Cathy's Art Diary

Lovely selling exhibition at Abbott and Holder of a set of prints commissioned in 1917. The prints were commissioned by the British Government from 18 artists and are made up of two series depicting Britain’s efforts in the first Word War and its ideals. The works have been stored at the Imperial War Museum awaiting sale. They are now being sold in aid of the museum. The prints included works by some of my favourite artists of the period including Eric Kennington, Christopher Nevinson and William Nicholson. I thought the Efforts were more successful while the Ideals now felt overly symbolic. Closed 6 July 2024      

Nice little exhibition at Abbott and Holder of work by Oliver Hill. Hill was an architect who took up painting in his 60s. The pictures for sale here were from the 1950s and were small pictures of buildings and landscapes. I loved their fresh approach and bright colours as well as how he cropped the buildings to create interesting compositions.   Closed 4 May 2024    

Small exhibition at Abbott and Holder of fashion drawings by Brian Stonehouse. These were very stylish, Mad Men like drawings done for Vogue from 1952. The images all had buff or grey backgrounds which accentuated the clothes and those clothes were very classic and chic. I liked the pictures of the men best as they were both 1950s and straight laced and a bit camp. My favourite was a classic Don Draper style man in a suit and a hat and carrying a coat. More interesting though was the biography in the leaflet which pointed out that Stonehouse had been a spy in the war and ended up as a prisoner of Dachau. In one camp the guards had made him draw pictures of them and their families and the Imperial War Museum holds the drawings he made of the liberation of Dachau. Now those I would like to see.

Interesting selling exhibition at Abbot and Holder of portraits and figurative studies from the mid 16th to the present day. There were some lovely pieces including a portrait of W.B. Yeats by Augustus John, a nice George Du Maurier and a William Strang of Arthur Clifton. My favourite however was an Eric Kennington of an East Prussian Prisoner. Now if only there had been room for more like that in the National Portrait Gallery World War I exhibition!

A nice selling exhibition at Abbott and Holder of 20th watercolours and drawings. There were some lovely pieces and it seems like name a 20th artists and there is a piece by them! The works are beautifully display in not too thick a hang so the pictures have room to breathe. I am particularly lusting after the Carrington of Ralph Partridge and a lovely Gertler of woman on a coach. Come on tonight’s lottery!

Three nice displays of art from the First World War at Abbott and Holder. The first I have already blogged as it was on at the Watercolour and Works on Paper Fair and are works by watercolours by Albert Heim. They take up most of the 2nd floor of the gallery at the moment and are a lovely depiction of life in the trenches. On the first floor there are 6 lithographs by Frank Brangwyn for the Canadian War Memorial of sites where Canadian fought. These are rather bleak heavily printed black and white prints but very atmospheric. Next to them are paintings by Victor Tardieu of the Duchess of Sutherland’s tented hospital. I rather liked these as they are in unusually bright colours for First World War art! R eview of Victor Tardieu pictures Times

A small exhibition at Abbott and Holder , a lovely gallery near the British Museum. This exhibition was of recent watercolours by Christopher Le Brun, a contemporary watercolourist. They had a wonderful surreal quality while also being understandable, beautiful landscapes.