Cathy's Art Diary

Annual summer exhibition at Bankside Gallery showing work by members of the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.   As ever this show was nicely hung with informal connections between images being set up. I liked Annie William’s still lives of modern ceramics in muted colour, also Joseph Winkleman’s tiny prints of London. However my favourite this year was Stuart Robinson with his architectural watercolours of iconic buildings against a squared background picking up the colours of the stone.   Closed on 9 September 2018  

Nice exhibition on the banks of the Thames outside Tate Modern looking at the Dogget’s Race which has been run on the Thames for apprentice watermen since 1715 as part of the Totally Thames Festival. One side of the nicely presented information boards looked at the history of the race which was set up by the actor Thomas Dogget and told the story of watermen on the Thames pointing out that watermen took people up and down the river and lightermen took them across. The race is run between London Bridge and Cadogan pier by six apprentices and the prize is a red coat and badge which are presented at a dinner at the Fishmonger’s Hall.   The other side of the boards talked about the family tradition of taking part on the race with photographs of the current generation of these families by Hydar Dewachi. I was fascinated to see that Sean Collins, the CEO of Thames Clippers and his son had both won the race. Watch out for sister exhibitions outside the Guildhall and on one of ...

Interesting exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum for a biennial prize for contemporary design inspired by Islamic tradition.   The show focused on the eight finalists covering fashion design, painting, architecture and more. I liked Naqsh Collective’s work drawing on the embroidery of shawl’s in Jordon and laser cutting the patterns into wood with brass inlay. My favourite was the painter Hayv Kahraman who is shown here. She studied in Florence and combines this practice with ideas from 13th century Mughal manuscripts to highlight the life of modern women.   Closes on 25 November 2018

Thought provoking exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at 100 newly released products or ideas in development now which will shape the world of tomorrow.   This show was packed with ideas around the themes of self, public, planet and afterlife. It would be fun to rerun it in ten years to see what effect the products have had. I’ve been interested to see how many of the developments I have spotted in the real world since. However I also liked the warning it came with through a quote from Paul Virillio “The invention of the ship was also the invention of the ship wreck.”   I found some of the inventions horrific like the glove to be worn by warehouse staff on which they can read the orders but it also measures how long it takes them to fulfil an order and counts any mistakes they make. This seems to be eroding their personal value as an employee and turning people into robots.   I did feel at times we are inventing a fix to a problem rather...

Fascinating exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the life of Frida Kahlo though her possessions.   This was a stylishly presented show with clever presentation cases such as those designed like four poster beds to represent the time she spent sick in bed. However it was very busy and cramped in places. I must admit I’ve not caught the Frida Kahlo addiction but a lot of the audience had, including a grandma and granddaughter with matching flowers in their hair.   I found the most fascinating thing in the show was the story of how 6,000 photographs, 22,000 documents and 300 personal items were found in a sealed up bathroom in 2004, 50 years after her death, and these form the basis for this show.   The first room, a long corridor, told the story of her life though those photographs and documents. I was stunned that not only had she had polio but to see details of the awful crash she was involved in. The list of injuries was horrific! ...

Strange exhibition at the Royal Horticultural Halls looking at life in the oceans.   I say strange because I wasn’t sure what level it was aimed at. There were games and a child friendly app but also very detailed information on the creatures on display which I found a bit impenetrable. This was an expensive show and they did their best to recreate an underwater feel but it felt like being in bunker hung with a few curtains. The much billed virtual reality part cost extra and a sign said that the content might not relate to the exhibition so basically something for the children to play with along with the ball park. Oh and the film seemed to be an episode of Blue Planet and not related to the content you had just seen. I went round wondering if I was looking at models or preserved creatures and they don’t tell you till the end that they are produced by a method called plasticisation which replaced the moisture from the creature and replaces it with a plastic polymer....

Fabulous new museum space at Westminster Abbey built in the triforium high up above the abbey floor.   I’d been so excited about this development since I first read about it and it didn’t disappoint. I loved the space, actually built in about 1250 during the reign of Henry III and the views it gave over the inside of the abbey and of the roofs and across Parliament Square and the Houses of Parliament. A new tower had been built to give access to the space with, thank goodness, a lift. I loved the touch that stripes of the different stones used to build the abbey were inserted up the inside of the tower. The objects in the space were just as stunning! Divided into four themed areas it covers the Abbey and national memory, the building of the Abbey, worship and daily life and the Abbey and the monarchy. You just kept falling over amazing unique things. I loved the corbel heads with wonderful crisp carving as they’ve never been exposed to the elements. These must be...

Interesting exhibition at Chartwell looking at the life of Churchill’s wife Clementine. In a series of display cases and with excellent information boards the exhibition ran from her childhood, her marriage to Churchill, her family life and the role she took up in the Second World War. Objects included Churchill’s Nobel Prize which Clementine collected on his behalf, jewellery, childhood photo albums and objects form the house. Closes on 28 October 2018

Thought provoking exhibition at Tate Modern of work by Jenny Holzer. Holzer used words to create installations which reflect the use of text around us in everyday life. The first room has her work Truisms covering the walls, 300 slogans in alphabetical order repeated in strips. Some of them made you laugh others made you feel annoyed. I loved her marble benches with words engraved into them and the neon piece which cut across the main room with scrolling words dominating the space.     Closes on 31 July 2019

Brilliant exhibition at Tate Modern looking at German art from the end of the First World War to the rise of Hitler.   The show started with a good timeline of the art and politics of the time which was a good grounding for the show. The show was them arranged by theme. The first room contrasted those artists who looked at everyday life through precise observation and those who employed satire and the grotesque. In particular it looked at how this came out through the theme of circus. I loved the room of portraits with pictures of artists’ studios on wall and wonderful run of portraits on the other. It was like looking at the faces of the time and being part of an exciting party. You then moved into the real party in the next room which looked at cabaret and talking about how the clubs were a very equal space and a place where women could visit unchaperoned. The last room looked at religion and how some of the experiences of the artists who had fought in the First ...

Interesting exhibition at Tate Modern looking at photographers who have prioritised shape, form and expression over recognisable subject matter and their role in the wider history of abstract art.   I liked the fact that photographs were hung with abstract paintings of the same period so you could see the dialogue between photography and painting. However I admit I’m not a great fan of abstracts and as usual liked pictures where real things became abstract in the way they were shown rather than the pure abstracts.   The show did take you thought the different type of abstract art well and I came out feeling I understood its development better. It also looked at the development of photography and how that influenced this work.   I liked Judith Karasz’s close-ups of fabric and the Russian pictures of architecture and objects taken at strange angles. It was interesting to see Vortecist photographs and Brancusi’s pictures   of his own work.   Clos...

Reopening and refurbishment of the Ranger’s House in Blackheath.   I must admit I’d not been to the Ranger’s House before the recent work so I can’t make a comparison but I found it a delightful house and well presented. The top floor is given over to the Wernher Collection of works of art amassed by diamond magnate Sir Julius Wernher. It was a wonderful collection of paintings, Renaissance jewellery, majolica, Gothic ivories and Renaissance bronzes. It was an interesting comparison to the collection of Richard Wallis currently on display at the Wallace Collection.   The narrative became a bit confused downstairs when it moves to the story of the house itself and previous inhabitants. It’s odd that the house is dominated by a collection from someone who never actually lived there or have a connection to it. However it is a good use for a beautiful house with little in it.   Review Guardian

Small exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery looking at Victorian landscape painting focused on a full scale oil sketch for Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral.   This period saw the introduction of a greater range of pigments and the popularisation of painting out of doors. The show included some nice pictures such as John Brett’s “Echoes of a Far Off Storm” with lovely tiny seagulls on the sand. Also Benjamin Leaders picture of the churchyard at Betws y Coed which was bought by Gladstone. The Constable had a freer finish than final work and the spire blends into the sky.   Closing date not given  

Beautiful exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery looking at how William de Morgan used mathematics in the design of his ceramics. OK I admit on the surface this sounds a bit dull but it was beautifully presented and well explained and a good excuse to look at lots of lovely William de Morgan ceramics! De Morgan’s father was the first professor of Mathematics at UCL and is brother was also a mathematician.   There was a good section looking at how he used repeat patterns on tiles and the maths of making these work.   Also a section on how the logic of numbers creates a balanced pattern. I didn’t quite understand the section at the end looking at the London Mathematical Society other than that his father and brother were founders of it and the society along with the De Morgan Foundation had organised the show.   There were some stunning pieces in the show. I loved seeing a plate alongside the drawn design for it and some of the tiles for the P&O liners. M...

Dull exhibition at the Barbican Centre looking at the designs for the Barbican Centre cultural spaces and asking five contemporary architects to respond to the material.   It was interesting to read how the cultural spaces were designed from the inside out as they were the last phase of the development and had to be fitted into a restricted site so most of the performance spaces are below ground level.   I didn’t really understand the contemporary reactions to the design which weren’t well explained and seemed a bit obtuse. Closes on 11 November 2018  

Strange exhibition at Barbican of work by photographer Vanessa Winship.   I found these works quite self-conscious compared to the complimentary Dorothea Lange show. Lange was hidden behind her works but these seemed to be more about the view of the photographer. Some of them were staged which I found odd in documentary work.   There were seven projects represented here from pictures looking at the effect of the war in Kosovo to pictures taken during an American election campaign. I did find the labels a bit minimal and convoluted, what on earth does “a tradition in which combustible realities can be engaged through a lyrical and rigorously description approach” mean?!   I did like the set of pictures of school girls in Anatolia who all wear a variation on the theme of a blue dress with a lace collar. I loved the way they all looked the same at first glance but were subtly different.   Closed on 2 September 2018   Reviews Guardian Even...

Fascinating exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery looking at the life and work of the photographer Dorothea Lange.   Lange is best known for her iconic US Depression era photograph “Migrant Mother” and there was a section of the show devoted to the picture and how it had been used over the years. I was particularly interested in how in later prints Lange had edited out the mothers’ thumb so you can date a print as pre and post thumb. It is a moving image and it was lovely to see the other pictures that were taken in the same session.   The show did say however that that image had overshadowed the rest of Lange’s career. She wasn’t one image but was one of the founders of documentary photography. She opened a studio in San Francisco in 1919 specialising in rather wistful portraits but after the Stock Market crash San Francisco filled with migrants and she started going onto the street to photograph them. This led to her working on reports with the social scientis...