Cathy's Art Diary

Fantastic refurbishment of the Victoria and Albert Museum galleries housing casts of sculpture and architectural features from around Europe. I’ve always loved the cast courts and I was worried that the museum might try to do something new with the space but it has just been refreshed, cleaned and loved. The paint work has been taken back to an original colour and there are nice new information boards, not just about the work there, but also about the history of the gallery and the reason for collecting casts. The gallery was designed around the large casts of cathedral facades at either gallery and it’s nice that you can view these not only from floor level but also from the gallery from the floor above. I always manage to spot something new when I go to these galleries so I’m not sure if they’ve fitted in more items or if I’d just not noticed them before. I love the line-up of the early Plantagenet tombs shown here and feel like it was seeing old friends. I’m always ...

Good new gallery   at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the history of photography and contemporary themes. The Victoria and Albert Museum was the first to collect photographs and to commission pictures of the works in its own collection. In 2017 the Royal Photographic Society lodged their collection with the museum. This refurbishment and reinstall was very classy. It maintained the integrity of the rooms, keeping the lovely lunette around the top of the walls and painting the walls in dark sympathetic colours. There was also a board telling you about the original use of the room as a display room for student competitions. The first room gave a good narrative of the history of photography using objects as well as pictures and had features on the main pioneers while the second room looked at contemporary photography including a couple of featured displays. There was also a viewing room called The Dark Room showing films about photographers in the collection....

Nice refurbishment of the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull. I have always been fond of this gallery and its gem of a collection and it was nice to see it looking spruced up. I was pleased that the space hadn’t been altered that radically. A new café and bookshop had been added but it was nice to read that most of the money had been spent on improving the lighting, air conditioning etc to protect the pictures and enable them to attract prestigious loans. The gallery shows the collection off well and I like the way the room designs reflect the art shown in them. I liked the room upstairs which looked at the history of the gallery and it’s collection, highlighting some of the main donors. It was nice to see some old friends such as the large Richard Carline of his family and friends including Stanley Spencer and his wife, Richard’s sister, Hilda and there is a nice collection of sea pictures reflecting the city it sits in. Review Times

Newly designed gallery at the Science Museum designed by Zaha Hadid. This is a striking space with a wonderful installation in the middle based on the air displacement of the plane which hangs in the centre of it. The structure is a beautiful flowing shape made of a stretched canvas with a thick metal edge. The whole thing is lit in a purple light. It leaves two spaces one of which has the plane in it and a video about the new design. The other is currently empty with benches round it which I hope will be used for gallery talks. I loved the fact the shapes also played out on the design on the floor and in the ceiling lights throughout the gallery. The display space in the rest of the gallery is also good with nice themed displays on the role of the maths in society linking the old and new within each section. These link well to the installation and weave around it.   Reviews Times Telegraph Evening Standard  

Fascinating new gallery at the British Museum to display the Waddesdon Bequest. The collection was left to the museum in 1898 by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild and was collected by him and his father. It is the most magnificent collection of Renaissance objects. I was particularly struck by the jewellery which was one of the best collections which I had seen.   I was also interested in seeing the work of a female enamel artist Susanne Court. The star item was a Holy Thorn reliquary made for John, Duc de Berry and I loved the way the Lycargus Cup was displayed with different light conditions to show off the lovely translucent effect. Review Times    

Lovely new art gallery at Hampton Court Palace for displaying the Royal art collection. I visited this on a lovely day out to the Palace with friends. We went round a lot of the palace and gardens but I also wanted to see the new space as I’d seen reviews of it. I expected a long gallery like at Buckingham Palace but instead it’s an interesting series of rooms with some old friends in. It was great to see the Artemisia Gentileschi self-portrait which is one of my favourite pictures. Also a couple of Caravaggio’s. I liked the room of Canaletto’s particular as one showed a flat I stayed in a few years ago.   I will be interested to if the space is used for exhibitions or stays as a ‘greatest hits’ gallery. Also it will be interesting to see what is in the great gallery at Buckingham Palace this year as I recognized a number of the pictures from there last year. Reviews Guardian Evening Standard