Cathy's Art Diary

Eclectic exhibition at the Royal College of Art full of ideas and inventions.   This was the graduate show for the MA courses in design and included products, textiles and design engineering. It was really well laid out with a display by each student along with a postcard with their details on, a real showcase of ideas and talents. There were some solutions for things which shouldn’t really be a problem. Quite a few people looked at issues around excessive phone use with an invention to power gadgets using a phone to complete a circuit to stop you using it plus a place to put your phone when you come home. Maybe putting it down or switching off is the more obvious idea? Some problems were quite sad and around lack of space in homes so someone had invented corridor furniture as that was the one shared space in shared houses. I did like a kitchen in a box by Yu Li, pictured here, which provided a hot plate, pans, cutlery, sink drainer etc in a box.   I loved a sh...

This year’s pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery by Architect Frida Escobedo.   This had a more substantial and blocky appearance than some of the previous pavilions but I loved the detail of it. It was made of roof tiles mounted one above the other horizontally on scaffolding poles. It looked solid however the sun perforates through the walls to light the space. There was an event on when I went so it was hard to assess the internal space but it seemed quite large with a café area at the back off one of the entrances.   Closes on 7 October 2018   Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Interesting sculpture in the grounds of the Serpentine Gallery by Lee Ufan. The work consists of two large stones on a stone slab with angled mirrors behind the biggest stone. The stones and the surrounding area are reflected in the mirrors creating a different picture wherever you stand. If you stand in the right place you become part of the work as well.   Ufan is a Korean artist specialising in these minimal works using steel and stone which he has been making since the 1960s. as well an minimalism paintings.   Closes on 24 January 2019

Exhibition and installation at the Serpentine Gallery and in the Serpentine by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.   I saw the installation first which is a huge floating structure made of painted oil barrels in the shape of an ancient mastaba from Mesopotamia. It is stunning as it is so out of context with the area but looks beautiful. I sat and had a coffee and watched people in rented boats sail round it.   The exhibition in the gallery explained the work and put it in the context of the artists other work. I’d not realised that Christo and Jeanne-Claude are the artists that wrap buildings and their concept is to transform urban spaces for a short space of time. They have since moved on to structures of barrels, although sadly Jeanne-Claude dies in 2007, and this one is said to be the largest ever sculpture. It was interesting to see photographs and sketches of other barrel projects as well as models   Closes on 9 September 2018   Reviews Times Gu...

Colourful exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery of work by Tomma Abts.   Abts produces colourful geometric abstracts by using layers of acryclic and oil paint to let images develop and show the layers. She also produces some work by casting her paintings in aluminium and including cast sections in the finished works. Abst installed the show and sees it as an installation in itself. The work is hung at the same height around the edges of the room.   For someone who doesn’t like abstracts I loved these bright works especially one that includes a shadow which gives the effect of a shelf in it which isn’t there. I also liked a Nevinson like explosion in blue, red and grey. In some of the pictures you see the texture of the paint underneath the top layer. They are a great study of how complimentary and contrasting colours work together.   Closes on 9 September 2018   Reviews Guardian Evening Standard    

Colourful annual exhibition at the Royal Academy. This year’s show was curated by Grayson Perry and it reflects his sense of sense of fun and colour. Walking into a bright yellow room really wakes up the senses. The show was quite spread out this year to use some of the new spaces following the refurbishment but I prefer the more concentrated approach. It was a low moment when I realised there was yet more up in the Sackler Galleries. As ever this was a wonderful mixed bag of work but you like or reject work very quickly and spot your old favourites. Strangely for me I’ve picked a geometric abstract from the first room to illustrate this post as I loved it’s colours and it matched the wall so beautifully! A new artist I spotted this year was John Wragg who did interesting portraits against squared bright backgrounds. I spotted his work throughout the show and it always caught my eye.   I loved Melissa Scott-Miller’s “View of Islington from the Tenth Floor” as th...

Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy of landscape work by Tacita Dean. This was the third in a series of Tacita Dean shows this year with Still Life at the National Gallery and Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery. I’d loved the still life one but not been so sure about portraits. I thought this was the best of the three. She took landscape in the broad sense of work on the outdoors and covered both the sublime and the picturesque. I loved a display of four plus leaf clovers that Dean had collected over the years and is still collecting. Laid out against a white background these looked so fragile. I loved the dense ‘hang’ to start with that petered out to one or two in each section of the case. I wasn’t so sure of the video, “Antigone” as it was too long and seemed difficult to dip into. I couldn’t give it long enough to understand the themes. My favourite pieces were the chalk drawings on black boards as, again, I loved the fragility of them. I’m sure they’ve b...

Strange installation at the Royal Academy in their new architecture studio looking at how digital technology is transforming our lives.   This is the first in a series of three installations on this theme starting with home by architectural practice MAIO. I must admit I didn’t really get this. It was a mocked up flat with a bedroom and a bathroom out on the veranda. Everything in it was white including all white Birkenstocks. Voices came from various places in the room talking about recycling and technology.   I found the voices a bit preachy and quite hard to listen to. It was a beautiful space but I didn’t really work out its purpose from being in it and have had to go back to the website to write this entry.   Closes on 24 September 2018  

Mixed exhibition at the Royal Academy showcasing the work of the students there. I love getting into the schools spaces below the Royal Academy and it’s interesting to see the new ideas coming out but this was quite a mixed bag. It’s nice to get a list of the student’s names and the works but I think some of them would benefit from a bit of explanation. I’m all for art that just speaks to you and doesn’t need explaining but this did and without it could be mistaken for a pile of rubbish. There were two performance artists dancing but they’d attracted a crowd so we couldn’t see in the room. There was a room where a work called “Song for Unattended Items” just looked like abandoned possession which I guess is what it was and don’t get me started on bad painting.   I did like Issy Wood and Gina Fischli’s work shown together in a large room. It included a table of strange objects such as a clear, cowboy hat light, what’s not to like? There was also a lovely painting of s...

Excellent refurbishment of the Royal Academy to mark its 250th anniversary.   The refurbishment has used underground space to link the original building and the Burlington Gardens space. I’ve been to some good shows in the latter building so was already fond of that exhibition space but it never felt part of the whole and was annoying to have to walk though Burlington Arcade to get to the main galleries. The underground area has a rather industrial feel and is used to tell the story of the story of the Royal Academy including displaying many of the plaster casts of classical sculpture used as an alternative to life drawing.   There is a new gallery for the permanent collection where you are greeted by a formidable figure of Satan by Sir Thomas Lawrence but soon move on to the more peaceful casts and lovely hang of a contemporary copy of the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vince, the Michelangelo Tondo and copies of the Raphael cartoons. There were also a lovely collectio...

Nice exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery for the shortlisted entries in this year’s Portrait Award.   This is one of the highlights of my art year and I thought this year's was a good show. It was a shame it was in a smaller gallery to usual as it felt cramped and it was hard to see the work from a distance. In the larger gallery I love some of the views through the space so pictures pull you across the room. This didn’t happen this year.   I liked Laura Nardo’s picture of an attendant at the National Gallery of Scotland which was touching as Nardo also works as a guide there. Tom Bedeman’s picture of his brother was clever as it was painted on the reverse of glass so the image cast a shadow. Also giving a mention to J.J. Delvine’s “The Ocolograppher” self portrait of himself in his studio with items from his collection. It had a feel of the National Gallery’s St Jerome in his study which did hang on the wall in the picture.   I loved the winner ...

Annual exhibition at the National Gallery which invites schools to react to a picture from the collection, this year’s picture is Pintoricchio’s “Penelope with her Suitors”.   The schools picked out different visual and literary theme from the picture and produced their own work that topic. Southern Road Primary School liked the coat of arms of the family who commissioned the picture so worked with their parents to develop a coat of arms to represent their families and their interests. Grafton School made fresco tiles and other school made a chess set of cats from art.   However my favourite were the pictures of cities Odysseus would have seen by the Caroline Chisholm School on Northants which looked stunning from the opposite side of the room.   Closes on 12 August 2018  

Small exhibition at the National Gallery of two complimentary sets of pictures by Ed Ruscha.   The show consisted of five canvases from 1992 in black and white and five in colour from 2003 of the tops of box buildings in Los Angeles. Each pair of pictures shows the same building at both dates. In the earlier set the function of the buildings is clear such as Trade School or tyres. In the second set, which he describes as “an accelerated aged version of the same landscape” the buildings now how more ambiguous functions, the trade school is out of business and the Tool & Die is now a Korean firm.   This was a lovely pairing with the Thomas Cole show as they address a new American landscape and also address similar issues to the Rise and Fall of Civilisation series. I loved their large format and sparse design. Closes on 7 October 2018   Review Guardian  

Interesting exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the life and work of Thomas Cole, the American landscape painter.   Although born in Britain in 1801 Cole emigrated to America in 1818. He began his career engraving printing blocks in the cotton mills of Bolton. He did revisit Britain and Italy and was inspired by the Claude, Turners and Constable in the National Gallery. He visited Turner in his studio plus rented a studio that had been used by Claude in Rome. Once in America he painted wilderness landscapes devoid of settlement and incorporated religious and literary themes. In his Hudson River Portfolio of prints he introduced the American public to the idea of the picturesque landscape. In his later career he wrote an essay on American scenery, a manifesto for American landscape painting and established the Hudson River School of landscape painting. His large painting Oxbow shown here was his visual version of that essay. The picture combines wild and cultiv...

Thin exhibition at the National Theatre looking at the years it was based at the Old Vic, 1963 to 1976 to mark the 200th anniversary of the Old Vic.   I say thin as it was just information boards with archive photographs. The subject deserved a bigger display with possibly some artefacts to break up the show. It looked at how it championed new writers, directors, actors and designers. It looked at how Kenneth Tynan was employed as a literary advisor and featured the group of young actors in the company including Albert Finney, Ina McKellan and Maggie Smith. I liked the pictures of the offices in Nissan huts behind the theatre. Closed  

Excellent one day course organised by the London Art History Society at Conway Hall looking at the Renaissance court of Ferrara and Farnese Rome.   This was the last in a series on the Italian Renaissance courts led by Paula and Geof Nuttall. In the morning we looked at Ferrara with Paula focusing on the rulers from the D’Este family and the art and architect they commissioned. For most of the period the city was ruled by the Nicolli II and his sons, both legitimate and illegitimate. I loved Lionello with his distinctive mane of hair who commissioned six portraits medals of himself by Pisanello and owned pictures by Netherlandish artists. Also Borso who loved luxury and is shown in a fresco in the Palazzo Schifanoia which he decorated. So many great characters!   In the afternoon we turned to the Farnese family and in particular their time when Alessandro Farnese, Paul III was pope. Alessandro lived for 81 years from 1468-1549 during which time art changed comple...

Lovely exhibition at Conway Hall of new work by David Wolverson. The title reflects the two contrasting type of picture in the show but I loved both of them. Chintz was represented by some beautiful detailed flower pictures. Wolverson has been a carpet, wallpaper and textile designer and you could see this in this work. Some of the flowers were painted against busy backgrounds and I loved one of Iris’s against a gold background. They felt like Hugenhaut silk designs. Concrete was represented by atmospheric pictures of London. I loved the night scenes which caught the feel of the city at night particularly the river which I often see at that time from the piers. One of a wide road with buses on it reminded me of Impressionist pictures of Paris boulevards. In fact I liked these pictures so much I bought one of St Paul’s viewed from the Millennium Bridge through red brick buildings.   Closes on 9 August 2018

Delightful exhibition at Tate Britain looking at Angelica Kauffman, one of the two female founding members of the Royal Academy to mark its 250th anniversary.   The show looked at Kauffman’s art and how she was treated by the art establishment. To a modern eye her work is a bit sweet but it is very much of its time. The commentary suggested she was exploring gender and identity but I’m not sure I saw that in the work although I did like the confident self-portraits. There was a good selection of work and the pictures were shown against beautiful blue walls which gave them a sense of period.   It was a nice idea to include a projection of an engraving of a lost picture shown at the size of the original. A lot of Kauffman’s work was history paintings but this is under represented in galleries.   There were also sketches for the ceilings she designed for original Royal Academy, now the Courtauld. My favourite picture was a stunning chalk portrait of Benjamin We...

Fascinating exhibition at Tate Britain of working models and drawings by Antony Gormley.   I love Gormley’s work so it was very interesting to see how some of his ideas developed. I like his ideas around the body as a place and of replacing anatomy with architecture. As everything is based on his own body is Gormley becoming the Vitruvian Man for the modern age?   The small sculptures were set out on white tables in sets with the drawings around the walls. It had the feel of a studio. You could walk round the tables to view the work at quite an intimate level and let you look at the detail. It might have been nice to add photographs of the finished works.   Closes on 16 September 2018

Fabulous exhibition at Tate Britain looking at how artists in Britain, France and Germany processed the physical and emotional effects of the First World War. If you follow my blog you know I am a bit of a First World War geek and I’m particularly interested in the after effects on art, literature and culture so this was a dream of a show for me. The show was arranged on the broad themes of Remembrance, traces of war, return to order and imagining post-war society. As soon as you entered you were thrown into the art of the battlefield leading into work inspired by the ruins and graveyards. It included a run of three pictures from each country using the abandoned helmet as a symbol of the death of a single soldier. These were shown with three real helmets. I loved a stunning Nevinson of Ypres after the first bombardment with cubist roofs at different angles. It was also nice to see trench art included here.   There was a super room on war memorials which features the galle...

Interesting exhibition at Somerset House show casing work produced by the National Saturday Clubs.   National Saturday Clubs bring together talented young people, expert tutors and industry professionals in 71 clubs in 56 locations. The show highlighted work from the Spring masterclasses and were arranged by themes including fashion, art and design, science and engineering and writing and talking and was very professionally curated.   There were lots of exciting ideas and projects. I’d have loved to be involved in something like this when I was at school. Closed on 17 June 2018  

Annual exhibition at Somerset House of the shortlisted entries in this year’s World Illustration Awards. I always find this show interesting as it shows all the different ways illustration is used and it’s not just the book illustration you expect.   Entries which stood out this year included Paul Thurley’s National Treasures windows for John Lewis and and Boo Paterson’s take on East Coat railways posters to highlight refugee issues. My favourite piece was Josie Shenay’s “The Buildings That Made London” for National Archives which showed a circle of London buildings.   Closed on 20 June 2018

Small exhibition at Somerset House showing new work by designer ES Devlin.   Devlin is known for creating kinetic stage sculptures and has been awarded three Olivier Awards however these were smaller scale works. Morning I and II recorded the first light on waking in a new city, the shaft of light through blinds or curtains. The photographs were printed on a curved canvas and lit from behind.   I loved the larger central work in the show which was a mask shaped concave oval printed inside with a 3D map of London over which a film of hands was projected. The hands appear to push the river on the map in different directions and the different light effects sometimes show the shadows of the buildings. I found it quite mesmeric. Closes in August 2018

Dense exhibition at Somerset House looking at the history of independent magazines and looking at their role in the digital age.   This show was imaginatively presented but there was a lot of detail in it. The show took themes and traced through from the earliest examples to what is happening now. It looked at iconic magazines such as Private Eye, BLAST and Spare Rib. I hadn’t realised Private Eye had started as a school magazine!   The last room had a bright pink newsstand in it and a chance to browse some of the current titles.   Closes on 22 August 2018