Cathy's Art Diary

Good online lecture from the National Gallery looking at three new portraits bought by or on loan to the gallery. Christine Bradstreet introduced us to the three works. Portrait of a Girl by Isaack Luttichuys from about 1650, shown here, joins the other earlier Dutch portraits in the collection. It is a lighter palette to them and shows a young girl in rich, fashionable clothes of the era. Bradstreet got us to look carefully at the image and think about what the picture was trying to tell us. Dr Ferdinand Mainzer by Lovis Corinth from 1899 has been acquired jointly with the Barber Institute and it is currently on show there until 2024. She used it to tell the interesting stories of both the artist and the sitter. The latter, having been part of the Berlin avant gard, was a member of an anti-Nazi group who smuggled Jews out of the country. In his turn he too was smuggled to England. Finally we looked at a Gwen John self-portrait from around 1900 which is on loan from the National...

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades on the life, work and collecting of the Helena Rubinstein, the cosmetics magnate. Lucrezia Walker, Independent Art Historian, took us from Rubenstein’s poor beginnings in Poland through to be a global business woman taking in her time in Australia where she developed her Valaze face cream, based on Lanolin, thought her time in London and Paris and on to New York in 1915. She talked about her two husbands, a publisher, through whom she knew DH Lawrence and James Joyce, and a Georgian prince. Most interesting she talked about Rubenstein’s art collection consisting of Leger’s, Picasso’s, Chagall’s as well as works by Frida Kahlo and over 360 African masks and sculptures.

Lovely installation outside Tate Modern of oak trees grown from the acorns of trees in another artwork “7000 Oaks – City Forestation Instead of City Administration”. Concentrate, this gets a bit complicated! In the early 1980s Joseph Beuys planted 7000 trees in Kessel in Germany. Blocks of basalt were placed next to each newly planted tree. He hoped it would encourage people to plant more trees and it has inspired projects around the world. Artists Ackroyd and Harvey have collected acorns from trees in the original project and 100 were in this display. Seven will be planted in the local area to continue the original project. The display created a lovely tranquil space at the back of the gallery and it was a nice touch that Beuy’s “The End of the Twentieth Century” was being shown in The Tanks   below which used basalt stones like those used in “7000 trees”. Closes 14 November 2021  

Interesting exhibition at Tate Modern looking at how contemporary art responded to the 1992 Mabo Decision which overturned the principle that the land had belonged to no-one when it was colonised but instead belonged to the indigenous people who were living there. For an art gallery the show told the story of the decision well to set up the exhibitions premise and to highlight the issues. I liked the gallery that followed which showed works by Emily Kame Kngwarreye and John Mawurndjul who were both elders of their communities. The former worked on bark using fine cross hatching called rarrk. Works which stood out for me included the attached by Gordan Bennett which hung opposite a 1937 painting whose sentiments it questions and the series by Judy Watson which covered archive documents stopping people voting with “a preponderance of aboriginal blood” with blood like stains. Closes Spring 2022 Review Guardian  

Stunning exhibition at Tate Modern looking at how Rodin’s work in plaster and how he kept these pieces and combined them in various works. The main room was set out to recreate his 1900 exhibition in Paris with sculpture from his whole career like an artist’s studio. It included various studies for The Thinker, a statue of Balzac, Walking Man and others. It was wonderful to see so many large works in a big space and it set you up for the detail of the rest of the show. A good approach in these Covid times to have such an open space. Off that room was a small room of drawings to demonstrate another working practice, as with his sculptures, he reworked and copied drawings often generating new works independent of the original drawing. There was good room on two of his female subjects Helene Von Nostitz and the Japanese actor and dancer Ohta Hisa known as Hanako. I loved the large selection of the studies of the latter which only depicted her face in various stages of reality and a...

Excellent online discussion from London Art Week looking at works on paper. The panel consisted of Tom Marks, Editor of Apollo magazine; Tom Edwards of Abbott and Holder; Liberte Nuti of Helm Newty; Mathews Travers of Piano Nobile and paper conservator Jane McAusland. Marks chaired and invited each of the dealers to show two or three images on paper and talk about why they should be considered as collectable works of art alongside paintings and any issues that their condition and conservation might raise. They all picked lovely works. I was interested to hear Edwards pick a fashion drawing which was a working document and never made as a finished art work but is now becoming collectible. Nuti chose this Matisse drawing which was a study for a portrait which was never completed. Travers picked a Picasso drawing partly to show how he signed drawings but also dated and numbered then all. MacAusland then took us through the work of her paper conservation studio and talked about how ...

Fascinating online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at how Gainsborough was influenced by and compared to Rubens. John Chu from the National Trust took paintings called “The Watering Place” by both artists in the National Gallery to compare their styles and to then to discuss whether Gainsborough had seen the Rubens and indeed whether he had used elements of it in his own work. He then discussed the role of landscape in Gainsborough’s career and proposed, that like Rubens, it might have been more of a leisure activity for his and a way of relaxing while still producing art. It may have also been a way of commenting on the issues of the day such as The Enclosures, as well.

Fascinating online discussion from London Art Week looking at the history of Renaissance Maiolica as seen through the collection of the Bargello in Florence and pieces from the Detroit Institute of Art. There was as an impressive panel chaired by Katherine Zock, Director of the Friends of the Bargello and consisting of Timothy Wilson, Professor of the Arts of the Renaissance, Oxford, Alan Darr from Detroit Institute of Art and a dealer Justin Raccamello. They picked significant pieces which outlined both the history of the ceramics concentrating on Medici pieces and also of their collections. Sometimes this type of format can become a bit of an insiders talk but all of them talked clearly about their pieces for the amateur and had a lively discussion handing over to each other with ease even on Zoom. I had not come across Medici porcelain before so was particularly interested in those pieces. I could get seriously into Maiolica!  

Lively online lecture from ARTscapades looking at the life and work of the floral decorator, Constance Spry. Shane Connolly, guest curator for a show on Constance at the Garden Museum and who arranged the flowers for Prince William’s wedding and holds a royal warrant to Prince Charles and the Queen, talked us through Constance’s life and how he chose and acquired the objects in the show. This was a good balance between telling a story and describing how an exhibition was put together. He took us from her early days in Ireland teaching health care to the poor, through her early failed marriage and her move to London where her skills as a flower arranger were discovered at luncheon parties she held. He then led us though the society and royal wedding which she worked on through to her main event, the Coronation. Connolly also talked about her as a business woman, looking at how she endorsed products and sold her name in the USA, and how she set up a school to teach household skills...

Colourful exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum of Batik and design work by Annie Phillips. Phillips designs an array of goods from textiles to ceramics, glass and rugs. The show showed some of these but mainly concentrated on large, abstract design batik pictures arranged like a rainbow around the room. I’ll certainly look out for her work. Closes 15 August 2021      

Confused but visually stunning exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at the history of chintz, a multicoloured cotton fabric popular in the 18th century. I say confused as I think the show has moved from the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands so story doesn’t flow so well in this space and the information boards and exhibits don’t always match up. There is a lot about a town, Hindeloopen, which took to chintz in a big way but little explanation of why and how long. However the displays and objects were stunning with a number of complete 18th outfits and lots of children’s clothes as often adult items were cut down to be used by children. There was an amazing show of wide straw sun hats which were covered on one side with cotton. What an amazing this to wear! Also of short bodices called Kroplap a forerunner of the bra worn under a jacket. The show explained the history of the material outlining how it started to come in from India via the Dutch East ...

Bright exhibition at Marlborough Fine Art of wood relief and sculptural works from the 1970s and 80s by Joe Tilson. I know Tilson for his more recent pictures of Venice set against a patterned background so I was fascinated to see these earlier works. I liked their handcrafted feel   particularly those which were little shelves like a cabinet of curiosities. Many of the works evoke the elements and the back room had groups of sculptures on each of the themes presenting boxes of natural items linked to the element such as feathers in the air boxes. I particularly liked this colourful board of compartments and I would like to see more of his earlier work. Closes 31 July 2021

Fascinating exhibition at Ordovas looking at the friendship between Francis Bacon and Peter Beard. The two men met in 1967 at one of Bacon’s openings at the Marlborough Gallery and the two men became friends and admirers of each other’s work as well as serving as each other’s subjects. Bacon painted nine pictures of Beard from sittings and from photographs that Beard sent him. The show included a lovely double portrait from 1976. Both men worked from collected and found images, Bacon piling them on the studio floor and Beard collecting them in his diaries and using them in photo collages. They also shared an interest in conservation. Beard photographer a series of aerial shots of dead elephant carcasses which he layered with other images. A number of these were found in Bacon’s studio. A number of these images were in the show and were shown with correspondence between them. Closed 16 July 2021

Interesting exhibition at Hauser and Worth looking at the 60-year career of Frank Bowling. The show is in both their London and New York galleries. but needless to say I only saw the London one. The shows look at how his art has been influenced by living and working in the two cities. I enjoyed the good retrospective of Bowling’s work two years ago so it was lovely to see more of his abstract works. I love the way he sticks objects onto the surface of the pictures to give texture and builds up paint to give an almost sculptural feel. Closes 31 July 2021  

Interesting exhibition at Hauser and Wirth of five new works by Ellen Gallagher. I liked these works however I am not sure that I really understood what they were saying by just looking at them although I found them rather beautiful. I got something about colonialism and the oceans but that was it. When I read the press release again, I was fascinated by their art historic influence and this added a rich layer to them but I didn’t understand that from looking. I can feel a slight grump coming on that what there seems little point in making some complex point in a work of art which can’t readily be read within it. If you are following my afternoon’s blogging, you’ll realise there seems to be a rash of this at the moment. I am happy to read and learn more about a work but its meaning should be visible in the image otherwise it is just a pretty picture. Closes 31 July 2021    

Wonderful exhibition at Alon Zakaim Fine Art and Connaught Brown of work by Eric Tucker. These pictures grabbed me through the windows of another gallery in Cork Street and I had to go and look. They were quite naive but had a Lowry like eye for how people interact with each other. Many were of people in pubs which seemed a strange, different world in midst of Covid restrictions. I loved their vivid colours whether they were oil pictures or watercolours. I realised I had read about Tucker who was a manual labourer who painted throughout his life but didn’t really show anyone his work. When he died in 2018 over 400 art works were discovered in his small terraced house in Warrington. The work was first shown in his house over a weekend in October and then at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery and this was his first show in London. Closes 6 August 2021  

Colourful and thoughtful exhibition over two of the Stephen Friedman Galleries of new work by Yinka Shonibare. The work explores the relationship between African Aesthetics and western modernism. The first room was three large sculptures of mythical hyrid beings like classical statues with their heads replaces by replicas of the African masks collected by Picasso and painted in Shonibare’s signature Ankara fabric patterns. The second room was an installation of masks in bright colours, shown here, with archive film of African influences in the early 20th century. Over the road the second gallery had quilts in the signature fabrics in Harlequin patterns as another nod to Picasso. I am fond of Shonibare’s work when it appears in various exhibitions and it was interesting to see it a selecting of it on it’s own to appreciate the subtlety of the ideas it is portraying. Closes 31 July 2021  

Interesting exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery of work by Ugandan artists Leilah Babirye. This was a mix of wooden sculpture, large -scale ceramic works, masks and large paintings on paper. I loved the way she uses found objects which she combines with hand crafted pieces. Depending on scale they reminded me of totem poles, shrunken heads or Benin bronzes. I liked the way they worked as individual pieces but also grouped together so well. I have since read the press release and realised the pieces are also saying things about LGBTQ life in Uganda and Africa and about Bugandan kinship systems but I’m not sure I would have got that depth from just looking at the work. Closes 31 July 2021  

Interesting exhibition at the Redfern Gallery of works on paper by Surrealist Eileen Agar alongside five contemporary artists invited by the gallery to respond to Agar’s work. I must admit I’ve not been to the current exhibition of Agar’s work at the Whitechapel Gallery so am not that aware of her work. The works here, like the one shown, were mainly colleges often overlaying a cut out frame over another work. The five artists chosen to respond to her work were all women, LINDER, Lucy Stein, Florence Hutchings, Nadia Hebson and Oliva Fraser. I had only come across the latter before. I liked LINDER’s photo montage work combining female figures and objects particularly a work called “THE Sphinx” which superimposed a couple of classical heads over each other. I also like Florence Hutchings paintings of everyday settings. Closed 17 July 2021

Striking exhibition at Flowers Gallery of new work by Tai Shan Schierenberg. These were large, imagined landscapes often placing a lone figure in them. They had a sublime quality but were more coherent from a distance than close up. I loved “No Man is and Island” shown here which had a cool grandeur. I hadn’t realised when I was at the exhibtion that the artist is one of the judges on the Portrait and Landscape artist of the year tv programmes so I was fascinated to see his work having listened to and often agreed with his opinions. Closed 10 July 2021  

Fascinating online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at economic background to the art market in the 17th century. Claudio Marsilio, an economic historian from the University of Lisbon, took us through the role of the Genoese bankers in funding the Spain government. The background of this is that both of the Rubens’ landscapes currently on show at the Wallace Collection were in the band of Genoese bankers before they came to England. He took us very clearly through how the exchange markets worked to move money around Europe and gave us good outline of the main events in the 80 Years War between Spain and the Dutch Republic. He also outlined the idea of the Silver Loop and England’s role in it, buying and shipping silver from Spain to the Royal Mint but also moving 1/3 of that cargo to the Spanish Netherlands and again he gave a good timeline of the relationship between England and Spain during this period. This was the useful and clear outline of the political and eco...

Interesting exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery marking 450 years since the foundation of the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers. This was just a small show but had a nice mix of archive material and new work. I loved a painting of the court of the company from 1670 receiving the design for their new hall to replace the original lost in the Great Fire. Sadly that new hall was bombed in the Second World War. It was a nice touch to show the old Master’s Chair from 1754 alongside a newly commissioned one with a display on how the new one was made and the detail of its woodwork joins and the minute book from 1753 recording the commissioning of the earlier one. Closed 18 July 2021

Excellent exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery looking at the life and work of Noel Coward. This show really caught the flavour of the London theatre at the time of Coward with some wonderful exhibits like the Oliver Messel masks for “Dance Little Lady”. It gave a real sense of how cutting edge his work was at the time. It also gave a picture of the people he worked with and gathered around him. The show also evoked his life and homes with pieces of furniture from his chattel in Switzerland alongside home movies and magazine spreads on the houses. I was fascinated by the section on how Coward created his image and brand and then had to work out how to live with that. It was a lovely touch to end the show with two of the costumes from the new Blithe Spirit movie which demonstrates that Coward still resonated today. Closes 23 December 2021 Reviews Guardian Telegraph  

Fun find of this bright mini garden in the Courtyard of the Guildhall to mark the virtual Lord Mayor of London’s Big Curry Lunch. I’d not come across this idea before but traditionally the Worshipful Company of Gardeners as supported the event each year by installing a themed garden display. This year’s has been built with the help of Waste Not Want Not a horticultural social enterprise which uses horticulture as a therapeutic tool. It was magical to find this bright symbol of renewal amongst the grey stone and to see a few stray officer workers who’d ventured back to the city having lunch sitting beside it.

Innovative approach to an end of year show by the University of the Arts London shown in various vacant shop windows around London. I first discovered this at One New Change when wandering around the City where I found these lovely costumes from students studying at Wimbledon College of Arts. They were beautifully displayed with good commentaries on the students and their projects. In windows opposite were designs for video games and possibly film sets. These did not display so well in this format but it was still a great way for the students to show their work. A week or so later I found   more costumes in shops on the Strand which was a nice surprise. I did try to download a map but didn’t manage to get the link to work.    

Lovely exhibition at the Mall Galleries of new work by members of the New English Art Club. The club says it specialises in “figurative, observational and painterly work” which lead to a wonderful array of colourful, bold pictures. Due to lockdown there seemed to be a lot set in studios and exercises in putting together random items for still lives. The other side to that was some wonderful landscapes and close observation of the natural world. Pictures which caught my eye included “Between the Palazzi Venice” by John Walsom, an unusual view up at the roofs of two Grand Canal palaces and the space between them. Michael Corkrey’s large picture of a fallen tree on a forest floor was striking and included lots of wonderful detail. I also loved Diana Calvert’s gentle, classic still lives of pears and shallots. I pick as my favourite this picture by Michael Kilbride “Mid-Vintage Shoppers” as it includes things that attract me, a Stanley Spencer style, a vintage shop and a corgi! Cl...

Intriguing online exhibition and talk from London Art Week looking at art works on the theme of revolution and renewal. Curator of the online show, Arturo Galansino, Director of the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence talked with Emanuela Tarizzo of the Tomasso Gallery about the decision they made when grouping and choosing the works. Each gallery involved in London Art Week had submitted a work to the show which they grouped into the four themes of revolution in art, faces of revolution, spiritual renewal and moments in history. There were some fascinating pieces in the show including this beautiful coloured plaque by Eric Gill of Boxers from 1913, a beautiful portrait drawing of a man from the end of the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, a Jan Breughel the Elder “Noli me Tangere” from the late 1630s and a Van Dyck portrait of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Stafford which was probably owned by Charles I.

Interesting one day course from the London Art History Society looking at two married 19th century artistic couples, William and Evelyn De Morgan and Charles and Margaret Mackintosh. Anne Anderson split the day into four lectures with one of each of the characters. All the talks gave a good overview of their art with good illustrations but I’d have liked a clearer narrative. We seemed to spot around their lives a bit and inevitably looking at each of a married couple separately led to some repetition. I did however like the fact they got equal billing and emphasis. I also liked the fact that she included Margaret Mackintosh’s sister. Frances, in the section on Margaret. I did learn new things about all the artists and look forward to seeing more of their work and understanding it better.      

Fascinating online lecture from ArtScapades looking at Vespasiano da Bisticci described as the bookseller of Florence. Ross King introduced us to his new book on Bisticci, the 15 th century bookseller who not only sold manuscripts but also sourced ancient texts and had them copied to bring them to market. His bookshop also became a centre for scholars and conversations. The shop still exists although it is now a pizzeria. He outlined who some of Bisticci’s main clients, many of whom I have studied recently, and looked at how he helped them to build their collections. I can’t wait to read this which gives a different view of Florence in the early Renaissance not just as a city of great art but also of great learning. I have read some of Ross King’s earlier books and they are very detailed but clearly written.

Interesting online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at Ruben’s women both his wives and his patrons. Nils Buettner, State Academy of Arts Stuttgart and Cordula Van Wyne, University of York had a dynamic discussion on the topic. I would say the talk was more about how Ruben’s portrayed women rather than his relationship with him but it was still useful. They began by looking at the ideal female form at the time and how he portrayed that both in nudes and in the clothed figures. They discussed the role of studying classical statues in this. They then looked at Rubens’ two marriages both to much younger women which was usual for the time. They pointed out that he was as much marrying the families as the women. I liked the approach of taking portraits of them both to explain their roles and lives. Finally they discussed his two important female patrons the Infanta Isabella and Marie de Medici. They talked about the role of powerful ruling women at the time and how their c...

Fun author talk at Charleston Farmhouse looking at the intersection of art and clothing. Alexandra Shulman, x-editor of Vogue, talked about her new book “Clothes … and Other Things That Matter” which is a memoir told through clothes. She said it had begun when she counted the number of items of clothing she owned, which is a sobering thought for someone who owns far too many tops! Charlie Porter introduced his book “What Artists Wear” in which he has investigated what clothes have meant to 20th century and contemporary artists. It sounds a fascinating piece of research work. The talk was well chaired by Amber Butchart who amongst other things is the historic expert on The Great British Sewing Bee. She was very good at bringing them themes of the books together and getting interesting discussions going on dressing gowns, the difference between clothes and fashion and Porter’s donation of some of his clothes to the Victoria and Albert Museum after he discovered how few contemporar...

Interesting online lecture from the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at how Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt London after the Great Fire of London in the 17th century. Janet Gough, author of a new book on Wren in London, took us through the life of Wren and how the rebuilding of London became his major project from The Monument started just five years after the fire. She took us through some of the 52 churches he rebuilt showing us how the established a new design for the Anglican church in England using tiers of windows to bring in natural light and placing the pulpit where all the congregation could see it and hear what was being said. She then moved on to the design of St Paul’s Cathedral bringing together Renaissance and Gothic ideals to develop a new style. She talked about the contemporary designers he used for the interiors from Grinling Gibbons woodwork and the painting of the dome by Sir James Thornhill. She ended by looking at the Phoenix by Ciaus Gabriel Cibber on the sout...

Fascinating online lecture from the Wallace Collection speculating on why Rubens did sketches out of doors at various points in his career. An Van Camp from the Ashmolean Museum gave us a brief overview of his career and when the sketches fist started to appear. The early works from around 1615 seem to have recorded images which were later reused in paintings. They also seem to have been kept in the studio and reused in later pictures so were they just drawn a tools for the studio? When he moved to Het Steen in 1635 he seems to have started drawing for pleasure and moved to working on large sheets of rough paper. He also seems to have annotated some with nature and optic observations. She also talked about the role of his watercolour sketches which may have been more compositional works rather than recording specific details and also about research into his handwriting in the annotation and how if is different in different medium and also in later life.