Cathy's Art Diary

Quirky decoration of National Trust property Polesden Lacey for Christmas. This year’s decorations, by contemporary artists NEON, take inspiration from the society hostess, Margaret Greville, who lived there. Using her jewellery collection, which is now part of the Royal Collection, they take elements of the jewels and create three installations within the house. The Trust then responded to these quirky displays with a more traditional approach in the next room. My favourite room, shown here, was the billiard room hung with diamond shaped frames which moved gently in a breeze casting different shadows around the room. I also liked the corridor to the servants quarters lined with white foliage and feather balls. Closed 6 January 2020

Delightful decoration of National Trust property Standen as a family Christmas of the 1930s. The property was filled with scenes the life of the family of the house, the Beales, from a room set up for present wrapping, a dining table at the end of a food fight and the simple decorations in the servants’ hall. I loved a bust with added pearls and nostalgic paper chains. Outside the Trust had commissioned designers, NEON to decorate a large tree which they did with gold wind chimes which tinkled gently and glimmered as the wind caught the branches. Closed 5 January 2020

Excellent study day organised by the London Art History Society on Matisse. The course was led by Ben Street who delivered four great lectures without notes using a well thought out slides to take us through the story. The day was split up well and, although I thought I knew Matisse’s work quite well, I learnt a lot. We began by looking at Matisse’s early work, although he came to art relatively late in life for an artist, including the start of Fauvism and his role in it. We also discussed how his work doesn’t show the usual subjects of the time such as the city but chose more traditional subjects such as landscapes and still lives albeit in a radical style with strange colour combinations. We then looked at his most radical period from 1912-17 and how this was fuelled by travelling to Algiers and the role of two collectors. We talked about how he painted “Dancers” and “Music” for Serge Shchukin, the Russian textile magnet. In the afternoon we started by looking a...

Immersion light installation in the Bloomberg Arcade showing shape-shifting projections along the length of the pavement of the arcade. I found this by accident with friends while walking to Cannon Street Station after a Christmas do. Taking a cut through we found this colourful, changing display which not only brightened the area but made you look at the new buildings around it. It was commissioned by Bloomberg Philanthropies, produced by Artichoke and created by artist collective, NOVAK in collaboration with Ed Carter and Hazel Dunn. Evidently it shows the human impact on climate change but I must admit when rushing to catch a train the meaning passed me but the colour and effect has stuck with me. Closes 10 January 2020

Interesting exhibition at the National Theatre showcasing the shortlisted designers for the Linbury Award award. Drawn from recent graduates of theatre design course, 20 are chosen by a panel to present their work to one of the four commissioning theatres who each chose three to work with. Each designer was then asked to produce a design for one of their forthcoming productions. The prize is then to see their design realised. It’s fascinating to see three designs for the same show and see the effect of a different set and costumes. Each design was represented by set models, sketchbooks and textiles.   I loved Zoe Hurwtiz’s design for a play called Acid at the Nuffield Southampton Theatre which consisted of a glass box with dancers inside, figures outside and a loan figure on a chair behind the box. Different lighting highlighted the different aspects of the set. I would love to see this in action. I also liked the winner Sami Fendall’s design for a ballet set ...

Fun exhibition at Somerset House of a city made of gingerbread for Christmas. This is an annual show by the Museum of Architecture but it’s the first time I’ve managed to get to it. It brings together architects, designers and engineers to create an imaginary city. The first thing to strike you as you go into the room is the smell, a real fragrance of Christmas, and the second is the scale of it. I love the details of this piece with some recognisable buildings such as Battersea Power Station but also some fantasy pieces. I also liked the way it included houses as well as large public and commercial buildings. What was lost was some of the points about planning and the built environment which it was trying to make. If you stopped to read the introduction it explained the different zones in the city. I was also a bit confused by the boards around the room which I guessed were promoting the companies who had been involved and their ethos. I wonder how many people just ma...

Colourful installation at the Now Gallery by Nigerian artist Mowalola. I’ve seen a few things in this space and this installation fitted it well and looked very striking. It consisted of drapes of fabric by the artist with a rock band of mannequins in the middle covered in tar wearing punk outfits also by the artist and playing tar-coated instruments. It was a blaze of colour and texture. Reading the press release now it says it “aims to disrupt and question perceptions of normality whilst challenging traditional discourse surrounding African sexuality encouraging visitors to shed the pressures of convention and live life by their own terms.” I’m not sure I thought or felt any of that but I did like it. Closes 19 January 2020

Sweet sculpture trail around the London Bridge area featuring figures based on Raymond Brigg’s Snowman and decorated by contemporary artists. There were twelve figures in the trail based on the Twelve Days of Christmas and it was presented by Wild in Art, a producer of public events, in collaboration with Penguin Ventures (part of Penguin Random House UK). I only had time to find three of them as I was rushing for a train but my favourite of the ones I saw was this one by Jenny Leonard representing Four Calling Birds, a joke I didn’t get at the time! Closes 5 January 2020

Strange installation at Tate Britain by Mark Leckey. At the heart of this show was the rebuilding of a motorway bridge under which were shown three videos. I admit I wished I’d read the leaflet before I got in but I wanted to experience it and make up my own mind about what it was plus once I got in it was too dark to read it. I was blown away by the experience of it and how it created such a menacing space in a usually comforting one. Light levels changed but at its darkest there was a feeling that anything could happen. However the videos passed me by. It didn’t help that I assumed all of them referred to the bridge and were part of one project. I’ve only just realised they were three different pieces. I assume the main bridge one was the one shown at the top of it but it felt a bit tucked away and I didn’t engage with it, the space didn’t make me want to linger, which I guess was part of the point but also seemed to defeat part of the object of it. Close on 5 Januar...

Fantastic exhibition at Tate Britain looking at the life and work of William Blake. I loved the fact that this show looked at all aspects of Blake’s work including poetry, not just the visual arts, and also discussed him as a business man. It gave an interesting overview of life at the time in particular life in London. It was interesting that the introduction in the booklet did immediately say it wasn’t going to try to explain the symbolism of the work other than quite broadly “instead it considers the reception of his art and how it was experienced by his contemporaries”. What a good decision as I suspect if they tried to explain the symbolism I’d still be there! The show felt very comprehensive and I loved some of the detail, which reflected the detail in his work, such as including a sketchbook by Edward Francis Burney, a contemporary of Blake at the Royal Academy who sketched his friends at work, as well as a sketch of a statue by Blake when he was there along wit...

Small exhibition at Tate Britain looking at the art of Lubaina Himid. The show looked at the common theme in her work of women together including how textile becomes a secret yet visible language between women. I loved a collage inspired by a Picasso of two women joyfully walking dogs who have escaped.   I love Himid’s vivid used of colour. My favourite piece was a painted piano lid called “Chopin’s Heart” shades of the Pre-Raphaelites except it was no longer attached to the piano. Closes 26 April 2020

Delightful exhibition at Tate Britain by Steve McQueen of 76,000 7 and 8 year old London school children. I loved this exhibition which was much better than I expected. I’d read about it and thought it might be a bit twee and was skeptical of how it would work as an exhibition. However the sheer scale of it was stunning as the small pictures, all about A4 in size, took over the large Duveen Gallery. The fact that the pictures were hung in school groups set up a rhythm like a geometric abstract picture as it created small banks of colour. The work also worked on the small scale as each picture showed a group of eager faces grouped around their teacher and with any teaching assistants at the side. They have caught a moment in time in those children’s live which McQueen saw as a significant moment when they become conscious of things outside their family. You can’t help but question what direction their lived will take. I would love to see the classes brought back together in...

Weird installation at Tate Britain by Anne Hardy. Each year Tate Britain commissions a winter installation for the front steps on the gallery.   This years’ by Anne Hardy didn’t work that well in daylight. It may look more impressive at night but I’ve not managed to pass that way at the right time. The website says is is “a marooned temple in an exploration of the natural rhythms of the earth, tides, and the winter solstice.” But I’m afraid I didn’t get any of that. I assumed it was about climate change but it just looked like someone had unrolled toilet paper down the steps and recreated pools of water at the top. There was a sound track running but it was very quiet and again I didn’t really understand it. Sorry looks like this was lost on me this year! Closes 26 January

Amusing but informative exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at how we play and what it is important. The show looked at the role of play in learning and discusses whether is for everyone and not just children. The nature/nurture section looked at how we use play to learn and how educators have harnessed this. There was a big display on the Kindergarten movement started by Friedrich Fröbel in 1839. He devised 20 ‘gifts’ objects to develop stages of development and most of them were illustrated here. It also looked at the role of play in post-War Britain to help children overcome traumas and Constant Nieuwehuy’s theory that mechanised labour would free is from work and adults could lead a nomadic life of play. Bring it on! A section on toys examined how society changes are reflected in children’s toys and o how they can be used to influence society. There was a sweet section on playground chants and how they adapt over time which were recorded by Iona and Peter Opie...

Worthy exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at the response of two contemporary artists to chronic illness. The show looked at how illness disrupts how we think of our bodies but I found that because it just looked at two experiences it felt more like you were looking at the artists’ therapy than considering the issue in more general terms. The photographer Jo Spence documented her breast cancer diagnosis. I did like her project “Beyond the Family Album” which looked at the things we miss out of photo albums as we usually only record the happy and successful moments in life. In hers she adds illness, divorce and tension. Oreet Ashery offered an impenetrable series of videos looking at dying in the virtual world. Each one seemed to be over 30 minutes long and in the short time I gave one of them I really didn’t understand what I was looking at. I wasn’t sure how the tent structure and teddy bear bean bags fit in except that you needed some comfort to watch them...

Fascinating exhibition at the Foundling Museum a look at entertainment in Georgian Britain. The show described itself as “a how-to guide to going to a show in eighteenth century Britain” and covered the theatre, the Foundling Chapel, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and music festivals. It took you through every aspect from buying a ticket, what to wear, what you’d have seen and where you’d have eaten. The show ranged throughout the museum with the main section in the basement looking at theatre and was designed like the foyer of a theatre. It examined the opera and spoken word plays with sections on the main London theatres of the time and a look at regional touring theatre. I loved the idea that one ticket was printed for the season with the show name and seat numbers being hand written on each ticket. I’d not realised that a box office originally only sold tickets for the boxes with a pay booth for other tickets. The Handel room at the top of the building looked at the gro...

Fun exhibition at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery of new work by Marc Vaux. These works are bright, geometric abstract works either flat or 3D in design. Of the flat ones   I Iiked the big squares with rainbow edges like the one shown here. I love the way you see more colour if you view them from the side. They feel like a cheerful Black Square! I loved the low reliefs which are mounted on a circular hanging devise so they can be turned around so there unlimited ways to view the work however my favourite were the more 3D ones which intersected ovals and trapeze shapes in bright colours. Again they look different from different angles and reminded me of a 3D version a Dora Maar as shown recently at Tate Modern. Closes 4 January 2020

Wonderful exhibition at White Cube Masons’ Yard of new work by Antony Gormley. The upstairs gallery had four large figures. The component blocks are loose and use their weight as the principle of construction. They look very solid and permanent but knowing this made you realise they were more fragile.   Some of them faced the wall and leaned against it and I wanted to go up and comfort them. The downstairs gallery had smaller, rust coloured figures. Called “Aggregates” evidently they are made of aggregated blocks which treat use the language of coding to suggest “struggle and symbiosis between body and black”. I’m not sure I’d have got that on my own but I liked them anyway. At   times the figures seem to be emerging from the blocks and the commentary did liken them to Michelangelo’s slave figures. I loved watching people walk around them and interact with them. The works were surrounded by interesting drawings from five series but the commentary offered no ex...

Enlightening exhibition at the British Museum looking at the work of Käthe Kollwitz. As I went round the show I realised I’d come across her before as part of the Germany exhibition at the museum a couple of years ago. There she featured as the designer of a war memorial and model for an angel figure in a church, destroyed by the Nazi’s but remade as a symbol of recovery. It was therefore fascinating to see more of her work and learn not about her life. Kollowitz was seen as an innovative print maker and the show included a number of her series of prints starting with “The Weavers Revolt” from 1893. I loved her set from the First World War, made after her son was killed. These were dark moving images. There was a wonderful case of self-portraits and drawings she did for a satirical magazine. I loved “The Many Silent and Noisy Tradespeople in a Big City” a wonderful, dense   Hogarthian scene. Closes 12 January 2020

Small exhibition at the British Museum looking at objects collected by Sir Stamford Raffles in Java and Sumatra. The show started by pointing out that Raffles was a controversial figure seen as an expert on the region, an imperialist, a reformer or an incompetent official. He started collecting in Java choosing objects that emphasised the argument for keeping the area as a British Colony and those which promoted his learned image. Most of his later collection from Sumatra was lost as sea but drawings of temples survive and were shown here. The commentary talked about the influence of the Enlightenment on him and the changes he brought to the region. I wasn’t sure if all the objects on display were from his collection or just examples of types. My favourite objects were the plate shown here, made for the European market, showing John the Baptist and Christ in a Asian landscape and a beautiful box in mother of pearl, black lacquer and iron showing scenes of trade. Cl...

Interesting exhibition at the British Museum looking at drawings by contemporary artists. The works were arranged in broad themes such as identity, place and space and power and protest. As ever in the British Museum print galleries the commentaries were excellent, telling you a lot in an approachable style. Highlights included a Grayson Perry early picture of his alter ego Claire with glitter (shown here), a wonderful Maggi Hambling of her dying mother and a classic David Hockney of a boy and a pool called “Gregory, Chateau Marmont 1976”. There was an innovative Micah Lexier “One Minute of My Time” where he draws a continuous line for a minute which someone else then sews on the paper. Closes 11 January 2020

Disappointing exhibition at the British Museum looking at how the Islamic world has influence Western art from about 1500. I say disappointing as the show had a problem at the middle of it because the influence had not been that politically correct but it fell over itself to try to make this right or apologise for it. It discussed the different connotations of the word Orientalism. As the show was about the influence on art it might have done better to explain this quickly at the start and then focus on the lovely objects and pictures and what the influence was. Yes sometimes the Victorians misunderstood and misused what they were looking at but does that alter the beauty of the object that results. I loved some of the early work in the show such as the paintings by the Danish artist, Melchoir Lorck, who visited the Ottoman Empire with a Danish embassy and created a visual record of the people he saw. I’d seen a lot before about Gentile Bellini’s trip but didn’t know about ...

Comprehensive exhibition at the British Museum looking at the story of the Trojan Wars, how it was represented in the ancient world and since. I had assumed this show would just look at the story, illustrating it with relatively contemporary art and discussing whether there was any truth to it but it was much more. It did start with a look at how the story emerged and them went through it in dome detailing illustrating it with vases and other objects from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. There were some beautiful objects including this vase of the death of Ajax. I found the section on the archaeology of the real site disappointing. I found it’s narrative of the different layers of excavation confusing and after the wonderfully created world of the first section in was disappointing that the real objects were mainly dull, brown pots. The reproductions of the real treasures from the dig were kept to the end but I know friends who know more about the topic were disappointe...

Fabulous exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the life and work of Dora Maar. The show looked at how Maar’s work spanned mediums and techniques throughout most of the 20th century. I loved that it opened with a room of pictures of her including self-portraits. It was a nice touch to include eight sets of passport photographs showing her age over the years and the wonderful surrealist photograph of her hands by Emmanuel Sougez. I had known very little about her, other than the obvious that she had a relationship with Picasso, but I liked the fact that he didn’t get a mention until Room 6. I hadn’t realised what an established photographer/artist she was when they met. I was fascinated by the room on her early work as a photographer including ground breaking fashion shoots. Also having recently done a course on art and photography I was interested to see her street photography work from Spain, London and Paris and how this work led her into Surrealist images. Once we did...

Interesting exhibition at the Bankside Gallery organised by the Royal Society of Printmakers and focusing on prints made from any form of relief printmaking including linocut, wood cut and wood engraving. There were some lovely images in this show and some more detailed that the technique would imply. I liked Chris Pig’s view over a town at dawn from a balcony as well as Frederick King’s fun picture of a bottom on a bicycle seat. My favourite however was Alexandra Buckley’s picture shown here of rain on London’s South Bank. Closes 24 November 2019

Bright exhibition at Somerset House of new work by South African artist Mary Sibande. Sibande’s work addresses South Africa’s history and the legacy of that history today. She uses herself as a model for photographs and sculptures. The show featured work from three series which included blue figures of a maid, purple fantasy figures representing the struggle of apartheid and red ones representing current disaffection. I’d seem her figures before in an exhibition on Africa at the British Museum and loved them and they were the highlight of this show. Her blue maid figures representing the past of South Africa wear mock Victorian clothes made by Sidande. This was shown with a purple figure which seems to be metamorphosing into an octopus in purple to mark a 1989 protest in which purple pain canons being fired on a crowd were turned by them onto the police so the whole crowd was the same colour.   In another room there was another figure merging from or being consumer by ...

Thought provoking exhibition at Somerset House looking how artists are responding to the non-stop 24/7 world and whether we are losing control of our natural rhythms. I wasn’t always sure what some of the displays were about but the show threw lots of ideas at you to contemplate. I liked the mix of old and new exhibits such as a photograph of a tower block at night with light blazing next to a painting by Wright of Derby showing a factory lit by lamps at night to allow for night working. I liked a video by Marcus Coates called “Self Portrait as Time” where he traces the seconds hand of a watch with his finger giving the image that he is controlling time. Also Esmerelda Kosmatopoulious’s installation of sculptures of fifteen pair of hands in the shapes of using a mobile phone. I loved s video installation of films of workers leaving factories over four decades which pointed out that this is the moment when work mates turn into social groups. However my favourite piece w...

Interesting exhibition at the Ronchini Gallery of work by the Abstract Expressionist Conrad Marca-Relli. These were large collage works using metal nailed on wood in Mondrian like patterns as well as two large paintings. You needed to see the work in the flesh to appreciate the texture of it as it really worked as an object rather than a picture.   Closes 31 January 2020

Imaginative exhibition at Trinity House of new work by Bartholomew Beal. These were big, colourful, figurative paintings taking inspiration from literary figures. He uses a beautifully painted central figure placed in an imaginative space. Beal likens his work to poetry. The works were full of colour and I loved “I Have Lost the Earth” a female figure wading in a sea of colour and the more portrait like “Spare Us From Loveliness” of a woman in blue again a plain pink background. Closed 4 December 2019

Gentle exhibition at Beaux Arts of new work by Naomi Frears. This show consisted of 25 gentle figurative paintings and prints often showing figures against a plain background separating the person from any sense of place or space. They had a feeling of Japanese in prints in that the image is paired back and minimal while still being painted in a detailed way. Closed 30 November 2019

Stunning exhibition at Victoria Miro Mayfair of new work by Grayson Perry. The show included pots, sculpture, large-scale prints, a tapestry and a carpet and the commentary says he is looking at the “collision of art, money, power and desire.” The show does poke fun at itself, particularly in the range of handbags for Osprey, as it does acknowledge Perry’s place in this quandary between the monetary and cultural roles of art. There was a wonderful room of pots which you could walk around to look at the detail. I show a detail from “Shopping for Meaning” which included photographs of Perry outside famous shops by Eleni Parouisi. He has started working with the Martin Parr Archive which, as I love Martin Parr’s photographs, feels like a marriage of National Treasures. The tapestry was a map of London including words which relating to the geographic areas and yet it also has an abstract feel with drip like designs. I loved the carpet “Don’t Look Down” which showed a homel...

Fascinating exhibition at Ordovas looking at the 18 months in the late 1930s when Peggy Guggenheim had a gallery in Cork Street in London. The show just had 12 objects and pictures mainly by Yves Tanguy and Hand Arp to show her collecting interests in Surrealism and Abstraction. These included rings designed by Tanguy for Guggenheim in rose wood and silver gilt. I loved the title of one work by Arp “Head with Annoying Object”. What a great description in one title of Surrealism. However I found the case of archive material most interesting including photographs, catalogues of shows and invitations to exhibition opening. As I had recently been to a show at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice looking at her collecting there,   it was good to learn about another aspect of her career. Closed 14 December 2019

Striking exhibition at Hauser & Wirth of new work by Mark Bradford. The commentary said this show is “dedicated to places difficult and in-between, where conflicts arise, but also where the hope of resolution if to be found.” I didn’t get any of that from the pictures themselves but I did like them and found they drew you in being striking at a distance but being intriguingly layered close up. I thought they worked best in the smaller of the two galleries where I did stop and sit to look at them for a while. Although they were busy abstract images they were calming to look at made you take time to pause and look more carefully. My favourite was “Frostbite” with splashes of bright turquoise paint and swathes of yellow. Closes 21 December 2019

Interesting exhibition at Messums of drawings by the American sculptor Albert Paley. Paley is a metalworker and is best known for having designed the gates for Florida State University. The show was mainly of lovely design drawings for gates and other objects including a wonderful ornate bed. The show also included examples of his metalwork including models for two gates and some beautiful candlesticks which the commentary said he makes in his downtime. My favourites were “Tuft Candle holders” a simple but elegant leaf design.  Closed 30 November 2019