Cathy's Art Diary

Confusing exhibition at the Royal Academy in their Architecture Window space looking at a nomadic studio commissioned by Ukrainian arts foundation in exile, IZOLYATSIA, to offer a space for artists visiting Kyiv. The work is a collaboration between artist James Capper with designer Thomas Pearce and architect Greg Storrar, and is an 8m long inhabitable space on hydraulic legs so it can move. It seems to contain tools and set into the walls and the outer shell shows their outline. It all seems like an interesting idea but I couldn’t work out if it had actually been made or was just a prototype. I know the arts are important to morale in the Ukraine but I wasn’t convinced this was the answer to the country’s problems. Closes 29   November 2025

Vibrant exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at art in Ukraine in the early 20th century. The work was beautifully hung against bright complimentary walls in chronological themes. I loved the edition of a room of theatrical designs. I discovered lots of artists I had not come across before and found myself particularly drawn to Alexandra Exter and Vadym Meller. The show was clearly described and set the art against the history of the country at the time. It built a narrative distinguishing it from the Russian art of the time but I found the outline very similar with Avant Gard artists being encouraged around the time of the Revolution but the suppression of most of those artists in once Stalin came to power. Closed 13 October 2024 Reviews T imes Guardian Telegraph  

Poignant and bright exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery looking at the life and work of Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko. Prymachenko died in 1997 aged nearly 90. She had been painting since 1935 and had barely left her village near Kyiv. The works show everyday scenes plus fantastic beats, plants and birds. These works were in bright colours and had a feel of folk art. They reminded me of illustrations for fairy stories as well as the embroidery of the region.   My favourites were the autobiographical pieces. There was also an interesting video about a planned museum of her work. I wonder if it will happen? Closed 31 August 2022 Review Times    

Moving exhibition at the Garden Museum by jewellery designer Phoebe Walsh. Inspired by the museum’s collection of flower pressings collected by Jane Lindsay from London bomb sites in the Second World War and a similar collection from the Eastern Front in the First World War by George Marr. Walsh found Ukrainian artist, Olga Morozova, who searched for flowers in Kyiv for her. With these flowers Walsh has created five tiny silver books in which she has mounted one flower on a rotating page. The exquisite books were shown with examples of the previous flowers pressings and will tour before being auctioned to raise money for artists in the Ukraine. How I would love to own one.   Closed 31 January 2023    

Fascinating lecture at the National Maritime Museum on the monumental art legacy of Ukraine of the 1960s – 1980s and the effect of the war on it. Organised by the British Council and Ukrainian Institute as part of the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival this talk brought together photographer Yevgen Nikiforov and art historian Lizaveta German. Unfortunately the speakers visas to travel had not come through in time so they had to deliver the talk to the audience in the lecture hall by Zoom. German started the event by talking us though the history of monumental art in the Ukraine since the 1960s with a focus on the large mosaics. She outlined how the idea for mosaics came from the Byzantine tradition in the area then the idea of decorating some of the simplified post Second World War buildings with them. Photographer Nikiforov then outlined his project to record and photograph the over 5000 mosaics in the country. This has become even more important since the start of ...