Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at Hauser and Wirth of five new works by Ellen Gallagher. I liked these works however I am not sure that I really understood what they were saying by just looking at them although I found them rather beautiful. I got something about colonialism and the oceans but that was it. When I read the press release again, I was fascinated by their art historic influence and this added a rich layer to them but I didn’t understand that from looking. I can feel a slight grump coming on that what there seems little point in making some complex point in a work of art which can’t readily be read within it. If you are following my afternoon’s blogging, you’ll realise there seems to be a rash of this at the moment. I am happy to read and learn more about a work but its meaning should be visible in the image otherwise it is just a pretty picture. Closes 31 July 2021    

Retrospective of the work of Ellen Gallagher at Tate Modern. I find this exhibition hard to describe as it is hard to define what the artist does as she works in so many media and I found it hard for a while to see the pieces as a body of work but by the end I had had more of a vision of what she does. The main themes were than she often works on penmanship paper which absorbs ink and paint so that an image is created on each side of the paper. It can also build up to create a textures surface She also used a lot of collage based on magazine. I particularly liked the works where she had created a filigree effect with the cut our paper. However although I understood the what by the end I am still not so sure of the why however I found the works very beautiful particular the Watery Ecstatic series at the end. Reviews Times Telegraph Evening Standard