Cathy's Art Diary

Enlightening public conversation at the National Portrait Gallery between the director of the gallery and the architecture of the recent refurbishment. If you follow my blog you might remember that I was a bit sniffy about the reopening of the gallery so it was really helpful to hear this conversation between the director, Nicholas Cullinan, and the architect, Jamie Forbert. They highlighted some changes which I hadn’t noticed but which might have added to by feeling of confusion, such as the removal of the mezzanine level which used to have a bookshop on it, as well as mentioning some areas I had missed on my first couple of visits and I have subsequently been back to look at. They talked about how helpful it was to have the original drawings for the design of the building and the thinking behind the new entrance and why it wasn’t on that aspect originally, basically because it would have looked out onto slum housing. They also highlighted some things I’d not realise about th...

Fabulous online conversation from the National Portrait Gallery to complement their current exhibition of photographs from 1963-4 by Paul McCartney. The event was live streamed from the gallery with tickets for the auditorium given to photography students and brought together Paul McCartney and Stanley Tucci. Tucci had to do very little but just ask a few questions to prompt McCartney and draw a few of the answers out. From the outset it was a lively event with the opener of “You are 21 and about to be famous. Why take photos?”. I’ve been to see the show since and will blog it soon but the talk was a great introduction and made you think more about the experiences the pictures were recording rather than just looking as art works. They talked about how the photographs were discovered by his photo archivist and were offered to the gallery as a possible exhibition during lockdown. McCartney remembered taking them but thought they had been lost. He also talked about how they selecte...

Delightful evening at the National Portrait Gallery listening to Martin Parr being interviewed by Phillip Prodger, the curator of the current exhibition of Parr’s work at the gallery. I love Parr’s work having first discovered it at a show at the Science Museum a few years ago and he was everything I hoped he’d be, dry, witty and engaging. He sees himself as social documentary photographer and he discussed what he felt this was and how he realised he was building an archive of British life. He sees his main subject as the Western world at leisure. They talked about what makes a good photograph and Parr said “I am waiting for the right cast to line up in front of my camera”.  He talked about his love of comedy and how he sees great truth and observation in it. He was asked if he represented clichés and said “Clichés become clichés because they are often true.”

Fascinating conversation at the National Portrait Gallery in response to the Lucien Freud exhibition looking at the role larger figures have had in art and how contemporary society deals with size. Art historian Leslie Primo looked at the art historic aspect of the larger figure pointing out that it is only in recent years that thin figures have been regarded as attractive and that in many countries thinness is equated with poverty. Of course Rubens figured prominently! Charlotte Cooper, a fat activist, talked about how fat is viewed in contemporary society and talked about how fat people in newspapers are often depicted with out headless, dubbed by her the “headless fatties”! Justin Varney, a public health doctor, talked about health perceptions of weight and how fat people were not necessarily more unhealthy than thinner people despite public opinion. There was a fascinating, rather affirming conversation about size issues. I loved Justin’s statement that what is...