Cathy's Art Diary

Striking large scale public sculpture at the Serpentine Gallery by Gerhard Richter. The work was inspired by his strip paintings but used large ceramic tiles to create the effects. It consisted of perpendicular sections forming a star shape with different colour combinations in each section. It looked dramatic in Hyde Park with Kensington Palace behind in the distance and I loved the smooth texture of the tiles.    Closed 20 October 2024  

Colourful and thoughtful exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery of new work by Yinka Shonibare. I always enjoy Shonibare’s work which combines a beautiful object with a serious debate. I loved the room of works called “Decolonised Structures”, scaled down public sculptures decorated in his signature Dutch wax patterns representing colonial figures. I must admit I had to look a couple of them up but part of the point it to stimulate debate. The central room had a wonderful set of small, black models of houses, churches and public buildings in a dark room, lined with the Dutch wax material and lit from the inside. All the buildings have been considered places of refuge for persecuted and vulnerable groups. It would have been nice to have more information on the buildings in the show but I’ve just found it in the excellent booklet. Finally there was a reworking of a previous piece recreating a library of books covered in the signature material this time with three names of conflicts ...

Fragmented pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery by Minsuk Cho. I found this year’s pavilion disappointing. I’d liked the press photographs of it from the air forming a star shape but from the ground it felt disjointed with few angles from where you could see it as a whole. I liked the pink stained glass entrance from the gallery but the library space felt like an add on and as an x-librarian I don’t like things which try to reinvent a form which is under threat, just support the libraries you do have! I’m afraid I am a grumpy old what not and found the climbing frame element annoying. In previous years the pavilion has been a haven of peace and quiet but this encouraged noise. There was also little comfortable space to sit. Closed 27 October 2024 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Interesting exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery on the career of feminist artist Judy Chicago. I’ve come across Chicago’s work a lot in lectures both as an artist and as an art historian rediscovering lives of other female artists. It was good to see an overview of her work although as much of it was conceptual that was hard to show in a gallery exhibition. I was disappointed to find that her famous “The Dinner Party” hadn’t been able to come but there was a good room on it including a test plate. I guess I need a trip to Washington DC if I want to see it.    Closed 1 September 2024 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Monumental exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery of sculptural work by Georg Baselitz. I only knew of Baselitz’s work as a painter so I was intrigued to see sculptures and I wasn’t disappointed.   I was stunned by the fact that each work was made from a single piece of wood. Many of them included rings of wood around another structure which was impressive. I loved the way the surface had similar marks to his paintings. My favourite room had four huge works two of which showed groups of people which were arrange in very tender poses. The works were surrounded by the drawings which were part of their creative process. Closes 7 January 2024 Review Times  

Delightful structure at the Serpentine Gallery by Lina Ghotmeh. I must say as I walked up to the pavilion I was a bit disappointed as it was quite flat although I did note that it was the same height as the tree canopy that surrounded it. This year it worked best from inside where the finish to the woodwork was beautiful. I loved the crescent shaped tables and lovely stools which evidently reflected the Mediterranean idea of families eating together. Sadly there were only four of us there when I was there so it didn’t stimulate the conversations that it was meant to start. I would also say that a better food selection than coffee in cardboard cups and a few croissants weren’t in the   spirit. I wish I had gone earlier in the season when the weather was better to get the full effect of the light coming through the lattice walls but I did enjoy it even on a dull day. Closed 29 October 2023 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Austere Pavilion at the Serpentine gallery designed by Theaster Gates. I always enjoy coming to this annual installation and this year's is large and impressive. It’s less open than other years but I love the vista through it and the deep, dark space it creates. Outside there is wood at the bottom and a soft metal like zinc round the top but inside it is all lined in back wood. There are benches around the walls with a lovely set of seven silvered pictures on one side. Reading the commentary it references ceramic kilns both from Stoke on Trent and America as well as various African buildings and the Rothko chapel. I love the fact the pictures are made with a roofing technique as a nod to Gates father who was a roofer. Outside the structure is a bell salvaged from St. Laurence, a landmark Catholic Church that once stood in Chicago's South Side where Gates was born. Closes 16 October 2022 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Weird augmented reality installation outside the Serpentine Gallery by Tomás Saraceno. If you read me regularly you’ll know I’m not keen on virtual and augmented reality works and usually avoid them, but I thought I’d try this as it was something you could do on your phone. It took me a while to understand the app and to get it to activate then it kept dropping out. It’s so much easier and more relaxing to walk into a gallery, look at an artwork, think about it then leave again. Anyway this placed the image of two giant spiders onto the grass by the gallery. I’m not sure I was in the best place to appreciate them as they seemed very close and in fact one appeared from above me as if it had been behind me. Although I’m scared of spiders I found these so large and odd that they were OK. You could also activate a smaller version of the work at home by uploading a photograph of a spider although I’d never get close enough to take a photo! Bring back Louise Bourgeois whose spiders ar...

Strange exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery of work from the 1950s to today by the Haitian artist Hervé Télémaque. This was quite an eclectic, colourful collection but could be described in the genre of Pop Art. Reading the good small brochure we were given instead of labels I understand the works better now but did find them a bit impenetrable at the time. Maybe I’d done too much that day. I liked his signature representation of himself as a pair of Y-Fronts but I couldn’t help but be reminded of the old cartoons of John Major! I also liked the way he incorporated objects into some of the work like step ladder in the first work you see. Closes 30 January 2022 Review Guardian  

Gentle outside sculpture at the Serpentine Gallery by Sophia Al-Maria. This is the latest x Modern Forms Sculpture Commission by the gallery and stands near the gallery looking across Hyde Park to Kensington Palace. It is based on dandelions which Al-Maria sees as an emblem of freedom and resistance, as each seed has the potential to become an agent of resilience and change. It consists of twelve stems. I wish I’d realised when I was there that you could listen to it and it immitted sound when activated by the wind or by touching it. It would have given it another dimension. I’m afraid I was too distracted by a couple of dog walkers with a pack of dogs with balls. Closes 24 April 2022

Dramatic structure at the Serpentine for this year’s Pavilion commission by Counterspace, the South-African architectural practice directed by Sumayya Vally. The structure looks very solid and permanent and is a change from some of the more temporary looking structures. It is built of reclaimed steel, cork and timber covered with micro-cement and yet looks like a modernist concrete piece. From reading the commentary I learnt it quotes various community spaces for immigrant communities in London but I must admit I would not have got this from looking at it. I did stop for a coffee in it and liked the way people were using the various heights of benches to sit and talk in small groups. However the concrete style seats were not the most comfortable and didn’t encourage me to linger. I would have liked to see the space in use for large event as I think this would have worked well. Closed 17 October 2021 Reviews Times Telegraph Evening Standard  

Interesting exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery of photographs by James Barnor. Barnor is a Ghanian photographer who was worked between Accra and London. He did studio, portrait and documentary work and his archive has recently been digitised. The pictures were shown in a continuous line around the gallery in chronological order. The whole show gave a lovely sense of not only his work but also his family and friends. The show was roughly in three sections. The early works came from his Ever Young Studio in Accra which became a social centre for the town. There were charming portraits, some shown here, of local people and it was fun to spot the reuse of backgrounds and props. You had a sense of looking at the population of a town in the 1950s. In the 1960s Barnor went to London and the pictures there capture the mood of the time as well as recording the experience of an immigrant population in the city. I loved the pictures of Old Covent Garden and one of his son being admired b...

Elegant pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery designed this year by Junya Ishigami. I thought this year’s Pavilion fitted beautifully in the space, respecting the trees and working well with the undulations in the land. I liked its swooping slate roof which was held up by thin steel posts. The random placing of the slates made the roof look like the sea close up and I loved the fact that it came down to the ground at either end so you could see its structure. The whole thing looked like a more substantial building from a distance but was more fragile close up. The internal space worked well to give a more open area than some years. Closed 6 October 2019 Review Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

This year’s pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery by Architect Frida Escobedo.   This had a more substantial and blocky appearance than some of the previous pavilions but I loved the detail of it. It was made of roof tiles mounted one above the other horizontally on scaffolding poles. It looked solid however the sun perforates through the walls to light the space. There was an event on when I went so it was hard to assess the internal space but it seemed quite large with a café area at the back off one of the entrances.   Closes on 7 October 2018   Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Interesting sculpture in the grounds of the Serpentine Gallery by Lee Ufan. The work consists of two large stones on a stone slab with angled mirrors behind the biggest stone. The stones and the surrounding area are reflected in the mirrors creating a different picture wherever you stand. If you stand in the right place you become part of the work as well.   Ufan is a Korean artist specialising in these minimal works using steel and stone which he has been making since the 1960s. as well an minimalism paintings.   Closes on 24 January 2019

Exhibition and installation at the Serpentine Gallery and in the Serpentine by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.   I saw the installation first which is a huge floating structure made of painted oil barrels in the shape of an ancient mastaba from Mesopotamia. It is stunning as it is so out of context with the area but looks beautiful. I sat and had a coffee and watched people in rented boats sail round it.   The exhibition in the gallery explained the work and put it in the context of the artists other work. I’d not realised that Christo and Jeanne-Claude are the artists that wrap buildings and their concept is to transform urban spaces for a short space of time. They have since moved on to structures of barrels, although sadly Jeanne-Claude dies in 2007, and this one is said to be the largest ever sculpture. It was interesting to see photographs and sketches of other barrel projects as well as models   Closes on 9 September 2018   Reviews Times Gu...

Colourful exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery of work by Tomma Abts.   Abts produces colourful geometric abstracts by using layers of acryclic and oil paint to let images develop and show the layers. She also produces some work by casting her paintings in aluminium and including cast sections in the finished works. Abst installed the show and sees it as an installation in itself. The work is hung at the same height around the edges of the room.   For someone who doesn’t like abstracts I loved these bright works especially one that includes a shadow which gives the effect of a shelf in it which isn’t there. I also liked a Nevinson like explosion in blue, red and grey. In some of the pictures you see the texture of the paint underneath the top layer. They are a great study of how complimentary and contrasting colours work together.   Closes on 9 September 2018   Reviews Guardian Evening Standard    

Lovely pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery designed this year by Francis Kere. It’s an annual event to have a pavilion at the Serpentine. I particularly like this years although it appears simpler than some years have been.   It looks like a large wooden spaceship has landed on a blue stand. I like way the red and the navy blue wood work together. The stand looks simple but is made up of pyramids of stepped wood blocks with light coming through. The space inside is more open that in other years and easier to walk around. The light comes thought the slatted roof and there is a space in the centre set on upside down pylons which is open to the elements with shingle and concrete stools. As usual there is a café in there and my only criticism is that they need more seats and tables. Closes on 8 October 2017 Reviews Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Wonderful exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery of new work by Grayson Perry. OK I admit, like most of middle class England, I am a huge fan of Grayson Perry and this show didn’t disappoint. Just as the other show at the Serpentine was not about my tribe this one definitely was. The show looked at how we can widen the audience for art without dumbing down and what makes art and the idea of an artist popular. The first room did this most directly and I loved a vase called “Visitor Figures” which looked at the most popular exhibitions in recent times. I was pleased I’d been to quite a few but picking the list of the vase did make you think about how shows influence taste and thinking.   I loved the large woodcut “Reclining Artist” with a naked self-portrait with him surrounded by his possessions including piles of books. In the next room I loved “Death of a Working Hero” a tapestry in the style of a miners union using the funeral of a miner to represent the death of ...

Strange exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery of work by the artist and filmmaker Arthur Jaffa. The works were described as assemblages and were a mix of photographs and films. I think they were about finding a visual identity for black life similar to the main stream musical identity that has been established, but don’t hold me to that. The commentary had a lot of convoluted language which I didn’t understand and I’m not sure I got any of it from the images. I guess I may not have been the audience it was aimed at and I must admit the whole thing went whooshing over my head. I did like the way the gallery was used to create lovely framing of an old photo of children pledging allegiance to the flag. I was slightly sucked into a video of a couple of arguing but didn’t feel included to give it a lot of time. The photographs by Ming Smith of black cultural figures were interesting but I wanted them to be in focus! Closes on 10 September 2017