Cathy's Art Diary

Fun installation outside the Royal Festival Hall by Lakwena Maciver and Abimaro Gubell. The work consists of a brightly coloured pavement and a soundscape which you can add to via sound boxes with large coloured buttons which create sounds you can start to mix as you play with them. I had to have a go on each of the boxes. Evidently it is encouraging us to think about "how creativity and play can nourish us" and it certainly gave me a moment of delight on a sunny day. Closes 20 September 2026

Engaging exhibition at the Foundling Museum looking at the power of singing together via the Hallelujah Chorus. The show started by looking at the chorus by Handel which premiered in Dublin in 1742 but from soon after was performed annually at the Foundling Hospital to raise money for the institution. On the top floor they examined the origins of the work and how it has been performed since. On the middle floor they focus on the role of music at the hospital from the choir of hospital to the boy's band which trained boys to go into military bands. They also looked at modern interpretations of the work and I found myself dancing to "Too Hot to Handel : The Gospel Messiah". Look it up! In the basement was a wonderful video installation called "We Are Together Because …."   the result of a two year project at a community school near Lisbon tracing the project from experimental vocal warm up to a final performance. It consisted of a main screen and five small...

Slightly random online lecture from the Foundling Museum looking at music in Dutch Golden Age paintings. This was one in a series of talks on music in art and as such was geared to a more general audience rather than an art historical one. Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff, Founder of Art Historical London took us though the meaning of various musical instruments and of music in pictures in general as well as introducing the idea of symbolism in Dutch art. She had excellent illustrations but I would have appreciated a bit more structure to the talk possibly building to a conclusion.

Disappointing exhibition at the Barbican Music Library of photographs of the group Blondie from 1978. Blondie was a big part of my youth, so I was pleased that this show was still on when I went to the Barbican however it was shown in a cramped space and was badly lit with reflective glass on the exhibits. The narrative was poorly explained. It was billed as the photographs taken by Martyn Goddard but seemed to include work by other people and archive material. The images were fascinating and deserved a better presentation. I found it hard to engage with what they were and how they fitted together. Closed 21 February 2026

Delightful lecture at the National Gallery in the Supporters' House on how music was depicted and what it meant in the Netherlands in the 17th century. This was the third lecture and all of them have been excellent but this was made more magical by the addition of the lute player Andrew Maginley who joined the course leader, Belle Smith, and brought insights into the history of music at the time pointing out things like the fact music started to be printed in Venice in around 1510 meaning it could be more easily disseminated. He also told us how this was a period of experimentation with instruments. Smith led us through a series of images from the period and it was magical to watch Maginley play the lute in front of this work by Jan Miense Molenar. We dissected this and other works from the collection to look at what instruments were being played and what they meant. It was a nice touch to add a still life from the period which included a violin, a flute and music. Smith poi...

Fun installation style exhibition at the Serpentine South Gallery of work by contemporary artist Peter Doig which explores the role of music and listening in his art. The show brought together paintings and two sets of impressive speakers designed for a cinema which played music from Doig's archive of vinyl and cassettes. The paintings evidently reflected the music but I would have liked more explanation of how they did this as none of them were labelled with titles or dates. I loved the atmosphere of the show with spaces to sit and listen to the music in a communal space and evidently on a Sunday they are running a series of live listening sessions which would be fun. Closes 8 February 2026 Reviews Times Guardian Evening Standard

Beautiful lecture at the National Gallery looking at how music was depicted in art in the Renaissance focusing on the role of the courts. I had enjoyed the first part of this series of talks so was pleased I could make the second and have how now booked the third. Belle Smith started with this painting by Lorenzo Costa from the gallery's collection and talked us though the instruments shown and the fact the subjects are singing. I know the picture well but had never thought about how the outer figures are tapping along to the music on the table. The lecturer for the next talk was in the audience and as a lute player he brought fascinating insight into the how the instrument is being played here, with figures rather than a quill plectrum, and how that was a new development at the time. The talk diverted a bit with the self-portraits of Lavina Fontana and Sofonisba Anguissolo who are both shown playing a spinet emphasising their ladylike status and intellect but his led to a dis...

Magical lecture at in the Supporters’ House at the National Gallery looking at how music is depicted in paintings of the 13th to 15th centuries. Belle Smith talked us though a selection of paintings from the gallery, describing the instruments which are shown and playing examples of the sound they would have made. She also looked at how music changed in this period moving from plainsong to polyphonic works. She discussed how the music shown in the works reflected theological ideas not necessarily the music would have been heard in the services in which the paintings would have been seen. In particular paintings of the Coronation of the Virgin which show ideas of divine harmony. It was lovely follow the talk by going up to the first floor of the Sainsbury Wing to look at the works which had been discussed. This was the first of a series of talks on music and art and I hope to get some of the rest.

Disappointingly small exhibition at Queer Britain on the singer Jimmy Somerville and his role as an activist while in Bronski Beat. The show was well done and made good use of archive material and loans and gifts from Somerville. I only say disappointing as I’d have liked more and possibly to see the show move into the Communard years. It was however a good excuse to go to this newish   museum looking at the history of LBGT+ lives and activism. Great to see one of Duncan Grant’s erotic drawings included. I knew the space when it was previously the House of Illustration and it would be nice to see this museum expand into the large gallery beyond the shop in the future which might give more scope for exhibitions. Closed 25 May 2025

Interesting if rather dry exhibition at the British Library looking at the history of Black British music since 1500. The show was packed with information and there were good audio clips but it’s hard to tell a musical story largely with documents and objects like vinyl records. One section did make the best use of the height of the exhibition space that that I’ve seen with tall displays of records in a section on record stores in the late 70s. I was most interested in the early sections which included the note to John Blanke, the black trumpeter at the Tudor court granting him a pay rise and a lovely section on Soho jazz clubs with costumes. I found the later sections less relatable as, I must admit, I don’t listen to a lot of current music but I did notice young people around me were enjoying it.   Closed 26 August 2024  

Glamorous exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the concept of the Diva from Victorian opera singers to today. The ground floor looked at stage and screen and the more open upper floor looked at the reclaiming of the Diva. That floor was spectacular but I felt I lost track of the themes and narrative because it was so visually stunning. I didn’t take the headphones for the tour as a friend said she found it distracting as in a crowd it triggered in the wrong   places. In did fine instead of that I seemed to be surrounded by shouting middle aged people who couldn’t hear each other over the music in their ears. I loved that they included a lot of opera singers particularly as I still think of the idea of the diva as an opera concept. I also liked that they included film stars not just singers. It was a good touch that the biographies of the women pointed out where they had been pioneering in their field and linked this to the different phases of feminism. All...

Interesting exhibition at the Foundling Museum exploring the eighteenth-century concert series, the 'Concert of Antient Music'. These concerts began in 1776 with a programme of about 12 concerts a year until 1848. They were programmed by nobles but managed by the conductor, beginning with Joah Bates. They featured ‘ancient’ music, defined as pieces more than 20 years old, at a time when concerts tended to feature new works. This often includes works by Handel who was one of the founders of the museum. The display consisted of portraits of the main protagonists and ephemera related to the concerts including a cabinet on Sarah Harrop, the soloist and wife of Joah Bates. I loved this register of performances from the start to 1791. The show revealed an aspect of the 18th century which I hadn’t know about before. My father was a geek about the music of this period and he would have loved this display.   Closed 8 October 2023    

Charming exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of photographs by Paul McCartney taken at the height of Beatlemania. The photographs captured a moment in time and showed what it was like to be a young men in the midst of this fame. They documented the time from a concert in Cheltenham to a few days break in Miami. The pictures were of mixed quality but reflect a young man trying out his first camera and looking at the world in a new way. I loved the fact the images were shown as taken and not cropped for effect. When the pictures were good they were astonishing. I thought this picture of the beach in Miami, presumably from a hotel window, was fantastic and some of the portraits captured the Fab Four and those around them as the young men they were not the phenomenon we now view them as. Closes 1 October 2023 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Small exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall on David Bowie at the venue. The archive display was to mark 50 years since the release of the Aladdin Sane album which the South Bank is celebrating and included material from a number of occasions when Bowie had played on site from a minor appearance as a mime artist in 1968 through to his curation of the Meltdown Festival in 2002. The story was told via programmes, posters and ephemera with neat commentaries on each event. Closed 18 June 2023

Excellent exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall to mark 50 years since the release of the Aladdin Sane album by David Bowie. I was expecting an over stylised show about the album but it concentrated on the iconic album cover of Bowie with a lightning bolt across his face taken by Brian Duffy. Most of the material came from Duffy’s archive and was used to set the scene and tell the story of the photo session. I loved a section on album covers explaining how Sgt Pepper was the first album to have such an ornate, artistic one. Prior to that covers had been quite bland pictures of the artists. There was a wonderful selection many of which I not only recognised but have. The show explained how one requirement of the shoot was to cost a lot of money! Bowie’s manager    calculated that if they ran up a big bill the record company would have to put money into marketing to recoup the costs. Duffy therefore choose an innovative printing process which could only be done in Switzerl...

Stylish but annoying exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum on the rise in South Korean culture and style. The show was a work of art with beautifully designed rooms and display cases all styled to match the objects they were showing. However the excessive use of light boxes and multiple video screens made some of the items hard to look at, such as a lovely screen which was impossible to see without reflections of a video of beauty products or a big screen from the previous room. It was also sometimes hard to work out which label went with which object. This was a topic I knew nothing about and felt quite old, rather than informed, when I came out. I found some aspects quite sinister like the very realistic digitally created girl group and the sheer consumerism of a lot of it. However I did love the clothes both the traditional and the contemporary take on traditions and I might need to go and look up some of the historically based K-television. Closes 25 June 2023 R...

Delightful display at the Foundling Museum looking at life of Charles Jennens, librettist off The Messiah. This was just a small display but covered his art collecting, philanthropy and writing. His father died in 1747 leaving him 34 properties in 6 countries. In an inventory of his house, Gopsall, it listed over 500 works of art. Interestingly he was a non-juror, someone who supported the legitimacy of the deposed Catholic Stuart monarchy, although he himself was a devout Protestant. As such he was barred from public office so had time to devote himself to other things. The display included his letter to Edward Holdsworth outlining his idea for Messiah saying he was going to ask Handel to set it to music as well as two portraits of him to introduce you to the display. He seemed such an interesting man that I bought the small book about him that was on sale in the shop. Closes 3 January 2023  

Interesting exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery looking as photography’s role in making and shaping musical artists. I must admit this show was a bit geeky even for me! I didn’t know a lot of the albums being talked about and there was quite an emphasis on early jazz however it was still interesting and you can always learn something. There were small sections on different topics from the work of Richard Avedon, whose portraits were used on over 120 covers and inspired others, though the collaboration between Grace Jones and Jean-Paul Goude to create her image via her covers and work by Andy Warhol used on covers. My favourite section focused on Ian MacMillan’s work for the Abbey Road cover shown with Linda McCartney’s informal images of the day including the one shown here. It was interesting to see an iconic image deconstructed. Closed 12 June 2022

Small display at the Royal Festival Hall looking at the life and music of Ravi Shankar, the Indian musician. This display curated by Shankar’s biographer Oliver Craske selected rare archive pieces to highlight key moments from the musicians life to mark 100 years since his birth in 2020 but delayed due to the pandemic. Because the display was small the narrative felt a bit random to make it fit   and it was sometime difficult to match the label and the object particular as the labels were also hard to read a black typeface on green. However I did learn a lot including that he first appeared on stage in 1931 at Theatre des Champs Elysees with his brother’s dance troupe.   There were some nice objects including a letter from George Harrison and the outfit he wore at his last concert. Closes 15 May 2022

Lovely exhibition at the British Library of handwritten lyrics by Paul McCartney from his personal archive. The show marked the launch of the massive book on the lyrics and each sheet was shown with commentaries written by McCartney alongside some rarely seen photographs. I was interested to see him acknowledging the role of his father’s Liverpool wit and way with words which you can see feed into his work. It was wonderful to see George Martin’s   score for Yesterday signed by Paul, John Lennon and Mozart! My favourite lyric here was “Here There and Everywhere” written in two colours of ink and giving a sense of it growing. Looking at “Changing my life with a wave of the hand” is so simple it feels unwritten. Closed 13 March 2022