Cathy's Art Diary

Charming installation at Museo Archaeologico Nationale de Napoli of works by Manoli Valdès. The works were life sized sculptures based on the Spanish Infanta in Las Meninas by Velazquez. Picasso was also influenced by the painting and did a series of works riffing on it so this complimented another exhibition about him in the museum. They looked beautiful in the space but would have had more effect if there had been less information boards in the impressive space, the Meridian Hall, to detract from them. I loved this quote in the explanation “Does Valdés cite these "old masters" as a reference or a memo, or does he regard them as a battlefield for his own pictorial exploration?”. What an interesting idea! Again there is nothing on the museum’s website about this show despite lots of advertising of it within the building. Closes 6 January 2024    

Confusing exhibition at the Museo Archaeologico Nationale de Napoli of photographs by Giancatlo De Luca. I say confusing as the information boards were only in Italian, which I don’t speak or read. I can’t find anything about it on their website either. The haunting works were of the derelict II Real Albergo dei Poveri, a former hospital, which the museum plans to open as an extension for the collection and were shown in one of the galleries of Roman statues from the Farnese Collection. The works were beautifully atmospheric and it would have been good to know more about them and the project. I love the museum so I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for developments. Closes 11 December 2023    

Intriguing exhibition at the Museo Archaeologico Nationale de Napoli looking at how Picasso was influenced by classical art. Picasso made two trips to Naples in 1917 and was Influenced by his trips to this museum and in particular the Farnese Hercules and Bull as well as frescos from Pompeii.   The exhibition was in the room where the two sculptures are based and cleverly wove the narrative around them. The main works by Picasso used to illustrate the influence was the Vollard Suite of prints from the 1930s and I was interested to see that they used the set from the British Museum. It was a nice touch to include a display on what the museum would have looked like in 1917. Closed 2 October 2023  

Fascinating exhibition at Galleria d’Italia in Naples on the 20th century artist Mario Schifano. Schifano roughly fitted into the Pop Art movement starting with Rothko like pieces he called Monchromes then moving on to how his was influenced by street signs and street sign painters and I loved this picture of a work in progress. The show then looked at his time in New York where he often picked on small details around him especially in Central Park and my favourite picture was this deconstructed tree. There was also a section on how he was influenced by the rise of tv.   On the lower floor were his later large works which looked great in the rather brutalist space. Closed 29 October 2023    

Useful online lecture from the Victoria and albert Museum introducing their new exhibition on Gabrielle Chanel. The three curators of the show, Oriole Cullen, Stephanie Wood and Connie Burks led us though the structure of the exhibition.   They explained how they wanted to focus on Chanel’s design work and to just take a light touch to her life story. They discussed some of the choices they made in choosing the pieces to show and explained how they covered periods, such as the Second World War for which there were no exhibits using archive material. They used some beautiful pictures to illustrate the talk and I can’t wait to go and see the show. It’s on my list for next week.

Disappointing exhibition at the Imperial War Museum on the troubles in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s till the Peace Agreement of 1998. I had been looking forward to the show having watched a brilliant five part documentary on BBC recently and having of, of course, remembered the subject dominating the news bulletins of my childhood and teenage years. The display felt quite thin. I liked the fact it had interesting written testimony from those involved on all sides but it made for a lot of standing and reading or listening. There were impressive photographs on light boxes but few artefacts. The show concentrated on the ideologies and conflicting views of events but there was little information on what actually happened, the role of the British Army or how incidents spilled out into mainland Britain. They did well with the three small rooms allocated to the show but the subject deserves much better coverage. Just go back and watch the documentary, it gave me a much better o...

Fascinating exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery discussing fakes in their collection. The narrative discussed the nature of copies, some being part of artistic practice but other produced to deceive. It talked about the motivation of forgers for money and a desire to fool the experts. It also looked at how owners often faked signatures to increase the value of work as well as dealers who added false collectors marks for the same reason. The show was over two floors with drawings on one and painting and sculpture on the other. The explanations of the work were clear and told some wonderful stories however there was no signage to the show and minimal indication that it was on two floors. I only found one section as I popped to see if there were any displays in the project space. I was intrigued to see Han Van Meegeren’s fake of “The Procuress” which appears in the background of a few Vermeer paintings. Meergeren was famous for selling fakes to the Nazis. I also loved the story of ...

Disjointed exhibition at the Royal Academy of work by two of the current schools students. I say disjointed because the work of the two artists didn’t seem to relate to each other. The title seems to relate to the fact that in both cases they are works in progress. I meant to try to go back and see how they progressed but failed. Ferro’s work was odd sculptures. As ever with these shows it would have been useful to have a bit more explanation. Khilji’s work was figurative paintings on different found materials from a sheet to linoleum to cigarette packets. Closed 29 October 2023

Five interesting exhibitions at the Centre for British Photography looking at how people impact the landscape. I am cheating a bit by combining these shows into one post but they all fit the theme of the main show and I must admit I’m quite behind with blogging so this seems quite convenient! The main show featured work by a selection of photographers looking at how the past is visible in nature and recent inclusions into the landscape. Highlights included John Davies pictures of aeroplanes vapour trails, Paul Seawright’s photographs of the sites of sectarian murders in Northern Ireland and Mitra Tabrizian’s strange upside down work, or is it? Downstairs there was work by Mandy Barker reacting to plastic pollution in the ocean. She brought together similar artefacts found on beaches into montages often looking like kaleidoscope images or in one case a Dutch floral still-life. She aims to raise awareness of the issue via her art. Upstairs was three small displays Helen Seats la...

Beautiful exhibition at White Cube Masons’ Yard of a new video and sculpture by Christian Marclay. Marclay is best known for his videos and this was another excellent one. It pieces together exerts from films of people opening, going through and closing doors. It swaps quickly between clips perfectly matching the placing of the door on screen so that one person enters and another appears. I’m not sure how long it is but I watched memorised for about 20 minutes. Upstairs the video was complimented by sculptures made of doors cut up and stuck back together in another way. I loved them and trying to work out how the door had been used. Closed 30 September 2023 Review Guardian  

Interesting exhibition at Charleston in Lewes of work from throughout the career of the contemporary artist   Jonathan Baldock career. These were large sculptural works often using textile in bright colours. They were shown like an installation in a big, light gallery on the top floor. I do need to go back and see this as, on party night, it was difficult to see the vistas across the work plus it was a hot night and the hard surfaces of the gallery made it very noisy. But as a first impression I liked the work and would like to engage with it more. Closes 7 January 2024  

Fantastic  exhibition at Charleston in Lewes on fashion and the Bloomsbury Group. It went through the main characters looking at the clothes they wore and what those clothes said about them. I loved that it gave equal weight to the men and women as often men get left out of shows about clothes. They made good use of portraits, many of which I’d not see before, as well as their writings. The title is a quote from a letter by Vanessa to a guest meaning they wouldn’t be dressing for dinner. A particularly brilliant loan was some of the wardrobe of Ottolline Morrell from Fashion Museum in Bath. Alongside the history the show also looked at how the group were influencing modern designers with wonderful displays of their work. As I was there on opening night, a number of the designers were in the show standing with their work. I can’t wait to go back on a quieter day and take in more of the detail. Just one moan though,   please can we have bigger typeface on the labels p...

Fabulous new venue in Lewes for the Charleston Trust. I was lucky enough to be invited to the opening party for the venue and it was fascinating to hear how the building had been turned round from old council offices to a great arts space in just 12 weeks. The council still own the building but it includes gallery space curated by Charleston, an outpost of their shop and a café from their wonderful caterers Caccia and Tails. There are ambitious plans to use the space for educational events. There is also going to be a mini bus running between this space, branded Charleston in Lewes, to the house (Charleston in Firle) and the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne. A great new project and I wish it well. It will be good to go and visit at a quieter time to get a clearer view of how it will work. Party night was more about getting your glass of fizz and meeting people.    

Lovely art trail around East Sussex showing the work of local artists and crafts people in their studios. Sadly I didn’t have a lot of time the weekend I was there but did get to one in Isfield and a few in Kingston. My friend bought this sculpture from a wonderful stonemason, Tracy Steel, in Isfield and we saw lots of good landscape paintings of the Downs. Closes 17 September 2023  

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at Longford Castle and its relationship with the gallery. Two tour guides from the castle, Sean Moran and Debbie Bichener, outlined the history of the castle and its art collection with great illustrations. They also took us through works that had been purchased from the collection by the gallery over the years, such as Holbein’s “The Ambassadors”, and current loans from the collection. I love the idea that the first director of the gallery, James Eastlake, had written a ‘hit list’ of works he wanted to acquire from Longford. I’d noticed for a couple of years that the gallery offered tours of the castle and I have now learnt this is partly in lieu of inheritance tax alongside loans to the gallery. I must try to get organised and book next year.

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery introducing their current exhibition focusing on Paula Rego’s mural from the restaurant. I had seen the show shortly before so it was really useful to spend an hour with Priyesh Mistry, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Projects at the gallery, learning a bit more about how it was commissioned, who the figures are in it and how it was painted. I liked the way he guided us across the picture telling us a bit about the iconography of the women represented and how Rego’s take on them was sometimes different He also told us about the members of the education team at the gallery who had modelled for Rego during her period as artist in residence in the early 1990s which led to this commission. Mistry also talked about how Rego wanted to use this work to introduce more women into the imagery of the gallery and to have a female view point represented.

Interesting display at the Garden Museum of repurposed Ikea cabinets to work as indoor greenhouses. Based on a project by the museum and Queen Mary, University of London, the show reflects on collective attitudes towards houseplants' value by making visible research about their roles in our social and political lives. Evidently it is based on an Instagram trend. I didn’t come away knowing much more about houseplants but I did want to try this. I’d have liked a bit more on whether you heat them and if so how. It makes my one house plant look a bit sad. Clo sed 8 September 2023

Charming exhibition at the Garden Museum, aimed at children, looking at the science of gardening. Based on books by zoologist and author, Nicola Davies, illustrated by Emily Sutton and Mark Hearld the show combined original artwork and simply written explanations of scientific phenomena like microbes. It felt a bit wordy for children but the text was clear and interesting. I loved the delicate illustrations. Closed 14 September 2023    

Fascinating exhibition at the Garden Museum looking at the life and work of Jean Cooke. I’d been drawn to the show by a picture on an email but then realised I’d come across Cooke’s work before in a show at the Barbican. She’d married another artist who was abusive to her, restricting the hours she could work and sometimes not letting her leave the house. She often showed herself in self-portraits with a black eye. Her work was delightful despite being limited in its range by her husband. I loved the full, verdant scenes of a neglected garden and the area around one of her homes in East Sussex but she also did lovely, paired back minimal works. I think I was particularly drawn to her as she lived between Blackheath and East Sussex, two places I spend a lot of time in myself. Closed 10 September 2023 Review Telegraph    

Stimulating one day conference organised by the National Gallery at King’s College London bringing together academics and practitioners from artistic, theological and ecological backgrounds to discuss how three paintings from the gallery reflect themes of creation. The conference was the culmination of this year’s Art and Religion Research programme which had had been discussing the topic via three paintings; Rachel Ruysch’s “Flowers in a Vase” (1685), Claude Monet’s “Flood Waters” (1896) and Van Gogh’s “Long Grass with Butterflies” (1890). Although the networks are closed, they had opened this conference to a wider audience. At times I found it a bit too philosophical for me but as I typed it up I realise I had got a lot of new ideas from it and new things to think about when looking at pictures. The format of the day was three panels with two speakers on each talking about one of the pictures. The Ruysh speakers set up opposing arguments about whether the work was about extincti...

Charming exhibition in the sales gallery of the Photographers’ Gallery of pictures of birds by five of the photographers they represent. I loved their description of this as a “curated menagerie” reflecting the number of words for gathering of birds. My favourites were pictures of show birds by Luke Stephenson. Beautifully focused images of individual birds on perches against bright backgrounds. They had a feel of Renaissance portraits. There were 21 hung together which was very effective. I also liked Pentii Sammallhati’s black and white images capturing moments in the wild which made a lovely contrast to Stephenson’s pieces. Closed 10 September 2023

Confused exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery of a project by Johny Pitts. I must admit I got confused by the number of ideas which seemed to drive this show but I think in the end it boiled it down to a trip around the coast of Britain with poet Roger Robinson to address the question “What is Black Britain?” which then developed into him looking at what home means to him. Throw in Japanese ideas of a ‘personal utopia’ and you’ll see where I’m coming from. I wanted the photos of people around the coast to tell me more about who they were and where they were taken but he did explain that there were no labels to remove hierarchy and that “people and places will be apparent to anyone from that location” but what about the rest of us. I liked the nostalgic installation of a living room wall with shelves, tv, videos etc but wasn’t convinced this was recording a black experience as implied. My first student rooms looked remarkably similar. Closed 24 September 2023 Review Gua...

Strange but fun exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery looking at the history of virtual worlds. This show was part of an online resource that explores photography's increasingly automated, networked life and a three-year project with the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at South Bank University. It started by looking at the history of virtual worlds with Second Life being one of the longest running. It then looked at how most fail and why. To show this they had created a game to model a world called “World Imagining Game” which you could play. Built into it was that any economic model you built for it failed. I invented a world for art history geeks!    Closed 24 September 2023

Serene exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery looking at the career of Evelyn Hofner. I’d not consciously come across Hofner’s work before but I loved her clear cool vision. Having fled Germany in 1933 aged 11 with her family, she settled in Mexico before moving to New York in 1946 to work as an editorial photographer on magazines. She was then commissioned to take photographs for a book “The Stones of Venice” by Mary McCarthy and moved into this type of documentary work. I loved her black and white photos of City life in New York, Washington, Dublin and London. Unlike other contemporary street photographers she didn’t catch a moment but worked with her subjects to produce insightful portraits. Some of the pictures, like this one of two Dublin maids, seemed to hint at a short story. I also liked her pictures of empty interiors which seemed to include the shadows of the people who had been there. Closed 24 September 2023 Review Guardian  

Fascinating small exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery looking at the life and work of Mary Beale and her husband Charles. The show highlighted how Charles, who was Mary’s studio manager, also experimented with colours and paints to help her career as a portrait painter. I loved the labels printed on mock paint palettes with a small blob of colour where the narrative was describing an experiment. At first I was disappointed that there were a number of pictures by other artists, but in each case there was a good link to Mary and they added to the story eg a portrait of her son Bartholomew by Sir Peter Lely who was a neighbour. Closed 3 September 2023    

Delightful exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery looking at the work of the Impressionist Berthe Morisot. I loved that the show was based around how Morisot was influenced by the 18th century. It gave a good structure and the narrative was clearly explained by good labels and interesting hangs of her work next to the older works. Looking at the dates it is equivalent to us looking back to the 1920s. There were some great loans and it was lovely to get so close to the pictures to study the brushwork. I preferred the earlier work as the colours were richer and they had my favourite of her works of her husband, Eugene Manet, on their honeymoon on the Isle of Wight. It was in a good section on her time in London and on the island looking at who she met and the art she saw. Closed 10 September 2023 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Helpful online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the architectural phases of the gallery. Ralph St Clare-Wade from the University of Cambridge marked the upcoming 200th anniversary of the gallery with this talk which clearly laid out the different phases of its development from it’s start in a house in Pall Mall to the opening of the Sainsbury Wing. Despite visiting at least once a month I had never really thought about how the building grew and the different architects involved. I was particularly intrigued at how the original site was dictated by the presence of a workhouse and barracks behind it and how it was able to expand as both of those were no longer needed. It will certainly make me look at it in a different way in the future.

Interesting small exhibition at the British Library of documents on the history of animals rights from the Enlightenment to today. The first exhibit was a lovely copy of Hogarth’s “The Four Stages of Cruelty” from 1768 which set the scene. This was followed by letters from Richard Martin, an Irish politician and campaigner against animal cruelty who helped found what would later become the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). Via various 19th century books the show finished with ephemera from 20th campaigns. The website says it closed on 9 July 2023 but I saw it on 30 August.    

Useful lecture at the British Library on Shakespeare’s First Folio to mark the 400th anniversary of its publication. Adrian Edward’s from the library led us through the history of the publication and, in particular, of the library’s five copies. Due to corrections as the work was printed no two copies are the same and he took us through those varieties as well as showing differences due to their use and history. It was very special to then pop to their Treasures gallery to view one of their copies, once owned by Dr Johnson, and with a replacement front page which has been hand drawn as a perfect copy.    

Fascinating exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at the history of milk and our relationship with it. The points were made clearly with well-chosen objects, films and ephemera. It followed loose themes such as the history of the West’s use of milk, perceived health benefits, production and scientific motherhood. I had never realised the link between milk and race from the west’s promotion of it as they colonised despite the fact many races can’t digest it to Pro-Trump supporters purposefully drinking milk at rallies as a sign of their whiteness. I felt at times the analogy was stretched a bit too far but it certainly got me thinking. I also realised I was exactly the right age to have been influenced by a lot of health promotions. I found the section on free school milk particularly nostalgic. I remember the way it froze in winter and went off in summer. There was a good section on the promotion of scientific advice to women around breast feeding and the politics of t...

Charming exhibition at the Foundling Museum of work by contemporary visual artists, writers and designers inspired by the museum’s unique collection of tokens. I always find the tokens, left by parents of foundlings as way of identifying themselves if they managed to come back to claim the child later. Over the years since the museum opened in 2004 they have invited artists and writers to respond to the tokens and this show brought some of those responses together. They were shown with two of the original cases of tokens which the hospital started to display in the 19th century. My favourite work was this watercolour by Mary Feddon. Closed 10 September 2023  

Interesting exhibition at the Foundling Museum exploring the eighteenth-century concert series, the 'Concert of Antient Music'. These concerts began in 1776 with a programme of about 12 concerts a year until 1848. They were programmed by nobles but managed by the conductor, beginning with Joah Bates. They featured ‘ancient’ music, defined as pieces more than 20 years old, at a time when concerts tended to feature new works. This often includes works by Handel who was one of the founders of the museum. The display consisted of portraits of the main protagonists and ephemera related to the concerts including a cabinet on Sarah Harrop, the soloist and wife of Joah Bates. I loved this register of performances from the start to 1791. The show revealed an aspect of the 18th century which I hadn’t know about before. My father was a geek about the music of this period and he would have loved this display.   Closed 8 October 2023    

Thoughtful exhibition at the Founding Museum exploring what family means. The core of the show were three paintings on loan from the National Gallery shown with work by contemporary artists and poems by people on the museum’s training and mentorship programme, “Tracing Our Tales”. The show was themed around questions about what family is, whether it is blood, connection, bond or love. The pictures were well used to illustrate the ideas. It was fascinating to read the connections the contemporary artists had to the subject. I was particularly moved by the story of Louise Allen whose adoptive mother had said she didn’t want her yet Allen went on to care for her and to foster over 20 children herself. It was lovely to see the National Gallery works by Hogarth, Gainsborough and the Le Nain Brothers in a different context. It made you look at them in a different way. I really enjoyed seeing Hogarth’s portrait of the Graham children at eye level so you could look into their faces. C...

Eclectic exhibition at the Royal Academy for their annual summer show. I thought this year was a much better hang than some with interesting small touches, like hanging a section with pictures of chairs and another with dogs, but also a good use of matching the colours of works to create an effect. The general theme this year was ‘Only Connect’ which seemed to give more flexibility than some years. My favourite room was hung by Clare Woods with an emphasis on still-life and hanging paintings and photographs together. I was amused to find a nice hang of prints by Anne Desmet whose work I had seen three days that week at various shows. Stand outs for me included a landscape by Humphrey Ocean which was a surprise as I know him more for portraits and birds, a bold purple landscape by Barbara Rae, a huge dead goose by the late Tony Scherman and Cornelia Parker’s print of glasses from above. Closes 20 August 2023 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard ...