Cathy's Art Diary

Eclectic exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of a selection of work from the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation. Paulina Olowska, a Polish contemporary artist, had selected these works from the collection of Christen Sveaas who has collected painting by Norwegian and international artists as well as antique silver and glass. Olowska was inspired by the largest travel agency in Poland, Orbis, which is known for its iconic travel posters, to look at how the collection reflects travel. I’m not sure I always saw the link with travel in the works but it was a bright, colourful selection of work. I’m afraid I don’t remember a lot of it now and my notes are a bit illegible and don’t give me much a clue but I do remember some vibrant works including that shown here by the curator of the show. Closes 8 May 2022

Weird but interesting installation at Tate Modern by Pauline Olowska. It consisted of a set for a site specific performance that you could walk though. The set was of a log cabin with all the features of it such as stairs and curtains painted onto the wood effect walls. Pictures from the galleries own collection which reflected how artists from the first half of the 20th century reacted to the world were included on the walls of the cabin. Artists included Matisse, Picasso, Carrington, Dod Proctor and Meredith Frampton. It was rather strange to walk through a room in the midst of all the white walled galleries and in was interesting to see pictures I knew well in a different setting. The Carrington of mountains in Spain worked particularly well. I wish I had been able to go to one of the performances to see how the space worked when it was in use by actors but I was unable to make any of the dates. I gather the play is an Avant Gard one from 1924 which would have matched t...