Cathy's Art Diary

Beautiful new galleries at the Imperial War Museum to highlight their art, photography and film collections. Previously these had been shown separately but it was nice to see them brought together to tell a consistent story of how visual practitioners have represented conflicts and the issues surrounding it. The displays started with a general introduction then a focus on the methods of some of the practitioners. It was nice to see one of Ronald Searle’s sketchbooks from Changi there. This room was then surrounded by three themed rooms on the power of the image, mind and body, and perspectives and frontier. It was good to find old friends in a new context and to meet new ones. I was interested in how it looked at the reasons behind the work such as photography and film for gathering evidence, propaganda and art as therapy. Reviews Times Telegraph Evening Standard

Fascinating film  from Exhibition on Screen shown in cinemas on the life and work of Edward Hopper. I'd not been to see one of these documentaries at the cinema before and must admit I went to this one as we'd heard a friend had been interviewed for it. I enjoyed the format and will keep an eye out for new titles, particularly for exhibitions abroad which I can't get to. The film told the story of Hopper's life through his pictures with commentaries by various curators and experts including those who worked for the various Hopper museums in his former homes and studios. It paid particular attention to his relationship with his wife Josephine Nivison, looking at how she nurtured his career but partly at the expense of her own. It was nice that the film included a lot of her work. I'm not sure all the pictures benefited from being shown in such a large format despite the fact it gave them an even more obvious cinematic quality. It showed up some of the rougher p...

Excellent exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery looking at the life and work of Noel Coward. This show really caught the flavour of the London theatre at the time of Coward with some wonderful exhibits like the Oliver Messel masks for “Dance Little Lady”. It gave a real sense of how cutting edge his work was at the time. It also gave a picture of the people he worked with and gathered around him. The show also evoked his life and homes with pieces of furniture from his chattel in Switzerland alongside home movies and magazine spreads on the houses. I was fascinated by the section on how Coward created his image and brand and then had to work out how to live with that. It was a lovely touch to end the show with two of the costumes from the new Blithe Spirit movie which demonstrates that Coward still resonated today. Closes 23 December 2021 Reviews Guardian Telegraph  

Fascinating exhibition at the Design Museum looking at the work of Stanley Kubrick and the designers who worked with him. I must admit I went along to with low expectations and I’m not a huge fan of Kubrick’s best known films but it was so well arranged and explained with a wealth of archive material and artefacts and I’d forgotten what a range of films he made. I was grabbed from the first display which looked at how he researched his films in amazing depth taking a film on the life of Napoleon he researched but never made. As a librarian you have to love his card filing system! The show then went through his career film by film using each one to illustrate some aspect of how his design process worked. The films followed in chronological order but for once I didn’t mind this. I hadn’t realised he’d directed Spartacus after the previous director was sacked and added the great battle scene to it. I loved a photo of numbered extras on a battlefield. The section on Clockw...

Wonderful documentary shown at ArtFix in Woolwich as part of the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival. The film had been made a few years ago and followed the two daughters of Stanley Spencer, Unity and Shirin, in old age and interspersed footage of them with an older documentary about their father from the 1970s. The sisters were filmed as Unity moved from her home of 40 years in Clapham to move in with her son John in Wales and at the same time Shirin moved in too. The film told the story of the marriage of Stanley and his wife Hilda Carline and the effect of their divorce and his remarriage to Patricia Preece on the children. The film was very moving and a wonderful study of old age as well as telling their story. It was particularly fascinating to have John Spencer, Unity’s son, at the showing although, as his mother had died since the film was made, he didn’t appear until the end as I’m sure it would have been hard for him to watch. We also had the producers, ...

Nice exhibition at Somerset House organised by the Print Club London   who asked artists to respond to their favourite film in the Film4 Summer Screen programme and produce a poster for it. These were fun bright images but I must admit I didn’t know a lot of the films so found posters for those a bit difficult to interpret. My favourite image was a quote from Jaws “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” by RYCA with the words arranged like a shark’s mouth. There was a clever one for In Bruges by Rozalina Burkova in just three colours and I liked Steve Wilson’s for All the President’s Men with the stripes of the stars and stripes morphing into film feeding onto a reel. Closed on 23 August 2017  

Showing for members at the National Gallery of a new Sky Arts film on Raphael. It was introduced by one of the gallery’s curators who pointed out that not a lot is known about the life of Raphael and it was noticeable that the programme was a bit light on some of the details. However the art was shown beautifully and it filmed in some interiors which can’t be visited. It evoked a good sense of what it might have been like to live in Florence and Rome in this period and placed the work in the context of other things which were happening at the time. It was interesting to watch the credits at the end as there was a good list of the works shown and where they can be seen.

Lovely evening at the National Gallery for members with a preview viewing of a new Sky Arts documentary on Artemisia Gentileschi followed by a discussion with the director, the assistant curator of the current Caravaggio exhibition and the art critic Jonathon Jones. The film is fantastic. It is done as a docu-drama with wonderful reactions of an artist’s life in the period and some of the pictures she painted. At times some of the language felt quite flowery but it turned out all the first person pieces were Artemisia’s own words from letters and her testimony in court. Alongside the drama were good interviews by art historians and descriptions of how her pictures reflected her life. Artemisia had difficult life having been raped by one of her tutors and a friend of her father. Her father brought the case to court and we have a transcript of the hearing but oddly not the verdict! The programme discussed how this may have influenced her art, with an emphasis on strong femal...

Disappointing exhibition at the Imperial War Museum looking at war movies, why they are made, why we watch them, how they are made. I say disappointing because the exhibition wasn’t big enough! There was so much that they could have covered that it felt that they’d only tackled a small proportion of it. Also at times I wasn’t sure if they were telling the stories of the films or the events they were representing. Everything was good and there were some great objects which I’ll come to but I felt if they’d tried to say a bit less they would have said it better. Now the good stuff! The show started with the documentary that was made of the Battle of the Somme which was shown in cinemas within weeks of the battle. It revolutionised film going, changing it from a lower class leisure pursuit to a having mass appeal all levels of society went to see it hoping to spot family members at the front. I loved the middle section about the people in the films looking at the actors,...

Stylish exhibition at Somerset House exploring the impact of the films of Stanley Kubrick on contemporary artists. This is where I have to admit I’d not seen many of the films so some of the allusions were lost on me, but there was a good booklet with a commentary. The show created an amazing, slightly threatening atmosphere which was a good reflection of the films in itself. Stand out works included Mat Collishaw’s monkey face in a space helmet. The monkey face was a hologram which overlaid a human skull. The initial view was quite unnerving of this real looking monkey in a helmet which then turned into a skull as you walked round it. Also Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s room of 114 radio sets each playing a different voice singing a Dies Irae used by Kubrick in two of his films. The voices are not singing the same bit at the same time so different harmonies appear and there are also period of silence and broken reception. I also liked Seamus Farrell’s shelf of glass...

Nice display at the National Portrait Gallery of portraits of the cast and crew of the new Bond film, Spectre, by Rankin and other photographers. I loved a group of 32 pictures in one frame by Rankin of the crew. A nice way to show them and it gave a sense of individuals yet within a working team. Also one of the director, Sam Mendes, by Anderson & Low, standing on the set of the destroyed MI6 building. Of course there are also wonderful portraits of the stars of which I’d pick out the lovely picture of Danial Craig and Naomie Harris with very shiny legs! Closes on 10 January 2015.  

Fun exhibition at the Old Truman Brewery looking at the work of the costumiers Angels. The first section of the show looked at the history of the company including designs contemporary to their foundation and talking about their origins hiring clothes in the 19th century to jobbing actors as they were expected to provide their own costumes for plays and were often picked on having the right clothes rather than their abilities! The second half focused on costumes they had produced and films they had worked on in a rough chronological order. I loved the 70s section including a dress for Margo on the Good Life and Glenda Jackson’s Cleopatra outfit from the Morecombe and Wise show. I also liked the costumes from Wicked which I’ve not seen but it’s now on my to do list! It was also interesting to see costume for films being made now which are out now such as an outfit for Maggie Smith in “Lady in the Van”, not exactly high glamour but fascinating to see the attention to de...

Wonderful documentary film looking at life behind the scenes at the National Gallery which I went to see at the ICA. It’s a long film (3 hours) but totally absorbing. There are a lot of shots of people just looking at the pictures and it is a great study of the gaze. Most interesting is the moment at which people stop looking and how they react. Then there are quite lengthy sections on the gallery talks with different types of groups featured, school groups, older groups, generic gallery visitors etc. It was very strange to see so many of the lecturers I now know quite well from going myself. There were good sections to on the work of the conservation studio and framers. I loved the fact that every time you went back to the study the same man was up a ladder touching up a Veronese. It just showed how long these things take. I also loved a piece on the Leonardo exhibition including its dismantling! My favourite bits were where they had filmed meetings. It’s always inter...

Interesting film looking at the life of Effie Grey and her marriage to John Ruskin. It was interesting to see this film only a couple of days after seeing Mr Turner as Ruskin and Effie feature in that as well. I thought his was a good picture of the art world at this time. I loved the Royal Academy dinner and I thought Emma Thompson was majestic as Lady Eastlake. I would have liked a bit more about the Pre-Raphaelite’s as a group as although they appeared there was no real sense of their revolutionary effect and quite how bold Ruskin was to support them. I would have also liked more about Effie’s later life with Millais.. As it was it ended almost abruptly with Effie leaving Ruskin. I would have liked some idea of how the annulment worked, was there a court case? Even a note on the credits would have given some closure to the movie. My major gripe though was using Ophelia on the poster! The film does not imply that Effie modelled for Ophelia and does refer to Millais h...

Amazing film on the later life of Turner. I don’t usually blog films but I think as this one is about art then I can count it. Watch out in a few entries times as I am allowing another one too! I thought this film was amazing. I loved how it recreated the Royal Academy. It gave a better understanding of how the hang worked and the relationships between the artists. It was fascinating to see the different stages of pictures as Turner worked on them and to get some idea of the physicality of his painting style. I liked the scenes of his father preparing canvasses and paint and the nod to showing how the works were shown and sold. Timothy Spall produced a masterclass in acting through grunts! By the end you felt you understood every nuance of every grunt! I must admit to shedding a tear when “The Fighting Temeraire” was recreated as a real event. It gave an idea of the sense of occasion and of real sadness at the demise of an old ship. A really artistic film worthy of a g...

Fun exhibition at the London Film Museum of vehicles from the Bond films. I’m not a huge James Bond fan. I’ve seen most of the films but I’m not obsessive about them, but I did find this fun! There were lots of iconic vehicles such as Goldfinger’s Rolls Royce. There were also areas on different types of vehicle e such as an underwater section and a motorbike section. Lots of the vehicles were accompanied by video clips of them in action. It was well worth getting the audio tour as it was done by a stunt driver so you got some insight into how the cars had been used in the films, how many versions there were of some of the vehicles and just good stories behind them. I will say though if you are going to have an audio tour don’t also play loud music and film clips with sound as it all becomes too much! Review Evening Standard

Showing of the fabulous “Nativity” at the National Gallery, Martha Fiennes's film which was featured in the video for the recent exhibition about architecture in Renaissance paintings. I could have watched this for hours. The background, architecture, figures and sound all self-generate themselves continuously so the film has no set length and no specific narrative. However your head starts to make up narratives. I found these were often set by the music and in my case at one point the sky went dark, the architecture changed and “Silent Night” played and I found it so moving, and yet it wasn’t meant. The work had the same effect on my as Anthony Gormley’s “Field” works which have hundreds of small figures   in a defined space. I found both works hard to walk away from because of the strong sense them build up that the work will still exist when you are not there and you feel a bit like you are deserting it! I want to see more using this SLOimage technology it was r...

Interesting exhibition at the National Theatre of portraits by Cornel Lucas, the only stills photographer to be awarded a Bafta. Most of the works in the show came from the time he worked at Pinewood Studios from 1950-1959 and included wonderful shots of the stars of the day such as Katharine Hepburn and Bridget Bardot. I loved a study of Gregory Peck which showed every pore and hair follicle and reminded you how handsome he was. There were some later works such as a fashion shoot on scaffolding and a young brooding Cliff Richards. Also a lovely shot of Penelope Wilton as a big eyed 1960s girl. Review Telegraph  

Fascinating visit to the Sands Films Studio  as part of the London Open House weekend. This was a wonderful old docklands warehouse and the guide explained why it was perfect to use as a film studios and workshops because it had no windows and was virtually sound proof. We were also shown round the workshops and saw costumes in the process of being made and their amazing store rooms of costumes and accessories. I was particularly moved to see heads from the” Tales of Beatrix Potter” as I had loved that film as a child. Most interesting though was the sense of the place and what a wonderful company it seemed to be to work for. A real family atmosphere.

Small exhibition at Somerset House by members of the Print Club London. To coincide with the Film4 Summer Season at Somerset House, 16 illustrators were asked to design a post of one of the films on show. My favourite was Steve Wilson’s poster for “The Untouchables” because the design filled the whole poster incorporating a pin stripped suit, a gun and an Italian Renaissance colonnade. However I also had a sift soot for “Badlands” by Rose Stallard but probably because of the loose Bruce Springsteen link.