Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the Cristea Roberts Gallery bringing together works on paper by Richard Serra and Eduardo Chillida. These black and white works looked stark and beautiful in this white space. I didn’t find them attractive as individual objects but as a group they looked good and I loved the processes and thinking behind them. Both artists are both better known as sculptors and these abstract works seemed to explore the idea of form. Reading the commentary they were both interested in the physical process of print making and some of these used unusual materials such as Paintstik and silica and the type of paper they used seems to have been important in the process. Closed 23 April 2022

Fascinating exhibition at Ordovas of drawings by Richard Serra better known for his large site specific sculptures. All the works were made in 2018 and were entitled “Orchard Street” after the street where he lives in Long Island. I must admit visually I found these rather dull large black and white works however a friendly gallery assistant explained how they were made by spreading ink and silica on a printing plate then applying a sheet of paper and pressing down with a steel block and his body weight so they are in essence monoprints. I liked the fact they had a physical aspect them which reflected the physicality of sculpture. Closed 17 December 2021

Exhibition of new drawings by Richard Serra made for and displayed in the Courtauld Gallery. They were made using a fascinating technique using a sandwich of see though sheets with thick crayon between them, the finished work being the middle sheet with crayon on both sides. However I must admit I wasn’t moved by them, in fact I am not sure I would call them drawings. As textural abstract pictures I thought they were interesting as a study in black and surface. However I expect something more specific from a drawing such as an idea of what the subject was and I found I was looking at these and trying to work out what they were. Review Guardian