Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery on the career of feminist artist Judy Chicago. I’ve come across Chicago’s work a lot in lectures both as an artist and as an art historian rediscovering lives of other female artists. It was good to see an overview of her work although as much of it was conceptual that was hard to show in a gallery exhibition. I was disappointed to find that her famous “The Dinner Party” hadn’t been able to come but there was a good room on it including a test plate. I guess I need a trip to Washington DC if I want to see it.    Closed 1 September 2024 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Heavy exhibition at Tate Britain looking at feminist art over twenty years at the end of the last century. I say heavy because it was a mix between an art exhibition and social history. There was a lot to read and I must admit at times it was just too much. There were a lot of groups and movements to represent and it became a bit indigestible. I liked the way it was set out with themes that made it vaguely chronological and the use of chip board display cabinets which gave it a feel of the period. I also liked the mix of fine art and the imagery of political magazines and pamphlets. At times though the labels in the cases were a long way from the objects. It was nice to hear the show stimulating conversations as people went round. A lot of the audience, including myself, were of the era being shown so I’m not sure if it was history to us or nostalgia. It did make me realise how far we’ve come since 1970. Closes 14 April 2024 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening S...

Useful four week online course from the National Gallery introducing four art historical approaches which can be used to ‘read’ paintings. The four approaches were social history, decolonisation, feminism and queer studies and each week we took a picture from the gallery’s collection and discussed it with one of these approaches in mind. Inevitably to make a point, the discussion sometimes felt a bit one dimensional and we sometimes strayed a long way from the painting in question to look at history of the art historical approach. I think week one looking at social history was the most natural to my approach. John Fagg, from the University of Birmingham, looked at “Men of the Docks” by George Bellows from 1912. I do like to know about the context of a picture and what it shows about the times it was painted in as well as what the market for the type of work might have been. Ana Howie, from the University of Cambridge, took the decolonisation theme using “Drunken Silenus Supporte...

Humourless exhibition at the Photographers Gallery looking at feminist photography from the 1970s. This was very old school, humourless feminism which felt a bit bludgeoning after a while but you had to take a step back and think about the context and what it was trying to do. I did like Mary Beth Adelson’s “Some Living American Women Artists” based on Leonardo’s Last Supper with Georgie O’Keefe in the place of Christ. It seems appropriate after the wonderful show of her work this year at Tate Modern. I was interested to see two artists take the approach of a series of pictures of themselves with their faces pressed up against glass. I also liked Helena Almeida’s picture of women’s hands through bars in the windows and fences. I would have liked to see a bit more commentary on the works but I guess I needed to buy the small book which went with the show which I wasn’t including to do! Closes on 29 January 2017