Cathy's Art Diary

Annoying exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of some of their recent drawing acquisitions. Prepare for more moaning! Why hold an exhibition, even if it’s quite small, in what is basically a corridor? It was hard to step back and look at the works without people walking past or to use the av presentation with more information without being bumped into. That said there were some nice works including one of the Tracey Emin drawings for the new gallery doors, a touching drawing of designer Richard Nicoll by Howard Tangye and Eileen Cooper’s pair of her portraits of herself and Cathie Pilkington. Closes 6 January 2026  

Interesting lecture at the National Portrait Gallery introducing the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Award exhibition. Claire Freestone, curator and one of the judges, lead us through the history of the award and its exhibitions and talked about works which some of the winners had gone on to do. She then took us through the main themes which emerged in this year’s shortlist. These come about unconsciously but she did say that the show reflects events of the previous year so some of the themes are almost inevitable. Finally she talked about the prize winners this year and why they were chosen. I had seen the show before Christmas and enjoyed it but it was good to get an overview of it and to learn more about how it’s put together.  

Thin exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery visiting a photographic series by Zoe Law. I’m afraid I am about to get moany! These were lovely images of people who have influenced Law’s life and career but they came with very little explanation. They were also spread over two spaces but this wasn’t made clear so I could easily have missed the upstairs one which was actually the better presentation. The idea was that you could download a guide so the pictures themselves had no physical labels. However I always find this gallery’s wifi difficult to use and yet again I couldn’t link to it. As both shows were in the basement it was impossible to use that guide in the space. I would also have liked some explanation of why these people were important to the artist and why we should care. I’m sure it’s my ignorance as I’d not come across Law before but I suspect I’m not the only one. Closed 2 March 2025

Disappointing art fair at the Business Design Centre. I say disappointing partly because I found it a very confusing building! Google maps took me to the wrong entrance then once inside there was an odd plan that covered three levels on one diagram. I never found the coffee bar. There was some interesting art and it seemed to be a mix of 20th century and contemporary. Having been to the Affordable Art Show before Christmas I didn’t feel there was much contemporary art that was different here. There were however some lovely older works including a lot Keith Vaughan’s and Scottish Colourists. Shout outs go to this lovely John Piper, some super heavy impasto paintings of London by Ralph Fleck, hyper real small sculptures by Sean Henry and tiny paintings of people in art galleries by Gro Thorsen. I wonder if I’m in there?!

Useful online lecture from ARTscapades introducing an exhibition on drawing in the Italian Renaissance at the King’s Gallery. Martin Clayton, from the Royal Collection Trust, guided us through the themes of the show highlighting key works. He started with an aspect which isn’t in the show, which I have since been to, talking about how the drawings entered the collection from Charles II acquiring the collection of the Earl of Arundel to George III’s purchase of the Joseph Smith library. Clayton talked about the different types of drawings and how they were used and I was particularly interested in the section on drawing for the applied arts as I had not expected to see this reflected in the show. The talk gave me a good grounding for going to the exhibition which was extensive to   the point of being overwhelming.

Excellent live online visit to the National Gallery framing studio. Alyss Chafee, online events producer at the gallery, interviewed Peter Schade, head of the framing department focusing on two frames they are currently making for paintings for the refurbished Sainsbury Wing. He stated by looking at a huge frame for Cione’s multi part Coronation of the Virgin. The picture is so huge it has rarely been seen in its original formation and has been shown unframed recently. I can’t wait to see it in situ in a new gilded frame. He talked about how it was based on frames which are still in situ in Italy probably made by the same craftsman as this works original frame. They then moved onto a new frame for the Pollaiulo brothers St Sebastian. In fact they were standing in the middle of it for most of the talk. Again Schade talked about how it was based on original frames used by the brothers. I was fascinated by how they use the same tools as in the Renaissance. I can’t wait to see bot...

Disappointing online lecture from the National Gallery looking back at their Van Gogh exhibition as it drew to a close. These ‘reflecting’ events seem to vary in what they are trying to do. Others I’ve attended look at what the galley and curators have learnt from the show and its reception. However in this case Sheyamali Sudesh, art educator and artist, reflected on what the works in the show had meant to her. She paused on some works for feedback from the audience to give one-word responses to how the paintings made them feel. It was all very nice and reflective but to me I look to these talks to educate and inform rather than to share responses to the art. However it was a good opportunity to revisit the works particularly as I’d failed to revisit the previous day as it was so busy but I’d have liked more from it.  

Weird exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery of new work by Philip Colbert. I keep seeing Colbert’s work around London but have not quite grasped it yet. He uses an alter ego of a cartoon lobster and produces highly finished models (I hesitate to call them sculptures) of said lobster in various guises as well as grand paintings putting him in reimagined art historical contexts. In this show the context was historical battle scenes with the lobster fighting technology. I, of course, loved the nod to Uccello’s “Battle of Romano” but once that mental link had been made I’m not sure that took me any further. It was a nice touch to include some of his models in the square outside the gallery. It felt like they’d escaped and they always brighten up a space. Closed 19 January 2024  

Interesting exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery of photographs in which Black subjects are depicted by Black photographers. The works come from the Wedge Collection, established by Dr. Kenneth Montague, Canada's largest privately owned collection committed to championing Black artists and dated from the 1990s until today. The show was gently themed starting with families and moving through identity and history. The overall impression was a sense of community. I was quite impressed by how many photographers I recognised from other exhibitions so rather than this being a forgotten aspect of photographic history it is becoming more mainstream, particularly in terms of exhibitions. Stand out pieces include this beautiful nude by Texas Isiah called “My Name Is My Name I”; Ayana V. Jackson’s series Dear Sarah, inspired by the story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, an African woman of Yoruba origin presented as a gift to Queen Victoria, where she represents her as a Victorian lady with the...

Stunning exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery of work by American photographer Anastasia Samoylova. This Russian born photographer looks at America with a critical but loving eye. She often captures a strange almost abstract view of a subject. The show was gently themed with good explanations of her work particularly the slightly hard to grasp collages where she groups found images then photographs the composition to represent a landscape. I think my favourite photographs were those incorporating bill boards which fooled the eye and often looked like collage but were real. I also liked her pictures of water particularly in Florida which commented on climate change. Closes 20 January 2025  

Eclectic exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery showing work by the six finalists in this global award celebrating the power of emerging artists to inspire positive change. This year’s theme was “Tomorrowing: Visions of a Better Future” and I was impressed by the array of responses. My favourite was the UK winner, Lulu Harrison, a glass artist who collaborated with Thames Water to discover a way to incorporate shell powder of quagga mussels, that routinely block water pipes and cost millions of pounds to remove, into unique glass   as well as working with locally sourced river materials, including sands and waste wood ash. I loved the pieces but also responded to them as I grew up in Oxfordshire, near the Thames, where she is working. I also liked Wincy Kung, the Asia winner, and her ideas for a Bamboo Craft Festival, an imagined festival that would explore heritage and storytelling integrated with architecture, culture, and design. Closed 26 January 2025    

Beautiful exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in collaboration with Beers London of new work by Nigerian born Deborah Segun. These were smooth pastel coloured works, part figurative and part abstract, where bodies morphed into landscape. I loved their decorative quality. I liked how the artist talked about painting from a place of joy in the accompanying video as they certainly gave me a sense of calm. Closed 2 February 2025    

Strange exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in collaboration with Beers London of new work by Danish/African artist Jack Kabang. I’m afraid I found this work quite ugly. It seems quite repetitive and felt crudely, if expressively painted. The blurb says it “is meant to speak to inexpressible desires and primordial human emotions”. I’m not sure it speaks to mine or maybe I don’t have any. Closed 2 February 2025  

Excellent online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the rivalry of the landscape artists Turner and Constable. Matthew Morgan, who had been the director of Turner’s House clearly outlined the difference between the artists both in their art works and characters. He looked sat each in turn discussing their lives and influences. He then went on to compare and contrast their work taking moments when they painted the same subject such as Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral and the Chain Pier in Brighton. he described how Constable created a sense of calm but Turner looked to heightened emotions. He ended by look at the famous Royal Academy show where they were showing side by side and Turner added a red buoy to a seascape on varnishing day. There were insightful Q&A sessions and I suspect more than one of the audience had recently done the National Gallery course on the artist out of doors which I had also done. This talk made an interesting postscript to the course. ...

Fascinating online lecture from the London Art History Society looking in detail at Hogarth’s series of paintings and prints on an 18th century election. Former BBC journalist, Rupert Dickens, took us though the four images taking as a premise Ian Hislop’s premise that each work had one big joke and many little ones. Dickens talked us through those jokes an explained where Hogarth was quoting other paintings from Leonardo to Charles le Brun. He also explained the election which had inspired the series and the process by which Hogarth produced and circulated the images He finished by looking at how these works became a template for political satire even to the present day and how that differs from the approach of the 18th century cartoonist Gilray and Rowlandson who relied more on caricature.

Interesting online discussion from the Victoria and Albert Museum on Jewish country houses. The group brought together the editors of a new book on the topic, Natalie Livingstone and Juliet Carey, with the photographer for the work, Helene Binet, as well as biographer of the Rotheschild women, Abigail Green, all ably chaired by Ollie Cox, head of academic partnerships at the museum. Livingstone and Carey began by outlining the reasons for the book and how it came about with 17 authors each writing a chapter on a house from England and around Europe. They outlined the main themes and introduced us to some of the houses. Binet then explained her working practices and how she looked for aspects of a house that were less well known and reflected the people who owned it, rather than the architecture, in her photographs. Green talked about the roles of two Rothschild women, Hannah and Charlotte, in developing and using the houses. There was a good discussion with an insightful Q...

Delightful and colourful exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse looking at the lives and art of Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines. The show looks at Morris and Lett-Haines's time founding and running the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing and examines their radical approach to creating and teaching art. The first room sets the scene explaining how, once the school was established, Lett-Haines spent less time painting to run the school and teach. Morris continued to paint as well as being a leading horticulturalist. Comparisons are made with their contemporaries in the Bloomsbury group based at the venue. The second room looks at their time before Suffolk in Paris and traveling in Europe. I think these were my favourite works in the show particularly two landscapes. The next room concentrated on Lett-Haines work mainly surreal paintings and small sculpture made from found materials. The show ended by looking at their protest work from environmental to political is...

Poignant exhibition at Somerset House of a reworking of a piece by Es Devlin. This was   a new iteration of Devlin's piece called   “Congregation” which she talked about at Charleston and I saw at the church on the Strand. This version had a recreation of her studio, a smaller version of the installation and some new ways of showing the drawings. I do find it very moving as a piece. It is well drawn then cleverly used with compassion. I hope to keep seeing it in different forms. Closed 12 January 2025 Review Times

Touching exhibition at the Hayward Gallery by Taiwanese artist Huang Po-Chih. The show explores the personal stories of people involved in the globalised textile industry in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan via a series of photographs and a video. The video and its accompanying installation dominated the room. A frame was hung with shirts and the video showed a group of men putting on a great pile of shirts until they were wearing 20 or more. Around this were photographs of workers with quotes by them about the effects of the work. The other side of the room showed a banner made to protest the relocation of the Pang Jai textile market.   Closed 5 January 2025  

Strange exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of work by Korean artist Haegue Yang from the last 30 years of her career. The work consisted of sculptures and installations made of everyday objects. At first I just thought it looked messy but as I spent time with it it became quite meditative. I loved a large room of objects which could move, set   in a blue room where the paint colour was part of the installation chosen by staff from the exhibiting institution and sourced from local suppliers for each showing of the pieces. It was a shame the pieces weren’t being moved although a noticed said on a few days of the show they will be. I loved a large installation made of Venetian blinds with a concerto and light show playing around it. It really and you slow down and think. I also liked the recreation to her fist solo exhibition in Korea, “Recollection of Sadong 30”, which was set on her grandparents abandoned home. I loved the inclusion of a scent diffuser to give the added dime...

Useful exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on an altarpiece by Parmigianino during his time in Rome. This strange tall picture has been off display for 10 years and has been conserved before this show. My previous blog post was on a curators’ talk on the show which shone a light on the drawings included in the show. The altarpiece is still powerful and people were standing in awe before it. The strange composition and in particular the powerful figure of John the Baptist draws you in. It was lovely to see it with a selection of drawings by the artist, made to work out the composition in a variety of styles. They helped to understand the choices he made. Closed 9 March 2025 Re views Times Guardian  

Useful online lecture from the National Gallery introducing their exhibition on a painting from 1526 by Parmigianino. Maria Alambritis, the project curator and Mattias Wivel, a former curator at the gallery, told us the history of the work including telling us how Parmigianino was working on it during the Sack of Rome but the German soldiers were so impressed by the work that they let him finish it. The show also includes a number of the drawings for the project and they outlined what each had been used for and how we can see him working out problems in the composition. They also looked at possible influences for the work. They spent some time discussing some of the theological ideas behind the work in particular “The Immaculate Conception” and the “Woman of the Apocalypse”. I went to the exhibition the following day so look out for the next blog post describing it!

Beautiful installation in the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College by Luke Jerram. The work consists of a 7m wide model of Mars based on NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data. Jerram had previously done similar installations of the Earth and the Moon in the same space and has since done one of the Sun. The planet floats ethereally in the space and has a similar colour palette to the busy painting around it. I think the Earth was my favourite as it is a more familiar image with more features. A commentary board highlights images of the god Mars and of Galileo on the ceiling.   Closed 20 January 2025

Excellent online three week course from the National Gallery on landscape painting and how artists worked out of doors and represent themselves in the work. Aliki Braine, artist an art historian, guided us chronologically through the topic starting with how landscape painting grew out of map making and then often forms a stage set for a biblical or mythical scene, moving on to how it represented leisure and wealth in the 17th century and onto the from accuracy to atmosphere in the 19th century. In taking this approach she also laid out clearly the various theories of landscape painting over the centuries with good quotes which she then used to discuss a series of images. She also looked at how artists represented themselves in the work from including draftsmen in the image to emphasis that they had been to the place and recorded it to later artists whose hand we see in their brushwork. I was impressed at the array of artists that we covered and I discovered a number of names who...

Moving exhibition at the British Library looking at Dunhuang in north east China which was established in 111 BCE as a military outpost and became a vital stop on the Silk Roads. Most of the documents and objects were discovered in the Mogao Library Cave. Discovered in 1900 the cave included tens of thousands of manuscripts, paintings and other objects dating from the 5th to 11th century. The show was arranged by specific, usually named, individuals who represented a type of person or an aspect the culture there such as a trader, a fortune teller and a printer. This brought the often slightly plain looking documents to life. It is a lovely companion show to the Silk Roads at the British Museum which mentions this find. The most moving exhibit is a letter found in a lost mailbag and therefore never sent, written a merchant’s wife to her husband who she had not heard from in the years. Closed 23 February 2025  

Fabulous exhibition at the British Library looking at the lives of Medieval women. I studied Medieval history at university, a long time ago, and how I wished we’d had this exhibition. It was full of wonderful stories and new people to discover. I’ve been twice now and got just as much from it the second time around. I liked the way it was divided into sections on private, public and spiritual lives. The private section looked at domestic life and had a number of displays on women’s health. Spiritual lives included nuns as well as Joan of Arc and her signature had to be one of the highlights of the show. I think my favourite section was the public one which looked at queens and what agency they had focusing on those who became regents and women as patrons of the art. There was also a display on working women such as a notary Juliet Durer from Lubeck and Alice Claver, a silk weaver in London. And my favourite object was Christine de Pisan’s “City of Women” showing women doing b...

Interesting online lecture from the Victoria and Albert Museum introducing this year’s exhibition for the Jameel Prize for contemporary art referencing or influenced by the Islamic world. The curator of the show, Rachel Dedman, gave a short outline of the prize and how it has developed over the last 15 years. She also talked about how she puts together the show and how the winner is picked by a panel of judges once the finalists are installed in the exhibition. She then led us through this years seven finalists. I have since seen the show and it was rally useful to have heard this overview. There were nuances which I missed in the show. She talked about the two themes which emerged as she worked with artists, conservation and the loss of history and ecology and spirituality.  

Excellent three week online course from Paul Nutall looking in detail at the first thirty years of Michelangelo’s career. As ever Paula was very clear with excellent illustrations and quotes. Of course she ran over time but she always does and that’s part of the fun of her courses. Week one we looked at Michelangelo’s life until he left for Rome in 1496, a short period he spent in Bologna and the first few years after he arrived in Rome. We discussed how we know so much about him, what his influences were and where he might have trained, even if he claimed he hadn’t. Week two concentrated on the early masterpieces in Rome the Bacchus and the Pieta shown here then the David made on his return to Florence and the Bruges Madonna. We also looked at other work done in this period between these iconic works such at the National Gallery’s two panel paintings. Finally week three looked at his years back in Florence and in particular the battle of the battle scenes for the Palazzo Vecch...