Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the Houses of Parliament looking at the role of women in Parliament.   It’s arranged chronologically but cleverly focuses it around four spaces used by women over the years, recreating them and discussing the history of that era. It started with the Ventilator in the attic from which women viewed the actions in the house from 1818 to 1834. The picture attached is by 15 year old Georgina Chatteron of her view of how the women might have looked. This was the age of the Great Reform Act which expended voting rights to more men but no women.   Next was the Cage was the purpose built ladies gallery in the new Palace of Westminster which again was high up and had metal grilles over the windows. This section was used to discuss the suffrage and suffragette movements. It was moving to see prison and force feeding medals and the sign that Tony Benn had put on the broom cupboard where Emily Davidson spent the night of a census so she could list herse...

Charming exhibition at the National Theatre pairing photos of theatre makers by young people alongside childhood photos of the subjects.   The pictures are spread throughout the theatre. I think there was a leaflet listing the works but I never found it so I’m not sure if I caught them all. Some were even   on lift doors which was fun but a little irritating if the doors opened as you were looking at them.   The young people were mentored by professional photographers and spent time getting to know the sitters and the older versions were based on a childhood picture. I loved the picture of Rufus Norris, the current director, covered in mud to match a similar version of his cheeky younger self. Richard Eye was shown in a scarf with anchors on as a nod to the sailor suit in the younger picture. Many sitters showed a real sense of fun and an enjoyment in recreating their youth.   I think my favourite was this one of Simon Callow as he still has the same ...

Fascinating exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the history of the Summer Exhibition to mark the 250th anniversary of the Academy.   The handout had a useful timeline and the show was arranged chronologically to match. It was wonderful to see so many pictures in the show which had been in Summer Exhibitions and been much admired or caused consternation and a wealth of archive material. It was also a nice touch that the show was partly set in the John Madejski Fine Rooms as it gave a sense of how the setting for the early shows even though they were in different venues.   It was lovely to have both an Angelica Kaufman and a Mary Moser, the two female founding members of the RA but a bit shocking to find the next woman wasn’t until two or three rooms later with a Laura Knight. It was also good to see a picture by Winston Churchill which had submitted under an assumed name.   I loved the fact they had got Sargent’s portrait of Henry James which was s...

Strange exhibition at the Design Museum looking at how graphics and online media have been used in politics and dissent in the last decade since the financial crash. I say strange because quite a few of the exhibits were missing and were replaced by a notice saying they had been removed at the request of the artist. It had come to light that the museum had hosted an event for an arms company and the work was removed in protest at this. It felt appropriate somehow but left the show a bit thin. The show was split into three themes, power, protest and personality and looked at how, in the social media age, anyone can make and distribute online content and memes. I loved a video of how Greenpeace had rebranded the Leave campaign’s infamous NHS bus outside the Houses of Parliament with the slogan “Truth #ComeClean”. I also liked a data graphic from Destination Pride which used the rainbow flag as a bar chart on equality in various countries. The section on protest was fascinati...

Elegant exhibition at the Design Museum looking at the career of fashion designer, Azzedine Alaïa who died in 2017.   The clothes were beautifully shown against screens designed by his friends and colleagues. The models were impossibly tall and thin which worried me a little but I later learnt that the mannequins were designed by Alaïa himself, based on the proportions of Naomi Campbell. They are elongated to resemble the work of Alberto Giacometti and the exaggerated proportions of fashion illustrations. The clothes were stunning although I’m not sure I will be wearing any of them soon! I loved three dresses in different jewel coloured lace with a skin colour underbody. The far end of the show was devoted to romantic full skirted evening dresses which were displayed on podiums so you could walk round each one and study the detail. There was also a display of black dresses with long, simple, slim silhouettes and however the simplicity was deceptive. My favourite pi...

Egg-cellent installation at Gloucester Road station by Heather Phillipson.   I just loved this fun venue for a huge piece of installation art! It took up the whole of an unused platform at the tube station and consisted of a series of egg based sculptures from a pile of eggs, though fried eggs to rotten eggs.   I’m not sure what it was about but I loved it! Let’s have more art on this scale on the underground.   Ends 2018   Review Evening Standard  

Fascinating exhibition at the Queen Elizabeth Hall marking the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela.   The show mainly relied on good information boards but they told the story of his life clearly in six sections character, comrade, leader, prisoner, negotiator and statesman making good use of quotes from Mandela.   These were shown alongside some artefacts from the young Mandela’s Sunday school card to the Robben Island Bible, a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare.   I learnt a lot about the early life of Mandela and how his father had lost his role of chief in a dispute which led to the son moving to live with his mother’s family. I had also not realised that he made copies of all the letters he sent from prison so he maintain a record of them even of the recipient did not keep them.   Closed on 19 August 2018  

Confusing exhibition at Somerset House for this ongoing photography project celebrating the global impact of African and African American musicians by Alexis Chabala.     I say confusing because although the pictures were excellent the labels were quite minimal so, unless you knew the artist already, there was little to tell you about why they are important. I eventually found a handout but it only described a few of the subjects. There was also a list of the top sampled artists in the exhibition but as someone whose musical knowledge stops in about 1989 this passed me by too. Still nice pictures particularly one of Candi Staton with such a big smile that her eyes are closed.   Closed on 22 August 2018  

Small exhibition at Somerset House looking at the history and current practice of circus. It is the 250th anniversary of Philip and Patty Astley founding the first circus on the banks of the Thames. I’d read about them before in the book “Burning Bright” by Tracey Chevalier where they featured as characters in a story about William Blake. The section on the history was fascinating and it also talked about the spread of circus in the US with the growth of the railways and the famous Cirque Medrano in Paris which featured in Impressionist paintings. It talked about how circus has often attracted independently minded people and rule breakers and how there have always been itinerant performers even before the first circus with jesters and there were even jugglers at the Colosseum. It also looked at how artists have represented the circus with nice examples by Laura Knight and Degas.   The modern section looked at alternative acts today with a good video of current ac...

Interesting exhibition at Foyles bookshop of photographs by Oliver Wainwright, the architect and design critic.   The pictures focus on Pyongyang city which was destroyed by bombing in the Korean War and rebuilt from scratch. They include pictures of the mosaics in the underground which Wainwright describes as a “socialist fairyland and lots of neat, pared back rather 1950s interiors.   My favourite was, of course, the central library or as they called it the “Grand People’s Study House”! I was looking for a new name for my service!   Closed on 21 August 2018

Fabulous detailed exhibition at the British Library looking at the voyages of James Cook.   The show was beautifully designed with lovely open blue interiors for the voyages and Georgian grey ones to represent the time in between journeys. There were lots of artefacts from the voyages and fantastic watercolours and illustrations.   There was a lot to read in this show as it seems that everyone on board the ships were keeping log books or diaries and they were all here. It felt like you were walking through a novel where you didn’t know the ending although in this case I had an inkling!   I loved the small stories which emerged such as the native priest, Tupai, who joined the first voyage and did paintings who were only discovered in the 1990s. Also I became a bit obsessed by the naturalist on the first voyage, Joseph Banks, who appeared again later as the chaperone for Omai, the first Polynesian to visit Britain after the second voyage.   Closed...

New permanent installation at St Pancras by Tracey Emin. This is one of Emin’s neoo signs which says “I want my time with you” in her handwriting. It hangs over the exit from the Eurostar platforms close to Paul Day’s huge statue “The Meeting Place”. The statue and installation work well together with the latter almost offering a commentary on the former.   I’m not a big Emin fan but this if a nice addition to the interior of this impressive station. Reviews Telegraph Evening Standard  

Strange installation outside the House of Illustration by Jonny Hannah.   Hannah has invented an alternative coastal town called Darktown peopled by pin-up girls, jazz artists and tattooed sailors. He has worked out the various shops, cafes etc in the town. This decorated taxi was created as a response to the lack of individuality on the modern UK high street and Hannah imagines it driving up and down Darktown’s Main Street. I admit I don’t really understand but it was a fun object to have in this outdoor space over the summer. I loved the detailed paintings of aspects of the town and it’s motto of “From A to Z and back again”.   Closes on 31 August 2018

Lovely exhibition at the House of Illustration of work by John Vernon Lord.   The show looked at recent work by Lord illustrating three books by Lewis Carroll and two by James Joyce. I loved the inclusion of his note books in the show so you could see how ideas developed. The Carroll books used a lovely colour palette with lots of turquoise. They don’t show Alice herself but concentrate on what Alice can see. I loved the picture of the rabbit hole as it was full of little bookcases and cupboards.   In the Joyce books he saw the illustrations as a bridge of communication to the reader to illuminate the dense text. In his Ulysses pictures he includes a row of small illustrations along the bottom like a praedella on an altar piece. My favourite picture in the show was of Plurabelle from Finnegan’s Wake where he’d drawn her face on the surface of the sea. The detail was stunning. There was also a wonderful piece where Lord did a drawing a day throughout 2016, ...

Small exhibition at the House of Illustration looking at illustrations by Quentin Blake for two editions of the Cyrano de Bergerac book “Voyages to the Moon and the Sun”.   This book is seen as the first science fiction classic published in 1657. In it the main character travels to the moon, is imprisoned on earth, escapes to the sun and is put on trial by birds! OK I’m not rushing out to buy a copy but Blake was attracted to the work for the variety of subjects to draw.   As there were illustrations from two editions I’d have liked an indication on the pictures of which one they came from a bit more about the text which went with the pictures as I didn’t know the story. Some were easy to work out from the brief synopsis but others were a more obtuse.   I liked the fact these were the original drawings and some had notes to the publisher on them such as “Delete this monkey.” Closes 30 September 2018  

Fascinating exhibition at the House of Illustration looking at the illustrations and design work of Enid Marx.   Marx was at the Royal College of Art with Ravillious, Bawden, Hepworth and Moore but moved into design work in the 1920s. She specialised in abstract repeat patterns and there was wonderful wall of her utility designs from the Second World War. Most famously she designed some of the iconic London Underground fabrics and there was a good display on this talking about how the material has to be patterned so it doesn’t show the dirt.   Marx also designed and made hand printed pattern paper for the lining of book covers and there lovely examples of this both in books and as rolls of paper. From 1929 she moved into book illustration as well specialising in covers for Chatto and Windus and later for the King Penguin series and well as producing her won children’s books.    There was a also a nice display on her stamp designs including the Christmas st...

Sweet exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at portraits of friends across the ages.   The show talked about the reasons for these pictures as signs of friendship, as a proxy for a missing person and group pictures to establish identity.   The earliest pictures were a pair painted by Gerlache Flicke of himself and Harry Strangwish when they were in prison. Flicke’s picture is thought to be the first self-portrait in oils painted in England. A fun group picture was of Viscountess Melbourne,   Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire and Anne Seymour, a sculptress dressed as the three witches from Macbeth!   A couple of the photos came from a series by Julian Edelstein, a lovely one of French and Saunders and one of Colin Jackson and Linford Christie, head to head in a competitive pose but smiling. My favourite work was the one as you go into the room of George Payne and Henry John Rouse, two Victorian gentlemen walking arm in arm. They were fa...

Lavish exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at how Michael Jackson has inspired cotemporary artists both in his life time and since his death.   This was quite a precise definition of the show and maybe not the one most people had come for, which I image was an overview of the life and work of the singer. However everyone there seemed to be enjoying it so maybe it didn’t matter! I did find the show a bit dumbed down and only just spotted that the map/leaflet marks selfie spots.   There were some wonderful pieces but there was also a big gap because the Jeff Koons ceramic Michael Jackson wasn’t there as it’s too frail to travel! There were lots of references to it and works with it in but, as the most famous contemporary art Jackson piece, it was the elephant that wasn’t in the room. Also some of the work had been commissioned for the show which I thought was a bit of a cheat as was it really inspired by Jackson or by being commissioned for a Jackso...

Small selling exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery of work by Shirley Baker from her personal collection.   I’ve seen Baker’s work in another exhibition and love her documentary style and knack of catching a moment. Her work traced communities in the North West of England from the 1960s to the 1980s so covering a similar period to one of the main shows in the gallery at the time by Tish Murtha.   I loved a picture a little girl pushing a dolls pram in a huge pair of men’s shoes. Also one of a child at a window with a dog on the front step outside. My favourite was of a 60s couple kissing while leaning on a street sign saying “Honesty”.   Closed on 28 July 2018

Interesting exhibition at the Photographers Gallery of work by documentary photographer Tish Murtha. Murtha documented social deprivation in the 70s and 80s in a series of six collections of work starting with Newport Pub in 1976 looking at the clientele of a local pub. The commentary emphasises the deprivation angle but I found I was seeing moments in people’s live frozen in time. The work had a certain pathos but also humour. The pictures could almost have been from any era which made me think that British poverty looks the same whatever the era.   I loved a picture of two children playing on a street and one in the London by Night series of Soho scenes which she produced with Karen Leslie, a sex worker, of her dancing.   Closes on 15 October 2018   Review Guardian  

Dramatic exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery of work by the American photographer and film-maker Alex Prager.   The show combined her large scale staged photographs with video installations. The photographs are exhibited like fine art and feel like history pictures presenting short stories. I loved one called Culver City of three men photographed from a low level at the centre of them but my favourite was of Anaheim station with people on the train cutting across it in a vertical line and others on the platform ignoring them.   Surprisingly for me I loved the video installations. American stories was shown on three walls of the space and showed a woman walking through a crowd. It was quite a shock when the crowd scenes kick in and make the space feel very full. La Grande Sortie showed an audience coming to see a ballet dancer at her last performance. It was accompanied by stills from the film including a dramatic one of a ballerina on a black stage.   ...

Beautiful exhibition at the Chelsea College of Art of work by members of the Society of Designer Craftsmen.   There was a wonderful variety of work including glass, jewellery, furniture, wood turning, textile art and ceramics. It was a well hung and arranged show giving each of the artists a defined space but also making the pieces work well together and setting up an interesting dialogue between different techniques.   I forgot to pick up the catalogue so I’m afraid I don’t now remember the names of the artists but I loved some swirling coloured glass and there was some beautiful smooth, tactile furniture. As ever the selection of jewellery was stunning.   Thanks as ever to Richard Shock with his lovely wood turning work for the private view ticket. I loved his new veneered pieces particularly this one placing a hexagon within a circle. Apologies to Richard that it’s taken me so long to get round to blogging this but watch out for him in October at the Han...

Fun exhibition at the Festival Hall looking at the life and music of the group Abba. This was an immersive exhibition which was made by the lovely guide we had through it and the wonderful downbeat recorded commentary by Jarvis Cocker of all people. I loved the way you were taken from room to room through wardrobes, forest paths and secret   doorways. The experience made up for the fact there weren’t that many artefacts and some of them were quite dry like contracts and magazines.   I particularly liked the detail in the first room representing an English lounge in the 1970s. I felt very at home. My friend and I spent the whole time pointing and sharing memories! Is this really being shown as history? You moved from there into the Brighton Hotel Room where the group stayed on the night they won Eurovision with film of the event, reproductions of the costumes but the real blue hat worn by Agnetha.   It was exciting in the section on touring with costumes and ...

Striking exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of three new video installations by Taieanese artist Yuan Goang-Ming.   As anyone who follows me might have realised I’m not a fan of video art but I loved this show! My usual objection is how long some of the work if but these three pieces were fairly short as around 5 minutes and I even watched one of them through twice.   The first film was drone footage of the annual air raid drill in the city of Wanan which shows a deserted city with empty streets and abandoned cars. The film moved slowly over the city and is very still, peaceful an unreal. At first viewing I thought it was a video game not a real city. The second film used a similar technique of slow overhead filming of deserted space but this time it looks at the Taiwanese forest and coastline and shows abandoned building and a nuclear power plant. Buildings suddenly loom out of the screen following expanses of trees and leading to the sea.   My favourite was...

Strange exhibition at the Hayward Gallery looking at the career of Lee Bul, the South Korean artist.   I thought this work was thought provoking but not particularly beautiful. It’s not really stayed with me and I’ve just had to check my photos before writing to remind me of the work. I did think these strange sculptures and installations worked well in the newly refurbished Hayward Gallery and it was good that there was space for each of them to be viewed individually but also to be seen together to represent   the body of her work.   Without the leaflet I am not sure I would have understood the show so I’ll quote from it “Lee Bul’s work is concerned with the way that idealism or the pursuit of perfection – bodily, political or aesthetic – might lead to failure, or disaster.”   Each of the works felt like an experience. In the first room I liked Civitas Solis II, an large installation like a 3D map of an archipelago made of mirrors with light bulbs pu...