Cathy's Art Diary

Useful online lecture from the National Gallery focusing on the “Arnolfini Portrait” by Van Eyck. For many years I had a copy of this painting on my student room walls so I feel I know it well. What I didn’t know much about was how it got to the National Gallery and the effect it had on other artists. Jenny Graham, from the University of Plymouth and author of a book on the artist, took us through both those topics as well as looking at who the subjects might be. I think the most interesting part was tracing where the painting had been since it first appeared in an inventory of Margaret of Austria in 1516 until it was bought by the National Gallery in 1843. She addressed the ambiguity of how it came to England post-Napoleonic wars feeling it was probably looted from Spain. I got a bit confused by the section on the influence of other artists as we seemed to look in detail at the Pre-Raphaelites in the first session then return to the topic both with them and other artists of the...

Baffling exhibition at the Palazzo Grassi of work by abstract artist Julie Mehretu.   I’ve seen Megretu’s work before at White Cube and been baffled by it and here, seeing it on mass, I’m afraid it didn’t make a lot more sense to me. Her work is based on a print, drawing of expanded photograph which she then layers with marks and paint. I’m afraid my mind tries to see the original image through the layers and I don’t think that is the point. The friend I was with likened then to late Turner’s. I was more drawn to the work of her friends which was shown with her pictures, my favourite being the sculptures by Paul Pfeiffer. Closes 6 January 2024  

Fascinating exhibition at the Academia Gallery in Venice recreating the ceiling Giorgio Vasari painted for Palazzo Corner Spinelli. Over the last 40 years the gallery has been acquiring the nine panels shown here which were shown together in a new display   which will enter the permanent museum itinerary in a dedicated hall. It was being shown with two short videos about how it had been recreated and installed. I would have liked to know a bit more about where all the panels had been acquired and where they had been. No end date given unveiled 28 August 2024

Charming installation at the Academia Gallery in Venice of Murano glass over the last hundred years. The pieces by over 100 makers was set out on a long banquet table in front of Veronese’s “Feast at the House of Levi” which features 16th century glass at a biblical banquet. There were some beautiful pieces, some reflecting the styles in the painting, and some more modern pieces. My favourite was this wine glass with no stem with nestles in another vessel when you put it down. Closed 3 November 2024

Eclectic exhibition and national pavilions at the Venice Biennale on the Giardini site. I deliberately went straight to the British pavilion as I knew it was a video installation by John Akomfrah and I wanted to have time to watch it properly. It was well worth doing as there were about seven rooms with layered videos blending new and archive material which each echoed each other in a poetic way. Each room was set up in a different format which made them more varied to watch. I then did the large curated pavilion where Evelyn Taocheng Wang's delicate paintings and Fred Kuwarni's video "We Were Here" looking at how black figure appear in history were the highlights. I'll definitely be looking that one up to see it I can watch the whole thing online. I loved a room which paired two gay artists Louis Fratino and Filippo de Pisis with gentle domestic works. The national pavilions have rather merged in my mind since going and seemed less distinctive than usual. ...

Vibrant  exhibition and national pavilions at the Venice Biennale starting with the Arsenale site. Generally I found the Biennale much more cheerful and life affirming than some previous occasions.   Although it still tackled difficult subjects it tended to present them as joy following hard times and the power of people acting together. As ever I   started with the curated section and shout outs go to Kiluanji Kia Hendra's views through railings shown with the railings themselves, Omar Mismar's mosaics, a wonderful indigo structure and Bochra Khalili's video installation of maps of migrant journeys. One criticism however would be that there seemed to be   a lot of art which wasn't contemporary and I expect it to be a contemporary art showcase. I think the aim was to fill gaps from the past along the theme of the show of "Foreigners Everywhere". The second moan is the length of the labels and the very small font used. A lot of space was taken up with tel...

Delicate exhibition at White Cube Masons’ Yard of new work by Donna Huddleston. These were lovely, pale figurative pieces which each felt like a short story. They set up intriguing narratives as well as being beautiful. She mainly sets figures against pale backgrounds but my favourite was this one set against mountains which almost looked stuck on. Closed 28 September 2024 Review Guardian