Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating tour of the “ Georgian’s Revealed ” exhibition at the British Library with the curator. I had the opportunity to go on this as part of a conference I was on at the library and it was delightful. Huge thanks to Moira Goff, the curator, for showing us round and giving a real insight into what she hoped to cover with exhibition, what they had to leave out and where her particular interests lay. Check out the website for some lovely video of her dancing! I can’t wait to go round the exhibition properly in the New Year and look in more detail. I was interested to hear the themes she had picked but also how she had covered other themes which couldn’t ben fitted in in detail but which they wished to allude to. For example the show does not cover the slave trade, even though it supported the expansion of the economy which is reflected in areas of the show, but she pointed out how they had tried to make subtle notes to it throughout the show such as the Abolitionist meda...

Behind-the-scenes of the Conservation Department at the Courtauld Institute led by Graeme Barraclough, Head of The Courtauld Gallery Conservation. Organised by the Friends this was a fascinating tour to hear about the work of the teaching department and of the gallery itself. Everyone was very friendly and generous with their time. It was very interesting to see picture close up in the process of conservation. In particular they were working on a Cupid and Psyche by Joshua Reynolds which is currently a rather dull yellowed mush but should be transformed by being cleaned. It was followed by drinks in the square at Somerset House on a lovely warm evening.

I am a Friend of Charleston, the house where the painters Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, the art wing of the Bloomsbury Group, lived in Sussex. In last years AGM we bought a tour of the house with Simon Watney, one of the leading writers on the Bloomsbury group whose most recent book is " Bloomsbury in Sussex ". It had taken a while to arrange but on Saturday four of us gathered for our tour. Although I know the house well already it was a real treat to go round with someone who had known the house when Duncan was still alive and had been instrumental in saving and conserving it. It was also good to focus on the paintings and decorative aspects of the house rather than the personalities. I had not known before how much of the decoration had been done quite soon after they moved in in 1916. It was good to have your eye drawn to paintings you might have missed on previous visits. While there we also took the opportunity to view the small temporary exhibition which was on in the...