Cathy's Art Diary

Confused exhibition at the British Museum examining the voyage of Captain Cook through objects collected on them and art by contemporary artists. This felt a strange mix at times and didn’t tell either story that well. It was good to see the original objects but the story of the journeys had been told so well in the recent British Library exhibition that this felt a bit superfluous. The story of contemporary ideas wasn’t told clearly and just seemed to provide a back drop.   The main feature of the show was a recently conserved costume from a chief mourner acquired by Cook on his second journey. It was a neat idea though to start the show with posters from three exhibitions at the museum on Captain Cook from 1965, 1980 and this one to show how attitudes to him have changed. Closes on 4 August 2019

Interesting exhibition at the Queen’s House, Greenwich looking at the role artists played on Captain Cook’s three voyages of discovery. These artists established the structure and style for documenting voyages which lasted until photography. Hodges, who went on the second voyage, came out of the show best. He was the first professional artist to meet people unaffected any European contact. He produced pictures both on the trip and on his return to London. He seems to be a genius at using white paint and I loved the way he used thick white paint to show the sailors trousers. As well as developed scenes Hodges also made detailed coastal profiles to mirror the maps the expedition were making and trained the officers to paint so they could help him. I wasn’t quite sure that Stubbs and Zoffany fitted into the picture as they did work back in London based on the voyages however I guess it was another way of showing the Stubbs pictures of the kangaroo and dingo! The las...