Cathy's Art Diary

Delightful and clever exhibition at the Wallace Collection using contemporary art to look at the Rococo period. There is a lot of art influenced by the Rococo around at the moment and this show used work by Flora Yukhnovich to set up a dialogue. In a plain space downstairs the show hung two paintings by Boucher without their frames, as you would look at a contemporary painting. The effect was interesting and I found myself looking in more detail at the image. I generally find the style too frilly but without the frame they seemed more paired down. Upstairs the two contemporary works were then shown in gold frames which seemed to elevate them. They were abstract pieces in the luxurious colours of the Rococo and worked well with the other work and furniture and them. Closes 3 November 2024 Review Times  

Engaging online lecture from the Wallace Collection introducing their current exhibition on the influence of the Rococo on the designs of the Walt Disney studio. Helen Jackson, curator of the exhibition and formally of the Wallace Collection, explained how Walt Disney spent time in France both in the First World War, as an ambulance driver and later in 1935 when he bought illustrated fairy stories and art books as the start of a research library for the company. She talked us though the Rococo influences in the films both plans which came to fruition such as “Beauty and the Beast” and others which changed during the production process such as “Cinderella”. She pointed out that one of the earliest animations involved porcelain figures which came to life and danced. She also looked at the similarities in workshop traditions between Disney and the porcelain factories with the idea of many skills being employed and the importance of small, repetitive and highly skilled tasks. I can...

Interesting workshop at the National Gallery looking at the Rococo artists and trying to define what the Rococo style was. The talk was given by Jacqui Astell, who is also an expert on the history of costume, so the talk was particularly interesting on the clothes and textiles in the pictures. We started by looking in detail at “Psyche showing her sisters her gifts from Cupid” by Fragonard and talked about all the different attributions it had had over the years and the different subjects it had been thought to show. We also talked about the style of the picture and what made it Rococo. After coffee we looked in detail at Madame de Pompadour and how she not only epitomised Rococo style but also encouraged and commissioned it. I still don’t warm to this era but I do now feel I understand it better.