Cathy's Art Diary

Delightful exhibition at the National Gallery reuniting two versions of a picture by Jean-Ettienne Liotard. The gallery owns the pastel version of this composition painted in 1754 and here it ha been reunited with his 1773 oil version on loan from a private collection, for the first time probably since the latter was painted. The show starts with a display on what pastels are and how they are made. I hadn’t realised that     artists weren’t able to buy them ready made until the 18th century which explains why they became more popular. Around the two pictures there were interesting displays on Liotard in Constantinople and London and on his fascination with porcelain. I hadn’t known about him before but he worked all over Europe and dubbed himself ‘the Turkish artist’ after his stay in Constantinople where he started wearing Turkish dress and grew a beard. Closes 3 March 2024 Reviews Times Guardian

Fascinating and clever small exhibition at the Royal Academy in which contemporary artist Alex Margo Arden recreates some of the dust jackets defaced by Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell. Arden had researched the dust jackets and traced copies of the same books and the images they used in their collages and recreated them. These were shown with Orton and Halliwell’s originals. You couldn’t tell them apart. They were shown with good commentaries on Orton and Halliwell’s project and a rather moving piece on the nature of books which, as an x-librarian I loved. Closed 7 January 2024

Beautiful exhibition at Waddington Custot of work by the sculptor Sophia Vari. The core of this show were Vari’s abstract sculptors in bronze and marble. The black and white works looked impressive en masse and I loved their solid but soft look. Also shown were her paintings and collages with a Cubist feel but in some the overlapping shapes had shadows and looked like pinboards. I loved some blue ones in the smaller room called “I Love Greece” from 2009 and they perfectly captured the colours, heat and calm of a warm climate. Closed 27 January 2024  

Weird but intriguing exhibition at Flowers Gallery of new work by Stuart Pearson Wright. Wright is most known for his portraits and is a previous winner of BP Portrait Artist of the Year, and there were some wonderful examples here, hung to look like a living room. His work has a hyperreal, eery quality,   just shifting the proportions to be slightly off. They draw you in and play with your eyes. Shown with these were two sculptures of men. I’d seem a picture of ‘Bloke’ in an email and assumed it was a painting so was surprised when I popped to the gallery a couple of weeks ago while the show was being set up to realise it was 3D. The two works dominate the space and it feels quite odd walking nearby them. I realised now from reading the press release that ‘Bloke’ and a couple of the paintings are interactive. I’m not sure if I didn’t notice or if they weren’t working, but I’m quite glad they didn’t as I think I’d have found that a bit freaky. Closed 25 November 2023  

Excellent seven-week online course from the National Gallery looking at painting in 17th century Holland. Lydia Bauman, artist and art historian, led us clearly through a series to themes with enough repetition to embed ideas while still making all the sessions feel fresh. She began giving an overview of the economics and society of the time to give context. She explained why she didn’t want to use the more usually descriptor of the period as “The Dutch Golden Age” as it wasn’t golden for people whose lands the Dutch colonised. The second week was also a useful overview of how artists worked paying particular attention to the different genre specialisms. She discussed how, with the rise of the Protestant religion in the region, the church was no longer commissioning art so artists had to start to work for the open market rather than to commission. In later weeks we looked at themes ranging from portraiture with a focus on the recent Frans Hals exhibition, the role of the home an

Charming annual exhibition at Glyndebourne of work by Sussex artists. I loved Faye Bridgwater’s bright bold landscapes which almost mugged you with colour. It was nice to see some new pieces by Dion Salvador Lloyd in an unusual lime green palate. I was drawn to Victoria Homewood’s views through window’s but my favourite was Janie Longmore’s “Sussex Book Stack” as I own at least three of the books in it!    Closed 18 December 2023  

Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of portrait drawings by David Hockney. It was a rerun of a show which was closed by Covid which I had managed to go to so check out my original review . When I now look at how much I was out and about in London on the run up to lockdown I amazed I didn’t catch the lurgy. This show was very similar, focusing on three friends plus his mother and self-portraits with an added section of portraits he did coming out of lockdown in his Normandy studio. There was a lovely sense the joy of being with people again but, from a couple where you know what the person looks like, I’m not sure they are particularly good portraits. Closed 21 January 2024 R eviews Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Disappointing exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of the shortlisted portrait photographs in this competition. Although I found some of the stories behind the photos fascinating and moving I’m afraid I found a lot of the images quite dull this year. I’ve sometimes moaned about the emphasis on series of works in the past but this year I felt it might benefit from showing more than one work to fill out the story. Images that stood out for me tended to be of older people which probably says more about me than the images. I loved Thomas Duffield’s “Grandad Drinking his Tea” which has a Rembrandt quality and the last picture I looked at in the show with a long title by Lucas Troader of an older lady in blue holding a flower who he’d just spotted on the street. This years featured artist was Hassan Hajjaj whose work I have seen a lot. He works between London and Morocco and does vibrant portrays framed with Moroccan tin cans. Can I have my usual photographic moan about using

Interesting lecture at the National Portrait Gallery explaining some of the thinking behind the rehang of the collection following the gallery’s refurbishment. Lucy Peltz, Head of Collection Displays (Tudor to Regency) gave us an insight into the principles behind the rehang. I was stunned at how long the planning took and the number of people and departments involved. I was interested to hear how every piece hung had to fit two criteria out of a theme list of UK and the world; power and resistance; innovation, science and industry; culture and creativity; society and identity and portraits and portrait making. She also explained how they wanted the galley to represent a history of Britain without being a dictionary of national biography. I was also fascinated to hear about how the labels were written to a template which were then edited by one person after input from a number of departments. I must admit as I go round the gallery I slightly feel like it’s been over engineered

Delightful exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of eight portraits of Dame Judi Dench from the Sky Arts ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’ special. To mark the shows tenth anniversary the show had invited back all the previous winners to paint Judi Dench. I watched the show and loved it. It was fascinating to see what the winners were doing now and from   what I remember all of them had got good commissions. The winner was Gareth Reid’s detailed drawing which was a good likeness but it wasn’t my favourite. It was judged by a curator from the gallery and I could see why they had chosen it. I think my favourite was a head and shoulders study by Christian Hook with abstract neon colours which caught her cheeky look. I also loved Christabel Blackburn’s full length seated figure which worked better in the flesh than on TV or in a photograph. I’d missed the show last time I’m was there as there was no mention of it in the entrance or signs to it. I am still finding the refurbished

Colourful exhibition at David Messum Fine Art of new work by Magi Puig. I had not come across this artist’s work before but was drawn to the show by an email from the gallery. I have to say I got a lovely welcome to the gallery both in the upstairs and downstairs spaces which made for an enjoyable visit. You don’t always get that in the private galleries. I loved the vibrancy in this work particularly the architectural subjects. They had a feel of Cubism but your realised that was only because the buildings looked like that. The gentleman downstairs pointed out how some of the scenes had an almost a minimalist abstract space, like a wall,   paired with a a seated section which drew your eye in. There were also some beach scenes with large areas of white sand and a packed, peopled scene across the centre like a horizon. Closed 24 November 2023    

Wonderful exhibition at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert of new work by Maggi Hambling. I love Hambling’s work so it was a delight to walk past the gallery and find this show. I hadn’t realised that she had a near fatal heart attack in New York in March 2022. She started this set of paintings immediately following her return to her home. I got a sense both of the joy of life following such an experience and her need to paint to understand what had happened.   I felt a a person who processes life via her art. I loved the mix of thick impasto paint and a thinner runny medium. The commentary described them as “an intense landscape of experience” and I certainly felt I reacted to some like a sublime landscape. I also thought one small one was a a self-portrait. Closed 24 November 2023

Fascination pair of exhibitions at the Cristea Roberts Gallery of prints by Georg Baselitz. I find Baselitz’s upside down pictures intriguing and these two shows were no exception. Upstairs was a series of large linocuts called “Belle Haleine” made in 2002 and named in reference to a work by Duchamp. Baselitz resented Duchamp’s assertion that painting was dead and here he revels in the mark making. Each print depicts a copulating couple with the genitalia blocked out by a large white dot, thereby both hiding and highlighting the act. Because of the upside down nature of the work I did find myself playing hunt the legs at times. Downstairs were less racy recent prints of portraits, hands and feet and deers. I didn’t get the deer ones at first then suddenly I saw them, a bit like a magic eye picture. They felt like a whole new taken on “The Monarch of the Glen”. Closed 22 December 2023 Review Guardian

Charming small exhibition at Philip Mould & Company of miniatures by the 18th century artist, John Smart. The show brought together paintings and detailed sketches which Smart had made as preparatory works and as a record of his output. He mounted these in albums which his family   broke up in the 1930s selling the drawings. In one case the show had both the drawing and final picture. Each work had the sitters name and colour notes on the back which has helped to identify some of the sitters in the paintings. These were delicate very personal works. I was   fascinated to read that he had spent some time in India producing work for the British colonial community there. Closed 24 November 2023