Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition of the Contemporary Ceramics Centre of new work by Anna Lambert. The show had two themes, changes in landscape due to climate change and the re-establishing of orchards around Britain. I loved the large pieces with landscapes on them in delicate shades and I was intrigued that they seemed to have raised bottoms to them, ie the bottom was higher inside that outside. My favourite was in a lovely purple glaze. There were some vivid yellow and green glazes on the inside of some of the work. There were also charming smaller pieces with springs of blossom and birds in them. Closed on 30 September 2017  

Lovely exhibition at the Royal Academy of work by the wildlife illustrator Barry Tunnicliffe. I realised quite quickly that I knew Tunnicliffe’s work well from Ladybird books and Brook Bond Tea cards from my youth and it was lovely to see original art work for both of those. I loved a set of prints recording the farming methods which were disappearing with a rather Flemish feel to them. I was interested to read that the fine prints market had collapsed when the Depression set in in the late 1920s and never really recovered which is why Tunnicliffe moved into book illustration and other areas of work. He was elected to the Royal Academy as a print maker not a watercolourist which he was later more known for displaying in the Summer Exhibitions. My favourite print was of a horse fair and was full of clear figures which filled the space. Closed on 8 October 2017  

Charming exhibition at the Royal Academy bringing together objects owned by Matisse and the paintings he made of them. Although there were only one or two objects in each room there was a lovely selection of paintings of them and good descriptions of how Matisse acquired and used them. I recognised many of the objects from the pictures and was fascinated to see how like the paintings there were. In particular a lovely green glass vase which I’d always assumed he was painting in a free style which made it look a bit wonky, but no it was a bit wonky! I loved the Venetian chair shaped like two shells with dolphin arms and it was interesting to see different versions in pictures, some sowing it fairly literally but others simplifying the shape to its curves. My favourite section was the one looking at the Odalisques which talked about Matisse using his studio like a theatre and creating scenes within it. It was interesting to see different interpretations of the wallpaper...

Delightful installation in Burlington Arcade by Martilda Nivet. This consisted of a collection of 300 birds sculpted from paper which are installed to fly down the arcade grouping in the middle. They give a wonderful sense of movement to this static architecture and the idea of bringing nature inside, The commentary also pointed out that they also refer to the flocks of people moving throughout London. A lovely addition to this classic arcade.

Interesting exhibition at the Visitor Centre of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich marking 100 years since the founding of the Women’s Royal Naval Service and looking in particular at the role the college played in their training. This was a small exhibition but told the story clearly and well and made good use of photographs and a few objects. They had used nice quotes hanging from the ceiling. It had been researched by members of the University of the Third Age. It looked at how the service had changed over the years starting in the First World War to provide cooks, drivers and telephonists to free up men for the ships through to the first WRNS to go to sea in 1990 and the amalgamation with the Royal Navy in 1993. There were some delightful and interesting stories. Closes on 3 December 2017  

Fantastic exhibition at the National Maritime Museum looking at the disappearance of the Sir John Franklin expedition to the Arctic circle in the 19th century. The exhibition covered so many aspects of the story from the commissioning of the expedition through its journey then switching to the various rescue attempts at the time and ending with the recent discovery of the two ships and the underwater excavations of them. The story was told as a mystery and you were desperate to know the outcome. I loved the section on what life on board the ships while they were trapped in the ice for two years with a wonderful selection of moving, personal objects. Any objects which had been excavated from the boats were marked as such. Of course I was most moved by the willow pattern china they had taken with them. I was stunned to read that they had taken three years of supplies with them which is why they had sat it out in the ice for so long. I also loved the sudden switch from t...

Lovely exhibition at the Oxo Tower Gallery of five artists inspired by the River Thames. Three of the artists used metal as the surface for their work. LoveJordon painted city scenes on aluminium allowing the shiny surface of the metal to be the sky or features of the buildings, Muleen Sibia printed photographs on metal and Michael Wallner printed scenes on metal including a wonderful picture of the Thames Barrier with a pink sky. Sarah Fosse had bright picture with a watery wave to the scene both in buildings as well as their reflections and Tom Cox painted big bold scenes of live along the river. Closed on 11 September 2017

Thought provoking installation at the Oxo Tower by Maria Areco as part of the Totally Thames festival. This consisted of a series of wire cages each filled with a different type of plastic rubbish pulled out of the Thames so there was one of bottles, another of cups and one of ropes. Some of the cages were filled with items of the same colour. All the plastic was collected over just one year from 40 beaches along the tidal river. The work moved to other locations around London and I’d have liked to see it on another venue but ran out of time. It was quite striking to think of how the rubbish had got into the river and the sheer quantity of it. Evidently at night it was being specially lit which would have given it another interesting dimension.   Closes on 30 September 2017

Annual summer exhibition at Bankside Gallery of the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. This show is always fun with lots of affordable works. This year’s standouts included Peter Quinn’s nice watercolours of Venice and Sue Howell’s bright landscapes. I also liked John Duffin’s prints of Tube stations. My favourite piece was Karen Keogh’s “City Rooftops” looking across roofs towards Canary Wharf. Closed on 10 September 2017  

Colourful exhibition at Tate Modern of work by Turkish artist Fahrelnissa Zeid. This was a case where I found the artists life more interesting than her art. Born to an elite Ottoman family in Istanbul she married the Iraqi Ambassador to Berlin, who was part of the Iraqi royal family, and witnessed the rise of Nazi Germany. Following the Second World War she was involved in the art scene in London and Paris until a coup d’etat in Iraq in 1958 when her husband went into exile. It was only at this point that she cooked for the first time. In amongst all this her older brother was convicted of killing their father! The art was manly large abstracts although often based in reality. I liked a abstract parrot broken into shapes and colour but still recognisable, also an abstract landscape of Loch Lomond. One room had large pictures of small, bright shapes edged in back looking like bog mosaics. In later life, as she began cooking, she started making sculptures out of painted ani...

Interesting sculpture trail around the City of London showcasing work by contemporary artists. I make the same criticism as last time that the map on the City website isn’t very easy to follow and it would help if it came with brief descriptions of the work to help you spot it. However it’s still a good chance to walk round the city and see some interesting work. The most incongruous piece was the huge Damien Hurst of an anatomical figure which dominated a small square but looked very striking. I loved Mark Wallinger’s “Black Horse” which did what it said on the tin, it was a life sized black horse., in fact a scan of a race horse he part owns. I also liked Bosco Sodi’s large lumps of volcanic rock with a ceramic glaze, a lovely tactile mix of rough and smooth. Closes in May 2018. Reviews Evening Standard

Delightful evening at Tate Britain combining a viewing of the Queer British Art exhibition with a music provided by singers from English National Opera. It was nice to go round the exhibition again as I had loved it first time round. There were some fantastic pictures in the show and it told some great stories. It was really enhanced by the lovely concert half way though the evening of works by Noel Coward, Ivor Novello and Benjamin Britten. The songs really complimented the pictures and the singers played out all the nuances in them. I particularly loved a Noel Coward song, (We All Wore a) Green Carnation, which I’d not come across before and I thought I knew my Noel Coward quite well!