Cathy's Art Diary

Exuberant exhibition at Canada House of large portraits of contemporary Canadians authors by John Hartman. Hartman chooses the authors based on his own reading and preferences then invites them to choose a landscape that means something to them. He then sets the mainly head and shoulder portraits in front of the landscape rather than placing them in it. Both the portraits and landscapes were impressive, working best from a distance but close to you could see the way the brushstrokes shaped the image. The commentary by each picture was by the author which was a nice touch but I would have liked a bit more about them and what they’d written. I did get that from the catalogue as well as learning that these nine pictures were part of a larger series. Closes 1 April 2023

Interesting display at the British Library to mark 30 years since the death of the author Angela Carter. Although the display was quite small it was packed with journals, letters, early drafts of books and copies of Carter’s journalism which gave a good sense of what she had been like. I was most interested to see the journals where she seemed to be working our ideas. They reminded me Virginia Woolf’s diaries. I must admit I have not read anything by Carter but she’s now on my, rather long, “to be read list”. Closed   5 March 2022  

Fabulous exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the life and work of Virginian Woolf. I admit from the outset of this review that I am a huge fan of Virginian Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group so I was either going to love this show or be super critical! Luckily I loved it! I was unsure at first why it started with the bombing of Tavistock Square but when you got to the end you realized that the pictures taken in that house were a great overview of Virginia’s life and style and it meant the whole show came full circle. You felt you could have gone round again in a continuation of the story. Even though I have seen a lot of Bloomsbury material there was a lot in the show I’d never seen before even as book illustrations such as a Carte de Viste of Virginian in mourning in 1895. It was interesting to read who had loaned material and many items where you stood thinking “how did they get that” you realised the item had been lent by Mrs Quentin Bell, daughter in law...

Small exhibition at the ICA on the life and work of the author of the  Moomin books for children, Tove Jansson. The show features copies of the books in a number of languages as well as photographs of her life on her private island in the archipelago of Finland where she regularly spent the summer months. Her house looked amazing and full of books, statues and empty frames. I particularly like the picture of her with her pet seagull!