Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the National Archives of art works commissioned by the Government Art Collection to mark the Coronation of Charles III. The collection commissioned artists from all over the UK to create artworks reflecting the Coronation's significance to them and their communities. They were shown alongside the coronation rolls of Edward II and our current king. I loved Joy Gerrard's complex ink on canvas drawings of crowd scenes on the Mall and at Buckingham Palace based on a series of drawings some of which were included. My favourite piece though was Hew Locke's textile work of layered images of the Gold State Coach. I love Locke's work so was delighted to find a new piece by him. Closed 1 November 2025  

Fascinating, dense exhibition at the National Archives looking at the work of MI5 since its foundation in 1909. I say dense as being based mainly on documents there was a lot of reading with just a few objects however it was worth taking time over as it was packed with fascinating stories and I came away with lots to look up, such as the Woolwich Arsenal Spy Ring in 1938 as I live at Woolwich Arsenal. The show was arranged chronically with each section having an introduction, a selection of case studies, staff profiles of the prominent MI5 staff and an outline of the techniques and methodology used and was shown as if in an archive on shelves with case file boxes around the exhibits. As well as the Woolwich reference I found two other connections in the show. There was a section on Karl Fuchs, the atomic spy who was arrested at Harwell where my father worked. Some of his friends remembered Fuchs. Also there was a mortar bomb from the IRA attack on Downing Street in 1991 which I ...

Moving exhibition at the National Archives looking at prisoners of war and internees in the Second World War. OK I admit I cried three times in this show and I’m not a crier! It gave a good overview of the history from military prisoners of war and civil internees on all sides but the guts of the show were the short biographies with artefacts which brought to life the voices from the past. I’d come partly because Airey Neave, who escaped from Colditz, was my MP as a child and his was the first biography I read in the show so I was hooked from the start. Also a friend of my mother’s lived with Mum’s family after the war when her parents returned to Singapore to pick up the pieces of their pre-war life there. They had escaped on one of the last boats out of the city. OK tears no 1 was the story of Gladys Skillet who was deported from Guernsey to Germany and gave birth in a German hospital next to a German lady, Maria Koch, who befriended her and they remained friends throughout th...

Brilliant exhibition at Kings College London at Somerset House organised by the National Archives and featuring nine original documents looking at Shakespeare’s life in London. The show is only small but it is very well presented with the documents in side rooms organised into four themes. They are explained well without overwhelming you with information. If you want to see the full transcript the attendants in each room have copies. I loved the AV display at the end recapping the exhibition using a map of London and some good animations. The first document is a bill of complaint of how company stole a theatre in Shoreditch and moved it to Southwark, rebuilding it as the Globe. Another room looked at documents concerning the performance of Richard II staged on the Eve of the Essex Rebellion at the instigation of the rebels. I love the fact that the actors wanted 40 shillings more because they said the play was old fashioned or maybe because they knew the performance might ...