Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades introducing an exhibition at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne on Modernism in Sussex. Hope Wolf, from the University of Sussex and also the author of a book with the same title as the talk and exhibition, outlined how the show came about. The idea had started with a previous exhibition at Two Temple Place in 2017 which I had been to, and had developed from the research she did for that show. She explored how the ideal of Modernism seem to be at odds with rural life in Sussex but how a number of artists settled in the area. She also looked at the idea of “New Regionalism” introduced by Clive Bell at the opening of the Miller Gallery in Lewes. Wolf introduced us to   a number of artists I hadn’t come across despite knowing the area well however I felt there were almost too many ideas to be encompassed in one show. Sadly I didn’t get to the exhibition to know how well it worked in its display and narrative.

Excellent online lecture from ARTscapades looking at Vanessa Bell’s early Modernist works. I had assumed this would be a standard book talk as the speaker, Wendy Hitchmough, has recently written a biography of Bell but instead she decided to focus on Bell’s early Modernist works and to discuss how radical they were. This made it a lot more interesting and in depth that I had expected. She began by discussing how Bell encountered the Post-Impressionist via helping to organise the 1910 show of their work in London then looked at the effect this art had on her portraits, particularly of her sister, Virginia Woolf. She next focused on three major works “Studland Beach”, “Mother and Baby” (now lost)   and “Nursery Tea” all from 1912 talking about their radical composition and subject matter and how that was informed by Bell’s experience as a woman and mother. She concluded by talking about how Bell created spaces where women could meet and show art such as the Grafton Group and...

Interesting day of lectures from London Art History Society held at Friend’s House on the reaction against Modernist art by the dictators of the inter war years. Richard Humphreys organised the talks by country starting with an overview of what was happening at the centre of the avant-garde in Paris. We tend to concentrate on the major modern movements which started there like Cubism and Surrealism but Humprey’s looked at the reaction against these movements often led by the right wing and nationalism. He then used this discussion of the reaction to lead to talks on Italy and Mussolini, Russia and Stalin and Germany and Hitler where similar themes and subjects emerged such as the role of technology and how it represented in art, the desire to memorialise and use the history of the countries and the propaganda use of art. Because of the similar themes the country talks became a bit repetitive so I wonder if it might have been better to arrange it by theme, flagging what was happe...

Fabulous exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the origins of modern art. The show traced the period from the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886 to the start of the First World War visiting Paris, Barcelona, Brussels, Vienna and Berlin. It is a period I have always been fascinated in. To some extent it repeated a number of recent shows about the individual artists but it put them in a wider context and traced the narrative between them. I loved the use of portraits of dealers and thinkers to help broaden the story. It was wonderful to have so many pictures from private collections which I’d never seen rather than just the usual suspects. Special treats included a couple of pictures I didn’t know from Van Gogh’s time in the asylum, Maurice Dennis’s “Homage to Cezanne”, some wonderful Seurat’s and a Picasso Cubist portrait. The show also set up some interesting unspoken dialogues such as having pictures of girls reading by Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Matisse. Closes...

Colourful and fascinating exhibition at the Royal Academy of work by a selection of female German and Russian Modernist artists. I only knew two of these artists before a talk I did by the curator before I went to the show, Munter and Kollwitz but found their art, lives and connections fascinating. I couldn’t help but compare their work to early pieces by Vanessa Bell which could easily have fit in here. I loved the colour and blocky presentation of the pictures. I think my favourite was one by Munter off her flat/studio with a wonderful striped rug drawing your eye across it and her husband or Kandinsky in the bedroom to one side. I was less fond of Werefkin’s work but she was only really represented by paintings when she was mainly known as a sculptor. I learnt about lots of new people and stories which I will look out for in the future. Closes 12 February 2023 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Interesting online lecture form ARTscapades introducing the Making Modernism exhibition at the Royal Academy. The curator Dorothy Price introduced us to the four main female artists featured in the show by taking us around the first room of portraits and self-portraits. This was an excellent way of setting up the narrative. I have since been to the show and liked the fact this gave me a good grounding to what I saw but also left you to discover the other rooms on children, relationships, places and still-lives for yourself. I was particularly interested in hearing about the friendships between some of these women and how they had to overcome challenges in their lives to pursue their art.  

Fascinating online lecture from the Churches Conservation Trust discussing the conservation project for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. I spent a year living in Liverpool and loved the quirkiness of the Catholic Cathedral or Paddy’s Wigwam as it is affectionately known, and was aware that it had structural issues.   Jon Wright of Purcell Architects who have done the conservation survey and work on the lantern, took us through the history of the cathedral and the different proposed designs. However most interestingly he talked about how he tackled the issue of the leaks from the lantern onto the sanctuary below. After an extensive survey of the lantern and an analysis of previous conservation work, they determined that it was caused by small capillary holes in the resin holding the glass panels together. This would have been impossible to rectify without dismantling the whole lantern plus it was decided that the resign was an integral part of the lantern as an art work rather...

Fascinating exhibition at Sala Brasil (the Brazilian Embassy) looking at a collection of modernist work which was sent to Britain in the Second World War. I had assumed this was just an exhibition of Brazilian modernist art and on one level it was however more interesting was the story of how it came to Britain. 168 works were sent to Britain in 1944, donated by the artists to boost the war effort. The British Council arranged the transport and the pictures were shown at the Royal Academy and the Whitechapel Gallery as well as around the country. The Royal Academy didn’t seem too pleased by the idea and there were wonderful archive letters recording their resistance. The pictures were then sold in aid of the RAF Benevolent Fund. The show included all but one of the 25 pictures that entered public collections in the UK and included some lovely work. The captions were well written and told you a lot about the artists. I loved Thea Haberfeld’s landscape of a patchwork of fields ...