Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at Woolwich Works of pieces by Caroline Hinds. The work by Hinds who has been an artist in residence at the venue was shown throughout the venue and added colour and life to the venue. There was a variety of paintings, textiles and sculptures using reclaimed materials. I liked the sculptures shown in the courtyard as the backdrop to their outdoor summer stage. Closed 21 September 2024

Fun and informative exhibition at Young V&A looking at Japanese myths and how they influence modern life and design in the country. I was disappointed at first that the display was aimed at children however it struck a good balance between telling the stories clearly but not being condescending. As it wasn’t a subject I knew about at all I appreciated it. It divided the themed the stories around where they were based from the sky, through the sea to the city. It used a good selection of prints and objects to illustrate the tales. I found the most interesting sections were the ones which looked at modern life and the origins of the stories today particularly in toys and cartoons. Closed 8 September 2024 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph    

My first visit to the refurbished Young V&A previously the Museum of Childhood. Apologies that it’s taken me a while to get to see this refurbishment which has been open about a year and has since won the Art Fund Museum of the Year award. I had been before the changes and it was looking more spruce and cared for. A fun spiral staircase with a mirror feature has been added with the café nestled underneath it. There were much improved toilets and an additional lift. However the galleries were somewhat hidden and despite fun, big signage it was unclear what they offered from the main space, almost like it didn’t matter. It has given the curators a chance to rethink the displays and they are now aimed at children not just about them. It certainly seemed to be working when I was there in the summer holidays as it was buzzing with children enjoying the space. Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Excellent exhibition at the Royal Academy for their annual show. I thought this year was a good one with a lot of figurative work, less photography and more work that you felt skill had gone into even if you didn’t like it. The rooms were curated well especially two by Anne Desmet, the print maker, which featured a lot of the small work hung in vague themes. I have to admit that the next to last room of sculpture gave me visual indigestion! Highlights included two lovely paintings of water bottles, one by Gavinn Turk and the other by Rachel Robb. I loved Harriet Mena Hill’s pictures of the old Aylesbury Estate on pieces of the demolished buildings.   My favourite work was this print of a dog’s nose by Caroline Jones which sadly had sold out or I would have bought one. An interesting feature this year were some small installations my favourites of which was a string quartet set against a carpet with music on and music playing by Ron Arad. Closed 18 August 2024 Reviews ...

Strange video installation at the Hayward Gallery by Naomi Rincon Gallardo. I’m afraid this might have suffered from being one show too many in a day and from its sister show of work by Tavares Strachan being so good. The video followed children dressed as animals as they chased deities across Mexico, I think. The commentary says it reflects the artists belief that planetary collapse is imminent. It was shown with some of the masks that the children were wearing. I’m afraid I just wasn’t in the mood to engage with this colourful but confusing piece however I did notice a little girl who had settled on a bean bag and seemed enthralled or possible stunned! Closed 1 September 2024      

Fabulous exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of work by Tavares Strachan over the last two decades. Strachan’s work poses questions about who is seen and unseen and tries to rediscover forgotten black figures in history. He does this in a beautiful and layered way producing exquisite objects as well as making you look at history in a different way. I loved his ceramic pieces combining transitional shaped pots with the faces of historical figures in some instances combining two by splitting the older head to show a more contemporary one underneath such as this one of the Roman emperor Septimus Severus and Steve Biko. There were some interesting pieces around Matthew Henson who was possibly the first man to reach the North Pole and Robert Henry Lawrence Jnr, a black trainee astronaut who died while training. In both cases Strachan replicated their experiences visiting the North Pole and undertaking cosmonaut training. My favourite pieces were the giant heads particularly this one ...

Fascinating exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looking at the air raid shelter drawings of Henry Moore and how they influenced his later work. I love this sort of small exhibition which not only shows beautiful work but also weaves an interesting argument around them. There was a lovely selection of shelter drawings. I hadn’t realised before that he just sketched and made notes in the shelters out of respect for the people. He worked them up into finished drawings later. I also hadn’t realised that his studio was bombed leaving him unable to make large sculptures during the war so he turned to drawing. The show concluded by looking at two post-war sculptural pieces which were visually influenced by the drawings and included a marquette for the relief wall of the Bouwcentrum in Rotterdam which I hadn’t come across before. Closed 22 September 2024 Review Evening Standard    

Lovely exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of photographs by Roger Mayne. The show focused on pictures of young people starting with Mayne’s street photography in Southam Street and Kensal Rise in the 1950s where he recording children playing in the streets and on bomb sites. There was an interesting commentary explaining they were playing outside partly due to overcrowded housing. The show then went on to look at pictures he took on his honeymoon in Spain and of the 1950s phenomenon of teenagers including his commission for the cover of the first edition of the book “Absolute Beginners”. The show finished with his touching later work which focused on his family recording the development of his own children taken for a series of albums for them. They included some amazing photos of his wife giving birth. Closed 1 September 2024 Reviews Times Guardian  

Well-constructed online lecture from the National Churches Trust looking at the 15th and 16th century phenomena of cadaver tombs in England. I have always been fascinated by these tombs since seeing that of Alice de la Pole in Ewelme as a child. Morgan Ellis Leah from the Trust’s engagement team described a selection of them and developed the argument that in England these were not corpses and a memento mori but instead represented the starvation of the soul and show emaciated bodies. She looked at the turbulent history of the period due to wars, poor crops an economic crisis post Black Death. She pointed out that one effect of the plague was a shortage of chaplains which led to people relying on themselves for spiritual support and turning back to old ideas. She also talked about the tradition of eating at burial sites dating back to the Romans and idea of Sin Eating as well as the inclusion of dishes and food in Saxon burials.

Disappointing exhibition at the Design Museum looking at 60 years of Habitat. I would have loved a lot more of this but it had a feel of being an advertising installation and was style over substance. This anniversary deserved more detail. I did like a fun display of iconic items like a chicken brick shown with modern versions designed to mark the event. There was also a sweet swing outside based on a classic chair design. Closed 11 August 2024

Dry and over intellectualised exhibition at the Design Museum on the designer Enzo Mari. I thought the show failed to give an overview of Mari’s career and ideas but instead delved straight into the detail of his process with dense labels. The show made a point that it had been curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Francesca Giacomelli but I couldn’t find any information on either of them and why this was significant. There were some beautiful objects many of which I recognised as taste influencers in the 1970s and 80s but I wasn’t sure how they fitted together and some sections like a display of scythe had me very confused. Close 8 September 2024 Reviews Guardian Telegraph

Fun exhibition at the Design Museum looking at the phenomena which is Barbie. The show is everything you would want looking at the doll as a fashion icon, leader of sociological change and an innovator of manufacturing techniques. Women of different ages were going starry eyed at different eras and I was definitely in the late 1970s pack. There was a brilliant section looking in detail at the different models of doll and how the design adapted over the years which showed dolls in bright boxes. There was also a section on the Dreamhouse and other accessories. I would have liked more on the clothes you could buy as that was my favourite aspect of the doll. I was fascinated by how it was designed to promote imaginative play and that’s certainly how I used mine. Closes 23 February 2025 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Fascinating online discussion from the British Museum looking in detail at Michelangelo’s Epifania cartoon. Sarah Vowels and Grant Lewis, curators of the excellent exhibition “Michelangelo: The Last Decades” at the museum, introduced us to the cartoon dated from around 1550-3 and its possible iconography. They also talked about the painting based on it by Condivi which was also in the show. Art historian Daniel Godfrey then took us through the history of the cartoon after Michelangelo’s death and how it got to be in the museum’s collection. Finally conservator, Emma Turner led us through the six year conservation project with some great pictures of all the processes and explained what had been discovered during the project. All the talks added to a more rounded view of the picture and its history.

Fascinating discussion at the National Portrait Gallery with some of the judges of this years Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award. The panel included the actor Russell Tovey who described himself as an art geek, Tom Shakespeare disability researcher and sociologist and the founder of the award Tanya Bentley. Bentley guided the discussion as the chair. They talked about the process of choosing the shortlist picking works from digital submissions and viewing a selected 250 in person in a warehouse to be judged anonymously. They discussed how they had to pick quickly and trust their gut instincts. They talked with enthusiasm about a selection of work which they had picked including the prize winners. I learnt a lot about the show, which I had loved, such as the fact that the work had to be on canvas or panel not paper and that this work wasn’t just from the previous year but from 2020 as was the first year the show had returned to the gallery following its refurbishment.

Thin exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery exploring the results of a partnership project with five universities from across England and Wales exploring contemporary portrait photography over the last academic year. The project had invited students to respond to themes in the 2023 Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize following tours and talks at the gallery. There were some interesting pieces but mostly shown on a rolling screen and no explanation of what the themes had been. I thought the work deserved a better presentation with more explanation. Close 8 September 2024  

Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery responding to the archives of Ilford Limited and Elstree Studios. This is one in a series of exhibitions looking at people working in leading British industries and working with local young people to research, capture oral histories, and create new portraits through filmmaking and photography. Artist Marysa Dowling and students from Elstree Screen Arts Academy had worked in the Elstree Studio project and the display including five new portraits using a 5×4 monorail camera. Similarly photographer    Eddie Otchere worked with young people from the London Borough of Redbridge and Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre to use original Ilford film and cameras to photographer former employees. I will look out for other shows in the series. Closed 31 July 2024    

Moving exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of 18 large portraits by Colin Davidson. The portraits were of people whose lives had been affected by the Troubles in Northern Ireland. They were painted in 2014-15 and were originally shown at the Ulster Museum in Belfast and more recently exhibited at Stormont’s Parliament Buildings. The works had an installation like effect shown around three walks of a small room. Each work was impactful and worked well even in such a large scale. It was worth slowing down and reading the individual, often very moving, stories.   How soon we have forgotten what an awful time that was.   Closes 23 February 2025

Fun installation at the Garden Museum by Ian Berry. Berry has created a garden made of denim complete with wisteria, exotic plants and a pond with fish in it. From a distance I was convinced the plants were green and real and was intrigued when I found they were all made from discarded denim. It was fun to walk through but also raised questions about sustainability. Closed 8 September 2024

Interesting lecture at the Garden Museum on the Bloomsbury socialite Ottoline Morrell. The talk was given by Miranda Seymour, whose biography of Morrell has just been republished. She led us though Morrell’s life with an emphasis on her house and garden at Garsington as she had been invited to compliment the current exhibition on female Bloomsbury gardeners. Given the topic it wasn’t a surprise that I bumped into someone I knew.  

Striking large scale public sculpture at the Serpentine Gallery by Gerhard Richter. The work was inspired by his strip paintings but used large ceramic tiles to create the effects. It consisted of perpendicular sections forming a star shape with different colour combinations in each section. It looked dramatic in Hyde Park with Kensington Palace behind in the distance and I loved the smooth texture of the tiles.    Closed 20 October 2024  

Colourful and thoughtful exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery of new work by Yinka Shonibare. I always enjoy Shonibare’s work which combines a beautiful object with a serious debate. I loved the room of works called “Decolonised Structures”, scaled down public sculptures decorated in his signature Dutch wax patterns representing colonial figures. I must admit I had to look a couple of them up but part of the point it to stimulate debate. The central room had a wonderful set of small, black models of houses, churches and public buildings in a dark room, lined with the Dutch wax material and lit from the inside. All the buildings have been considered places of refuge for persecuted and vulnerable groups. It would have been nice to have more information on the buildings in the show but I’ve just found it in the excellent booklet. Finally there was a reworking of a previous piece recreating a library of books covered in the signature material this time with three names of conflicts ...

Fragmented pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery by Minsuk Cho. I found this year’s pavilion disappointing. I’d liked the press photographs of it from the air forming a star shape but from the ground it felt disjointed with few angles from where you could see it as a whole. I liked the pink stained glass entrance from the gallery but the library space felt like an add on and as an x-librarian I don’t like things which try to reinvent a form which is under threat, just support the libraries you do have! I’m afraid I am a grumpy old what not and found the climbing frame element annoying. In previous years the pavilion has been a haven of peace and quiet but this encouraged noise. There was also little comfortable space to sit. Closed 27 October 2024 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Interesting exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery on the career of feminist artist Judy Chicago. I’ve come across Chicago’s work a lot in lectures both as an artist and as an art historian rediscovering lives of other female artists. It was good to see an overview of her work although as much of it was conceptual that was hard to show in a gallery exhibition. I was disappointed to find that her famous “The Dinner Party” hadn’t been able to come but there was a good room on it including a test plate. I guess I need a trip to Washington DC if I want to see it.    Closed 1 September 2024 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Interesting exhibition at the National Theatre which examines the process of resetting a theatre between shows via photographs. The theatre had commissioned three photographers to each follow a play in one of their three theatres to record the activities which take place. It was a nice touch to include labels written by the various technicians explaining what they do and what the theatre means to them. It was a shame a number of the photographs were quite small and they didn’t seem to add anything to the story although they were interesting. No end date given but it was still there when I went at the end of October. Review Guardian  

Vibrant exhibition at Somerset House looking at the development of the fashion label Loverboy. Loverboy started as a queer Dalston club night run by Charles Jeffrey while funding his studies at St Martin’s College.   He then became a Somerset House Studios artist where he developed the brand. The show was laid out in three sections initiation, ritual and manifestation with a good mix of clothes and archive material shown within an imaginative display. I liked the way the show explained the business side of the brand and its influences. I particularly liked the section on historic influences with a modern take on a Tudor doublet! I must admit I’d not come across this label but I don’t think I’m its main demographic however I would love a piece of its own tartan registered in 2018.   Closed 1 September 2024    

Brilliant four week online course from the National Gallery focusing on the female subjects and models in Degas’s work. The course complimented the excellent exhibition on the gallery looking at Degas’s “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando” and was delivered via a variety of speakers, a style I like as it gives different viewpoints in a longer course. In week one Aliki Braine gave us an overview of the artists life and main subjects. This was followed the next week by talks from Daphne Barbour from the National Gallery in Washington and Johanna Conybeare talking about his process from drawings to making small sculptures to work from. Week three saw the return of Braine as a replacement speaker who picked up the talk on Degas and women looking at the women in his life and the subjects he chose to depict. She discussed why we often view him as a misogynist now and whether that was justified. Denise Murrell from the Met then looked at his trip to New Orleans early in his career and t...