Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online lecture form the London Art History Society discussing medieval wall mosaics. Liz James from the University of Sussex took us though the practicalities of producing wall mosaics in the Medieval period using the works in the apse of the Church of Panagia in Kiti in Cyprus as a starting point. She briefly took us though the image but the talk mainly asked questions about how they got there and tried to answer them with observation and logical thinking. How do you design a building which is going to take the weight of a mosaic? How do you get the tesserae to the building site? Do they arrived coloured or does the artist have to do that? She acknowledged she might not have the answers but presented a starting point for thinking about the topic. It was a refreshing and exciting approach to art history.

Lively lecture from the London Art History Society introducing church mosaic floors from the 12th century. This was a new topic to me and Richard Plant gave a clear and well-illustrated overview of them. He took us through some wonderful ones including this masterpiece in Otranto complete with weird legends such as King Arthur the cat and the ascent of Alexander complete with a kebab. He talked about some of the themes though maps, the sea, the months of the year and labyrinths with good examples from around Europe. He compared them to ancient Roman examples explaining there is no known link between but there are obvious themes in common. Were Roman mosaics known at the time than we now have? He also compared them to two examples of carpets from the time which were new to me. Yet more to learn about!

Fascinating lecture at the National Maritime Museum on the monumental art legacy of Ukraine of the 1960s – 1980s and the effect of the war on it. Organised by the British Council and Ukrainian Institute as part of the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival this talk brought together photographer Yevgen Nikiforov and art historian Lizaveta German. Unfortunately the speakers visas to travel had not come through in time so they had to deliver the talk to the audience in the lecture hall by Zoom. German started the event by talking us though the history of monumental art in the Ukraine since the 1960s with a focus on the large mosaics. She outlined how the idea for mosaics came from the Byzantine tradition in the area then the idea of decorating some of the simplified post Second World War buildings with them. Photographer Nikiforov then outlined his project to record and photograph the over 5000 mosaics in the country. This has become even more important since the start of ...

Really interesting discovery at the Hayward Gallery of work by Nek Chand. It consisted of lovely mosaiced figures and a film about the rock garden he is building in Chandigorh, India. The garden is to be full of these figures made by a group of workmen he has trained, many of whom now live in the garden.   It felt like a mix of Gaudi and the terracotta warriors! It was part of a series of exhibitions by The Museum of Everything which is a British charity for international, untrained, unclassified artists. The whole thing was very peaceful and personable.