were and I bonded with a lady of a similar age over a 1960s ruched number which I had in blue and she’d had in red! I couldn’t work out at the first why so much had been leant by Leicester Museum Service as it seems to be a county a long way from the sea! But gradually I realised it is because they must have t...

Lovely exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum of shoes made by the company Rayne. The exhibits were arranged like a magical shoe shop with displays from the different eras of the company and in some cases a style of shoe in different colour ways. My favourites, as ever, were the shoes from the 1920s with elegant cut away heels and with a bar across. All the shoes looked easy to wear with high but well balanced heels. I particularly loved the shoes with Wedgewood china heels! For once I liked the lack of commentary in the cases as it maintained the shop look and there was a good listing you could carry round with you. I was interested to see that although the business left family ownership in 1987 a son of the last family owner   has revived the company.

Clever exhibition in the public space at London Bridge pier organised by Water Aid looking at how the Victorians solved water, sewage and hygiene problems and comparing this to the current situation in developing countries and the great difference small changes to improve water quality can bring them. I do like this new trend to put an exhibition in the street and this one was particularly nicely designed with each information board being edged in plumping pipes and values. The Victorian side was shown via photographs by Thomas Ball showing some of the great Victorian projects to improve water quality. I loved the picture of the majestic Crossness Pumping Station as it is very close to where I live. The photos were supported by people’s memories of water related issues (toilets etc) collected by Water Aid as part of the Big History Project. Some of these were fascinating and frightening recent such as a road in Cambridge in the 1960s which was still using a well contaminat...

Interesting exhibition at the Ronchini Gallery by Sean Lynch which was a study in the deconstruction of the Delorean business and car. There were photographs of old factories and of the journey of the old tooling presses to be reused by a fish farm. The presses are now covered in seaweed and crabs live the holes and there were wonderful photos of this.   Alongside there were pieces of the cars along with a photo of a reconstruction of one. I couldn’t find a press release on this show so you just have my conclusions! I felt it look at the nature of deconstruction plus looked at what happens to things we they no long fulfil their original function. I wonder if I was right?

Colourful and interesting exhibition at Annely Juda Fine art of recent work by David Hockney. This was a mix of paintings and collaged photographs which were exploring perspective. He used photos with more than one vanishing point which created a strange disjointed effect but made you look round the whole picture. He also used the technique of placing people very close to the plain of the photo to draw you in. The paintings were of the same subjects, such as card players, exploring traditional perspective techniques but almost exaggerating them so they were wrong. For example there was a picture of a chair which used the trick of making the front seem wider than the back to give perspective however when you looked at the real chair next to it you realized this is not how you see it. I also like the fact that the paintings appeared in the photographs which created a sort of narrative perspective. I loved a set of paintings of the studio from different angles which then...

Strange exhibition at the Photographers Gallery looking at the history of photobook publishing in China. The leaflet described it as the ‘largely unexplored’ history of Chinese photobook publishing and I must admit I can see why! It’s one of those shows where you are glad someone has collected these things but you hope not to sit next to them at a dinner party! The commentaries were amazingly detailed but just too much to read in this environment. They did form an interesting history of China on the 20th century. The early pre-revolutionary section was interesting as it showed how European photographers had gone to China to record it. I was particularly struck by a book by Henri Cartier-Bressen. I was amused by the Cultural Revolution books which blanked out people in later editions who had fallen from favour. There were some nice examples of this. It was also interesting to see how modern China was still using the medium. Review Times    

Annual exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery for this prize which rewards a living photographer for a specific body of work in an exhibition or publication. The exhibition showed the work of the four artists on the shortlist. I was very moved by the work of Zanele Muholi who had produced a series of portraits, collated into a book, of gay people in South Africa, looked in particular at the impact of homophobia and violence including the ‘curative rape’ of black gay women. The exhibition had a wall of these photographs which were striking showed them alongside the book and an art work which had invited people from London to transcribe some of the stories in the book onto a banner. I also liked the work of Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse which looked at a high rise block in Johannesburg which had been built of the aspirational middle classes in the 1970s but had become and dilapidated refuge for the urban poor and was now being demolished. They had produced ta...

Fascinating exhibition at the National Gallery looking at a particular type of 16th century picture frame. It seemed odd at first to walk into a gallery mainly of frames with only a couple having pictures in them. However it was almost like an art installation in its own right with the frames forming a lovely pattern against the darkly painted walls. The type of frame takes its name from the architect Jacapo Sansovino however there seems no connection between the frames and him other than their style. They are known for overlapping and broken scroll designs, features from classical architecture, fruit, masques and cherubs. The earlier ones tend to be more architectural and the later ones more florid. The notes pointed out that a frame creates a stage setting for a picture and also talked about the incongruity of having pictures on the virgin and child in frames with bare breasted women on! I loved some with great swags of flowers and fruit with a green man type face a...

Interesting discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at the role of clothes and fashion in the contemporary world. It was chaired by Justine Pacardie, editor of Harpers Bazarre who interviewed three designers Bella Freud, Roksanda Ilincic and Erdem Moralioglu. Unlike a lot of the authors we’d had during the festival, the designers seemed less used to talking about their work in this sort of environment. They all had interesting things to say about their work and influences and there were some wonderful images. However I felt the talk lacked a narrative, was it about current influences, was it about how we choose what we wear or was it about how social media is changing the fashion industry? All these were touched on but not

Interview at at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival of Hans Ulrich Obrist, co-director of the Serpentine Gallery by Simon Martin from Pallant House Gallery. Obrist had written a book on contemporary artists which aims to act as a modern day Vasari. He talked a lot about his research technique which is that over many years he has been interviewing leading contemporary artists and recording those interviews. He says he took this approach because all his curatorial work begins with conversations. He said he tries to look at the wider person not just their art works to show what might be influencing that work. These recordings are building up into a huge archive of the contemporary art scene. I felt a little sorry for the interviewer as Obrist’s style was rather to start talking and not stop. It became a bit of a monologue, an interesting monologue, but more a great train of thought than a discussion. This amused me rather as at the heart of his idea was di...

Fascinating discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival between between Charles Saumarez Smith, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy and Julia Peyton-Jones, co-director of the Serpentine Gallery discussing the role of a curator. It was chaired by Dinah Casson, a designer of museum spaces. There was much talk about the misuse of the word curator and how other disciplines are starting to use it eg the idea of curating a menu. They saw it as the bringing together objects and arranging them in a space, often having to arrange to borrow the objects. They also looked at the two types of curators in museums and galleries those who look after the core collection and those who put on exhibitions and how these are often different groups of people. They discussed how museums and galleries brought together their programmes and the advantages and disadvantages of long lead up times. They also discussed what they felt had boosted the current interest in co...

Interesting talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at two aspects of art in the early 20th century. Sue Roe talked about her book “In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse and Modernism in Paris, 1900-1910” looking at how and why this area of Paris became the birthplace of Modernism in art. She spoke about how Picasso went there and found a new way of working. Esther Freud then talked about her new novel “Mr Mac and me” which is a novel about Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s time in on the Suffolk coast. She’d written it after moving to the area and researching the house she bought which had been an inn. Her main character, a young boy, is imagined as the son of the family who owned the inn. There was an interesting discussion between the writers chaired by Olivia Laing and some good questions from the audience.  

Engaging talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival between Charles Saumarez Smith, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy and Hannah Rothschild about her new novel “The Improbability of Love” which is about the art market. In the delightful atmosphere of the Charleston Festival tent this felt like listening to a dinner party conversation about the art market. There was talk of the differences between the highly inflated top end of the market compared to flatter mid to low end. I also loved some lovely insights to life at the National Gallery as he had been the director and she was a trustee. You just needed a glass of wine in your hand to set if off, and knowing me, I probably had one! OK maybe not as this was a 1pm talk!

A lovely installation at Fabrica as part of the Brighton Festival by Marcus Coates. This consisted of a multi-screen film installation showing people sitting in their own surroundings, on a bed, in a car, at a desk, with the sound of bird song all around you. As you look at the people they are apparently singing in turn. It had a rather calming effect with the lovely sound and these quite still people. When   you read the commentary you also realised that the bird song was actually the voices of the people in the film and they were mimicking the sound of a bird and in some cases the movement. He recorded bird song, slowed it down to simulate human tones, recorded people mimicking that sound and then speeding that human recording back up to the speed of the birds. It created a sound that was, to my city ear, the same as the bird song. The whole thing gave an impression of morning routines both of the birds via the idea of the dawn chorus and of the people. The hand...

Nice little exhibition in the Prints & Drawings Gallery of Brighton Museum of First World War posters from their collection. Posters were the most effective way of reaching an audience at this period before radio and television and this show included a nice selection. Some of them were very wordy rather than visual. I loved the recruiting poster which advertised “No man under canvas” during the training period. Goodness if you were worried about sleeping in a tent goodness knows what they made of what came later! I also liked a big cut out arm with the slogan “Lend your strong right arm”. The display also included posters for the home front such as an advert for cookery classes in Brighton.

Fantastic exhibition at Brighton Museum of the best pictures in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. There were some stunning images such as “Feral Spirits” by Sam Hobson of parakeets   flying across a grave yard, wonderful splashes of colour against a largely grey background. It had a real sense of joy escaping from a place of sorry. Also “Hollywood Cougar” by Steve Winter of a big cat against the Hollywood sign, but UI felt the title had overtones of the ladies of Hollywood. Each picture came with a good commentary of what it was showing but also how the picture was taken. Also the museum took the opportunity to show the photos with items from their own natural history collection such as a monkey skeleton, various stuffed animals and insects. This gave an interesting contrast between the living specimens caught in a moment in time and the dead ones given new life in display.

Interesting exhibition at Circus Street Market as part of Brighton Festival of eight inventions on the theme of weather, water and climate change. I must admit quite a bit of this passed me by! I wasn’t sure if some of them didn’t do very much or just weren’t working! I get that they wanted you to experience the show and then read about it but I’d have liked more commentary near the exhibits to get a better idea of what they were about. I liked a paddling pool with dry ice which created a cloudscape. It was really relaxing to watch and I spotted one couple dancing round it. I also like an installation of single ear phones hanging from the ceiling an ear height which you walked past and put your ear to listen to different sounds of water. I liked the calmness of this and how it drew you in. Each piece was by a different artist but again because of the lack of clear commentary I’m not too sure now which piece was by whom. In my defence I am behind and I saw this about 4...

Fabulous interview at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival with Maggi Hambling, the contemporary artist. I fell in love with her! She walked onto the stage as a great solid presence and glowered at the audience. The interviewer, Nicolette Jones, did a valiant job but didn’t stand a chance! However I did feel that under Hambling’s gruff, abrupt exterior there was a very pleasant, open and warm person with a wry sense of humour. As evidence of this she immediately shook hand with the chair at the end knowing she had used her for comic potential. Quite early on I gave up taking notes but just scrawled the odd quote. On a picture that had gone wrong “Stanley knife time”. On the pictures she had painted of George Melly after he died leaving her studio for an exhibition “Face it Maggi, George is dead”.   On painting “I try to get the paint on the move” and “I am a manual worker”.