Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating exhibition at Royal Academy looking at the work of Jasper Johns. The commentary to the exhibition was excellent and brought out the depth in these works which can feel one dimensional on an initially viewing and by the nature of the repetition of themes. It emphasised the main aim of making you look at ordinary things and find a deeper meaning hence the use of “things the mind already knows” such as flags and targets. Seeing the works together and looking them as objects rather than just images you saw the differences between each work. I’d not realised that many of the flag pictures are wax over collage. I liked three panels split open to show the wall behind to make you think about the space around you and the oddness of looking at an image hanging on a wall. I loved the section on the studio and in particular the bronze sculptures of objects from the studio such as paint brushes in a branded tin. That same pot was then shown in a picture so was it the o...

Nice exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of this series of prints by Jasper Johns which has recently been donated to the gallery. The works weave together time, artistic creation and John’s own life. They include references to his own work such as flags and hatching and to artists that have influenced him such as Picasso and Duchamp. The man in all the pictures is his own shadow and the passage of time is shown by his arm moving around a clock. I am not sure I can see the seasons in them but I’m probably missing something. I particularly liked a long black and white print combining images from the four coloured ones and the appearance of the Mona Lisa in one of them.  

Fascinating exhibition at the Courtauld of recent work by Jasper Johns. The exhibition took you through the creative process behind the work really well. Their inspiration had come from a crumbled photograph of Lucien Freud sitting on a bed in Francis Bacon’s studio. Johns had sketched this then sketched the mirror image of it adjoining it. From this a picture of skull emerges at the top of the picture. The series of works based on this were really beautiful. If you looked hard you could see the skull and the two images of Freud amongst the wonderful patchwork of paint which looked a little like the cover on the bed. He included the torn section as a void. In the largest more coloured canvas the whole effect was of a baroque memorial in a church with the blank space for the eulogy, two figures in mourning like pose on either side and a skull above. The Regrets of the title came from a reproduction on many of the works of Johns stamp he had made for turning down invita...