Cathy's Art Diary

Giant installation at the Royal Festival Hall by Academy Award-winning designer Tim Yip. Lili is a 5m high hyper-real figure of a girl shown as part of the China Changing Festival on the South Bank as well as Cloud, a year-long international collaboration led by Yip exploring futurism, identity and the environment. I found the commentary of the work a bit impenetrable something about foiling “the period of war and technology of the twentieth century” and the “concept of the duality of yin and yang”.   However I found the work impressive and she was certainly drawing a crowd when I was there. I’m not sure how long she will be there. The festival finished on 7 October but she looked like she was there to stay a bit longer!

Beautiful exhibition at the National Gallery giving an overview of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art by using the Courtauld Institute’s collection while the gallery is being refurbished. It was nice to see these works from Samuel Courtauld’s own collection shown with those works which he bought on behalf of the National Gallery. They were arranged by artist to give a useful overview of these movements and shown alongside photographs of the work hung in Courtauld’s London house. I would like to see a bit more analysis of what the works he kept for himself or bought for the gallery had in common. It was lovely to see old friends from the Courtald Gallery in a different context and to set up dialogues with a different collection. Manet’s Bar at the Folies Berger was given a lovely central position. Every time I look at that picture I seem to see some new detail. There were two lovely Van Gogh’s from different points in his career, a late wheatfield and an earlier still...

Superb exhibition   at the National Gallery looking at the work of the brothers-in-law Mantegna and Bellini. I love the work of both these artists and have been interested in the fact there were related by marriage so found this show fascinating and will definitely be going back to do the tape tour and study the pictures in more detail. The pictures were beautifully shown and I loved the use that was made of drawings to enhance the arguments it makes. The show proposes that the two artists inspired each other and used similar themes. I formed the impression that often Mantegna tried out an idea first which Bellini then adapted an enhanced. I love the clarity and sharpness of Mantegna and his story telling ability but also like Bellini’s soft lyrical style. I was surprised that the possible influence of Netherlandish artists was not mentioned until the 5th room as the use of false frames and landscape was screaming Van Eyck at me much earlier in the show. I loved the...

Strange but interesting exhibition at Canada House matching seven guitar makers to artists from the Canadian Group of Seven Artists and commissioning a work from each. The Group of Seven Artists came together in the early 20th century in a shared belief that direct contact with nature could create a distinctive Canadian art form. From the photographs in the exhibition their works looks beautiful landscapes and I’d love to see more of it. I’ve never seen guitars used as a basis for art before and these were beautiful objects. Each guitar maker chose an artist and produced a piece based on their work. The guitar makers, or luthiers, have also created a collective legacy which is shaping the guitar making industry. I loved the touch that some of the luthiers like Sergei de Jonge, had used either types of wood which surrounded the area where the artists had worked or wood from trees in their paintings. Jean Larrivee’s piece looked quite plain but when you look carefully th...

Four new galleries at the National Maritime Museum looking at Polar exploration, the Tudor and Stuarts, Pacific Exploration and a gallery on our relationship with the sea. Given these galleries were all developed and opened at the same time they all have a different feel about them. All were well styled and made really good use of audio visual material. The Tudor and Stuart gallery included a small scene showing Woolwich dockyard including tiny moving figures. It’s hard to describe but it’s the first time I’d seen this used in a gallery and it was really effective. I also liked the av displays of their map and atlas collection. I loved the Polar gallery as I am a bit of a Shackleton and Scott geek. I did get a bit confused by going round the gallery backwards but all the objects I knew the museum held were there and I liked the fact it came up to date and looked at current scientific work going on in the area. I particularly liked an av display listing all the men on Shack...

Lovely exhibition   at the Gallerie D’Italia Napoli of photographs by Luciano and Marco Pediani. The show matched pictures of old and contemporary Naples shown side by side to show that the city has always been changing and adapting. I loved one of the Temple of Mercury next to the inside of the underground station we had just come out of. Also one, shown here, of a portrait in a gallery upstairs alongside a mural on a city wall.

Interesting exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology in Naples looking at sundials found at Pompeii. These were not particularly beautiful objects but they had been examined scientifically and a fascinating video showed you how a sundial could tell the time throughout the year. It showed how daylight was divided into 12 but each of those divisions of 12 was a different length depending on the time of year. It had been discovered that some must have been ornamental and brought from other places as they would not calibrated to work in Pompeii. There was one made specifically made for Pompeii. I also loved one from the bath house which had been used to regulate sessions at the complex. It was nice touch to display the Farnese Atlas, a Roman copy of a Greek work showing Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders, at the centre of the room. It shows a high level of astronomical knowledge and records discoveries made in the same period that it was made. 

Fascinating exhibition at the Archaeological Museum in Naples looking at how the news and information about the discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii were recorded and circulated from their discovery to the invention of photography. Having been to Pompeii two days before we did this exhibition in filled in the gaps between the then of what we saw and the now of us experiencing it. I’d also done a course last year on classicism and this illuminated a lot of the points made on it about the re-emergence of classical style in art and architecture when these cities were discovered. I loved seeing the notebooks of the engineers who discovered Herculaneum when preparing a site to build a royal villa. They included Jakob Weber’s survey of the Villa of the Papyri. Some of his notes are the only record we have of sites as in digging them they were destroyed. They also had an early notebook showing the finds shown alongside the finds themselves and Francois de Paule’s first overall ...

Delightful exhibition at Museo di Capodimonte of works by Paolo La Motta in response to the museum’s collection. “Sensitive Encounters” seems to be a series of shows inviting contemporary artists to respond to the works in the museum. In this show works from the collection next to the works by the artist which they inspired. One painting Bambina, was like a modern Veronica picture with the figure holding a blank piece of material. I loved a series of exquisite portraits of a boy alongside a sculpted head. It turned out the boy was called Genny who was sadly he was killed in a gang fight five years later which added an extra layer of poignancy to this lovely work. Closes on 30 October 2018

Interesting exhibition at the Museo di Capodimonte which invited ten ‘ideal visitors’, intellectuals, artists, collectors and entrepreneurs to curate a room each at the museum using items from the collection. In essence it was a way of showing this fabulous collection in a different formation to make people think again about the works. Each of the curators had carte blanche to choose 1 -10 works. I’d love to have known the order in which they chose their work and whether there were any arguments! The rooms which stood out were the architect Paolo Pejrone’s room of landscapes which included a gold frame around the window with its view over Naples, the neurologist Laura Bossi Regner’s room of pictures which included monkey’s as we share 93% of our DNA with monkeys and contemporary artist Franceso Vezzilo’s room of sculpture busts shown in pairs settling up a dialogue between them. Closes on 9 December 2018

Lovely installation at the Pio Monte Della Misericordia in Naples of a new piece by Olivero Rainnaldi to compliment the Caravaggio “Seven Acts of Mercy” whose chapel it shares. The work consisted of eight white stylised figures standing on their heads on top of very tall poles in a circle. They pointed towards the dome of the small chapel just yards from the Caravaggio which we had gone to see. The chapel is in a confraternity building and your first view of the Caravaggio and this work is from the choir gallery overlooking the chapel in the main building. From there the figures look like they are diving into the space and you see the wonderful painting though this white circle. As you can gather from the above I loved this work but it was only since I got home that I’ve read what it was about. It represents a proposed eighth act of mercy, being merciful to one’s self.   It takes its inspiration from the flame in the picture seeing it as a symbol of the Spirit. It was ...

Eclectic exhibition at Somerset House with 40 countries, cities and territories showcasing design ideas on the theme of emotional states. The show took over all the galleries at Somerset House as well as the courtyard and was a mind blowing selection of ideas and images. It looked at design in the broadest sense of the word, not only looking at products but also social issues and architecture. I think the only way to tackle writing about it is to pick my three favourite installations so here goes! The Hong Kong entry “Sensonal Estates” looked at the examined the smells of the city and featured scratch and sniff wallpaper. It was in bright repetitive designs and it was amusing to see punters sidle up to sniff it. Smells included temples, roast duck, egg tart and opium. It was shown with a selection of curated objects from the city. Australia’s “Full Spectrum” marked the legalisation of same sex marriage in the country with a light screen made of 150 strands of light in the...

Wonderful documentary shown at ArtFix in Woolwich as part of the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival. The film had been made a few years ago and followed the two daughters of Stanley Spencer, Unity and Shirin, in old age and interspersed footage of them with an older documentary about their father from the 1970s. The sisters were filmed as Unity moved from her home of 40 years in Clapham to move in with her son John in Wales and at the same time Shirin moved in too. The film told the story of the marriage of Stanley and his wife Hilda Carline and the effect of their divorce and his remarriage to Patricia Preece on the children. The film was very moving and a wonderful study of old age as well as telling their story. It was particularly fascinating to have John Spencer, Unity’s son, at the showing although, as his mother had died since the film was made, he didn’t appear until the end as I’m sure it would have been hard for him to watch. We also had the producers, ...

Interesting exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse of photograph portraits by Zanele Muholi. The show consisted of 84 photographs beautifully hung to fill the gallery two deep. They are part of a project by the artist to highlight the lives of the LBGT community in their native South Africa and this selection was chosen in response to the sister exhibition currently running at Charleston on the novel Orlando. I found it quote moving to stand in this room of faces all looking directly at you. You knew each one had a story to tell and you wanted to ask them. Closes on 6 January 2019 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph

Magical exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse marking 90 years since the publishing of Orlando and looking at its history and interpretation. Orlando was written by Virginian Woolf in homage to her lover Vita Sackville-West and plays with ideas of gender and time. It’s a book I love and know well. The show was a lovely blend of the history of the book and an exploration of its themes. I liked the fact that the show had borrowed items from Knole, the house which Vita loved but could not inherit and which features heavily in the book, including portraits which Virginia had used to illustrate the book. There were also numerous copies of the first edition used to show the illustrations. They also had the copy owned by Vita’s mother in which she had written a stream of vitriol against Virginia. There were immediate reactions to the book including a wonderful dinner service painted by Vanessa Bell with scenes from the book. I’d never seen this before as it is privately owned. I...

Lovely refurbishment and new buildings at Charleston Farmhouse. The new build has given Charleston two new galleries, a large slightly L-shaped one and a smaller square one. Both are being used beautifully at the moment (see the next blog entries). The original plan had been for the smaller gallery to be an archive store but I gather they are so pleased with it as a gallery that they will keep it as that and raise money for a new archive store behind it. The new space is placed behind the barn and is almost invisible as you drive up to the building. It keeps the integrity of this historic site. The colours used blend really well with the barn and its construction has created a new small courtyard. Excellent new toilets too! The refurbishment of the barn is beautiful. The best compliment I can pay is that if you knew it before it doesn’t feel different, just a bit cleaner and warmer. The wood work has been sympathetically restored using as much of the original wood as poss...

Colourful sculpture trail around London using a model of a rhino as the base. These trails seem to be becoming an annual event in London and following on from the original Cow Parade this year we had rhino’s to raise awareness of the illegal trafficking of their horns. I only managed to do clumps, one around Trafalgar Square and one around St Paul’s. I think I missed one very close to work! I saw Gavin Turk’s which was a slightly boring looking mock bronze rhino, an interesting take on his body of work but not very jolly. Eileen Cooper’s was a white rhino with a couple painted on it’s back. I liked David Mach’s take on “Day of the Dead” and Chang Huan’s colourful piece near the Millennium Bridge. Closed on 30 September 2018

Interesting exhibition at the Hayward Gallery looking at contemporary artists who have used drag to explore or question gender and identity through self-portraiture. The show took quite a broad definition of drag seeing it as much as dressing up in general not just cross dressing. Cindy Sherman’s series of identity card photos explores aging rather than gender. I did like Michael Journiac’s “24 Hours in the Life of an Ordinary Woman” where he enacted scenes from a typical woman’s day based on a survey from a woman’s magazine. It was lovely to see a couple of Robert Mapplethorpe self-portraits with him in partial drag. However I am going to have my usual moan about video art! There was a bank of screens showing films with headphones. They were popular so you were queuing to get onto them and if you had watched them all you would have been there for over 2 hours! Closed on 14 October 2018. Review Guardian