Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum looking at colour in Victorian Britain. I had assumed it was going to be about the dyes that were invented in the 19th century but it was much more complex. After a quick look at why we think of the Victorian era as dark it then examined different aspects of colour from Ruskin’s calls to represent the natural world and its colours, through the revival in Medieval colours and the effect of Darwin and the recording of species of animals. It also looked at colours which came from global expansion on both via colonialism and the opening up of Japan. There was a section on dyes and the greater supply of colours for colouring. I particularly loved the brightly coloured stockings. A real discovery from me was the idea of the Tanagra craze, polychrome terracotta statuettes from the 4th century BCE. It explained how the style and soft colours influenced artists like Whistler. I’d not come across them before. Closed 18 February 2024. ...

Fascinating series from BBC4 exploring national museum collections at a time of enforced closure. I thought these were wonderfully produced programmes with a real sense of capturing a moment when two exhibitions I had hoped to visit went into lockdown. I believe the next two episodes will look at aspects of particular galleries and museums collections rather than specific shows and I’ll return to review those once they are shown later this week. Episode 1 looked at the Andy Warhol show at Tate Modern introduced by Alastair Sooke. I found the eerie shots at the start of the empty turbine hall and static escalators moving and melancholy and liked Sooke’s spin on the show as Warhol as a commented on the 21 st century even though he worked in the 20 th and parallels he drew to these strange times. I like the fact he was in the gallery walking around it as we would have done and there was a good mix of close up images and of him interacting with the work. It is interesting...

Fantastic exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum looking at drawings by Raphael. The show was well themed taking you through different subject matter then into some Raphael’s later projects so there was a chronological feel as well. The commentaries were excellent and were good at pointing out the purpose of the picture whether it was a finished work, a study for a project or a working sketch. The show was beautifully displayed with nice central units with deep wooden frames set into them in places. These were particularly useful for double sided drawings. However the works themselves were so lovely you could have put them in any order or context and they would still have shone. I particularly liked the rougher drawings where he was obviously working through an idea and you could see changes and though patterns. I loved the section on his work in Rome as I have studied the Vatican frescos so often on courses plus fell in love with the Palazzo Farnese on a trip last year. ...

Interesting exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum of some of their drawing collection featuring some fabulous work. I did however this the exhibition lacked a bit of a theme. It was laid out chronologically with some commentary on how drawing and its role changed and the works were stunning but I just felt it needed a bit more narrative. The page by Michelangelo which included sketches for the slave sculptures took my breath away, what an amazing insight into the creative process for these iconic works. There was also a study by Carpaccio for the St Giobbe Altar piece in the Academia in Venice. I loved the free informal drawing by Rembrandt of his wife Saskia in bed and a lovely Gainsborough of a woman from behind showing all the intricate folds in her dress. An interesting picture was a fan shaped drawing by Pissarro and it seems that was a popular shape at the time and Degas had hoped to have a room of fan shaped pictures at the Fourth Impressionist exhibition. ...

Fascinating exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford looking at the life and work of the violin maker Stradivarius. I loved the way this exhibition gave you good practical information such as how a violin is made, why Cremona where he worked was the centre of violin making etc but also treated the lovely instruments as art works , displaying each in a case on its own so it could be seen from all sides. The commentaries told you when the instrument was made and what made is different but also gave you its history including who had owned it and played it. Needless to say this is an exhibition where you need the audio guide as that includes recordings of each instrument being played. The exhibition would be a little dead if you couldn’t hear the pieces speak!

Fabulous exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford looking at the capture of a ship in the 18 th century which was carrying tourists cargo back from their Grand Tours. It was fascination on many levels. Firstly that it was a great piece of detective work/scholarship to have traced back the story of the ship and where the cargo had gone. The work which had gone into working out what had been in each crate and them trying to trace who had owned each one was stunning. Secondly is shed light on what the Grand Tour was like, painting a picture of a number of your men through the objects and books they chose to send home. Thirdly there were just some lovely objects including a some nice portraits by Battoni and a number of prints by Piranisi who I have encountered in Edinburgh the week before!

Lovely exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum of the work of Claude Lorrain. The exhibition was broken into three sections paintings, drawings and etches. I liked the fact that many of the paintings were hung in their original pairs to show the contracts he painted of sea and land, different times of day and subjects. The drawings were a revelations as they were so well finished and really illuminated the imaginary processes behind the paintings. My favourite things though had to be the Firework series of etchings which showed firework designs for the coronation of Ferdinand III as King of the Romans. These includes wonderful machines which split apart and fireworks came out. I think the London 2012 Opening Ceremony could learn a thing or two! Reviews Daily Telegraph

Lovely exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum looking at artefacts from the royal burial tombs and the palace of Aegae, the ancient capital of Macedon. It focused on the Temenid kings including Philip II and Alexander the Great and included new finds from recent excavations. I must admit in the first room I was feeling a bit despondent as it seemed to be full of rusty spears and just one gold crown however as you moved into the other rooms you realised this was just the early pieces. The second rooms was full of the most wonderful jewellery with the end display showing the complete jewellery from 5 women’s tombs displayed on Perspex bodies to show where the items would have been worn. This was stunning and really brought the pieces to life. The last room looked at life at court in particular the role of the banquet and included wonderful sets of eating vessels. This was a period and civilisation I knew nothing about but will now look out for following this eye opening exhibition. Reviews ...

Nice exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum looking at the work of Camille Pissaro’s son Lucien and the private press he ran in the years leading up to the First World War. The exhibition included all 32 books produced by the press and was a study not only of the art works produced but also of how a private press operated. It compared this press to others in this era such as the Kelmscott Press. This was a world I knew very little about despite it being an artistic period I am interested in so it shed light on a new aspect of the early 20th century. Reviews Independent

Small exhibition of drawings at the Ashmolean Museum to compliment their exhibition on Lucien Pissaro’s Eragny Press. This show looked at the progress in drawing after 1913 in particular the role of the Slade School. I must admit I found the link tenuous however it was a good excuse to show some lovely drawings. There were some nice Ruskins and a study for Sickert’s ‘Ennui’. I particularly liked an Augustus John of a Canadian soldier.

Small exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum of pictures of elephants from India dating from 1570 to 1750. The pictures range from portraits of favourite animals to elephant fights and hunts. I liked the pictures of named elephants because without this picture they’d have been forgotten! I loved a finely drawn black one called Khushi Khan. Incidentally this was my first trip to the refurbished Ashmolean which had been my local gallery as a child, and it looks fabulous. I love the wall of 18th busts and the casts in the atrium which you can see from very floor.