Cathy's Art Diary

Disappointing sculpture trail around the Canary Wharf site. I say disappointing because I went on the last day and a couple of works had been damaged and removed and I think a couple of others I couldn't find had disappeared too. I didn't have a lot of time so I only saw four works of the 11 in the end. The commentary says the works look at how "play is the overlooked epicentre of the human experience" but I didn't find those items I did see that playful. The description would lead me to think the works might be interactive. This is the 2nd edition of this show organised by Brooke Benington and Canary Wharf and I will give it another go if there is a 3rd but will make sure I go earlier in the run. Closed 11 November 2022

Beautiful exhibition in the foyer of One Canada Square of sculptures in paper by Angela Glajcar. These works ranged from small works like ripped books to more monumental works which dominated the large space. In both the paper was layered and torn to create craters in the works which drew you in. The commentary invites us to think about whether the size and scale of work alters how we view it. Because of this I've included pictures of both a large and a small work. Closed 11 November 2022

Grizzly but fascinating exhibition at the Museum of Docklands looking at public executions in London from 1186 to 1868. This show was beautifully designed and full of interesting stories. It was in an expanded gallery so I rather miss-paced my trip and spent two hours in the show as when I came to the end of the usual space I realised there was a lot more! You wound around various spaces starting with a section on different types of executions, leading through executions sites in London, a look at the rituals involved, a section on what happened to the bodies and finishing with an analysis of what has happened since the last public execution in 1868. They made good use of popular prints, always telling the stories behind them and I've come away with lots of names to look up. It was obvious that a lot of excellent research had gone into the show. They also made documents come alive by focusing on the people mentioned and it was a touching idea to have inmates of HMP Pentonvil...

Fascinating online lecture from the Paul Mellon Centre as part of their Georgian Provocations Series  focusing on a portrait of Henri Christophe, King of Haiti. I didn’t know anything about this work and its pendant picture of the king’s son and Esther Chadwick from the Courtauld took us through several aspects of the picture. She begun by telling us the story of Christophe who came to power after the Haitian Revolution. She also looked why the artist Richard Evans went to Haiti and the historic precedents behind the imagery used. The most interesting section looked at how the pictures came to be shown in the 1818 Royal Academy show probably having been sent to William Wilberforce and submitted to the show by him as part of the abolitionist agenda. She also talked about the other works there were shown with it in particular how these works were hung either side of Turner’s “The Field of Waterloo”, speculating if the whole group was commenting on the fall of Napoleon.  

Excellent exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall from the Koestler Arts, an organisation organising art therapy in prisons. The trust has an annual show and it is always interesting. This year it was curated by Ai Weiwei and went for impact. Over 1000 pictures were shown in small displays the size of an average prison cell highlighting the enormity of the issue and the power of making rather than the product. Some cells also had poems on the floor and at the end was a display of sculptures and handicraft. Rather than labelling the work this year the works were numbered and listen in a small book which made it feel very like the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. I’m pretty sure it was the same format and font! What a brilliant idea to have it curated by such a major artist who has been a prisoner themselves. I hope the big name attracts more people to come to the show. Closes 18 December 2022    

Wonderful exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of contemporary art using ceramics. It was all shown quite sparsely with few barriers so you really interacted with the work. The pieces either seemed to be bright and colourful or white and serene and they worked well together. Of course there was obvious people like Grayson Perry and Edmund de Waal and I was pleased to recognise Rachel Kneebone too. Shout outs go to Emma Hart’s abstract pictures in ceramic set into windscreen shaped frames and Klara Kristalova’s installation of 18 fairy/mythical figures in a landscape of vegetation which gave off a beautiful smell.   I think my favourite was five life sized scenes from a house taken over by bugs and mice by Lindsay Mendick. I should have found it horrific but I loved it. The show with lots of artists to look out for in the future and an reactivated love of ceramics. Closes 8 January 2023 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades discussing the recently published letters of Lucien Freud. I had already heard the speaker, Martin Gayford, talk at the Charleston Small Wonder Festival with Esther Freud but it was interesting to hear him again in an event that was more of a lecture format. He began by explaining how the dates chosen for the collection take us from Freud going to art collage to his appearing at the Venice Biennale. The letters trace the start of a lot of his lifelong friendship and his early romances and form an alternative biography in tone. He talked about how the letters sometimes morph between being letters and drawings which is why he has produced them in the book as facsimiles as well as how the handwriting often differs between recipients.  

Excellent exhibition at the National Gallery putting Manet’s portrait of the artist Eva Gonzales into context. The painting is the centre piece but the show then uses it to talk about the relationship between the artists. Eva was Manet’s only formal pupil and they had a sustained friendship and artistic dialogue. It featured work by both artists and I’d never consciously seen work by her before. The show went on to put the picture in the context of self-portraits by female artists to point out that they often show themselves in pale, fine clothes as in this picture and put themselves in the guise of the Allegory of Painting. It was fantastic to see such an array of pictures from Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser, founder members of the Royal Academy to Laura Knight the first elected female academician in the 1930s. Finally it looked at how opportunities for female artists were still limited in this period. The Ecole des Beaux-Art did not admit women into 1897. It featured picture...

Luminous exhibition at the National Gallery of two Turner’s on loan from the Frick. The pictures look beautiful in the space and shine out from the wall. Both are pictures of harbours, Dieppe and Cologne, and from 1825. They are monumental in size and clearer than some later Turner’s. They look beautiful together from a distance but then they pull you in to look at the details such as a dog drinking from the river and a barge of belongings being unloaded. Although it is a small show the commentaries are excellent, looking at Turner’s relationship with the Old Masters and his travels. There is a good timeline of his journeys with pictures from them.   It explained how there were over 37,000 pages of drawings and watercolours in his studio when he died many of them made on his travels. Closes 19 February 2023 Review Telegraph

Eclectic art fair at Woolwich Works of contemporary prints. Galleries take stalls at this annual event and each year there is a wonderful mix of work from big name artists to names which were new to me. It is all very tempting but I managed to resist. Shout outs go to Nicholas Jagger’s beautiful print of part of the face of an ancient sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, Anna Matyus’s pictures of Fountains and Rievaulx Abbeys over a design of medieval floor tiles and two fun Grayson Perry’s ones printed on textiles. My favourite was Brigitte William’s alternate tube map which shows stations in a circle in alphabetical order with appropriate coloured lines joining adjoining stations across the circle. Look at the photo and it might make sense. I also loved this Julian Opie sculpture but not too sure it’s a print. I guess it classed as one as it is because it is a limited edition. Closed 6 November 2022

Comprehensive online lecture from ARTscapades previewing the current exhibition at the National Gallery based around Manet’s portrait of the artist Eva Gonzales. Richard Stemp described the portrait from 1870 putting it in the context of both their lives and pointing out some of the oddities in the work such as the fact she is painting a work that is already frame and she wears an impractical white dress. Most fascinating was the fact that the still-life she is working on is a copy of a print of a 18th century print which appears in a contemporary book on the history of French painting which is in the show. He then went on to explain some of the oddities in the context of other portraits and self-portraits of women artists explaining how many were painting the Allegory Le Pittura which was a female figure. He went through the pictures in the show which demonstrated this. He also used them to talk about what women wore to paint and how that contrasted with how they showed themselve...

Disappointing fair at Olympia showing art and antiques for sale. It was a smaller show than I’d expected and rather mugged by the much larger Christmas Fair on the ground floor which I did indulge in too. I did find some nice art dealers I’d not come across before plus saw some interesting work. Kay Michie Fine Art had some lovely Laura Knight circus drawings and the Lucy B Campbell Gallery had some interesting modern naive work by Anna Pugh who I’d not come across before. I think the best stall for me was Callaghans of Shrewsbury who had a couple of Kyffin Williams drawings, some nice work by Donald Mclntyre and some lovely lifelike bronze birds. Closes 6 November 2022  

Interesting online lecture from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in their Georgian Provocations series focusing on “The Nightmare” by Henry Fuseli. Martin Myrone, Head of Grants at Paul Mellon Centre and previously at Tate Britain, took us though the imagery in the painting and its reception at the time it was shown at the Royal Academy show of 1782. He looked at how quickly prints became available and it was copied by other artists. It was soon used by satirists and has become a cultural icon even to the present day. He explained how this was despite the fact the picture was in private ownership and not on view until the mid-20th century. Its fame was spread by via the prints and puns. The talk was followed by a lively Q&A session which brought up more interesting ideas such as whether the simplicity of the image allowed it to be lampooned easily, who owned it and why and how its vagueness has allowed for many interpretations.  

Insightful online talk from the Fitzwilliam Museum by contemporary artist, Hilary Powell, whose work features in their current exhibition on defaced currency. Powell outlined a number of her projects working with communities on social issues. It sounds dry but she has done some amazing work starting with a simple idea and letting it build as she works with different groups of people. A good example was from when she was an unofficial artist in residence on a demolition site in East London. From the experience she created a pop-up book of a history for the area. Using a collective of people from the area she created 50 books in three days. This then led her to the idea of creating printing ink pigments from old building materials such as bricks and zinc from roofs. The work highlighted in the show was part of a project called “Bank Job” based in Walthamstow where she got access to an old bank and printed money there with a team of paid trainees which featured images of local peop...

Stunning exhibition at San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice of new work by Ai Weiwei. The centrepiece was an enormous installation of a chandelier like piece made up of bones and body parts in black glass. It looked magnificent in the space. I loved the vistas you got through it and around it. Weiwei has evidently been working with glass workers in Murano for three years to create this piece and other smaller works in the show. In other parts of the abbey there were new pictures in Lego by Weiwei. I’d not realised he’d branched out into this new medium. They look rather pop art but are very effective. There were the amazing black and white ones based on photos of him breaking pots but by favourite was a Lego   version of Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”. Closes 27 November 2022  

Fascinating and dramatic exhibition at Palazzo Grimani in Venice reconstructing a collection of antique sculpture that has previously been in this particular space after 400 years.   I’d read an excellent article in Apollo Magazine about the bringing together of these sculptures so was delighted to be able to see it. In the palazzo there is an amazing, vaulted room which has housed much of the collection of Giovanni Grimaldi which has ended up in a section the Musee Correr which was being refurbished. While this has been happening they have been moved back to their original home. Here’s hoping they stay. It is a stunning collection but is somewhat mugged by the splendour of the room. With its amazing, coffered ceiling with a 2nd century Ganymede and an eagle soaring up into it. It was hard to focus on the amazing works below. Its power was more in its whole effect that the composite parts. Closes 27 November 2022  

Effective  exhibition at Palazzo Grimani in Venice of new work by Georg Baselitz. The work had been done in response to the city which I found amusing as the last time I saw an exhibition of Baselitz’s work was at the Accademia. In particular there were twelve paintings made expressly for the Sala del Portego, which hung on eighteenth-century stucco-framed panels. They were bright and decorative almost like posh wallpaper. In the side rooms were more classic Baselitz style upside down figures which played with the space. My favourites were the two shown here which were thick black reliefs and yes, the photo is the right way up. Closed 17 November 2022

Quirky outdoor sculpture exhibition in the Marinaressa Gardens in Venice of contemporary work organised by the European Cultural Centre. This is the sixth time this show has happening in line with Biennales and I have seen art least one before and they are always fun. The first garden I came to had a mix of artists. I liked Karen McCoy’s structure made of hazelnut branches with things growing inside. Also   Vivianne Duchini’s interlocking horses’ heads and  Naja Utzon Popov’s work referencing the Australian bushfires. The second garden had large, bright, angular animals by Richard Orlinski which dominated and brightened the space. Who doesn’t love a giant red gorilla! Closes 27 November 2022  

Beautiful but confusing exhibition at Gallerie Accademia in Venice of glass sculptures by Ritsue Mishima. I say confusing because there seemed to be no commentary with the pieces. I note the show had been attended and there was building work going on so I wondered if labels had disappeared. Reading the advert outside I realised the work was reacting to the Canova sculpture it was shown with and a line of beautiful pieces on a mirrored surface represented her response to Venice. Even though I didn’t know the above at the time I saw the pieces, I found then beautiful and sympathetic in the space. The line of 15 works on the mirror worked well and some reminded me of fossils. However I think my favourites were the small pieces she called Meteorites which rejected the space and colours around them. Closes 27 November 2022  

Tender exhibition at Pallazo Grassi in Venice of work by Marlene Dumas. Spread over two floors, the work was sparsely hung which gave it room to breathe. Rather than labels you were given an excellent booklet with explanations of the work. At first glance the work looks rough and unfinished but the more you look at it the finer it becomes and, particularly the portraits, show great draftsmanship and insight. My favourites were a series of drawings of gay men who’d faced persecution from Oscar Wilde to Justin Fashenu. Each had a short explanation of their story. I also loved this picture of naked women from behind based on an old photograph of nudists. I felt they looked like they were having fun. Closes 8 January 2023  

Claustrophobic exhibition at Punta Della Dogana in Venice of new work by Bruce Nauman. I love the exhibition spaces at Punta della Dogana but this show made it feel cramped and disorientating. Sadly, as quite often in this space, the art is mugged my the amazing views from the windows of the city outside full of life and colour. The show mainly consisted of large and small videos of him walking. I particularly liked the ones where the body was broken up like a sequential consequences drawing to give the contrapposto pose of the title. The last work you see was almost the best superimposing a life size figure of him on one of the walking videos so you wonder if he is actually in the space. Closes 27 November 2022

Second full-on day at the Venice Biennale on the Giardini site. We followed out usual pattern on this site of doing the country pavilions as you come in first then heading into the large central exhibition space before walking over the to the island site before scooping up the final pavilions enroute to the exit. All fueled by lots of coffee stops. In previous years the large exhibition space has featured artists who were also in the similar space in the Arsenal but this year the space had all new artists. You were greeted by a life sized sculpture of an elephant in a round mirrored room so I was won over from the start! Highlights in this section included Kudzanai-Violet Hwami’s big bright pictures (as shown here), Kaari Upson’s works which started as thick impasto paintings which she then 3D printed and Jana Euler’s small shark sculptures which reminded me of Gormley’s Field works and we nicknames them ‘sharky little people’. There were also more three more of there ‘...

Intense day at the Venice Biennale on the Arsenale site. We started with the large section of invited artists. The theme title year was “The Milk of Dreams” from a book by the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington which describes a magical world where life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination. As ever the show starts off quite crowded and hot but by the third section the crowd thins out and things relax. I must admit a lot of it felt quite woke and by the time we got an artist who was a Sami reindeer herder I was a bit hysterical. Having said that I liked the textile art of said herder. Open your mind and see what happens. I liked the bright paintings of Ficre Ghebreyesus in the second room which were full of colour and life. I loved the large installation of earth mixed with spices by Delcy Morelos which dominated the entrance into one section and worked well with the space.   A shout out to Prabhakar Pachpule’s long canvas partly inspired by the ...

Effective sculpture in the gardens at Palazzo Ca Corner in Venice by Lorenzo Quinn. I spotted this from the vaporetto on my first trip along the Grand Canal in Venice on this holiday,   yes beware lots of Venice coming up, and it grabbed my attention. I had to look it up. I must admit on my initial view I didn’t realise it was a giant pelvis complete with baby but it was a dramatic, large, silver work which filled the space. I will look out for it again in further trips along the canal. Closed 31 October 2022

Excellent online course from Paula Nuttall on the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Over the course of three two-hour sessions Paula took us through the three main themes of Bruegel’s work and in doing so looked at what little we know of his life and at his legacy. Week one we looked at how he was influenced by Hieronymus Bosch, the subject of a previous course by Paula, taking up similar surreal themes and images. He was described by a contemporary as “a second Bosch”. We looked both at his drawings which were used for prints and paintings. Week two was on his peasant pictures discussing how he built proverbs into these and how his style in these works changed drastically over the course of a decade. We looked in some detail at the wonderful "Netherlandish Proverbs" picture unpicking some of the imagery. Paula made interesting analogies between “The Peasant Wedding” and a “Wedding at Canaan” by Tintoretto and discussed how he may have been influenced between Italian ar...

Excellent online lecture from ARTscapades looking at the life of the pharaoh Tutankhamun on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of his tomb. Garry J Shaw, author of “The Story of Tutankhamun” took us through the boy king’s life via the objects in the tomb highlighting some of the more personal items which he probably used in life. He was seeking to reinstate the boy who has become secondary to his goods so he also looked at the historic evidence of his life. He painted a picture of a boy who loved chariots as his tomb had two in it including one with repaired wheels. There were also chariot gloves, as shown here, and socks to protect his feet from debris. He focused on the more personal items rather than the well-known precious pieces. Shaw concluded that Tutankhamun may not have ruled for long but he started to restore Egypt to its old religion, a faith he hadn’t know himself, as his father had turned to the new cult of Aten. He talked about how he had health issues such as ...

Interesting online lecture from the Fitzwilliam Museum describing and explaining their current exhibition. Richard Kelleher, the curator of the show, lead us through the main themes and objects in this show about how defacing money, which is often a symbol of authority, has been a symbol of protest over the years. It also looks at emergency money such as notes issued in the Siege of Mafeking and money defaced as a commemoration such as a penny from 1918 with the date of the Armistice etched onto it. Kelleher was particularly interesting on the design of the show which splits a large space into three using design to define the different themes. He also talked about how he included contemporary art which uses defaced money or newly printed money. The talk gave a good overview of the show which I would like to go and see but probably won’t get time to go to Cambridge.  

Fascinating film  from Exhibition on Screen shown in cinemas on the life and work of Edward Hopper. I'd not been to see one of these documentaries at the cinema before and must admit I went to this one as we'd heard a friend had been interviewed for it. I enjoyed the format and will keep an eye out for new titles, particularly for exhibitions abroad which I can't get to. The film told the story of Hopper's life through his pictures with commentaries by various curators and experts including those who worked for the various Hopper museums in his former homes and studios. It paid particular attention to his relationship with his wife Josephine Nivison, looking at how she nurtured his career but partly at the expense of her own. It was nice that the film included a lot of her work. I'm not sure all the pictures benefited from being shown in such a large format despite the fact it gave them an even more obvious cinematic quality. It showed up some of the rougher p...

Insightful discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their Small Wonder Festival looking at the newly published first volume of Lucien Freud's letters. It brought together the editor of the letters Martin Gayford and Freud's daughter, Esther Freud, to be interviewed by the art historian Michael Bird. They discussed what new things they had learnt from the letters which take us up to 1954 when Freud was starting to find success. They also talked about how he adopted different voices in the letters for different people and even in some cases different handwriting. Interestingly the letters have been published with the printed text alongside a facsimile of each letter as many of them are illustrated. Oddly enough I am booked to hear Gayford on this topic again soon, so watch this space, but I suspect that will be a more of a lecture rather than this engaging style.  

Engaging interview at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their Small Wonder Festival with Jim Moir aka Vic Reeves. Moir was discussing his book on birds which pair his paintings of birds with short facts about them with fellow birder, David Bramwell. The talk veered more towards the birds than the art but it was a witty conversation with insights into his working practice and a new series he is doing with Sky Arts. The Q&A session was lively with questions about birds, art and whether he has been fishing with Bob Mortimer.  

Fascinating   talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their Small Wonder Festival bringing together contemporary artist Nathan Coley and DJ James Lavelle. The speakers were friends and had been brought together as both use snippets from others work to make their art. Coley takes snippets of text and makes giant illuminated signs of them and there has been one at Charleston over recent months. They discussed where they found their source material, how they then made these into finished works, their attitude to getting permission to use other people’s work and the role of the audience. They didn’t always agree with each other which led to a lively but friendly discussion.   It was interesting to see a rolling slide show Coley’s work above them as I didn’t know it well, apart from the Charleston piece, and to realise how the same words in different settings seemed to mean different things. He also talked about being commissioned by Charleston.    

Refreshing exhibition at Somerset House curated by Taylor LeMelle. I say refreshing as the commentary says it has no theme in particular and it is about anything. “It is about the viewer’s appreciation of whatever connections exist between their own life experience and these works.” Am I showing my age to say to me it said 1970s living room? The wallpaper was commissioned for the site by Mani Kambo and is a three woodblock print. The chairs came from other rooms in the building. The pictures on the walls are a series of prints by Tai Shani called The Neon Hieroglyph. I’m not sure I understood them but it this context they were attractive. Closes 20 November 2022  

Serene installation at Somerset House by a Somerset House Studio resident artist SERAFINE1369 (Jamila Johnson-Small). The work looks at objects and materials which give a sense of time. The commentary says it is meant to evoke an exploded clock. I always love this rarely used, decayed space at Somerset House and this was a beautiful and imaginative use of it. I like the vistas through the rooms which were set up and the moments it had to stop and think. I liked the voice telling the time every minute and was surprised how long I was in there. Evidently at some times the artist performs in the space and a you are invited to sit and meditate in the room with crystals although I think I would have felt quite self-conscious. Closed 30 October 2022    

Interesting exhibition at Somerset House of work by Amba Sayal-Bennett exploring the layered architecture and history of Somerset House. The works were powder-coated laser-cut steel reliefs shown around the various buildings. Inspired by architect Sir William Chambers’ 18th-century drawings for Somerset House she quotes fragments while reimagining them as geometric abstracts. According to the commentary, they reflect “how the British colonial imagination and imperialist attitudes of the time were encoded in the designs of his buildings.” I’m not sure I would have got that from just looking at them but I did get the link with architectural drawings especially when sprung one beside a modern guide plan. I liked the ways these looked against the architecture and in the space however the best presented one, at the bottom of the Nelson staircase set against a dark blue wall, had builders junk in front of it for an art fair which was being set up. Have the courtesy not to obscure the ...