Cathy's Art Diary

Endearing online talk from the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum with Lewis Kruger who was a friend of and attorney for Man Ray. Kruger, who is professor emeritus of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York as well as being an attorney, talked us through Man Ray’s career from the photography in Paris in the 1920s, through his work in Hollywood and most interesting his ready-made works which I’d not come across before. He then talked about how he and his wife, who was touchingly sitting behind him on the sofa during the Zoom talk, met Man Ray in the 1950s in Paris and realised that Man Ray was short of money so they took him groceries in fancy boxes. Kruger also realised that Man Ray had signed poor contracts for reproduction of his ready-made pieces such as the blue baguette shown here and acted for him to get back control and get prompter payments. Kruger wasn’t paid for this work but was given a few works and bought various pieces from the studio which he showed us. It was charmin...

Interesting exhibition in the King’s College, Inigo Rooms, at Somerset House celebrating the centenary of the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum looking at their collection and plans for the future. There were some stunning pictures from artists I knew and some new finds. Of course I fell for the Modernism room with works by Gertler, Bomberg and Rosenberg. I also liked a work by Clare Winsten, a female member of that group who I’d not come across before. It was also fantastic to see Gertler’s Roundabout in a different context. It had been owned by the gallery but they had to sell it to the Tate to raise money. Another find in the earlier room were two sets of brother and sister artists firstly Simeon Solomon, a Pre-Raphaelite who was prosecuted for being gay and his sister Rebecca and secondly Solomon Joseph Solomon who was a pioneer of camouflage techniques in the First World War and his sister Lily who was an artist and suffragette. There was also a room on new acquisitions...