Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades introducing an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum on the 1924 Paris Olympics. The co-curator Caroline Vout from the University of Leiden led us through the main themes of the show and some of the highlight exhibits. She showed us how the show started by setting the scene of what Paris was like 100 years ago and how it hosted the games. She then looked at some of the personalities o the games including the runners made famous by Chariots of Fire some of whom were students at the University of Cambridge giving local interest. Next she talked about how the games reflected modernity but also drew on classical themes particular around the presentation of ideal bodies in a period after the destruction of the First World War. I had wanted to see the show but ran out of time so this talk was the next best thing and gave a good sense of what it was about.

Insightful online talk from the Fitzwilliam Museum by contemporary artist, Hilary Powell, whose work features in their current exhibition on defaced currency. Powell outlined a number of her projects working with communities on social issues. It sounds dry but she has done some amazing work starting with a simple idea and letting it build as she works with different groups of people. A good example was from when she was an unofficial artist in residence on a demolition site in East London. From the experience she created a pop-up book of a history for the area. Using a collective of people from the area she created 50 books in three days. This then led her to the idea of creating printing ink pigments from old building materials such as bricks and zinc from roofs. The work highlighted in the show was part of a project called “Bank Job” based in Walthamstow where she got access to an old bank and printed money there with a team of paid trainees which featured images of local peop...

Interesting online lecture from the Fitzwilliam Museum describing and explaining their current exhibition. Richard Kelleher, the curator of the show, lead us through the main themes and objects in this show about how defacing money, which is often a symbol of authority, has been a symbol of protest over the years. It also looks at emergency money such as notes issued in the Siege of Mafeking and money defaced as a commemoration such as a penny from 1918 with the date of the Armistice etched onto it. Kelleher was particularly interesting on the design of the show which splits a large space into three using design to define the different themes. He also talked about how he included contemporary art which uses defaced money or newly printed money. The talk gave a good overview of the show which I would like to go and see but probably won’t get time to go to Cambridge.  

Intriguing online lecture from Fitzwilliam Museum looking at the still-lives of Vanessa Bell. Rebecca Birrell, Assistant Keeper of Paintings, Drawings and Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum and formerly of Charleston Farmhouse, compared Bell’s still-lives of flowers to those of the 17th century. She pointed out the latter were mainly about the fragility of life and were moralistic whereas Bell’s are about light, life and happiness. Birrell incorporated Bell’s sister Virginia Woolf’s writing on art to place Bell among the modernist artists and thinkers and to show the feminist position of a female artist who would now hold exhibitions and work as a professional artist. I loved the idea that the pictures of flower arranging could be seen as a portrait of the garden at Charleston and also as a diary. This made me think of the comparison with Virginia Woolf’s dairies where, as well as recording her life, she also seems to be trying out writing styles like a written sketch book.

Interesting online discussion from Fitzwilliam Museum to mark on LBGTQ+ history month looking at how queer and female artists in the 19th and 20th centuries addressed and reacted to the Christian religion. Rebecca Burrell, co-curator of the “Women: Makers and Muses” at the museum was interviewed by Emma Torrens also from the museum. They started by discussing how St Sebastian became a queer icon both due to the muscled images of him but also as they were images of suffering and linked to plague at a time when homosexuality was seen by many an illness. The saint survived the act of being show by arrows which is usually depicted so he is seen as a someone who survived and flourished, despite being martyred later. The philosophy of this was discussed but I would have been interested to see more 19th century images of the subject to illustrate the point. They then went on to discuss women artists use of religious imagery in their work concentrating on Gwen John. I had never realised b...

Beautiful exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum contrasting the way women saw themselves through their art from the beginning of the twentieth century to today with their representation by male artists. The show drew on the galleries own collections one side looked at men using women as their muse and it was good to see one of the Stanley Spencer self-portraits with his second wife Patricia Preece in this context as the Epstein sculpture of Hélène Yellin. There was also a Glyn Philpott I didn’t know. The other side looked at female artists and included a nice Gwen John and a lovely picture by Marie Louis von Motesiczky “At the Dressmaker’s” from 1930 showing herself as the lady being fitted for a dress. It was good to see contemporary art represented with a Bridget Riley. Closes 1 March 2022

Creepy but effective pairing of two sculptures at the Fitzwilliam Museum. Both works were made of wood and show tortured and emasculated young men made 500 years apart. The hyper-real one shown here “Action 125” was made by Irian born artist Reza Aramesh in 2011 and shows an anonymous Iraqi prisoner of war who was subjugated by American forces in 2003 at the start of the Iraq War.   This was paired with a St Sebastian from about 1525 by Spanish artist Alonso Berruguete which uses takes a similar heightened naturalist approach. I love these 16th century Spanish sculptures. Bringing these figures together made interesting parallels about how times don’t change from the idea that young men still become victims of war to how artists influence each other over the centuries. It was a good example where just two pieces in a display enhance and inform each other. Closes 31 December 2021

Interesting display at the Fitzwilliam Museum highlighting the acquisition of a set of etchings by contemporary artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. This set of prints “First Flight” are delicate imagined portraits of black sitters which were displayed here with prints and drawings by Rembrandt and Van Dyck. I loved the exhibition of her work earlier in the year at Tate Britain which I believe is going to be repeated as it was disrupted by Covid. Her work stood up well to the two earlier iconic artists but in technique and composition. It was a good way for the museum to show some of their works on paper in a different context and to draw contemporary parallels. Closes 20 February 2022