Cathy's Art Diary

Insightful online lecture from Courtauld Research Forum and Ulster Museums on the fashions of the Belle Epoque and in particular an analysis of the dress in Renoir’s “La Loge”. This lecture marked two exhibitions at the Ulster Museums, a loan of various Renoir’s, including “La Loge” from the Courtauld and their own companion show on fashion in the Belle Epoque ie from 1870s to the start of the First World War. Charlotte McReynolds gave us a brief overview of the Belle Epoque exhibition then Ingrid Mida, a picture dating consultant, also known as The Dress Detective took us thought the finer detail of the dress in “La Loge”   revealing that at the date it was painted, 1874, the striped dress would have been slightly old fashioned. This may have been a deliberate statement about the woman by Renoir, or it might be that at this period he had to borrow outfits for his models. Mida compared the picture to real clothes, fashion plates and photographs of the time and looked at what...

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery talking us through the design of Raphael’s Mond Crucifixion of 1502-3.  Carlo Carsato started by asking if we though the picture was boring as it appears uncomplicated and slightly minimal. He then took us through a series of other paintings which may be quoted in it and asked us again. Having made us look at the work and think he then took us through where it was made for and how it would have looked in situ. He examined how the proportions of the space would have influenced the composition then talked us through the various elements. Finally he looked at how the elements were put together and how they were designed to draw our eye around the work and how that would have aided the spiritual contemplation of it. It was a really thoughtful look at the picture, described simply and clearly.

Beautiful exhibition at the Philip Mould Gallery of Elizabethan and Jacobean portraits. This show had a wonderful selection of pictures both miniatures and full-scale works. They were shown with excellent descriptions detailing new research on the works. Small moan though that the labels were hard to read as they were places quite low in a low-lit room. They played havoc with my varifocals! I was very touched to see tiny miniatures of Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, about the size of a thumbnail. It seems likely these were commissioned by Dudley as it was unlikely anyone else would have dared to commission this pair. The Elizabeth was a less formalised version than we usually see. It was a nice hang to put next to a formal full-scale version of her in a Pelican and Tudor Rose dress. There were five Hilliards in the show and an Isaac Oliver and these miniatures were clearly show with magnifying glasses provide. I was intrigued by   newly found Decourt of Henry III of France who...

Lively online lecture from ARTscapades on the truth and legend of the Borgias. The author Sarah Dunant, who has written two novels about the family, took us though their history from Rodrigo becoming Pope Alexander VI in 1492. She looked at why their names may have been blackened, basically because they were Spaniards in the midst of an Italian Catholic church, and how quickly stories of corruption and sexual intrigued started to circulate. She placed them in their time saying that they were no more corrupt than most families of the time. She looked in a particular at Lucrezia and Cesare, outlining her three marriages and his successful military campaign across Italy which inspired Machiavelli’s The Prince. I liked that she talked about the artwork they commissioned at the Vatican particularly the decoration of the apartments they built including the frescos by Pinturicchio which includes this portrait of Lucrezia aged 13 as St Catherine.    

Super two day online course from the Wallace Collection looking at the history of sculpture and it’s use. Richard Stemp, basing his talk on the Wallace Collection but bringing in other examples, took us through the main materials used for sculpture on the first day starting with some wonderful wax plaques, moving through how bronzes were made, work in clay and looking at stone carving. He talked about how small bronzes were made to be held in the hand in the Renaissance and viewed from all angles. One day two he looked specifically at how sculpture has been used to make portraits and memorialise people. He took us though trends in church memorials with some concentration on Italian Renaissance works but also looking at 18th century British pieces which will certainly make me look at the acres of memorials in Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s in a different way. This was a really useful introduction to sculpture and much needed break from paintings.

Interesting online lecture from the Courtauld Research Forum on the American Pre-Raphaelites. Sophie Lynford from Harvard Art Museum explained how the American Pre-Raphaelite movement developed, how it was influence by the British group and how it promoted the Abolition of slavery. She took two pictures by Thomas Charles Ferrer, who had been born in England, to describe the ideas of the movement and how they challenged the American sublime landscape artists. She started with “Gone, Gone” from 1860, shown here, which was on display in New York as the Civil War broke out and them looked at “View of Northampton from the Dome of the Hospital” from 1863, which was a direct response to Thomas Cole’s earlier painting of the nearby Ox Bow Lake. I am not sure I would have worked out the abolitionist links from the paintings but Lynford said this came though more in their writings.

Fascinating online lecture form the London Art History Society looking at the new British Museum exhibition on Thomas Becket. Lloyd de Beer, curator of the show, talked us through Becket’s life, murder and cult and via that also lead us through the exhibition. He introduced us to some wonderful exhibits such as the Becket Leaves, illustrations from an early life of the saint, shown here, a stained-glass window brought from Canterbury for the show and even a font from Norway which shows Henry II complicity in the murder. I can’t wait to see this show as I did this period for A level. It feels like it covers all the bases and I wonder if my old essays will come flooding back to me. It will be interesting to see what new evidence has come to light over the last 40 plus years!  

Delightful exhibition at Cristea Roberts Gallery of tiny drawings by Marie Harnett. The drawings, often smaller than a postcard, are exquisite drawings of film stills from period dramas. The drawings are all black and white despite the films being recent and coloured which gives them a old fashioned look. I had to get really close to them to prove to myself they were drawings. It was fun spotting films you knew such as the recent version of Emma. Some works overlapped drawings based on two stills superimposed on one another giving a sense of movement. Closes 15 May 2021  

Interesting exhibition at Cristea Roberts Gallery of two sets of recent prints by George Baselitz of hands. In one set of etchings “A Hand is Not a Fist” he draws his own hand in different positions. As he is known for his upside down paintings I did wonder how he approached these as hands could be any way up. I found there was a lovely directness to the works and that they were quite moving being an artist recording his own hand or means of creativity.   The other set “Mano (gold) and Mano (white)” were aquatints of hands emerging from dark backgrounds. They felt more abstracted and had a skeletal effect. Some looked like bodies with eh figures as legs. Closes 15 May 2021

Statuesque exhibition at Pace London of work by Robert Mangold spanning three decades. These were large works almost like wall sculptures and reminded me of altarpieces in their size and grandeur. Most were monotone combines shaped canvas’s with a thin line drawn on them crossing the panels. Another combined thin strips of brightly coloured wood into an elongated cross shape. They looked majestic in this white space. Closes 22 May 2021

Lovely exhibition at The Redfern Gallery of a prints from the 1980s by Patrick Procktor. The show focused on a series of prints of China in a subtle palette including lithographs, etchings and aquatints. I liked their very focused, clear compositions. Alongside these were other prints and I loved one of a view of Venice from above the dome of San Giorgio from 1977 and one of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich from the river. Closes 14 May 2021  

Bright exhibition at Flower Gallery of recent work by Bernard Cohen. I liked these works but, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I understood them. The commentary says that they layer motifs such as doors, paws, aeroplanes and railway tracks. They reminded me of those 1980s illusionistic posters where some people saw an imagine in an apparent abstract but I never did. I still remember a friend’s shouting as me “But look it’s Freddie Mercury”! However I loved the colours and textures of the works. I’ve included a picture of the surface of one work to show how the dots all over the surface are like florets of icing. I want skirt made of a material of the pattern and colour combinations. The technique is meticulous. Closes 22 May 2021  

Charming exhibition at Messums of new work made during lockdown by Antony Williams. Williams normally paints detailed portraits in egg tempera but during lockdown, like many artists, he turned he eye to the world around him as he says himself in the commentary to the show “they are obviously dictated by the situation we are in.” It shows that if you have an urge to create you are just going to do it whatever the circumstances. I loved a small picture of a 2-litre plastic milk bottle although I felt a slight sense of desperation! My favourites were paintings of a dolls house in which he placed twigs and seed pods he had picked up on walks on Chobham Common. He painted this from various directions, with and without the roof, this sets up surreal visions of apparently huge plants in a house. It plays with the idea of relative size within small works. I love they way you can see the way he has built up the egg tempera image with tiny brush strokes which also gives you a better underst...

Joyful exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ Kingly Street and Davies Street of new sculptures and paintings by Ugo Rondinone. I loved the blue horse sculptures at Kingley Street, 15 blue glass small horse, made of two pieces of glass fused together to create a horizon in the body of the animal. I liked the way they stood peaceful around the large white space seeming to each contain a landscape. At Davies Street there were large triptych paintings each in a different bright monotone colour stacked one on top of the other. The paint is roughly applied in broad strokes with hand and foot prints in them. They made me think of prehistoric cave paintings where the people left handprints on the rock. In this case they are on painted boulders. Upstairs were smaller abstract watercolours like sunsets over water in varying colours. The press release says they express time in a similar way to Virginia Woolf which piqued my interest with a quote from her. Closes 14 May 2021 Reviews Times Gu...

Strange, colourful exhibition at Almine Rech of work by Sam McKinniss. Best known for painting celebrity subjects, McKinniss has turned his eye to the stars and landscape of country music. They are very colourful and painterly with shapes in the composition partly created by and mirrored with the brushstrokes. I loved the bold, hyperreal landscapes and a tiny cityscape but wasn’t so sure about the portraits which had shades of Jeff Koons or Vladimir Tretchikoff’s “Blue Lady”. Are they naff or clever, I’m still thinking about it! I did like a wonderful, big pink cowboy though! Closes 22 May 2021  

Wonderful exhibition at Gagosian Grosvenor Hill of new work by Rachel Whiteread. Whiteread normally makes casts of the insides of objects such as chairs on in one case a whole house but for this show, made during Covid restrictions, she has turned to creating new structures made from found metal and wood. The main pieces were two sheds constructed in this way and painted white to give a cohesion. I loved the way you could walk round the objects looking in and see how she had built in tree branches to look as if nature was taking over these dilapidated buildings. Dilapidated but in fact newly made. Shown with these works around the walls were new works on paper and flat, relief like resin casts including one of a notice board.     Closes 6 June 2021 Reviews Guardian Evening Standard

Nice small exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ Kingly Street of new work by Uri Aran. There were just eight small works in the show both paintings and sketches. They were mainly abstract works some with a deep scratched effect in the paint which helped to model the work. Evidently they come from his everyday studio practice. I rather liked this picture of a desk chair with additions. One tendency for artists in the Covid era with a lack of their usual subjects seems to be to turn to sketching their immediate environment,

Thoughtful online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the power of ruins in art. Christina Bradstreet took us though pictures from the gallery’s collection that represented the three moods she thought ruins can portray, happy, carefree and calm; brooding melancholy and frightening. Fortunately, most of the pictures we looked at fell into the first category which led to a light afternoon. I was interested in some Dutch Gold Age pictures she showed us which looked like simple landscapes but included references to the Dutch wars of the 17th century so had messages about peace and resistance.   These included a Cuyp without any cows! I was introduced to lots of works I didn’t know including this nightmarish picture by Francois de Nomé “Fantastic Ruins with St Augustine and The Child” from 1623 with statues falling off buildings and a mix of real and imagined ruins with two small figures showing the sheer scale of this ancient world.

Fascinating online lecture from the Churches Conservation Trust tracing the location of all the tombs of English monarchs. Aidan Dodson from University of Bristol, took us though the tombs from Saxon times until George VI. He described where they were and why and their basic design. He was also full of some grizzly details from the tombs that have been reopened. It was a slightly train spotting approach to the tombs and I would have liked to know a bit more about their design, how that changed and what it represented however I was left with an urge to travel round England looking for them!

Fun, colourful installation on the Tide walkway on Greenwich Peninsula by Liz West. The sides of the walkway and steps are lined with rainbow coloured plastic which throws patterns onto the surface of the structure creating kaleidoscope patterns. I loved the pattern up the stairs and the reflections it set up. You could also look through it to see multi-coloured views of the river. A great idea for these Covid times offering a bright, cheerful place to walk or sit or to sit and observe the world. I have only been around lunchtime but I guess the light and patterns change during the day so I’ll try to pop by at some different times.    

Charming outdoor exhibition from the Now Gallery of photographs by Mah Rana exploring what jewellery means to us. This consisted of large-scale pictures around the gallery’s window space each showing a Greenwich Peninsular resident with a quote from them explaining the jewellery they are wearing and what it means to them. These were lovely clear images and some of the descriptions were very moving. This is an ongoing project with a website www.meaningandattachments.com .

Wonderful three part online course from ARTscapades looking women artists from early times to the Baroque. Richard Stemp romped through art history listing and describing the work of women artists with wonderful illustrations. He began by going through the women artists mentioned by Pliny, how Boccaccio then elaborated on the stories of some of them and how copies of his work were illustrated by illuminators. He argued that their accurate depictions implied that it was not unknow for women to be artists. He also looked at the barriers to women becoming artists at this time from the fact that women couldn’t go out in public without a chaperone and therefore found it hard to observe the world to the fact they couldn’t go to live in the house of a master and therefore couldn’t study in the traditional way. Most fun though was his listing of some amazing artis, many of who I knew but there were also lots of new names to loo out for. I hadn’t come across Catherina de Vigri who becam...

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at how artists have dealt with conflict within pictures. Caroline Dawson, Belle Smith and Kate Turbard each took a picture and discussed the conflicts within it from the obvious fight within Luca Giordiano’s “Perseus Turning Phineus and His Followers to Stone” from the early 1680s to the philosophical conflicts in Joseph Wright of Derby’s “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” form 1768. We also looked at the idea of personal conflicts using Pierre Mignard’s “The Marquesa de Seignelay and Two of her Sons” from 1691, shown here,  which the speaker described as an elaborate dating profile picture.    

Innovative online lecture from the National Gallery on how technology might influence art in the next decade. Jacky Klein from the Courtauld took us through various new technologies and how they had been used by artists. It should have coincided with the Durer exhibition which is now later in the year as a comparison to how he responded to the new technology of his time, printing. I would say most of the work she discussed was conceptual art so were more about analysing idea rather than producing fine art works however there were some fascinating projects. I must admit I don’t like virtual reality so I won’t rushing to see Jon Rafman’s “Sculpture Garden” which combines a VR maze with a real sculpture. However I did like Cai Guo-Qiang’s “Fireworks Over Beijing” which combined images of an alabaster model of the Forbidden City with film of fireworks over it to represent the fact they are now illegal in the city due to fire. I did like some of the AI works including the one shown h...

Marvellous online three week course from Paul Nuttall on Durer focusing on his travels in Italy and the Netherlands. I do love Paula’s clear style and great illustrations. She paces the story well and picks key pieces to make her points. This course was in preparation for an exhibition at the National Gallery later in the year and I can’t wait to go. Week one we looked at why Nuremberg was probably the only city that could have nurtured Durer at the time as it had no gild system to control the creativity of artists and which allowed him to experiment in different media. Being a centre of trade it was receptive to new ideas and it was easy for him to circulate his prints around Europe. We then talked about his travels over four years initially to meet the print maker Schongauer in Comar but sadly Schongauer died before he arrived. Durer did however learn from people who had worked with the master. He also visited the great book producing centre of Basel on his way back. Week two l...

Fascinating online lecture from Courtauld Research Forum comparing the imagery in a specific silent move to the fine art of the time. Katherine Manthorne, of City University of New York, took Lois Weber’s “Shoes” from 1916 and compared the imagery and story telling to the work of painters of the time such as the Ashcan School. She looked at four themes shop girls, shoes, street life and how the film engaged all the s enses. The film followed Eve, a shop girl, whose shoes are worn out. She walks past new shoes in the shop window each day while stuffing her own with cardboard to try to keep them watertight. She eventually turn to Charlie, a night club singer, to provide the money for the shoes in turn for services rendered. Weber use movies as social commentary and to try to bring about social change. I loved the way Manthorne also looked at the fine art of the time and how the painters were picking up on similar subjects. She introduced me to some artists I’d not come across befo...

Excellent online lecture from the Barbican Library on the life and collecting of Peggy Guggenheim. Alexandra Epps took us clearly through the life of Peggy Guggenheim concentrating on her art collecting and curating from her first purchase of a sculpture from Frans Arp, through her mass purchases at the start of the Second World War to her later championing of Jackson Pollock. I was fascinated by the sections on the galleries she opened including Guggenheim Jeune in Cork Street London from where she introduced Britain to continental Modern art showing Kandinsky, Cocteau, Picasso, Magritte and more. We also looked at her Modern art museum in New York “Art of the Century” with floors dedicated to Surrealism, abstract art and kinetic art as well as space for changing shows. Of course we ended by looking at the origins of the wonderful Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.