Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent online lecture from the British Museum introducing their current exhibition on Stonehenge. The curator of the show, Neil Wilkin, guided us clearly through the thinking behind it and the reasons for picking particular objects and for the layout. He took each section of the show and talked about what it covered and highlighted some of the pieces. I’d already been to the show twice when I listened to this talk and yet I learnt a lot and want to go again! I’d not realised that each section had an object from Stonehenge itself as the focus then used other works to put it into context. I’d also now noticed that all the stone axes in an early section were made from stone from the northern Alps and brought to Britain despite Britain having suitable stone probably because of its emotional resonance. If you can’t get to the show watch this, it’s available on YouTube, as it gives a good flavour of the show and you get a real sense of the curators enthusiasm for the subject.  

Beautiful exhibition at the Gillian Jason Gallery looking at how contemporary art is reflecting the roles women have played in protecting the earth. The show took the ancient idea of the nymph, a female figure often linked to a specific place, but challenges the expectations we may have of these figures from the Old Masters. Nine artists were featured over the two-room space. I liked Caroline Absher’s bright, bold picture called “Territory” of a woman in contemporary in a tree reminding us of climate activists. I loved the startling orange background. As well as Precious Opara placed nude black figures face down on beds surrounded by house plants which have an oppressive quality Megan Baker offered a series called “The Felling of Dryad” showing naked figures morphing into their environment, a theme which was also take up in Jasmine Pradissitto’s wall sculptures of realistic faces and leaves. My favourite was Eleanor Johnson with her large Rococo like canvases based on the myth

Useful display at the National Gallery presenting their plans for remodelling sections of the building to mark the 200th anniversary of the gallery in 1824.  There were good display boards outlining the plans which included a reworking of the Sainsbury wing entrance to make it lighter and more welcoming, to provide a link at basement level between the two buildings and opening up some of the space in the Research Centre, possibly the introduction of a members’ area and rethinking the space outside the gallery linking it to Trafalgar Square.  The display may still be there but I went there was an information desk there and I had a good conversation with a friendly lady who is working on the project and who talked me through the changes.  I went along sceptically as I felt the Sainsbury Wing is still quite new so why does is need changing. I was shocked to realise it’s 30 years old! I’d also not realised that it had become the main entrance in 2018. I thought its use as that was a Covid

Strange exhibition at Somerset House of work by artists in the Somerset House Studios residency. This was the fourth show in a series highlighting the work of the residency artists. This one was curated by Stella Sideli and it “considers the temporary synchronicity between people, bodies, sounds and signals”. No I don’t understand either! My favourite piece was by Abbas Zahedi and consisted of a kick drum pedal against the gallery door with some sort of digital acoustic effect so that when you pressed the pedal it made a noise. This was accompanied by a tiny digital print of a brussels sprout over the door. I’ve no idea what it meant but it was fun and interactive. I liked Joe Namy’s curtain shown here which broke up the space. Again I have no idea what it was about and reading the rather dense handout, which I kept, doesn’t help. The other two works by Phoebe Davies and Sonya Dyer were video pieces and I wish I’d had more time to watch them properly, particularly the one by D

Stunning exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of 16 self-portraits by Van Gogh. This show was a delight as it kept things simple. The pictures were hung at head height so you could look the artist directly in the eye and really study the detail in the brush work. The commentaries were clear and informative and it was well spaced out so the works were easy to view without too much queuing up. All Van Gogh’s self-portraits were painted in the last four years of his life and half the pictures in this show were from 1887 when he was in Paris and it was remarkable how his style developed in that one year. The first pictures were fairly conventional but the brush work gradually got looser and more expressive. I loved one picture which seemed to be painted in spirals radiating from his nose and forming circles around his head. There were some lovely light touches in the show such as reuniting two pictures painted a week apart in the Saint-Remy hospital. It was the first time they had be

Interesting live online discussion from the Queen’s House on the 17th century marine artists the Van de Veldes. This was a live talk from the house delivered from the house via Facebook and the quality wasn’t the best. There was a panel of five speakers but I didn’t catch their names. A bit further in the quality improved plus my ear became attuned but I was sorry to miss this detail. They discussed conservation work they have been doing for an exhibition next year to mark 350 years since Charles II brought this father and son to Britain and gave them a studio at the Queen’s House. I was fascinated by the discussion of the Solebay tapestry and can’t wait to see it on display. They also talked about why Charles brought them from the Netherlands and the effect their presence had on later artists including Turner. Definitely an exhibition to look out for next year.    

Useful and interesting online lecture from National Gallery introducing their Veronese virtual reality experience. Rebecca Gill, the curator of the exhibition and Lawrence Childs, Head of Digital Services at the gallery took us through the reasons for commissioning this work and the process by which it was made. The project aimed to put Veronese’s “The Consecration of St Nicholas” digitally back into the chapel for which it was commissioned. Gill explained the context of the picture and the story they were trying to tell. She covered its commissioning by a monastery known for its Lutheran tendencies, how it was removed in the Napoleonic wars and how the chapel had changed over the years. They then discussed the processes of scanning the chapel and how they investigated changes which needed to be made to get the space back to when the picture was unveiled in 1562. They talked about finding a suitable new frame to add digitally and how in doing that they revealed a circular window

Colourful and interesting exhibition at Tate Britain looking the relationship between the Caribbean and Britain in art since the 1950s. Most of the artists in this show were born in the Caribbean and came to Britain either as adults or children or whose parents settled here. The narrative of the show was a bit confused between the art and the history of the period but it is a big story to tell. I was quite impressed by how many of the artists I recognised including Lisa Brice, who I show here, who has cropped up in a number of exhibitions recently and who I like. There was a good mix of paintings, sculpture, videos and installation art. I also came away with lots of new artists to look out for whose context I will understand better. My favourite piece was a recreation of a 1970s West Indian English front room by Michael McMillin. In many ways it was similar to my own grandma’s, it certainly had the same busy carpet, but it was also subtly different. I particularly enjoyed the re

Fun exhibition at the London Film Museum of photographs from the sets of the Harry Potter films and stills from them. This was a beautifully designed show and included some props and costumes as well as excellent photographs. I’d balked slightly at the £20 entrance fee but felt it was worth it for the novel presentation. I even ended up paying more to have a bottle of Butterbeer at the end, well you had to really! The photographs were well described. I thought I knew a lot about the films, having watched them all numerous times along with any extras on the DVDs, but I learnt at lot. I particularly liked the behind-the-scenes shots, like the one attached, which showed people in costume interacting with others. They gave a real sense of what it must have been like on-set.   I’m not sure when it closes but it looks like it’s open to the end of the Summer.

Lovely exhibition at the FUJIFILM House of photography of pictures by Rankin to mark the reopening of London theatres. The portraits were a nice mix of stars, chorus and backstage people which showed off the range of skills in the industry. The pictures were simply presented in large format. Everyone was photographed against grey backgrounds which gave the show a sense of unity. It was a nice touch to include a display of all the original shots in a smaller Polaroid style format. The pictures weren’t labelled but there was an online guide to them. It was fun to guess the shows but I’d have preferred a paper guide as reading from the phone was a bit fiddly. Closed 12 March 2022  

Comprehensive online course from the National Gallery looked at the concept of the Sublime. This four-week course was led by Matthew Morgan, Director of Turner’s House and covered the philosophy of the Sublime and how that is seen through 18th century landscape and contemporary art. I always forget that the meaning of Sublime has changed over the years and originally is about the beauty that comes from something which induces fear and awe. This was a wide-ranging subject and Morgan cleverly used Caspar-David Friedrich’s “Wander above the Sea of Fog” from 1818, shown here, as a punctuation point in most of the lectures as well as the current Kehinde Wiley exhibition which includes a contemporary response to that work. We compared the earlier period when that sense of awe came with a sense of God and the spiritual to contemporary art where we still see the Sublime but science has replaced the divine as the source of awe. We also talked about how the Sublime can be used to consider

Novel online lecture from the National Gallery looking at Degas’s “Combing of the Hair” to look at the symbolism of hair in art. Bethan Durie led us though looking at the picture in detail and discussed why Degas might have painted it. She talked about his use of drawing and how he often recorded moments of everydayness which he saw. She took us though other paintings by Degas which include hair brushing and there seem to be a lot! Durie also talked about the vibrant red palette and whether this is deliberate or if it is an unfinished work still showing the under paint. She also looked at earlier paintings involving hair brushing as well as how the image still appears in contemporary art. I’ll certainly be looking out for this intimate but everyday image in the future.  

Interesting online lecture from the Victoria and Albert Museum on Catherine the Great as a collector. Andrew Price, Jewellery designer and historian, took us on a whirlwind tour of her life and how she used art works to promote her image and to use as diplomatic gifts. He had some sumptuous images. My favourite was the Apollo Desk which opened to show a stage set complete with a model of her greyhound which, when you stroked its head, opened a secret door to show an organ which played the anthem. Most fascinating was the latter section on her building works. Who wouldn’t want an agate lined bathhouse and a long gallery of busts of Greek philosophers?   He outlined how her poor relationship with her son led to a battle over palaces with her demolishing one she’d built for him and him demolishing one she had built for her grandson six weeks after she died. This was such conspicuous consumption you just had to admire it!  

Quirky exhibition at the Royal Academy showcasing new work developed in the studios of the RA Schools. I had been to the previous show in this series, which was called Premiums Interim 1, and found it fun. I’m not sure why they dropped the interim tag for this version. It’s a great chance to see work as artists develop and it will be interesting to see which ones emerge in the selling galleries over the next few years. This iteration covered five artists Anna Higgins, Clark Keatley, Enej Gala, Mary Stephenson and Nancy Allen. I have to admit I didn’t make notes as I went round as it was a fleeting visit and I can’t remember a lot about the work now. I did take a few photos to remind me though. The information on the Royal Academy website it very sparce on these shows and it would be nice to have a bit more for the forgetful, like me. I loved this rather fine work by Mary Stephenson which was untitled but spoke to me of an empty ballroom, with before an event or possibly during C

Striking exhibition at the Royal Academy of urban landscapes by Jock McFadye. These works cover 30 years and mainly focus on London. They are hyperreal, large views of city streets and wider vistas. I love the detail in the dereliction and graffiti in many of them such as “Tate Moss” from 2010 which shows an abandoned condemned factory on the site of the future London 2012 Olympics. Some almost become abstract in their concentration such as “Bank”, a picture of graffiti in the underground bookmarked by the underground symbols either side of it. My favourite was called “Pink Flats” and shows a local authority residential block from Hackney and Shoreditch which he transposed to the Lea Valley. At the time I saw this show I was also doing a five week course on The Sublime and I felt many of these works fell into that category of frightening, awesome beauty. Closes 10 April 2022

Fascinating exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at how Francis Bacon interest in and observation of animals influenced his art. These works looked stunning in the space. They were hung quite sparsely against grey walls which made the rich use of bright red, which I think of as Bacon red, pop out from the walls. The works looked like modern secular altarpieces. I liked the use of quotes from Bacon in the commentary which gave me a better understanding of where the works were coming from such as that he aimed “to paint like Velazquez but with the texture of hippo skin” and “there is an area of the nervous system to which the texture of pain communicates more violently than anything else”. For those reasons it is wonderful to see these works in the flesh rather than reproduction because they are all about the brushstroke and objectness of the work. There were some great hangs such as a room of triptychs and the bringing together of three bullfight pictures for the first time whi

Interesting exhibition in the Sir High Casson Friends’ Room at the Royal Academy of watercolours by the late Albert Irvin. This was a selling exhibition of bright, abstract works. I found myself seeing form in them such as rain falling on a sea. I loved one with large yellow blobs of paint. It struck me that you don’t often see abstract watercolours or see that paint format used to create such bright colours.