Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery discussing their German collection and how it has been displayed in the new rehang. Matthew Morgan interviewed the curator of German paintings, Christine Seidel. They were quick to point of that for most of the period covered by the gallery Germany did not exist as a single country but as a series of city states ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. They also noted that the gallery has the best collection of work from the area outside a German speaking region. They talked about how there is only one room dedicated to German art and that is in the Sainsbury wing covering 1500-1600 and includes Cranach and Altdorfer. Seidel looked in particular at the latter’s altarpiece “Christ Taking Leave of His Mother”. They discussed why the gallery’s work by Durer appear in the Venetian room of the Sainsbury Wing and talked about his trips to Venice and the effect they had on his art and that of the local artists. They moved into the main gal...

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery discussing the redisplay of the Sainsbury Wing following its recent refurbishment. Laura Llewellyn and Emma Capron did a wonderful double act taking us through the reasoning around the redesign and rehang. They started by looking at why the pre-1500 collection at the gallery is so strong but the problems of the old display including the traffic jams getting to the Arnolfini Wedding in the end room. They then looked at why they start the display with the Northern European work and the challenges in showing these largely small works and why the early Italian gold ground works are now in the far corner, opening the Italian chronology. Next we moved onto how they hung the ‘nave’ of the gallery to represent how the art would have been displayed in churches when it was new. Having visited several times I think this section is particularly successful. They looked at the two themed rooms they had created on nature and gold and discus...

Fantastic rehang of the National Gallery Collection. I roughly followed the chronological narrative which had been created around the gallery although, when I went on members day, a few rooms weren't open yet so I had to pop back on the Monday to get the whole picture. I am so happy they have kept that approach and particularly liked the rooms devoted to one artist where they have a lot of works by one person. I also liked the few themed rooms almost not noticing the wide period they cover as the narrative links the works seamlessly and each work seems to grow from the previous one. I was pleased I'd been to the introductory lecture on the rehang so I looked out for some of the nuisances like the lovely wall of small outdoor sketches and the wonderful dark blue colour of the High Renaissance rooms. Being a big art geek I also appreciated the opportunity had been taken to reframe a number of works such as Antonello da Messina's "St Jerome in his Study" whe...

Fascinating  lecture at the National Gallery introducing the complete rehang of the collection. Chaired by Christine Riding, Director of Collections and Research, who had masterminded the project with four of the curators who were involved who each outlined their areas. They explained how they have kept a chronological approach but also introduced theme rooms eg one on still life, and rooms on individual artists where the collection is particularly strong. They also talked about the problems of hanging monumental and small works in the same space. At this point I had only seen the Sainsbury Wing rehang but I immediately understood some of the questions I had had in my mind. The most interesting thing I learnt is that to mark the rehang they will not be lending any works for two years so this is an amazing chance to see everything. It will be interesting to see how the rehang then reactions to those loans and how flexible it is.

Interesting lecture at the National Portrait Gallery explaining some of the thinking behind the rehang of the collection following the gallery’s refurbishment. Lucy Peltz, Head of Collection Displays (Tudor to Regency) gave us an insight into the principles behind the rehang. I was stunned at how long the planning took and the number of people and departments involved. I was interested to hear how every piece hung had to fit two criteria out of a theme list of UK and the world; power and resistance; innovation, science and industry; culture and creativity; society and identity and portraits and portrait making. She also explained how they wanted the galley to represent a history of Britain without being a dictionary of national biography. I was also fascinated to hear about how the labels were written to a template which were then edited by one person after input from a number of departments. I must admit as I go round the gallery I slightly feel like it’s been over engineered...

New display at the Wallace Collection of “The Swing” by Fragonard which has been rehung after being cleaned. I did a wonderful series of talks on this picture recently to mark this rehang so was very excited to go and see it. It looks a lot brighter and clearer. The pink is much more distinct and I love the detail, shown here, of the roses in the foreground. I’d never really looked at the picture properly before, as it seems such a cliché, but it’s much interesting than at first glance. It does make you want to rush to a playground and have a go! There is a playfulness in it, even if we are also meant to be thinking about grown up philosophical subjects too. No closing date but recently redisplayed

Interesting rehang of the modern galleries at Tate Britain covering the period from the 1960s to now using only work by women artists. The galleries were divided into three sculptures, portraits and humour and strangeness. It questions the historical bias and the captions include open questions. There were some fun works including Anthea Hamilton’s “Karl Lagerfeld Bean Counter”, a lounging, acrylic figure of the designer, which greeted you as you entered the room. There were artists who would you expect including Sarah Lucas, Bridget Riley, Maggi Hambling, Gillian Wearing and Tracey Emin. There were also some artists I’d not come across such as Susan Hiller with her installation reacting to reports of apparitions on tv screens after broadcasting stops, not that it does any more. This period is probably one of the easiest to just express with female artists. I did however feel that representing a period of time purely with female artists is just as biased as those with o...

Rehang of the central gallery of the National Gallery with the complete set of the oil sketches by Luca Giordano of designs for the ceiling of the Palazzo Medici Miccardi. The pictures show the progress of mankind via wisdom and virtue starring the Medici. I loved the fact that the central panel was the “Apotheosis of the Medici”, still it was post Rubens so if it was good enough for James I why not! The works are full of crazy mythological images such as three headed dogs and more cherubs than you’d ever need! Some of the images had real feel of Poussin. The gallery acquired the pictures in 2013 and they are in their original frames. It is great to see them together and to think about one of the great decorative schemes of the 17th century. I’m not sure how long this hang will be in the gallery but it is well worth a look before they go back to being shown one at a time.