Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting installation at the National Gallery to mark its 200th anniversary. The piece consists of two video rooms. The first looks at the current work of the gallery over a series of screens. For each topic it gives a couple of facts then uses photographs of current projects, art works and archive material. It felt a bit slow at first but as you got into it you slowed down to match it. An interesting touch is that between each section you get plain yellow screens. One of the gallery assistants explained to me that if you walk past them it records your silhouette and these will be used in the reopening of the Sainsbury Wing. Look out for one with big hair and a back pack. The second room looked at the history of the gallery making good use of archive material over two walls. It concentrated on the early years and the Second World War. I’d have liked to have seen some of the gaps filled maybe with a photo of every director. If you are in the gallery pop in and give it a watc...

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery on the origins of its collection. To mark the start of the weekend of celebrations marking 200 years since the foundation of the National Gallery Susanna Avery-Quash, the lead curator, lead us through the career of the first director of the gallery Sir Charles Eastlake looking at how he added to the collection and then organised and collated it. Avery-Quash drew not only on the main collection of the gallery but also its contextual collection of objects which relate to the main collection and the history of the gallery. She showed us some fascinating, newly acquired archive material relating to Eastlake and his wife Lady Eastlake. A fitting start to marking this important anniversary.

Helpful online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the architectural phases of the gallery. Ralph St Clare-Wade from the University of Cambridge marked the upcoming 200th anniversary of the gallery with this talk which clearly laid out the different phases of its development from it’s start in a house in Pall Mall to the opening of the Sainsbury Wing. Despite visiting at least once a month I had never really thought about how the building grew and the different architects involved. I was particularly intrigued at how the original site was dictated by the presence of a workhouse and barracks behind it and how it was able to expand as both of those were no longer needed. It will certainly make me look at it in a different way in the future.

Useful display at the National Gallery presenting their plans for remodelling sections of the building to mark the 200th anniversary of the gallery in 1824.  There were good display boards outlining the plans which included a reworking of the Sainsbury wing entrance to make it lighter and more welcoming, to provide a link at basement level between the two buildings and opening up some of the space in the Research Centre, possibly the introduction of a members’ area and rethinking the space outside the gallery linking it to Trafalgar Square.  The display may still be there but I went there was an information desk there and I had a good conversation with a friendly lady who is working on the project and who talked me through the changes.  I went along sceptically as I felt the Sainsbury Wing is still quite new so why does is need changing. I was shocked to realise it’s 30 years old! I’d also not realised that it had become the main entrance in 2018. I thought its use as th...