Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery exploring the female nude in paintings. Fiona Alderton took us on a tour of female nudes in the galleries collection raising questions for us to think about when viewing them such as who they were painted for, where would they have hung and whether we felt they were an honest view of the female form. We talked about how body types had changed over the centuries, or I suppose the ideal of the female form had changed. Her choice of works ranged from a Mary Magdalene by Corregio as the earliest work to pictures by the Impressionists. She talked in some detail about the Titian mythological works and this Judgement of Paris by Rubens and how the chosen subject allowed the artists to combine pictures of women from a range of viewpoints.

Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art. The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ. I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room. My favourite work was ...

Fascinating exhibition at the Ferens Art Gallery exploring modern and contemporary artists responses to the naked human figure. It looked at the greater honesty modern artists bring to the subject as they abandon the traditional ideas of the idealisation of the body and life drawing. It focused on three artists, Lucian Freud, Ron Mueck and Spencer Tunick, although it also used other works from their own collections and good loans to put these artists in context. It was a nice touch to include a preparatory study of Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe by Manet as this work caused such a scandal when it was first shown, depicting a nude woman with clothed men. It was also nice to see a Stanley Spencer of Patricia Preece. The first room was devoted to Ron Mueck strangely realistic sculptures despite being unrealistic in scale. I find them quite hard to look at as they seem to creep into your space and challenge your perceptions but I do find then beautiful and it was nice to see a collec...

Small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at portraits of people naked and discussing how they can represent vulnerability or self-assurance It was nice to see Vanessa Bell’s portrait of David Garnett and see it hung next to Duncan Grant’s of Mallory. The show pointed out that the Vanessa is a rare picture by a woman of a naked man. There was a lovely Leigh Bowery by Bruce Bernard taken at one of his sittings for Lucien Freud. I find it strange that a man who was remembered in his lifetime for extravagant costumes is now better known for being without clothes. I also liked a Germaine Greer by Polly Borland where it had been Germaine’s idea to be naked as she thought that is she was pictured clothed on a bed It might look like a nursing home! Closes 11 September 2016

Small exhibition at Pallant House Gallery of drawings and prints of nudes from their own collection. Even with just a few pictures this show set up interesting dialogues between the works. There was a nice Sickert drawing near an Auerbach dry point picture of a very similarly posed figure in a Sickerty dark space. I liked a picture by Michael Andrews of three versions of the same figure in various stages of abstraction. There was also a lovely Keith Vaughan of two views of a seated male figure.