Cathy's Art Diary

Lively online discussion from the Wallace Collection exploring how Churchill engaged with modern art. Barry Phipps from the University of Cambridge was in conversation with co-curator of the Wallace Collection on Churchill, Lucy Davis. I got the impression that Davis had expected to just be the chair but Phipps was also asking her questions about how she picked works for the show and how she organised them. The discussion felt a bit random but covered the contemporary artists that Churchill worked with, his writings and speeches on modern art and his relationship in later life with the Royal Academy. They also talked about how his art became more well-known after the Second World War and toured America.

Useful online study morning from the Wallace Collection to compliment their exhibition of watercolours by Turner and Bonington. Taking the exhibition as a starting point the morning consisted of five talks beginning with a description of the show by its curator Lucy Davis who discussed the pictures and how they entered the collection. John Bonehill from the University of Glasgow then talked about Turner and landed estates and the concept of estate portraits which I hadn’t consciously come across before. He talked about how Turner started doing these as a money spinner but developed the style into a higher form. Next was Timothy Barringer from Yale University looking at how both artists reflected the modern world and how pictures which look romantic to us also critique the changing world in which they were painted. There was a useful talk by Joyce H Townsend from the Tate taking us thought the technique of watercolour and developments in the early 19th century including the inv...