Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival on the craft of pottery. The event brought together YouTube potter Florian Gadsby and Rose Schmits of ‘The Great Pottery Throwdown’ to be led in discussion by Nancy Durrant. They talked about how they both got into the craft and whether they considered it a craft or art. They talked about the technicalities of the work from the role of the ‘kiln gods’ to potters’ ankle as well as the role of social media in selling their work as Schmidts said “more people will see the image than the finished work”.

Fun discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival about the process of putting together stories of queer love from the ancient world for an illustrated book. Poet Seán Hewitt and artist Luke Edward Hall were guided by the chair Nikita Gill though describing the collaborative process, from which stories were chosen to how the book was put together. I include the event in this blog to recognise the charming illustrations by Luke Edward Hall and I will be looking out to see more of his work.  

Moving  interview at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival with the photographer Don McCullin. Sean O’Hagan, a brilliant chair, used images to guide McCullin to discuss his life and work from his iconic war photography to his current landscapes. McCullin came across as someone deeply affected by the war work while also denying this. Chatting to other audience members afterwards we were struck by the contradictions in what he said, quotes like “these are things that suffocate my thinking “, “I’ve never found the freedom to enjoy my life” and “I do landscape to avoid my guilt”. Sadly the event ended abruptly before the Q&A as one of the audience was taken in and they had to clear the tent. It added a dramatic ending to a tense event but I’m pleased to report they were fine.  

Fascinating interview at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival with artist and set designer Es Devlin. The talk focused on her book “The Atlas of Es Devlin” which she described as an ‘active process’. She said writing it was about finding ‘fragments of self in a collaborative process’. The book outlines some of her major projects to date and the inspiration behind them and the interviewer, curator and writer Ekow Eshun, teased out the details of these pieces and particularly what it is like to collaborate with artists from other genres. She also talked about a work in progress based on short portrait sittings with strangers which will be shown 2m tall in an installation called “The Congregation “ to appear in the Autumn. It looks amazing.  

Stimulating discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival on the role of architecture and public space in society. Thomas Heatherwick introduced us to his ideas about humanising the built environment. He talked about the emotion buildings inspire and how many buildings are designed to be looked at from a distance whereas we mainly experience them by walking past. He talked about how the average life span of a commercial building in Britain is 40 years. Demolition is wasteful and disruptive so how to we create buildings which people won’t want to pull down. He felt we need a national conversation about architecture and to change the narrative of the construction industry that the public are ignorant. I loved the call to alms for architects that they need to stop speaking “archibollocks”.  

Interesting exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse of work by contemporary artist Anne Rothenstein. Now 75, Rothenstein produces colourful paintings and beautiful collages made from unrelated, chopped up images. She was an interesting choice for Charleston having grown up within a similar artistic community in Great Bardfield. I preferred the paintings particularly this enigmatic one which drew you across the room. I found myself making up stories based on it in my head. Closes 13 October 2024  

Vibrant exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse of work by Matthew Smith. Smith was a contemporary and friend of the Bloomsbury Group who lived in the house and the pictures were bold and colourful landscapes, still lives and figurative work. The show was framed around how the later abstract artist Patrick Heron had written about Smith and how Smith had influenced his work. The paintings were shown with some works by Heron. This gave an interesting twist but felt unnecessary. I would have preferred a straight show on Smith. Closes 13 October 2024

Fun discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival discussing the role of fashion and beauty from 1860 to 1960. The event paired the author of a new book on the topic called “All the Rage”, Virginia Nicholson, with psychoanalyst Susie Orbach, author of “Fat is a Feminist Issue” to discuss the reasons for and effects of changes in beauty and fashion. They looked at how some changes reflected female liberation while others drove it. Nicholson had lots of lovely anecdotes from her research and women she had interviewed. Orbach wanted to bring the discussion into the present day.

Interesting discussion at a Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival on outsider art. The event was chaired by Marc Steene, founder and director of the charity Outside In and author of “Outside In: Exploring the Margins of Art”. He was joined by artists Grayson Perry and Dannielle Hodson to discuss what outside art is, art outside the mainstream of the art world, and the diversity of creators. Perry talked about how outsider art had influenced him and whether work which involved craft skills, such as his ceramics, was in that category. Hodson had started from an outsider standpoint but is currently studying at the Royal Academy. They talked about whether knowing the story of an artist added to the work feeling that it adds “lustre to the work”. I loved Perry’s quote that “most art in most eras was rubbish really but time curated it”.  

Gentle exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of the results of a project with schools looking at how areas of natural convergence create unique biodiversity and how this is reflected in interacting communities. I admit I didn’t get that meaning from the show but it consisted of pale, gentle art works created over time by two schools. I loved the tent with books in it but most exciting was that this usually dark space was transformed by exposing the beautiful windows. Closed 26 May 2024

Interesting exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery by artist and experimental music producer Andrew Pierre Hart. The show consisted of a mural, paintings and a video drawing on Whitechapel history as a home for migrant communities. Having walked through the area earlier in the day I felt it had captured the sense of the place well. The paintings were a mix of two figurative works with some abstract pieces seeking to capture the sound of the place visually. The video was of dancers performing in the streets with a sound composition with could be felt as well as heard via a speaker system in the seating area. A novel addition to video art. Closed 7 July 2024  

Strange exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of work by Zineb Sedira. I say strange as Sedira has created a series of film sets based on films from the 60s and 70s as well as elements of her own life. I think the idea is that the viewer interacts with them but when I visited it was quiet and people were there on their own or in pairs which is not conducive to interaction. That said I liked the quiet yet dramatic nature of the week. I had seen most of the pieces at the Venice Biennale two years ago when Sedira featured in the French Pavilion. Ironically, I partly came to see this show to see the work with less people but realised it works better with more. Closed 12 May 2024 Review Guardian

Striking exhibition at the Gilbert and George Centre of pictures from their 2011 series. Shown throughout the centre the show had 29 off the 292 pictures in the series and were very effective in the space. They consist of a series of panels with headings from newspaper posters stolen by Gilbert and George and arranged into subjects. These were then set against their usual self-portrait style images either kaleidoscopes or a large image with them peering through the headings. En masse the headlines were quite harrowing as you remembered the real events they recorded but among them were some which made you smile for their incongruity. This was my first visit to the centre so a big shout out to this new, interesting venue.   A perfect foil to Gilbert and George’s work. End of 2024 Review Telegraph

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery on the origins of its collection. To mark the start of the weekend of celebrations marking 200 years since the foundation of the National Gallery Susanna Avery-Quash, the lead curator, lead us through the career of the first director of the gallery Sir Charles Eastlake looking at how he added to the collection and then organised and collated it. Avery-Quash drew not only on the main collection of the gallery but also its contextual collection of objects which relate to the main collection and the history of the gallery. She showed us some fascinating, newly acquired archive material relating to Eastlake and his wife Lady Eastlake. A fitting start to marking this important anniversary.

Fabulous   exhibition   at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at the fashion phenomenon that was Biba. Visually the show was stunning with a great selection of clothes laid out in scenes like shop windows. The pieces popped with colour. The display also sought to replicate the look and feel of the shops.   I liked the way the commentary not only talked about the shops trend setting designs but also discussed the business aspects of it including little touches like they always opened new shops in the Autumn to maximise the sale of coats which had a higher mark up. Most fun though was that the majority of the punters were feisty ladies who had been the customers and were telling each other fascinating stories about going and what they bought. I was just a bit too young to go but realised as I looked round how much it had influenced the things I was wearing at the time. Closes 8 September 2024 Review Telegraph

Small gem of an exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at the relationship between fashion and film with the trend for retro dressing in the 1960s and 70s. I hadn’t known this show was on and got a lovely surprise to find costumes from “The Boyfriend” a film which I loved and which influenced my aesthetics at an early age. As well as the outfits designed and put together by Shirley Russell and archive material, the show included outfits by Barbara Hulanicki, Janice Wainwright and Ossie Clark which used the same ideas. It also talked about the fashion for collecting retro clothes and accessories at the time and I realised I’d been doing that without realising it was fashionable. I had a small collection of items some of which I wore. Closes 8 September 2024

Interesting exhibition at Eames Fine Art of new work by Chris Roantree and Akarsh Kummattummal a collaborative print making duo. The chap in the gallery explained how Roantree is an artist and etcher and Kummattummal comes from the world of games design. Rather than traditional roles of etcher and artist the pair collaborate on the compositions. You could see the influence of the gaming world in these smoky works with strange creatures and animals appearing out of the mist. Closed 13 May 2024  

Mind bending  exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of new work by Georg Baselitz. I love Baselitz’s upside down pictures and this was a stunning collection from the 86 year old. I’d love to think that at that age I could produce such large, vibrant work. New touches were the addition of collage pieces, mainly stockings, which I wasn’t that convinced by, and a series of pairs of upside-down animals and birds. I love the pale, bright blue he is using as a background. The really mind bending works were two of people the right way up! I found myself flipping them in my head after his usual topsy turvey work. Closed 16 June 2024 Review Times  

Beautiful exhibition at Eames Fine Art of new work by Ross Loveday. I loved these wistful but strong paintings inspired by landscape some of which dissolve into abstract shapes while others, particularly the river scenes, have a Turner-like quality. Close up the works were a blend of thick paint, thin wash and scratch marks but as you backed away ethereal imagined scenes appeared. Closed 2 June 2024

Vibrant exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the Blue Rider artists based around Munich in the early 20th century. I knew and liked the work of a number of these artists and love this period of art just before the First World War but it was fascinating to see them presented as a group. I did wish I’d done an introductory lecture on the show as I found the information available in the show was a bit disjointed. There was a new idea of charging £5 for a comprehensive small booklet on the show but I rather resent having to pay for that level of narrative. Criticism over, I loved the art which felt like the Bloomsbury Group on acid having discovered spirituality. I would have liked to know a bit more about the relationships between the artists and how they lived. My favourite pieces were where they painted each other and the world around them. The female artists came out of the show particularly well with Munter leading the field. I was interested to see her photography included in ...

Interesting exhibition at Borough Yards for the World Press Photography Awards 2023. This was a pop-up show in a new venue to me with worked well for this type of show. Looking at the website there are simultaneous shows in a number of venues around the world. The photographs were rather overshadowed by the poignant stories they were telling and I read a lot of news that I’d missed over the year such as plans for two open pit coal mines in Germany and an island off New Orleans where 98% of its surface has vanished under the sea. A number of the images were too poignant to re photograph including the winning picture which I remember from the papers at the time by Mohammed Salem of a woman in Gaza cradling the shrouded body of her 5 year old niece with is basically a Pieta. Closed 27 May 2024    

Baffling exhibition at Compton Verney of art looking at how women and non-binary artists have approached the idea of spirit. I don’t know if I did this show backwards by accident but I didn’t find any commentary setting out its premise. I’ve only worked it out since from the webpage. I also didn’t realise the works came from just two collections The Women’s Art Collection and The Ingram Collection and would love to have known more about them. Just viewing the works I wasn’t hit by the theme and was struggling to find connections. That said I loved the way it hung contemporary and older work together and I found some a lot of work I didn’t know. Closes 1 September 2024

Beautiful exhibition at Compton Verney looking at how art has reflected the history of gardens. The show was nicely arranged with a good balance between history and art. The first section looked at the chronological story from formal gardens, through the grand landscape gardens of places like the venue to 20th century ideas of smaller flower gardens. There was a lovely mix of art including a stunning Turner and a couple of nice Stanley Spencers. The second section looked at how art has created landscape with a section on artists gardens, sculpture in landscape and finishing on land art. I loved a Tissot of ladies in his garden and some water colours of Sandy’s garden. This was the first time I’d been to Compton Verney so a big shout out for it. It had a great balance of a country house and modern art space. The reception at the visitors’ centre as we bought tickets was delightful. It’s rare to see a ticket seller showing such enthusiasm. Sadly I went on a very wet day so we didn...

Interesting online discussion as part of London Art Week focusing on the 17th century portrait artists Mary Beale. Christopher Baker of the Burlington magazine chaired a discussion between two curators who had produced shows on Beale, Lucy West of Dulwich Picture Gallery and Ellie Smith of Philip Mould & Co. Smith focused on the life of Beale and took us through themes in her show which was on at the time at Philip Mould & Co and I have since been to see it.   She talked about how Beale made her money from commissioned work but also painted her family and friends often using them to experiment with new material and ideas. West looked back to show on Beale’s studio from a couple of years ago which focused on her technique and the experiments of her husband, Charles, who was a pigment expert and salesman. She talked about his notebooks which documented the work of the studio. It was fun to hear the speakers discussing Beale’s work which they had obviously grown to lo...

Fascinating two week online course from ARTscapades looking at the development of the Gothic style in France. Jana Gajdošov from Sam Fogg Limited and the Victoria and Albert Museum lead us clearly through four lectures, the first three grouping cathedrals chronologically and stylistically and the last focusing on Notre Dame often seen as the pinnacle of the style. It would have been useful to have a glossary of terms to refer to so I had to do a lot of Googling for spellings when I typed up the notes but as the course progressed you became more familiar with the terms. I liked the way the speaker took us through church by church building up a progression of ideas. I discovered a number of cathedrals I hadn’t heard of before and now have yet another travel itinerary to add to the bucket list.