Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online discussion from the Victoria and Albert Museum on Jewish country houses. The group brought together the editors of a new book on the topic, Natalie Livingstone and Juliet Carey, with the photographer for the work, Helene Binet, as well as biographer of the Rotheschild women, Abigail Green, all ably chaired by Ollie Cox, head of academic partnerships at the museum. Livingstone and Carey began by outlining the reasons for the book and how it came about with 17 authors each writing a chapter on a house from England and around Europe. They outlined the main themes and introduced us to some of the houses. Binet then explained her working practices and how she looked for aspects of a house that were less well known and reflected the people who owned it, rather than the architecture, in her photographs. Green talked about the roles of two Rothschild women, Hannah and Charlotte, in developing and using the houses. There was a good discussion with an insightful Q...

Fabulous and enlightening exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands looking at the role of Jewish Londoners in fashion and the clothing industry. The Museum of London always puts on excellent exhibitions and this was no exception. They are well designed and simply explained. I loved the focus on telling people's stories in this show and the personal objects and I was astonished at how many well-known brands have Jewish origins. The show was cleverly divided into East End and West End separated by a walkway which discussed how the opening of Oxford Circus tube station and the development of the Central Line linked the two areas. I loved the themed areas which were often designed like small shops or workshops. There are too many stories to report and I would really encourage you to go and read them yourself. Highlights for me include E. Moses and Sons in Aldgate which was the biggest clothing shop in England in 1846 having been founded in 1829, the luggage company Molmax wh...

Excellent online symposium from London Art Week looking at the role of Jewish dealers in the late 19th and early 20th century art market. Over three one hour sessions and with an array of good speakers we were guided through aspects of the subject. Day one looked at how Jews influenced the growth of Modernism in this period. Charles Denhiem who has written a book on the topic said that, with the growth in interest in Nazi stolen art, he didn’t want to see Jews as victims but wanted to know how they played a part in the art market in the first place. Why did they have the art that was taken? Day two looked specifically at the dealer Asher Wertheimer and how he commissioned portraits of his whole family from John Singer Sargent which he then left to the National Gallery. They are currently on display at Tate Britain and I blogged the display recently. Speakers discussed the reasons both for their commissioning and donation as well as talking us through some of the works and the cont...

Fabulous exhibition at the Doge’s Palace in Venice marking 500 years since the formation of the Ghetto in Venice. It was fascinating to realise that when the Ghetto was formed it was just an area given to the Jewish population of Venice as other areas were given to other nationalities. The area was then named after the furnaces (geto) which had been there before. The word has obviously grown to take on darker meaning and things were not always as easy in the Venetian Ghetto as when it was founded. There was a wonderful room of paintings from the time of the founding showing how Jews were viewed in society. This included three by one of my favourite artists Carpaccio. I loved his portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan who founded the Ghetto. There was also a great room of sketches and plans of the buildings and a great AV presentation of a walk through the streets which stopped at the site of the buildings whose plans you had just been looking at many of which still exi...