Cathy's Art Diary

Clear and intriguing online lecture from the London Art History Society on the restoration of the Notre-Dame Cathedral five years after the major fire. Alexandra Gajewski, reviews editor of the Burlington magazine who has a phd in Gothic architecture, led us through what was lost and what survived then the three stages of construction, securing the building, analysis of the fabric and restoration. I hadn’t realised that the site had to be closed for about 5 months early on when it was discovered that the levels of lead were too dangerous to work in the whole structure had to be hoovered to make it safe. I was fascinated to hear how the stonework which survived had to be supported until the roof, which stabilised it was replaced. The first service is planned to take place on 8 December and I will look out for it with interest.

Colourful exhibition at the Garden Museum of new work by Maria Bell-Salter. I was particularly interested to see this show as Bell-Salter organises and hosts the ARTscapes lectures I have been doing. She hosts from her studio and you see these big, vibrant paintings of flowers and plants in the background of Zoom events. It was great to see them in the flesh. I love the boldness and colour of these works. Most were about a meter squared. They showed collections of flowers growing in the earth. They felt like a Dutch still-lives off flowers with the vibrancy of Impressionism. I was interested to see an introduction in the handout by Frances Spalding, who I know slightly from Charleston. I remembered a conversation with her about a lecture she was about to do for ARTscapes and talking about the set up. Closed 17 March 2024

Innovative exhibition at the Garden Museum looking at the life and work of Antiguan artist, poet and gardener Frank Walter. The show was imaginatively arranged almost like an installation. You entered via a slightly claustrophobic recreation of a shed with small paintings and sculptures by Walter as well as archive material set into vitrines sometimes only visible via a peep hole. The space then opened into a bright area with a recreation of his garden and a selection of his larger, bright paintings ranging from abstracts, through landscapes to strange imaginings of outer space. I particularly like the landscapes both those of the Caribbean and his pictures of a remembered Britain. The show then expanded into the archive space with examples of his imagined heraldic coats of arms and invented genealogies linking him to Charles II. All a little strange but fascinating. Closed 25 February 2024 Review Telegraph    

Interesting  exhibition at the British Library on the children and young persons’ author Malorie Blackman. I must admit I don’t know her work, as I was a bit old to be her target market, but I still found the show fascinating. In telling her story it told the history of writing and publishing by black authors since the 1960s. I liked the section on her motivation and how, as an avid reader as a child, she realised that there were few books in which she saw people like her. It also explained how she went into scriptwriting after a poor adaptation of one of her books. There was another section on her Noughts and Crosses series discussing different editions and the tv adaptation. I was intrigued and it made me want to go back and watch the show. Closed 25 February 2024  

Neat small exhibition at the British Library looking at sea and island pictures by the author Mervyn Peake. The library has been given Peake’s visual archive and this show focused on illustrations of the sea and islands, themes he returned to throughout his career. I must admit I know him more as a writer although I did know he illustrated his novels. There were a couple of individual works as well as three sets for books although one was an early unpublished work he produced with a friend. I loved the fine detail in these pieces which complimented the stories but worked as independent art works as well. Closed 25 February 2024    

Fantastic  exhibition at the British Library looking at the genre of fantasy. I thought I didn’t really do fantasy but went round getting very excited at things that I knew eg the Cotton Beowulf, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a costume from Wicked. Goodness, I have eclectic tastes!      It was themed but by the end it had covered all the bases and you could piece the chronology together. The themes basically covered the archetypal themes from fairies, though quests, via forests to world building. The show used books, manuscripts, games and more to tell the story. I loved the use of playing Steeleye Span’s Thomas the Rhymer next to a 15th century manuscript of the story. I came away with lots of things to look up and ideas of new books to read! Closed 25 February 2024 Reviews Times Telegraph

Charming small exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall looking at its foyers and how they have been used over the years. It described how the foyers were designed to give a sense of space and a connection to the river but also how they act as sound insulation for the concert hall within them. I was amazed to learn that until 1983 you had to have a ticket to an event to go into the building and it was only with Red Ken and the GLC that they started to be used as public spaces. I realised I must have started using the building as a coffee/bar stop shortly afterwards but I’d assumed they’d always been open. See you can always learn something! Stop press : I found out over the Easter weekend that the foyers were being refurbished which was probably the excuse for this display. Can’t wait to see what they have planned. Closed 17 February 2024  

Intriguing exhibition at the Design Museum on the work of Attua Aparicio who has been chosen as this year’s Ralph Saltzman prize winner. The prize goes to someone whose work points to a new direction in design and Aparicio was chosen for her creative approach to waste materials. Aparicio mainly works in ceramics but had started including borosilicate glass, which is used in industry and is not recyclable, in her work. In some cases this is applied to found ceramics or failed pieces from ceramic factories. I am a sucker for both ceramics and glass so I loved this work aesthetically as well as finding her ideas fascinating. Closes 15 April 2024  

Useful small exhibition at the Design Museum focusing on how three traditional building materials are being used to build sustainable homes. The show looked at wood, straw and stone describing new methods of using them which often boiled down to making bricks with them. I liked the section on engineered timber ie wood pieces processed into a strong composite from which it has been possible to build a 7 storey tower block in 27 days. I will admit though that my photos aren’t that exciting! Closed 20 March 2024

Interesting exhibition at the Design Museum on the development of skateboarding. OK I admit this was a stretch for me but, I was there and as you know I’ll go to see anything. That said you can always learn something. The show looked at the technical developments in skateboards since the 1950s with an emphasis on how design was driven by skaters themselves. It also looked at the social changes in the sport culminating with its inclusion in the Olympics. I’ll be honest the technical side made me gloss over but it did show me that skateboards had changed more than this non-user had imagined. Have pictures of the earliest pieces in the show, basically a plank of wood with roller skate wheels, to one of the most recent marking the listing of the skating area on the South Bank which I walked past later in the day. Closes 19 May   2024    

Compelling exhibition at the Design Museum Looking at British fashion over the last 30 years. The show marked 30 years of the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN scheme to support fashion talent. Over 300 designers have been through the scheme with Alexander McQueen being one of the first to benefit from it. The show was arranged in themes  which make London unique as a centre for fashion ranging from art schools, through clubs and fashion infrastructure. I must admit a lot of the clothes weren’t to my taste but I guess I am not their target market. That said there were some beautiful things, this classic dress in a stunning yellow and who can resist butterfly shoes. There were some innovative displays including a catwalk towards the end and a queue from a club which included Sam Smith’s inflatable Brits outfit and Bjork’s swan. Closed 11 February 2024.  Review Telegraph

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades looking at the recent exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on Pesellino. I had already done a talk by the curator and the lady who restored the two main panels in the show as well as seeing the show itself but this lecture was being done by Richard Stemp and it’s always worth hearing his take on a subject. The added insight he brought was to compare the two panels in the life of David in the show to the chapel of the Magi by Gozzoli in the Medici Palace which I love. Rather than my assumption that Pesellino had been inspired by the later Stemp pointed out that the chapel was of a later date so Gozzoli was probably influenced by the panels which were possibly made for the new palace rather than to ark a wedding.   A complex argument but anything Medici related has me hooked. He also took us through the other works in the show, clearly telling the stories in the small   predella panels and discussing how the Pistoia Santa...

Glamorous exhibition at the Maddox Gallery in Berkeley Street of new work by Russell Young. At first glance these works were just a homage to Andy Warhol and on reading the commentary they partly were, using his method of stretching screen prints, however they were enhanced by using pigments to reflect the light of California and sourced from around the world then covered in diamond dust. Like Warhol they comment on the role of celebrity in our society and I liked the description in the commentary that they are “a dissection of the American Dream and the dark side of fame”. I’m always up for dissecting the American Dream. I love the way the sparkling dust played with your eyes heightening the effect sometimes given by the screen printed enlarged image. I thought the ones of a single face worked better than the group pictures. Closed 7 February 2024 Review Evening Standard

Mixed exhibition   at Unit featuring contemporary artists working in abstracts. The commentary described this as a group show which “guides viewers through an immersive experience that connects form and space”. I’m not sure I got that although for a while I did think the building noise coming from a room next door might have been part of it. I’m afraid I didn’t relate to the paintings in the show. I liked their bold colours but found them a bit impenetrable. I much preferred the textile work which seemed to lend itself to abstract ideas. My favourite was Allison Reimus’s patchwork quilt like pieces which had a geometric abstract effect. I also liked Betty Leung’s more sculptural work -and how she used specifically printed fabric for them. Closed 3 February 2024  

Fun exhibition at Unit of new work by Mauro C. Martinez. These oil paintings were all of lone tennis players mimicking the aesthetics of sports photography with the close-cropped image and deep shadows. It took me a moment to realise he’d replaced the shadow of the ball with that of a cat, hence the title. I did like the colour and action of them. You don’t often see paintings of sport. I found them slightly cruder in the flesh than they’d looked in the publicity email but I guess that reflected the effect of zooming into an image. The commentary was interesting pointing out how Martinez is trying to move into series of pictures to examine repetition. Closed 3 February 2024  

Though provoking but also uneven exhibition at the Science Gallery at King’s College looking at the role of AI in medicine. This show raised some interesting issues via a series of installations some of which were very engaging but others I found hard to understand. It was a study in ways of presenting complex information. One moan would be that that, ironically given the subject, some of the av and interactive IT things didn’t work such as one mounted iPad where the next button was hidden by the mount. I would also have liked a bit more on what is happening already not just the ethics of what might happen. My favourite piece was an interactive display where you were teaching a computer bot about love. I did find myself engaging and laughing at its interactions. I particularly loved when it asked questions from song lyrics “What’s love got to do with it?” It was hard to photograph the works so have one of the last creepy one installation with looked at where discarded tech end...

Second part of an exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at the history of boys clothing. I’d done the first part on breeching a couple of months ago so was pleased to manage to see the second part on sailor suits. Thank you to the lady in reception who let me pop in without paying again as I just wanted to see that one   gallery. Have a look at the detail of the show on my first blog post .  This part looked at the fashion for sailor suits started by Queen Victoria. There were two nicely displayed cabinets one of leisure suits with the traditional sailor collars and one of outfits mimicking officers, possibly made as page boy outfits. I was touched by the story of one suit which had been made by the men on the ship the boy’s father, who was an admiral, was on. Closed 3 March 2024  

Joyous exhibition at Eames Fine Art of ceramics by Anita Klein. I know Klein as a printmaker so was delighted to find she also does ceramics in her vibrant colours with comfortable female figures. I noted a number reflect the prints I saw in her last show about swimming during lockdown. It was strangely a good pendant to the Antony Gormley which just staggered out of, as that was all about the male body expressed in a male way whereas this was about the female body as only another woman can express it. You look at them and image what it feels like to be that person. I liked the vases and large platters best as they gave more space for the figures but I also like miniature vases of female heads and shoulders with a hole in the top of the head for flowers which continued the composition. Many thanks to the lady who was still setting up for letting me stay once I’d barged in and for chatting when I couldn’t contain myself from talking about the work. Closed 28 January 2024

Stunning exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of new work by Antony Gormley. It was only 12 January when I went and yet I suspect I might have found my show of the year! I love Gormley anyway so it was onto a winner but these works looked so good in the space that the whole show became an installation. I even sat and watched the video about how the pieces were made, which I often skip, and knowing more about the materials and techniques used just added more layers of meaning, although you don’t need that to respond emotionally to the work. From the grey, block figures lining the corridor with their little hollowed out mouths I was hooked. I loved “Bind”, one figure in a space made from the three strips of iron emerging from the walls, floor and ceiling. You found yourself ducking under the cross bars and trying to work out how it all fitted together. However my favourite had to be “Resting Place” a room full of figures, each in a different position and made up of 23 blocks of cl...

Interesting exhibition at Eames Fine Art of prints by Graham Sutherland. This was a lovely collection of Sutherland prints based on natural phenomena. The earlier works were more lifelike and readable such as “A Bird and a Mouse” then they became more abstracted while usually still recognisable things or landscapes. I loved his use of a bright yellow, used particularly well in this picture of thorn trees or is it Golgotha? I also liked works which were an abstract form but at the bottom he showed the three objects which had informed it. Closed 18 February 2024    

Fun online quiz   from the National Gallery based on works and artists in the collection. Verity Babbs, writer, presenter and comedian, led us lightly though five rounds of questions with similar themes to pub quizzes but with an artistic slant. We started with quotes from artists and celebrities and you had to work out which of them said it.   I loved round two, a picture quiz where you matched the couple from pictures in the National Gallery. I was quite proud to get 7/10 on that one. A clever travel round gave you a choice of three maps of where an artist was born and died but the hardest round showed you a landscape of a city and you had to guess the decade in which it was painted with an added clue of an event which also happened in that decade. You got 2 points for the right decade and 1 for a decade either side as it was hard! The final round was general knowledge about the gallery. Who knew that from 1962 to 1972 a guard dog called Rex patrolled the building at...

Small display at the British Museum to highlight their acquisition of six screen prints by Ed Ruscha called “Insects”. The set of prints is from 1972 showing life sized insects resting or moving across the paper. They were detailed depictions of the insects in a minimal setting. They also showed the portfolio they came in which contained soil from Ruscha’s elementary school. I loved the detail which, as someone who doesn’t like insects, made you want to swat the surface of the work. To bulk out the display, and to make the point that Ruscha often collects objects or categories in visual series, the portfolio was shown with sets of prints about roads. I loved his 2001 series of abstract, minimalistic imaginary maps. Closed 28 January 2024

Stunning small display at the British Museum of botanical drawings by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues. From a first glance I had assumed these were late 17th early 18th century works so was stunned to find they came from an album given to Lady Mary Sidney in 1586. Le Moyne was a Huguenot who came to London in 1580 having been on a French Protestant expedition to America in 1565. The pictures were exquisite showing fruit, vegetables, insects and plants in detail. In some of the flower pictures he shows all stages of their development in one image. A beautiful picture of a fir come uses the frame to build the composition whereas in others the plant escapes from the frame. As ever at in British Museum print gallery displays the labels were well written, not only explaining the art but also the plants and their histories. Closed 24 January 2024

Interesting exhibition at the British Museum of work by four German and Austrian artists from a recent gift of 67 works on paper by Count Christian Duerchein. The show devoted a section to each of the four artists. I warmed more to the three Germans, Rudi Troger, Karl Bohrmann and Carl Heinz Wegert whose work was more introspective. Austrian, Herman Nitsch’s work was inspired by his rather strange sounding performance art. I think my favourite was Troger who did expressive, figurative work often of his wife and home. There were some brilliant quotes from him such as the idea of “drawing something so it becomes something else” and that art is “expressing feelings with visual means”. Talking quotes I also loved one by Bohrmann that “a drawn line is a moment of time though which the artist has lived”. Closes 1 April 2024

Beautiful exhibition at the British Museum focusing on works on paper from Genoa. The title came from Petrach’s description of the city as ‘La Superba’ or The Proud which I thought was a lovely play on words. The commentary explains how the city attracted artists with the arrival of one of Raphael’s pupils, Perino del Vaga, but has been largely overshadowed by Venice. The show consisted of a large selection of prints and drawings which were well explained. I think my favourite was Giovanni Batista Castello’s “Ulysses in the Gardens of King Alanous’ Palace” from about 1550. I loved Luca Cambiaso’s simple but expressive pieces. Among the explanations were some fascinating stories such as how Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione’s invented the monotype print and a nobleman artist who murdered a fellow noble in self-defence and had to flee to Florence. There was also a section on Flemish artists who came to the city including a wonderful sketchbook of genre scenes by Cornelius Wael. A...

Interesting exhibition at the British Museum examining the history and material culture of Myanmar formerly Burma. You know when an exhibition started with quite a long definition of terms that you are in for a complicated ride and this was no exception with numerous small states and kingdoms to discuss as well as British Colonial rule, independence and military rule. I must admit I didn’t understand a lot of the nuisances so I just sat back and enjoyed the beautiful objects.   I liked the way it started by outlining the raw materials available in the country from luxury ones, such as gold and silver, rubies and lacquer to oil and now materials used in mobile phones. I was particularly drawn to innovative types of letters including a gold letter sent to George II, a letter encased in a shell and another piece of writing in Mother of Pearl. I also loved a tiny painting by U Ba Nyan who was sent to study at the Royal College of Art in London in the 1920s. Closed 11 February ...

Clear online lecture from ARTscapades looking at the questions which need to be asked when restoring damaged historic buildings. Simon Thurley, chair of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and a previous chair of English Heritage, was perfectly placed to outline the approach taken on three projects where buildings were damaged by fire and the lessons those projects had learnt from the previous fire at York Minster, shown here for obvious reasons to anyone who knows me. He talked about Hampton Court, Windsor Castle and Uppark House. He also discussed other projects in Britian and Europe from Notre Dame to Clandon House. He talked about the different approach taken if buildings have been damaged by historic events rather than fire taking the Reichstag and the Museum of Berlin as examples. The talk ended with an excellent Q&A session with intelligent questions and honest, informed answers  

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades looking at flowers and gardens in art. Hilary Hope Guise, freelance lecturer and practising artist, took us on a whistle stop tour of flowers and gardens in art from the ancient world to the early 20th century, looking at what they symbolised. She had some wonderful illustrations and covered a lot of ground but I would have liked a bit more depth on each area. It might have worked better as a series of talks. I did however learn quite a bit such as the fact that the blue waterlily was a symbol of rebirth to the Egyptians as it disappeared underwater at night and the link between images of Hercules in the garden of the Hesperides with those of the Garden of Eden. We also took in the frescoed dining room of the Empress Livia, the medieval idea of the walled garden, Tulip Mania, the influence of Japanese prints, some of the philosophy behind Monet’s Water lilies and much more.  

Innovative exhibition/installation at the Centre for British Photography based around a recreated Chinese photographic studio. The blurb explained how these studios were set up in China by travellers to record exotic people. The artists Grace Lau has turned this around to record people in Britain and create an archive of 21st century types. Around the walls were photographs taken at sessions in Hastings and Southampton and in the centre was a recreation of a studio with a back drop and accessories which you could be photographed in. I loved the way people were put in static Victorian poses but with modern clothes and belongings. They all looked just as proud as Victorians. When I was there it was one of the days it was operating. I wasn’t brave enough to join in but watched a group of diverse, older friends enjoying the experience. Closed 17 December 2023    

Nostalgic exhibition at the Centre for British Photography of photographs of London markets by Dorothy Bohm. Bohm died aged 98, earlier this year, and the gallery chose to mark this with these street photographs from the 60s and 70s. They covered all the old famous markets, usually bustling with action, but my favourite was this paired down picture of St Paul’s Covent Garden. It was fun listening to a group of people in the show who remembered the markets. One lady’s family had had a stall on one of them. I do like a bit of, what I call, loppy lugging. Closed 17 December 2023

Interesting exhibition at the Centre for British Photography of portraits of South Asian Women. The works by Arpita Shah, draw on Mughal and Indian miniatures which I love, placing the women in an oval composition but looking out directly at us not away as was traditional for women in those paintings. Each of the women, who were artists, creatives or educators, had written their own label to tell their story. This was a lovely group of women to stand among and learn about. Closed 17 December 2023

Charming exhibition at the Centre for British Photography of works by Daniel Meadows. In 1973, aged 21, Meadows repurposed a double-decker bus as a home, gallery and darkroom and, with the help of various grants, drove round the country, stopping in 22 towns and cities and offering to photograph local people. The exhibition showed these pictures alongside some documentary pieces he took for the councils which had sponsored him. It also told the afterlife of the work through publication and the tracing of some of the sitters via local papers in 2001. I loved the directness of these works. People showed themselves as they wanted to be seen in the moment with little fuss or pretense. I always forget what we looked like in the 70s and found these very nostalgic. Closed 17 December 2017  

Moving exhibition at the Centre for British Photography of photographs by Charlie Phillips recording 50 years of African Caribbean funerals in London. These photographs built a lovely picture of a community. There were good labels telling you who people were, the living and the dead, and cross-referencing people who appeared in more than one photograph. They also highlighted the social and emotional traditions of this group including the filling in off the grave by mourners. Personally I’m now putting the idea of pouring a libation of rum in the grave on my wish list! Closed 17 December 2023 and sadly the gallery has now closed while they look for a new venue. 

Beautiful installation at the Painted Hall of the Old Royal Naval College developed by Paul Cocksedge and supported by Carpenters Workshop Gallery. The work looked lovely in the space and presented you with a glittery mass forming a sphere. Close up you saw the individual pieces. It represents the amount of coal it takes to power a single 200W light bulb, turned on for a year, and is made of anthracite. It was a nice touch to also have an explanation of the two incidents where coal appears on James Thornhill’s ceiling. Fascinating to find out the original hospital was partly funded by a tax on coal coming into London. Closed 4 February 2024

Fascinating exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum looking at colour in Victorian Britain. I had assumed it was going to be about the dyes that were invented in the 19th century but it was much more complex. After a quick look at why we think of the Victorian era as dark it then examined different aspects of colour from Ruskin’s calls to represent the natural world and its colours, through the revival in Medieval colours and the effect of Darwin and the recording of species of animals. It also looked at colours which came from global expansion on both via colonialism and the opening up of Japan. There was a section on dyes and the greater supply of colours for colouring. I particularly loved the brightly coloured stockings. A real discovery from me was the idea of the Tanagra craze, polychrome terracotta statuettes from the 4th century BCE. It explained how the style and soft colours influenced artists like Whistler. I’d not come across them before. Closed 18 February 2024. ...