Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station of new portraits of women by Annie Liebovitz. There were some lovely images and I liked the way they were presented. The first section gave a quick overview of other pictures of or about women she had done and it was nice to see the picture of Virginia Woolf’s writing desk from Monk’s House. The main section just showed the new pictures with the descriptions off to one side. This made you look at the pictures without always recognising the sitter and then go back and see who they were. It made you think about the person and their setting and had an equalising effect. On the other three sides of the gallery were big screens, two with changing displays and one with her new portrait of the Queen. My favourite images included Doris Kearns Goodwin reading an a study, Sheryl Sandberg curled up on a desk chair, a beautiful picture of Russian model Natalia Vodianova against a huge architectural horse sculpture in a dress of...

Interview with Annie Leibovitz as part of the Charleston Festival conducted by the director of Charleston Colin McKenizie. It focused on her new book “Pilgrimage” and complemented the exhibition in the gallery at Charleston which I reviewed in my previous post. She talked a little about how the project came about and talked us through a selection of the photographs not only saying what they were of but why and how she took them. The Q&A session was fascinating as she talked a bit about getting access to the houses she had used and the different attitudes of the curators of these small museums. At times I found her slightly hesitant in her speech but this just gave me the impression of someone who thinks through the view finder of a camera not words. A super event.  

Lovely little exhibition in the gallery at Charleston Farmhouse of recent work by the photographer Annie Leibovitz from her recent book “Pilgrimage”. Unusually the works do not include people but are mostly of places closely related to people mainly the houses of artists and writers. The project began by accident in a visit of Emily Dickinson house and includes pictures from Charleston itself and nearby Monks House, home of Virginal and Leonard Woolf. The pictures were very peaceful and despite being without people are all about them. I found it almost a study in how we are remembered by what we leave behind us.

Wonderful exhibition of photographs taken by Annie Leibovitz at the National Portrait Gallery . The exhibition focuses on pictures taken since 1990 and blends her commercial, journalistic and personal work. I loved the way many of the enlargements were still shown almost as contact prints. This gave then a false frame and therefore gave them a real Renaissance feeling. The pictures documenting the deaths of her father and her friend Susan Sontag were heart rending. I couldn’t decide is she used the camera to involve herself or detract herself but there was a sense of a writer compulsion to experience these events creatively. I loved the pictures of her mother with her leg in the air! There was a real sense of vibrancy. Almost side many of the classic celebrity portraits was a pair of boards of contact prints in chronological order matching the commercial and personal work. These showed two linked artistic and emotional journeys. Reviews Evening Standard