Cathy's Art Diary

Lovely revamp of the café at Sotheby’s in homage to the current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of work by the photographer Yevonde. Photographed by Luc Braquet and styled by Hannah Teare for the Tatler this show features today's society ladies as a reference to an exhibition done by Yevonde in 1935. Having seen the Yevonde exhibition the day before this pit stop was very timely. No closing date given

Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in the life and work of Yevonde, a female photographer from the early 20th century. The show was in a new exhibition space which was quite long and thin. I was glad I’d listened to an online lecture about it so I felt I had a grounding before I arrived. The commentaries were quite wordy with long biographies of the sitters. I do like shows like this that give a cross section of a society at a point in time but I felt I came out knowing more about the sitters than about her. I did like the variety and innovation in the work from early use of colour, through rayogram portraits and her work for the emerging women’s magazines. Closes 15 October 2023 Review Evening Standard  

Interesting online lecture from the National Portrait Gallery introducing their first exhibition for when the gallery’s reopening in June about the 20th century photographer Yevonde. I had not come across the female photographer Yevonde or Madam Yevonde but the curator Clare Freestone took us through her life and work in a format which mirrors the plan for the exhibition. She told us how Yevonde had been a suffragette always supported women’s issues. She outlined the various studios she had had and some of her major exhibitions. She talked about her work for the royal family and for women’s magazines and advertising. Freestone also took us through some of the technicalities of the exhibition including how the gallery has acquired a collection of Yevonde’s negatives in 2021 which have been conserved, catalogued and digitise prior to the show. She also described the complex printing process for Yevonde’s pioneering colour photography from the inter-war years using the Vivex process.