Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery reflecting on their “Millet : Life on the Land” exhibition as it came to an end. Jacqui Ansell led us though various themes which had emerged from the show over its duration. She started by looking at “The Angelus” and talked about how it has become a French national icon and debating what a British equivalent might be deciding on “The Hay Wain”. She then outlined where the pictures in the exhibition had been lent from as all but “The Angelus” were from British collections. She used this as a way of looking at British collecting in the late 19th and early 20th century. Finally she discussed whether Millet was a political artist deciding that although he didn’t shy away from showing the hardships of rural life, she felt he was more driven by religious ideas and at one point he has said “the Bible is all I read”.

Calming installation in the chapel at Compton Verney by Yulia Mahr. I loved the effect of this show in the beautiful Capability Brown chapel but have no idea what it meant. The commentary said it “explores ideas that are beyond our grasp and becomes a meditation on anxiety as a defining characteristic of our time” so maybe I was not far off by not understanding it. The main piece was a black sphere surmounted by a crow and this was shown with two negative photographs of a figure crouching in an emotional stance. I did like the fact it reflected the numerous crows which visit the estate. Closed 2 November 2025

Fascinating small exhibition at Compton Verney focusing on an unusual 17th century painting of two women. The pictures shows a white woman and a woman of colour both wearing beauty patches in a colour contrasting with their skin. The work was shown with research material exploring the themes of the work. It discussed how it dates from the Commonwealth period and may be making a moral point about vanity. It also speculated that the artist may be Jerome Hesketh, who trained as a Catholic priest, as it was possibly painted for the Catholic Kenyon family. He toured Catholic houses performing secret masses and painting portraits as his cover. No end date given

Thoughtful exhibition at Compton Verney of new works by Renee So. The show investigated how the meaning of objects can be manipulated and distorted as they travel from buyer to seller. She took inspiration from the galleries collection of Chinese bronzes. My favourite section reproduced large versions of classic scent bottles exploring their exotic names and roots in the opium trade. Another took the image of the silkworm onto different objects in a variety of media to explore   the intertwined histories of Chinese women, symbols of power and luxury goods. I liked the recreation of So’s studio at the end of the show. Closes 8 March 2026

Interesting exhibition at Compton Verney by Gayle Chong Kwan. Kwan had been artist in residence at the gallery and created these seven photographic works in response to their Chinese collection of bronze food and wine vessels. The photographs placed the artist outside buildings linked to empire and immigration wearing a collaged mask of images of objects related to the building. These were shown alongside small, bronze objects made by them. I’m not sure I understood all the links and nuisances but the images were striking. Closes March 2026. 

Interesting online lecture from the London Art History Society on Toulouse-Lautrec. Writer and lecturer, Juliet Heslewood, led us through Lautrec’s life and art discussing how although he was a painter it was his poster designs which were pioneering and for which he is most well known. She discussed how his art reflected his lifestyle and outlined the main subjects he painted from animals to brothels and places of entertainment. She also highlighted the main models he used and pointed out how many of them had red hair at a time when artists were studying colour contrasts. As I typed the talk up I realised it had been a bit disjointed, swapping between subjects and models, to maintain a chronological narrative. I’m all for chronology but I this case it might have been better to take a list based approach.

Useful online lecture from the National Gallery looking in detail at the life of Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun the gallery’s self-portrait of her. Jacqui Ansell, an expert on historic dress, interviewed Lucy Davies, author of a new book on this picture for the National Gallery, and they outlined Le Brun’s exciting life story from being an untaught artist to court painter before having to flee Paris in the Revolution and travelling around Europe. They discussed how Le Brun saw Ruben’s “Le Chappeau de Paille” which is also in the National Gallery, when she visited Antwerp with her art dealer husband, and how she based her self-portrait on it. They also looked at other self-portraits by her and discussed how and why she liked to depict herself.

Intriguing online lecture from the British Museum introducing a travelling exhibition on ‘inauthentic objects’. Tom Cummins led us through the themes of the show telling us some of the fascinating stories of the objects included. He outlining all the different reasons objects are inauthentic from the obvious one of fakes, through copies made for study, positive uses of copies to replace or enhance original pieces and overly restored pieces. I knew some of the stories but my favourite, which I hadn’t known before, was that of the Risley Park Lanx, which had been known via a drawing from the 18th century but which reappeared in an auction in 1991 however it was proved to be a fake made by Shaun Greenhalgh based on the drawing. I was also interested to hear how 3D printing had been used at the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Palenque in Mexico to basically produce a cover for it based on an 1891 photograph to both protect it and to show its condition over 100 years ago as it has already ...

Delightful lecture at the National Gallery in the Supporters' House on how music was depicted and what it meant in the Netherlands in the 17th century. This was the third lecture and all of them have been excellent but this was made more magical by the addition of the lute player Andrew Maginley who joined the course leader, Belle Smith, and brought insights into the history of music at the time pointing out things like the fact music started to be printed in Venice in around 1510 meaning it could be more easily disseminated. He also told us how this was a period of experimentation with instruments. Smith led us through a series of images from the period and it was magical to watch Maginley play the lute in front of this work by Jan Miense Molenar. We dissected this and other works from the collection to look at what instruments were being played and what they meant. It was a nice touch to add a still life from the period which included a violin, a flute and music. Smith poi...

Annoying exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the life and photography of Cecil Beaton. There were some beautiful images and the show told the story of his life well, but I thought it tried to cover too much ground. The introduction said it was going to look at his portraits and fashion work but it included quite a number of photographs and drawings of him by other people and did venture into his war work although the images they used did all include people. The show felt quite cramped in the space particularly in the usually large room at the end which had been divided into about 6 or 7 separate spaces. In a number of cases the room introduction panel had been placed in the entrance space causing bad bottle necks. A lot of the labels were quite long too with good but complex biographies of the sitters. You did get an ideal of a strata of society in the early 20th century but, despite his being a period I love, I quite quickly didn't care. I kept remember...

Impressive sculpture at the Serpentine Gallery by Giuseppe Penone. The work was left over from a show at the gallery which was closed by the time I went but this outdoor hadn't been moved yet. It consisted of a black, blasted tree made of bronze, evidently cast from a real tree from Belgium which was struck by lightning. The trunk is lined with golf leaf highlighting its wounds. It brought to mind the Japanese repair technique, Kintsugi. The work looked beautiful sitting in the park with Kensington Palace behind. Exhibition ended 7 September 2025

Fun installation style exhibition at the Serpentine South Gallery of work by contemporary artist Peter Doig which explores the role of music and listening in his art. The show brought together paintings and two sets of impressive speakers designed for a cinema which played music from Doig's archive of vinyl and cassettes. The paintings evidently reflected the music but I would have liked more explanation of how they did this as none of them were labelled with titles or dates. I loved the atmosphere of the show with spaces to sit and listen to the music in a communal space and evidently on a Sunday they are running a series of live listening sessions which would be fun. Closes 8 February 2026 Reviews Times Guardian Evening Standard

Beautiful iteration of this annual pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery. I always try to get to this event and I thought this year's was one of the best despite going on a fairly grey day. Designed by the architect Marina Tabassum it was called "A Capsule in Time" and did resemble a large, long pill. It was built of wood with translucent glass side panels and reading the blurb I discovered that one section could be moved to create different combinations of the space. The apse like ends gave it the feeling of a church. I spent some time sitting in it having a coffee and looking at the different ways people were interacting with the space. I liked the way it sat in the landscape and the way in which the clock tower of the south gallery lined up with the gap in the structure. Closed 26 October 2025 Reviews Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades introducing an exhibition at Pallant House on artists painting artists. Melanie Vandenbrouck, the chief curator of the gallery, led us through the themes of the show from friends, lovers and relationships born in art school. Although the show mainly looks at Modern British and contemporary art she did outline the previous history of artists painting other artists. The talk mainly led us through the works in the show talking about both the artists and the sitters. She introduced me to a lot of work I didn’t known including this wonderful painting by Saoirse MacAntisonnaugh of the annual tea party at the Slade art school. I was most interested to learn about works which had been commissioned for the show or which have emerged as a result of it including Jenny Lewis’s project to contact every living artist in the show and photographing them for a series called “Ripples” which she is posting on Instagram.