Cathy's Art Diary

Clever but dull exhibition at Somerset House Gallery 31 of work by Christine Sun Kim. It consisted of stretched shaped canvases which evidently mirrored the movements made by someone signing the titles in American Sign Language. It was a clever idea and about language occupying space but I’m afraid as objects they were quite dull. They’d have benefited by being shown with a video of someone signing the words. I see here is a video online so I’m off to watch it. Closed 21 May 2023  

Charming exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery using drawings from their collection to explore Western artists interaction with Orientalism and the Arabian Nights stories. The show invited us to read the pictures as a conflation of observations when traveling with the literature. The stories had been passed down orally over the years but were first published in Europe in 1701 in French. There was a good selection of work by a range of artists. The star of the show was a study by Ingres for “La Grand Odalisque”, an exquisite nude drawing. The show explained how the idea of the Odalisque was a European construct as male artists didn’t have access to the harem or local models. My favourite work was a sketch by Glyn Philpot again as a study for a larger work. Closes 3 June 2023

Touching exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery reflecting the friendship of the artist Peter Doig and poet Derek Walcott. The two men met in Trinidad and Walcott wrote a suit of poems inspired by a painting by Doig. In return Doig did etchings in response to the poems. There was also a reading of the poems in Doig’s studio and the show included a portrait of Walcott by Doig which was used for the poster for the event. The images were delicate and simple. I think my favourite was this one of a girl in a hammock which reflected a painting in the larger show of Doig’s paintings at the gallery. Closes 29 May 2023    

Bright exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of new work by Peter Doig. Doig has lived in Canada and Trinidad and recently returned to London where he studied in the 1980s. These works were painted in Trinidad and London. The commentary says that the gallery’s collection was a touchstone for him. It also says he hasn’t focused on a subject but on creating “something new in paint”. I loved the stories behind the work and its sense of place more than the work itself but I could see the links to the collection. The last thing I saw in the space were some works by Munch so I kept seeing echoes of that. Closes 29 May 2023 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Interesting small exhibition at the British Museum of drawings and watercolours by Klaus Friedeberger made in an internment camp in the Second World War. I knew that Britain had camps for “alien enemies” during the war but I hadn’t realised that some of them were shipped to camps in Australia. The ship Friedeberger sailed on included 2000 people like him, Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. I was shocked and it reminded me of ideas of flying asylum seekers to Rwanda. The pictures were charming and were donated to the museum by Friedeberger’s widow. The work included beautiful drawings in grey wash of life in camp and a poster for a show in the camp. I loved a watercolour of corrugated iron panels with plants which reminded me of a Nash surreal landscape. Closes 21 May 2023  

Small but perfectly formed exhibition at the British Museum looking at the print trade in Venice around 1500. The show centred around Barbari’s ambitious map of Venice from 1500 which the museum has a copy of. I always love seeing this print and it was lovely to be able to get up close and study the detail. Other exhibits then looked at more work by Barbari and his successors. It discussed how Leonardo da Vinci and Durer both visited the city around this time and how this influence prints in the city and how the prints influenced their work. The show included a print by Mercantino Raimondi copying a print by Durer that sparked a copyright law case which resulted in a ban on anyone else using Durer’s monogram. It was a fascinating picture of the artists and print trade in the city in this period. As ever in shows by the British Museum Print Room the commentary was excellent and clearly written. Closes 21 May 2023    

Fabulous exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery looking at Queer pictures of men in the 20th century and the development of physique photography. The show was arranged around areas of London where men went who were seeking other men and looked at the aesthetics that developed there that were unique to the city. The show was so tender and was as much a history of Queer London as of the images. I found lots of wonderful stories I want to find out more about. I was intrigued to find photographs by Keith Vaughan, an artist I know quite well but I’d never come across the photographs. I was also delighted to find the work of Montague Glover as I’d seen a book by him years ago, which I loved, of photographs of soldiers and working men. I’ve just looked up the book and it’s now £280 second hand! Closes 12 June 2023  

Fascinating small exhibition at the Photographers’   Gallery looking at a series of supplements in Architectural Review in 1969-70 which critiqued 1960s town planning. In eight themed works the journal examined different aspects and themes of urban life and commissioned a different photo journalist or street photographer for each issue. The show had a lovely selection of images as well as copies of some other supplements showing the commissioned covers which all featured versions of a human head. I loved the clarity of the photographs and recognised a number of the photographers from previous shows. Closes 12 June 2023

Interesting exhibition at the Photographers Gallery showcasing the four shortlisted finalists in this years Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. I always find this show slightly baffling as they seem to take quite a broad definition of photography. I should take it as artists who use photography in contemporary art rather than people who take photographs. Most baffling was Arthur Jafa who the commentary said was looking at how visual media could transmit “the equivalent power, beauty and alienation” embedded in black music. Not sure what that means and feel that music has developed over time where as this is trying to do the same in one moment. I found Bieke Depoorte’s Installation very moving. It documented a chance meeting with a man in Portland, Oregan, who gave her a suitcase of his belongings and disappeared. The installation was a video recording how she tried to find him and find out more about him with the content of the suitcase around the walls. Frida Orupado...

Disappointing small exhibition at the Cartoon Museum on the comic strips based on the animations of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson like Thunderbirds and Stingray. I say disappointing as a lot of the work on show were homages to the earlier comic. I would like to have seen more from the early work. Similarly there was one model from a tv show but the toys in a display case were modern ones. I think this was one for the geeks rather than a vaguely interested passer-by like me. Closes 4 June 2023  

Frightening  exhibition at the Cartoon Museum of satire and cartoons of Boris Johnson and events in the UK from 2019-2022. I say frightening because, although I laughed out loud a lot in the show, the fact we actually lived through these events and live with the consequences now is frightening. The section of Covid was the most funny and poignant. The whole show was slightly dominated by the sound from an animated cartoon of Boris’s “I don’t wash my hands speech” in which he gradually turns into a skeleton. I’ve added a couple of my favourites here. The show also covered Ukraine, Brexit and his fall from office. There were examples from all the main cartoonists and newspapers and most were shown in the original drawings. It was nice to see that a lot of the work had been donated to the museum. Closes 16 April 2023  

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades on the effect of the Surrealists arriving in New York from Paris in the Second World War. Charles Darwent, the author of a book on the subject, focused on the Atelier 17 set up by the English artists S.W. Hayter originally in Paris and later in New York and the artists who gravitated to it. I had never realised before that Abstract Expressionism had its roots in Surrealist ideas of the unconscious in art. I wouldn’t have classed Pollock and co as surrealists but this talk helped me understand those links. I was particularly interested in the idea that when the French first arrived they couldn’t communicate with the American as many didn’t speak English but they congregate at the Jumble Shop restaurant where they started communicate via drawings and sharing works.    

Fascinating lecture at the National Maritime Museum looking at the clothes worn by WRNS popularly known as the Wrens. Jo Horton outlined her research on Wrens clothing from when they were founded in the First World War to the 1950s. She had drawn on the museum collection and archives as well as interviewing a number of veterans and used touching quotes from those interviews. She looked at the uniforms and how the women adapted them to fit as well the different types of less formal work wear. She also talked about what they wore off duty and how they shared clothes. This talk was to mark Women’s History Month and was paired with another talk by the journalist, Vivien Morgan “Cross Dressed to Kill” about women who had gone to war disguised as men from the 17th century to the 20th. She described some fabulous characters who I want to look up.

Lovely little display at the National Maritime Museum showcasing Dulwich College's copy Shakespeare's First Folio as part of the Folio 400 celebrations. This was a lovely example of how a museum can tell a story quickly and clearly with just a few objects. They had the two volumes of the folio open on sections which related to the sea, the opening page of The Tempest and a section from Richard II which Clarence dreams about shipwrecks. These were cleverly paired two other documents or the school, a handwritten play script from about 1605 to show what the plays would have looked like before they were published and a petition   to the Lord High admiral from Thames watermen from around 1590 asking for the Rose Theatre to be reopened probably after a plague as they were losing money. It's well worth popping into the Maritime London gallery at the museum if you are there to see it. Closes 24 September 2023    

Interesting exhibition at the National Maritime Museum of the winners of the Astronomy Photography of the Year awards. The photographs were beautifully shown on light boxes making them very clear and bright. Each was shown with a commentary by the photographer and technical details of how it was taken. I related most to the works in the Earth and Space section as they included more recognisable surroundings. My favourite was a picture by Carl Gallagher of the Northern lights with a rusty ship beached in the foreground. Some of the works in Solar System section were like abstract paintings. I also preferred the pictures taken in one shot rather than the more technical multi-shot ones or ones taken with complex telescopes. Some of the works felt more like scientific experiments that photographs. Many of the works made me think about the course I did on The Sublime and had that same quality of inspiring awe. Closes 13 August 2023  

Fascinating exhibition at the Queen’s House in Greenwich looking at the work of father and son painters the Van de Veldes. The painters specialised in sea and ship pictures and were brought over from the Netherlands by Charles II where he had probably known them when he was in exile. He gave them a studio in the Queen’s House so it was magical to see the paintings in the buildings they were probably painted in. The centre piece of the show was a recently conserved tapestry designed by them and commissioned by Charles II of the Battle of Solebay. It looked glorious and made you realise the richness of tapestry. Standing in front of it you felt like you were in the battle. I must admit as art they were exquisite but a bit repetitive however the most interesting aspect was the light it shone on studio practice at the time. The artists kept a large collection of drawings which they used to build they compositions. These included detailed studies of particular ships. In the last sect...

Lovely opportunity to see pieces from this sculpture trail of painted globes by different artists exploring the Slave Trade and its effect outside the National Maritime Museum. I last saw them in Trafalgar Square and blogged about them. It was nice to see them in a different, very relevant venue. This time they were shown in a circle as if they were in a meeting. It was nice to stand in the middle of them although I didn't linger as it was a very wet day.   They were there as part of the museum's Caribbean Takeover day. Closes 1 April 2023 however I passed again on 12 April and they were still there!

Basic online discussion from London Art Week looking at monasteries and the art they produced. Jana Gajdosova of Sam Fogg and Michael Carter of English Heritage discussed the rise and fall of monasteries and convents. They are working on an exhibition at Sam Fogg of objects from monasteries and the talk was illustrated with objects which will be in the show. It was a slightly simplistic talk but a good introduction to the subject for those who didn’t know much about it. However it did also have nuggets of things I didn’t know like an outline of the different types of tonsures and an interesting outline of how the austere Cistercian style evolved over the years.

Repeat of an online lecture from the National Gallery on ebony picture frames. The gallery had originally run this talk back in 2020 but I signed up to this repeat by Clara Davarpanah by accident. It was a fresh live event not a recording. It was very similar to the original but with extra information on how the frames were made and the different types of moulding. It was actually very good to be reminded of this information particularly around the fact that the Dutch had a monopoly on ebony which they had discovered on the uninhabited island of Mauritius. It is always interesting to think about how different a work can look in different frames and to think about the fact most galleries show paintings without frames on their websites but in reality we nearly always see them in frames in the gallery.  

Interesting small exhibition at the British Library of photographs of Chinese people who have forged an identity away from metropolitan life by Jamie Lau. This display compliments the current larger exhibition “Chinese and British”. There were beautiful photographs of people in mean something to them with labels written but the subjects. There were seven works with the photographer’s story being the eighth story. A lovely touch was that a vicar who was featured in a graveyard with a cup of tea had lent family items to the larger show. Closes 7 May 2023    

Fascinating  exhibition at the British Library looking at what it means to be Chinese and British and the history of Chinese people here. It started with the first recorded Chinese person to visit Britain, Shen Fuzong in 1687, who met James II. I was delighted to find he worked with a librarian at the Bodleian Library to catalogue Chinese books. I was also intrigued by Tan-Che-Qua, a sculptor, who appears in a group portrait of Royal Academicians. Most touching was the 20th century section which included lots of items lent by families including this dolls house of a Chinese restaurant and a sailor’s duffle bag. As my family came from Liverpool, I was fascinated to find the Chinese population grew in the Second World War and their businesses thrived despite the Blitz. My parents had never mentioned that.   Closes 23 April 2023  

Excellent installation at Lightroom exploring the work of David Hockney. It is an immersive show in a basement where the stunning images are projected onto all four walls and the floor. At first I found the fact there were a lot of other people there distracting but you soon filtered them out and it was actually quite sweet watching children interact with the film. The best thing was the commentary by Hockney explaining ways of seeing as images unfurled. There as   a wonderful bit explaining different perspectives where this Chinese scroll unwound and you were put into a Canaletto. Also sections on drawing and photography examining closer looking. I was surprised at the parallels between his Poloid collage of people and Freud paintings. There was a super section on his opera designs where you felt like you were in a theatre and animated figures walk and danced around the room at floor level. You did feel a little seasick after a while so I would advise changing where you a...

Useful, clear online lecture from the Churches Conservation Trust looking at the art collecting of Louis XIV. I don’t know much about this period beyond what I learnt watching the TV drama “Versailles” which I loved. It was all about the hair! Barbara Lasic, from the Sotheby’s Institute, took us thought the expansion of the palace concentrating on the decoration of each new set of rooms by Charles le Brun. She then outlined how the Royal Collection had developed to this point starting with pieces acquired by Francis I and took us through various collections which were left to Louis and which he acquired. I was fascinated by a section on craftsmen and designers who were encouraged by Louis.  

Fascinating online discussion from London Art Week bringing together a panel of younger dealers to talk about how the idea of ‘sleepers’ in the art market is changing. The speakers talked about how it is becoming harder to find traditional ‘sleepers’ ie unrecognised Old Masters with better promotion of auctions online making it easier for more people to see what is available which can push prices up on potential finds. They then each introduced works they had acquired recently by artists they felt should be better known and explained how it was more about discovering stories that particular works. They also discussed issues you can face when researching such as women who change their name when they marry. Will Elliot of Elliott Fine Art mentioned a selection of artists but I loved the picture I use here by Lily Steiner who worked in Vienna and Paris. He talked about how you can also add value by identifying a sitter which he has not yet done in this case. Ellie Smith of Philip...

Fascinating online lecture from ARTscapades on the Ottoman Empire. I have to admit my knowledge of the Ottoman was limited and I only really know if it where it intersects with Western art. Diana Darke, journalist and author of a book with the same title as the lecture led us clearly through the formation of the empire and how it operated. I was amazed to discover a radical society which provided many services freely in return for taxes and an empire which welcomed all races and religions. We could learn a lot from them. Darke also took us though the architecture of the various capitals over the centuries as well as describing the goods which they exported and were much in demand in the West such as carpets and flower bulbs. I don’t usually blog historical lectures but I include this one as it has really opened my eyes to the wider world in which the art I love and study existed. I will look at marginal figures and objects in a new light.

Fun annual art fair at the Mall Galleries   run by experienced art dealers. I’ve been to this show before and enjoyed it. I think it was a bit smaller this year but it still had a good mix of galleries with a nice selection of work at a variety of prices. Highlights this year were some nice Augustus John etchings, lovely still-lives by Anne Songhurst and an a-typical Peter Blake of a rose in a vase. My favourite piece was a John Piper sketch of a London bomb site in wonderful colours. A beautiful thing coming from devastation. Closed 26 March 2023

Lovely exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on Quinten Massys “Ugly Duchess” from about 1513. This well-known picture from the gallery’s collection was reunited with its pendant “Old Man” on loan from a private collection and set in the context of the time. I was pleased I had done an introductory talk on the show to get more depth, which I’ve already blogged, and I’ve also signed up to a longer course on it so I’ll save some of the nuisances for that. The show also included copies of a Leonardo drawing that the picture is based on and other examples of the satirical old man/young woman and visa-versa double portraits as well as a more formal, sympathetic one of an older couple. The idea of satirising older women in this period was explored with examples in print, majolica, painting and sculpture. I would have liked a bit more on the idea of a similar figure in festival entertainments which I had found fascinating in the talk. Closes 11 June 2023 Reviews Times G...

Fabulous exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the origins of modern art. The show traced the period from the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886 to the start of the First World War visiting Paris, Barcelona, Brussels, Vienna and Berlin. It is a period I have always been fascinated in. To some extent it repeated a number of recent shows about the individual artists but it put them in a wider context and traced the narrative between them. I loved the use of portraits of dealers and thinkers to help broaden the story. It was wonderful to have so many pictures from private collections which I’d never seen rather than just the usual suspects. Special treats included a couple of pictures I didn’t know from Van Gogh’s time in the asylum, Maurice Dennis’s “Homage to Cezanne”, some wonderful Seurat’s and a Picasso Cubist portrait. The show also set up some interesting unspoken dialogues such as having pictures of girls reading by Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Matisse. Closes...

Innovative installation at the National Gallery by Nalini Malani. It consists of a room in which you are surrounded by rapidly changing images of works from the gallery’s collection and the Holburne Museum in Bath overlaid with graphics by the artist. There is then a soundscape of the story of Cassandra from the Trojan War in her own words. The idea of the show is to offer a new interpretation of the works and the graphics reflect how he artist has looked at the works. She also adds portraits of imagined people from Asia and Africa with their faces disappearing behind stock-market charts. I thought the idea behind this were fascinating and having done an introductory talk about it I was looking forward to it however I found the images moved too fast. I’d just be developing a train thought a combination of images when they’d change setting off new ideas. I’m also don’t understand where Cassandra fitted in except to give the voice of a woman. I guess it may introduce people to the...

Enlightening little exhibition at the British Museum exploring standing stones, akwanshi or “ancestors in the ground”, from Nigeria. The exhibition centred, literally, around a figure from the museum’s collection and used it to discuss the importance of these figures, often found in circles facing each other which share distinctive features and rich decoration. Some are still used in the annual New Yam festival to celebrate a successful harvest. The show also highlighted recent work to digitally survey the existing works and record their physical condition and the environmental issues they face. It looks at the provenance of the British Museum’s example which had been bought in the 1930s before the export of Nigerian antiquities was prohibited and the history of fakes made for the European market in Cameroon. Closed 26 March 2023

Interesting online lecture from the Victoria and Albert Museum launching Will Gompertz’s new book on looking and perception and in particular how artists of the 20th century changed the way we look. Gompertz, artistsic director of The Barbican since June 2021 and previously art’s editor for the BBC, talked about how he came to write the book with lively anecdotes then talked us though some of the major shifts in art in the last century and in contemporary art which have been driven by looking. He began with Cezanne and how he reduced a landscape to a series of geometric blocks and yet we see it as a landscape. He said that one person asking one question can change art. He then took us through Cubism, Expressionism, Duchamp etc up to Tracey Emin. It was all told lightly and easily and was a perfect Thursday night unwind. The talk was also delivered in person at the museum but I opted for the online version with my own wine at home! I am also seeing Gompertz at the Charleston fest...

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery introducing their new exhibition focused on Quinten Massys’s “The Ugly Duchess” of about 1513. Emma Capron explained how the picture is more commonly called “An Old Woman” and was popularised as the model for John Tenniel’s original illustrations for the Duchess in “Alice in Wonderland”. However she then encouraged us to try to look at in the Renaissance context explaining the works in the exhibition which had been chosen to illustrate this.   She explained how it was based on a drawing by Leonardo which is only known in copies. It fits in his genre of drawing grotesque both from life and from his imagination and she talked about the role of these grotesque which were often used to imply moral laxity. She also talked about theories of comedy of the time and how this image might have reflected writings by Erasmus. One common moral and comedic trope was the idea of a couple mismatched in age. I was most interest in the secti...