Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent online introduction from the National Gallery to their Wright of Derby exhibition. Christine Riding led us through the main themes of the show starting with discussing the technique displayed in these works using light and dark to dramatic effect can called Tenebrism. She examined how the ideas came from Caravaggio but Wright used them in a secular context and, having not seen the work in the flash, but worked out how to do it from experimentation. She talked about the genre of works showing study by candlelight became popular and how it reflected that nighttime was seen as the time for learning feeding into ideas of refinement and dedication. This led her to examine the two main works in the show “The Orrey” and “Bird in an Air Pump” and the fashion for scientific learning. Finally she looked at how Wright’s style changed in the 1770s, still using the dramatic effects of light and dark, but focusing on working class labour such as blacksmiths and how this reflected id...

Fascinating  lecture at the National Gallery introducing the complete rehang of the collection. Chaired by Christine Riding, Director of Collections and Research, who had masterminded the project with four of the curators who were involved who each outlined their areas. They explained how they have kept a chronological approach but also introduced theme rooms eg one on still life, and rooms on individual artists where the collection is particularly strong. They also talked about the problems of hanging monumental and small works in the same space. At this point I had only seen the Sainsbury Wing rehang but I immediately understood some of the questions I had had in my mind. The most interesting thing I learnt is that to mark the rehang they will not be lending any works for two years so this is an amazing chance to see everything. It will be interesting to see how the rehang then reactions to those loans and how flexible it is.

Comprehensive online course from the National Gallery examining aspects of their current Winslow Homer exhibition. Over three weeks six speakers guided us through Homer’s life and work. Week one started with Chris Riopelle curator of the current show guiding us through it. I have heard him talk about it before but you learn something new each time. This was followed by John Fogg from the University of Birmingham talking about Homer’s experiences in the American Civil War and the effect on his art both during and after the war. Week two took us to Europe with Frances Varley from the Courtauld leading us through what art Homer may have seen when he was in Paris in 1866 and how it influenced his work on his return. She saw this as a period of experimentation and recovery from the Civil War. We then moved to England and his time at Cullercoats with Christine Riding from the National Gallery placing the work in the context of his whole career and in the fashion for artists to work in wo...