Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the British Museum on the peoples of Peru from about 25000 BC to the coming of the Europeans in the 16th century.   OK I admit I did not give this show enough time. I had already done Stonehenge that day which had blown my mind. This show was closing the next day so I went round like a whirl wind, didn’t read much commentary and didn’t make notes. Over a month later, I can’t remember much! Evidently if I’d concentrated I might have “discovered how they developed unique approaches to time, agriculture, economy and power, some of which endure today” but sadly I didn’t. I do remember some lovely objects including this cow (?) drinking vessel. As I look back at my photographs, I seem to have been most drawn to the ceramics which reminded me of studio pottery. Apologies to the British Museum for not giving this show more time and more brain space, it wasn’t the show’s fault. Closed 20 February 2022 Reviews Guardian Evening Standard  

Awesome exhibition at the British Museum looking at Stonehenge and putting it into context. I went along to this suspecting it would be a bit dull and worthy but it was very engaging and I learned so much. In fact I’ve been back again for a second visit and I may well go again! The show has six stages to lead you roughly through the chronology of over 2000 years of pre-history, from working with nature and the pre-agricultural people though to quite sophisticated trading by sea. Each section was anchored by a piece from Stonehenge itself. It was full of complex stories and ideas from an era I had expected to find quite simplistic. The exhibits are stunning and at times you almost can’t believe what you are looking at. There was some amazing gold work including a wonderful shoulder cape found in Wales. Most moving were people’s burial goods and I was fascinated by an archer who had travelled from Switzerland only to be buried at Stonehenge. I was amazed at a wooden walkway which h

Interesting exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of work by Louise Bourgeois using clothes from all stages of her life. This was a moving show as it featured pieces from the last 20 years of Bourgeois’s life using clothes which she had saved. In doing this the work felt like it was the story of her whole life experience.  I knew her work featuring large spiders, and there were a couple of works which incorporated these, but I didn’t know a lot about her other work and found it very tender. Her mother had been a tapestry restorer and I found the pieces using textiles saved from her particularly beautiful. The work looked beautiful in the open, brutalist space and were well set out so they spoke to each other. Closes 15 May 2022 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Fabulous online lecture from the Victoria and Albert Museum looking the rivalry between the jewellers Faberge and Cartier at the start of the 20th century. The talk pitted Kieran McCarthy, curator of the current Faberge exhibition, against Francesca Cartier Brickell, a descendent of the founder of Cartier and author of a book on the family. They obviously knew each other well and had a good-natured discussion on the relative merits of each firm. In doing so we heard an interesting history of each company and their clients. Cartier was the first of the two companies to arrive in London, setting up shop with the dress designer Worth, with whom they were linked by marriage but they were soon followed by the Russians. A few years later they found themselves on the same road next door to each other. Clients bought from both companies with an emphasis on Cartier for jewellery and Faberge for objects. I had loved the Faberge exhibition and it was good to hear a bit more about the compa

Strange exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in which Dominic Beattie selected work direct from three artists studios. Luke Hannam’s works were large tarpaulin canvases with bold images. One draped onto the floor like an overlong curtain. I liked their bright colours and ragged finish. Tom Norris   presented ceramics on a wooden shelf. Again these were in bright colours and sat well with Hannam’s pictures. They looked good en masse but would work individually as well. Luke Routledge’s work was a large neon sculptural, animatronic installation which dominated the room. It was called “The Apple, The Egg and the Butterfly”. I have no idea what it meant but it was fun! Closed 27 February 2022  

Thoughtful exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery of photographs from the USA from the 1960s and now. The title came from a 1968 book and installation by Magnum Photos in which 18 photographers explored the idea of the American Dream versus the reality of life there at the time. This was then updated with images from the last 5 years. The historical and contemporary work was hung side by side and set up interesting visual conversations. There were some lovely images. I liked Zora Murff’s modern picture of a US flag through trees and an Eve Arnold from the 1960s of a woman chitting apples under a tree. There were some stunning images by Balazs Gardi of the Capitol Riot and one by Rose Marie Cromwell of a Biden supporter in a   deflated Trump costume. To match the original idea of an installation there was a room with three screens on which the photographs were shown in a random order which made you think of the images in a different way and make new connections between them. The ima

Fun exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery of new work by contemporary artist ALO. The show had over 70 portraits from over the last three years. Some are collections of different people’s features which ALO has found from travelling around London looking for people who inspire him. The works have a background of geometric lines with the cartoon like figures on top of them. He works on the street and in the studio. I did recognise this work but I’m not sure where from. I guess from the amateur photoshoot going on in the gallery when I was there that he is big online. Closed 22 February 2022

Delightful exhibition at the Garrison Chapel of Watercolours by the Prince of Wales. These were clear, bright pictures seeming to favour sharp light conditions. They were arranged by place and most were dated in the corner where they were signed. Most were of British scenes with a lot of the Scottish Highlands and of areas around royal houses. I liked the way the mountains blended into the sky in some of them. My favourite was a square picture of Mount Athos and I loved the light in a picture of Chateau Barroux in Provence. It was also a nice opportunity to see inside the Garrison Chapel which is now a venue for the Prince’s Foundation and to take a look a look at the new development which surrounds it. Closed 14 February 2022 Reviews Telegraph Evening Standard  

Interesting display at the British Library to mark 30 years since the death of the author Angela Carter. Although the display was quite small it was packed with journals, letters, early drafts of books and copies of Carter’s journalism which gave a good sense of what she had been like. I was most interested to see the journals where she seemed to be working our ideas. They reminded me Virginia Woolf’s diaries. I must admit I have not read anything by Carter but she’s now on my, rather long, “to be read list”. Closed   5 March 2022  

Lovely exhibition at the British Library of handwritten lyrics by Paul McCartney from his personal archive. The show marked the launch of the massive book on the lyrics and each sheet was shown with commentaries written by McCartney alongside some rarely seen photographs. I was interested to see him acknowledging the role of his father’s Liverpool wit and way with words which you can see feed into his work. It was wonderful to see George Martin’s   score for Yesterday signed by Paul, John Lennon and Mozart! My favourite lyric here was “Here There and Everywhere” written in two colours of ink and giving a sense of it growing. Looking at “Changing my life with a wave of the hand” is so simple it feels unwritten. Closed 13 March 2022  

Fascinating exhibition at the British Library looking at the life and work of Beethoven through his manuscripts. I must admit to not knowing a lot about Beethoven but this show made you feel very close to him and gave you are real sense of him as a person not just a musical genius. The commentary states that they saw handwriting as “a visual representation of creative imagination” and I thought this was an innovative premise for an exhibition. The show was chronological but there was also a theme running though of the growth of ideas for what would become the Ninth Symphony starting with initial plans when he was in Bonn I found it very moving to see his musical sketchbooks for recording and working out ideas as well as manuscripts in his own hand. However more intimate were the account books and kitchen account. I loved some from his time in Vienna which record payments to Haydn for lessons as well as for dancing lessons. There was a good section on his relationship with Lond

Interesting online discussion from Fitzwilliam Museum to mark on LBGTQ+ history month looking at how queer and female artists in the 19th and 20th centuries addressed and reacted to the Christian religion. Rebecca Burrell, co-curator of the “Women: Makers and Muses” at the museum was interviewed by Emma Torrens also from the museum. They started by discussing how St Sebastian became a queer icon both due to the muscled images of him but also as they were images of suffering and linked to plague at a time when homosexuality was seen by many an illness. The saint survived the act of being show by arrows which is usually depicted so he is seen as a someone who survived and flourished, despite being martyred later. The philosophy of this was discussed but I would have been interested to see more 19th century images of the subject to illustrate the point. They then went on to discuss women artists use of religious imagery in their work concentrating on Gwen John. I had never realised b

Fascinating two-day online course from the Wallace Collection on Mary, Queen of Scots, and the art that surrounded her. Christine Faraday, of Gonville and Caius College, started by taking us though Mary’s life weaving into it the art and buildings which she would have known from the wonderful carved ceiling heads from Stirling Castle, through the art of the French court and the concept of the use of an Imprese as personal emblems. Most interesting was the section on the embroideries she worked on with Bess of Hardwick while in captivity, now called the Oxburgh Hangings. Faraday took us through the iconography of them and some of the sources of the images. Day two we looked at images of Mary both in her lifetime and after. We looked at the wonderful Clouet portraits and drawings of her while she was at the French court as a child and talked about how she commissioned miniatures of herself from the continent when she was in captivity to give to her supporters. I was fascinated by th

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapapes on the Enlightenment potter Josiah Wedgewood. Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and x-MP for Stoke Central, talked us through the life and innovations of Wedgewood based on the biography he has recently published. I’d missed seeing Hunt talk at Charleston Farmhouse so I was delighted to get another opportunity to hear him. In fact the friend who went to the Charleston talk bought me a signed copy of the book as a Christmas present. Hunt talked us though many of Wedgewood’s innovations from cream ware through to Jasperware in ceramics, his new marketing techniques, his development of canals and his introduction of a production line to the ceramic industry. He also looked at his radical politics from support for the American and French revolutions but more importantly his campaigning for abolition of the slave-trade in particular popularising the “Am I Not a Man and Brother” image designed by William Hackwood. He

Unusual and interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the Durer’s relationship with the world outside of Europe. Jago Cooper, Director of Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, set the scene by looking at how Durer embraced new technology and ideas. He talked about how he exchanged ideas and gained knowledge leading to the print of the Rhinoceros based on first-hand accounts of them when he developed into an image of an animal he hadn’t actually seen. He moved on to look at the effect of seeing treasures from the America’s on display in the Netherlands in Durer and his descriptions of them. He did acknowledge that this wasn’t reflected in his art as it didn’t necessarily fit the religious art he was commissioned to paint. We then moved on the to art produced when the Europeans met the indigenous people in the Americas focusing on research he had done on Isla de Mona. This was fascinating. I loved the images of the galleons arriving

Charming exhibition at the Visitor Centre of the Old Royal Naval College of watercolours and drawings of the town. There was a nice collection of pictures arranged into sections on the park, town and river. Most startling was how busy the river was and I loved the stories of the businesses which sustained the ships. The descriptions were excellent and they came with a good map of where all the sites are now. There were a number of artists I’d not come across before, mainly talented 19th amateurs including Amelia Long and John Nixon, both of whom showed at the annual Royal Academy shows. Closed 27 February 2022    

Moving exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery of seven portraits of Holocaust survivors commission by Prince Charles. The pictures were beautifully hung with the three men on the wall opposite where you came and the four women in pairs to either side. They were hung at eye level and all were about life sized so you could look them in the eye. There were excellent commentaries on their sitters and the artists. There was an interesting array of styles as each picture was by a different artist but they were all quite realistic. I have since watched the wonderful documentary on the commission was impressed by the relationships which emerged between the sitters and artists and heard their moving stories in more detail. Most people at the show seemed to have already seen the programme and were telling each other the stories. How difficult to pick a favourite as I loved them all but I did love this hyper real portrait of Arek Hersh by Massimiliano Pironti particularly his painting of a bla

Fascinating online lecture from the Courtauld Research Forum looking at Titian’s painting “Concert Champêtre” from about 1510. Chriscinda Henry, from McGill University in Montreal and author of “Playful Pictures: Art, Leisure and Entertainment in the Venetian Renaissance Home” discussed the figure playing the lute at the centre of the picture and how his role as a member of one of the Compagnie della Calza, social groups of patrician young men, may have influenced the work. Despite my interest in Venetian art I’d not come across these groups before and now realise how many paintings I have seen them in in their brightly coloured doublets and hose with legs of different colours. Henry talked about how music and theatre were often a part of their parties and gatherings which were also attended by the leading courtesans of the time. They often intellectualism rural life in their poetry which is reflected in the picture. She also discussed whether this picture might have been commis

Strange but interesting online lecture from the Churches Conservation Trust discussing the evolution of gravestones in Suffolk. Robert Halliday, the custodian of a Churches Conservation Trust church and author of books on Suffolk gravestones, took us through the chronology of the development of gravestones and tombs as well as the different types and the symbolism used. There were lots of things I’d never thought about such as you only get outside tombs once the churches have started to fill up with the population explosions of the 17th century. Some of the symbolism was fascinating and Halliday had some great illustrations and examples. I think my favourite stones were those that reflected the persons profession such as the lovely waggon on horse on the grave of John Catchpole in Palgrave and the various graves of seafarers with ships on. I do like poking round old graveyards however I don’t know Suffolk at all so possibly this was an off choice, but you know me, I’ll listen

Glorious exhibition at the Fitzrovia Chapel celebrating the life and work of performance artist, Leigh Bowery. This show was so moving as the venue was the chapel of the Old Middlesex hospital where Bowery died on New Years Eve 1994. It’s gold mosaic walls and ceiling were a fabulous backdrop for the opulent costumes which were on show. The title comes from what he asked his friend Sue Tilley to tell people after he had died. I’d seen Bowery’s costumes in an art context before and they look amazing. If you are an art buff it is easy to just see Bowery now as one of Lucien Freud’s models so it is always good to be reminded of his own work. I loved the a pink tunic decorated with crystals and a very Cruella Deville short number worn as part of a weeklong performance at a gallery in 1988. The outfit shown here was made for a TV appearance. I don’t always have the patience for watching a video in an exhibition but in this case, like most other people who were there, I sunk down to w

Beautiful exhibition at Coningsby Gallery of work by six contemporary artists who “connect the dots between African and Western traditions to celebrate and honour the beauty and brilliance of black men and women.” I use the quote from the gallery webpage and it is such a clear description of the arc of the show which had some stunning pictures in it. Thank you to the engaging gallery assistant who wanted to know what I thought of the work. I loved Somunachima Akudu’s bright pictures of women against exotic foliage. This seems to be a common type of image at the moment and a more recent show I’ve been to explained that a cheese plant is often a symbol thriving in challenging conditions. I also liked Richmond Mood’s fragmented portraits of men painted with thick shards of paint. My favourite works, one of which is shown here, were by Glory Samjolly. I loved their roots in the art of the Enlightenment and I felt they spoke to the time of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and yet wer

Interesting lecture at the National Gallery looking at how historic and legendary black figures have been depicted in Western Art. Olivette Otele, from the University of Bristol and author of “African Europeans: An Untold Story” took us through from the 3rd to the 19th   century. A long period to cover in an hour. The talk was more about the history and the personalities however she used good illustrations and left me with a lot to think about. She started with St Maurice, a black Christian soldier from Thebes, who was martyred when he refused to harass a group of fellow Christians in a war. She talked his veneration in Northern Europe and how he has been depicted. I was fascinated to learn that the first Duke of Florence, Alessandro de Medici, was mixed race. There were no portraits of him from his lifetime but again she talked about how later artists had depicted him from Vasari showed him as European but Bronzino gave him curly hair and African features. From the 18th centu

Lovely exhibition at the National Gallery featuring Gainsborough’s Blue Boy, on loan to the UK after leaving for America 100 years ago. I was pleased I had done a curator’s talk on this show so I had a better idea why the pictures shown with it had been chosen. The show was gratifyingly busy with numbers being limited as it is in quite a small room but it was still quite difficult to read the information boards. Part of the need to queue was that people were spending quite a lot of time sitting in front of the star picture just gazing at it. He still has pulling power! The Blue Boy himself is a proud but endearing figure and such a wonderful colour. When you see it in person you notice the landscape behind more which tends to get murky in reproductions. I love the idea that the suit was a studio prop and it was interesting to see it next to real Van Dyck costume works to notice how different it was. It was a lovely idea to hang it with two of the Van Dyck’s which inspired it. It