Cathy's Art Diary

Surprising exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looking at the conservation of the wall paintings in a medieval tower near Peterborough. I say surprising because I didn't know the show was on and didn't know about the paintings. I love this period of art and there is so little left. I was intrigued by the story of how they were found by a Home Guard troop in the Second World War and to learn that the students of the Courtauld are now working to conserve them. The first room concentrated on the paintings themselves with a reproduction of one wall hitting you as you walked into the small space. There were good photographs of the other walls and some wonderful watercolours by Clive Rouse who conserved the paintings in the 1940s. They also included a psalter and bestiary from Peterborough Cathedral which may have influenced them. The second room looked at the current conservation project and the history of wall painting conservation at the Courtauld. There was a good video sh...

Disappointing installation in the courtyard of Somerset House by Dana-Fiona Armour. Photographs I'd seen advertising the work made it look larger and gave the impression that you could walk through it. In reality I found it a bit small for the space and as the fountains had become part of the work you couldn't walk within the work unless you were a small intrepid child. The works had lights inside which were the interactive part but in daylight these were too pale. I was also disappointed that the interaction wasn't with the people and space around it but in response to 50 years of oceanographic data from the around the coast however without knowing what that data was and what year it represented it felt meaningless. The sculpture itself is derived from an endangered sea snake. I am all for art which reflects scientific findings but the link needs to be more obvious. The work invited you to reflect on "the shifting ecologies which sustain life on Earth" but...

Engaging exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on a portrait of a horse called Scrub by George Stubbs which has been borrowed from a private collection. The wonderful portrait strikes you as you enter the room and you can't help but smile. The level of detail is extraordinary and it feels like he is inviting you to sit down and spend time with him. He was commissioned by the same patron as the famous Whistlejacket who dominates one of the main vistas of the gallery and I like to think that at night they meet up somewhere and catch up on old times. Shown with the portrait are two horse projects by Stubbs , an book on the anatomy of the horse based on dissections which he did and drew at every stage, and a commission to paint all the major racing horses of the previous 50 years. There were two works from the series in the show and you couldn’t help but smile again at Dungannon with his friend, a lamb. Of course I had to go and say hello to Whistlejacket afterwards so he ...

Charming video installation at Outernet by Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell. I must admit I usually walk past Outernet without stopping as I find immersive art a bit disorientating but this one was so calm and beautiful I stopped and watched. The work put you into a series of ruined buildings which were gradually being taken over by lush vegetation. You even had a projection of the ceiling of the room you were in on the top of the space. According to the blurb the artists have travelled the world over the last decade exploring and photographing ruins. When they return to their studio, they add digitally sculpted vegetation with the idea of bringing life back to the rooms. Closes 13 March 2026

Badly designed exhibition at Tate Modern presenting work by Tracey Emin over 40 years. I found the show badly arranged and claustrophobic. There are video installations on the main walk through not inside rooms so the pathway fills up and if you don’t want to stand and watch you have to push through. A lot of the art is quite wordy so people stand for ages trying to make out the handwriting. There are no information boards just labels. Are we meant to use an app instead? Please make that clear if that is correct? It assumed people already knew Emin’s story, which I did, but if you didn’t you might feel quite lost and the work could feel random. I wonder if it’s deliberate in a show full of angst to try to induce anxiety. I lasted 20 minutes. I’m not a great fan of Emin’s work as I find it quite introspective but often individual pieces can be very moving and these shine through. It was lovely to see the bed again and I loved a crucifixion painting. I liked the quilts but in th...

Interesting online lecture from the Wallace Collections discussing how Caravaggio’s “Victorious Cupid” came to be in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. Neil McGregor, former director of the National Gallery and now chair of the advisory board of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, was interviewed by Xavier Bray, director of the Wallace Collection to mark the Wallace Collections showing the painting, on loan from the Berlin gallery. They began by talking about the picture itself with Bray sharing that the gallery was not allowed a poster of the painting for the show unless they put the label over the boys genitals. They talked about the Giustiniani brothers who commissioned the work and about other works by Caravaggio which they owned. They then discussed hat happened to the collection when it was sold in Paris in 1812 and how it was shown there for a number of years almost as a public show and how it influenced French artists of the time. We then went into a rather complex discussion of ...

Clear and useful online lecture from the National Gallery introducing their exhibition on Stubbs marking the loan of a portrait of a horse called Scrub. Mary McMahon, curator of the show, introduced us to Scrub and set him in the context of Stubbs career. She took us through the artists career and in particular his paintings, or as she argued portraits of horses. The painting is shown with examples from two of his other projects on horses, an anatomical study for which he dissected horses and drew the structure of their muscles and skeleton, and an attempt to paint all the major thoroughbred horses of the period called “The Turf Project”. I went to the show a few days later and found this to have been an excellent introduction to the show and it meant I got a lot more from the display.

Excellent online lecture   from the Foundling Museum looking at Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze as part of their music and art series. Sarah Jaffray, an art historian, led us through what was   happening in art in Vienna around 1900 and the role of the Secession movement. She described their HQ building which the frieze was shown and explained how it was a radical space for showing art. She then talked about why the movement was attracted to Beethoven even though this was more because of the image of him in Mahler’s novel “A Pilgrimage to Beethoven”. This led to the 14th Secession exhibition being devoted to the composer to mark the 75th anniversary of his death, focused on a sculpture of him by Max Klinhen. The frieze decorated an anti-chamber to the sculpture and Jaffray led us though the iconography of it in some detail.

An excellent online course from Paula Nutall examining the life and work of the 15th century artist Piero Della Francesca. As ever Paula was clear and methodical and overran gloriously. In week one we looked at the work Piero did for his hometown Borgo Sansepolcro and the surrounding area as well as for his own house. I was fascinated to hear the National Gallery’s Nativity by him was painted for his own house and that a figure of Hercules was also found there. Paula also talked about his influences linking a lot to work and events he may have seen when he was in Florence. In week two we looked in depth at the fresco cycle of the True Cross in Arezzo. Again I remember seeing it and it was wonderful to look at it in detail and study the stories and iconography. Finally in week 3 we looked at his work for various courts in particular Urbino, although we touched on his work for the papal court and thought about what may have influenced him there. She also outlined work he did at oth...

Engaging exhibition at the Foundling Museum looking at the power of singing together via the Hallelujah Chorus. The show started by looking at the chorus by Handel which premiered in Dublin in 1742 but from soon after was performed annually at the Foundling Hospital to raise money for the institution. On the top floor they examined the origins of the work and how it has been performed since. On the middle floor they focus on the role of music at the hospital from the choir of hospital to the boy's band which trained boys to go into military bands. They also looked at modern interpretations of the work and I found myself dancing to "Too Hot to Handel : The Gospel Messiah". Look it up! In the basement was a wonderful video installation called "We Are Together Because …."   the result of a two year project at a community school near Lisbon tracing the project from experimental vocal warm up to a final performance. It consisted of a main screen and five small...

Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of work by the photographer Catherine Opie. I'd seen an early show by Opie at the Walker Gallery in 2014 which had stayed with me, so I was interested to see more of her work. As the blurb says Opie "makes photographs that question the who, how and why of representation". For me, what gives them weight, is their referencing of art historical work. I loved that more of her work was shown around the gallery with older portraits. Opie is a Lesbian and there is lots of references to her community and to different types of family. The works were shown in series and were well explained. Closed 31 May 2026 Reviews   Guardian Telegraph

Neat display at the National Portrait Gallery looking at Victorian photographs of family. By picking this subject in a small space it looked at this history of photography at the time from its invention to its popularisation as well as looking at the types of family in the era. I thought it stretched the latter a bit, but it meant they included the Bloomsbury Group so of course I approved. I did find things to Google including Charles Haselwood Shannon and his partner Charles Ricketts shown here. No end date given but these sort of displays are usually temporar y.

Entertaining lecture at the National Portrait Gallery focusing on the two paintings of the Bronte Sisters by their brother, Branwell, in the gallery. The talk was made by the dry, Yorkshire wit of the speaker, Sharon Wright, who has written a book of the title of the talk looking at the interior spaces of the family. At one point, as she told us a particular melancholy story, she added "I know it's a bit of a downer but it is the Brontes". She focused on the two paintings, one of Emily, cut down from a larger one of the three sisters, and the famous one of the sisters with a painted out Branwell. She talked about how they were painted and their subsequent history after their father's death. She talked about going to the house where they were found in Ireland where Charlotte's husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls lived after he left Yorkshire taking them with him. They were unknown to anyone for 50 years until they were found by a maid who was dusting the top of a ...

Clear online lecture from the London Art History Society looking at British Pop Art. Ben Street guided us clearly through the British Pop Art movement and how it differed from its American counterpart. He started by looking at the definition of Pop Art as laid out in a 1957 letter by Richard Hamilton. He also looked at how art before this in this country had been quite sombre and austere. He told us about the 1956 Whitechapel Gallery exhibition “This is Tomorrow” which included art, architecture, fashion and more and then led us through some of the main British Pop Art works often comparing it with American pieces. He looked in particular at work by two women in the movement, Pauline Boty and Jann Haworth. He concluded that British Pop Art had more of a sense of the hand crafted whereas America looked to the mass and mechanically produced.

Interesting small exhibition at the Design Museum introducing the work of Simone Brewster. Brewster seems to have started as a jewellery designer and there were some amazing pieces made of hair. They reminded me of Victorian memorial pieces. She had then branched into household objects and architectural spaces. It would have been good to have photographs of the spaces and installations she had created as I found it hard to build a vision of them from a few objects. I did love these bright planters. Closes January 2027

Fun exhibition at the Design Museum looking at the films and archive of Wes Anderson. I have found some of these shows on film directors challenging when you don’t know the movies and again, I'm afraid I didn't know Anderson's work well but I came out desperate to see the films and impressed by the level of detail in them. The show was arranged chronologically by film and displayed as tableaus of costumes and props with designs shown around it as well as clips on screens. The commentary was clear and engaging. There were also lovely displays of the puppets from his stop motion animations. I loved the costumes and was intrigued by the production of printed material for the films such as playbills for plays which are mentioned and books by the protagonists. Closes 26 July 2026 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Stolid exhibition at the Design Museum highlighting four research projects which are seeking to make impactful changes to bring about environmental change. Each display highlighted one of the projects and showed it with a piece of contemporary art commissioned to summarise the findings. They ranged from a project for NHS Scotland looking at sustainable care, two from Rathlin Island off Northern Ireland, projects in Bristol and Swansea aiming to bring back century old housing back into use and an initiative to create a community map of Anglesey to aim planning authorities. These were interesting ideas and I loved the inclusion of the contemporary art, but they were big concepts to represent in a small space and I'm not sure I always understood what the aim was. I did love these medical test kits made of plastic alternatives. Closes August 2026

Fascinating exhibition at the Design Museum looking at the Blitz nightclub and its influence on design and culture.   The show was very well explained and started by looking at the culture which it grew out of and how the 1970s were a decade of reinvention. There was a fun section on how people dressed to go to the club followed by a recreation of the club itself. The show then widened out to look at designers who emerged from the scene from fashion designers, through architects and furnishing designers. Being about the same age as the designers, although I'm sure I'd never have been allowed in the club, I realised how things I bought and did were influenced by this group of people. The last room looked at the music which came out of the club with a lovely wall of album and singles covers and a show of a selection of the videos for songs. Closed 29 Mar 2026 Reviews Times Telegraph