Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating exhibition at the Royal Academy on the 19th century artist Richard Dadd who spent a large part of his life in Bedlam and Broadmore. I knew Dadd from his fairy pictures but the exhibition showed that there was a lot more to his work. I knew he had been in Bedlam and had assumed the fairy works were from that period but many of them were from before when he was painting scenes from Shakespeare. He also travelled widely in the Eastern Mediterranean with his friend Sir Thomas Phillips and here were beautiful sketches from the period which he later developed into paintings. However it was sadly on this period that he began experiencing psychosis and sadly murdered his father thinking he was a devil. He seems to have been well treated and liked by the staff at Bedlam and a number of them seem to have commissioned work from him for themselves or the hospital and he painted portraits of some of them. A large section was devoted to a series of figurative watercolours includ...

Excellent exhibition at the Royal Academy for this annual show of contemporary art. As ever there was a great eclectic mix but I felt there was more figurative and landscape work and less abstracts. In particular we spotted lots of pictures of dogs which of course appealed. I liked the way the architecture pieces were spread throughout but with a concentration in the last room which gave those works more space than usual. I think my favourite works were two I saw early on, screenprints of chandeliers by Clare Woods which on first viewing read like bouquets of flowers. I also loved a fun collage print based on Flaming June with added Sainsbury bags by Anna Grayson entitled "Flaming June the Bag Lady". The show ended in the central octagonal hall which had some brilliant pieces particularly Ryan Gander's   gold mirrors with marble veils hanging over one side and two arresting large portraits by Pauline Olowska. My favourite sculptural work was a pair of silverplate...

Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy featuring work by young artists aged from 4 to 18. I always try to go to see this show which is only on for a few weeks as you often see work of a surprisingly high quality. This year I made a special point of going as a friend's son had a piece in it, so a big shout out to Chip aged 11 and his zine about AI in art. It was a shame it was shown quite low down as it was all about the detail which was hard to see. Works which stood out for me this year with the hyperreal "Granny's Glassware" by Ella aged 16, a dark portrait of a couple called "Marriage" by Fimi aged 17 which wouldn't have looked out of place on Sky Portrait Artist of the Year and the cleverly composed urban landscape by Natalie aged 18. A special shout out to Inaya aged 16 for their "Political 'Sauces' Sources" a series of ketchup bottles each filled with a censored newspaper article about the world leader who was then refer...

Interesting exhibition at the Royal Academy focusing on the 17th century artist, Michaelina Wautier. The modern galleries at Academy had been decorated in dark colours to give an atmosphere contemporary to the art. It began by explaining how Wautier worked with her brother so sometimes their work is indistinguishable from each other and over the years some of her work has been attributed to him. The first room looked at the pairs' portraits with some lovely examples from each of them. It then moved on to religious and mythical work in rich Baroque colours before focusing on her major work "The Triumph of Bacchus" and other allegorical pieces. It was lovely to see another female artist being brought into the spotlight as I had done a lecture on the roots of feminist art history in the week however this show also got me thinking about how many artists generally have been forgotten or marginalised in favour of the well-known Old Masters as I had not only not heard of Mi...

Surprising exhibition at the Royal Academy on the art of Rose Wylie. From the pictures I'd seen in the press I'd assumed the work would look quite flat and cartoon like but in the flesh it was quite textured and the explanations made me realise it was a lot more nuanced that I'd assumed. I was also surprised at how huge a lot of the pictures were. The show was arranged in themes from her work influenced by being a child in the Second World War through to that which has been inspired by newspapers and current cultural themes. I admit the audience were all of a certain age (mine!) and mainly female and from conversations around me I realised they were engaging with the work and getting a lot from it. I am going to hear Wylie speak in a few weeks and I am looking forward to hearing more from her. Closed 18 April 2026 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph

Intriguing exhibition at the Royal Academy of work by ten 2nd year students at the RA Schools. Sadly I missed the first of this series of shows this year. Thanks to the security guard on duty who pointed out one of the works to me which was hidden on the side of a pillar and looks just like the room’s control box next to it. I was trying to work out which was the art! Some of the work was interesting but I will make my usual complaint about these shows that the work needs more explanation. Without a bit of blurb it can be intriguing and attractive but impenetrable. I feel a short explanation by the students would also be a good way of helping them to sell their ideas in the future. Anyway my favourite this time was this figure and 4 screen video by Huang Ziyue “Giraffe Neck Circling the Earth Three Times”. I loved the colours and humour but have no idea what it was saying. A big shout out to Wincent Szczerba who had actually done a painting! Closed 22 April 2026

Fabulous exhibition at the Royal Academy featuring work by Kerry James Marshall. This was clever, layered work and much more subtle that I’m imagined from just seeing images from it online. There was a deep awareness of art history that was used to reflect black experience and history. The labels were clearly written the explain the depth of the work and it introduced me to a variety of characters. Marshall had included a room of new work which reflected on the role of Africans in the slave trade which added a nuanced argument to the narrative. The works themselves were very painterly combining narrative with subtle details such as delicate still-lives and rather good dogs. Closes 18 January 2026 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Strange exhibition at the Royal Academy taking the image and legacy of the Beatles as a starting point. The work was by three students from the schools, Jacob Bullen, Dandy Day and Mitch Bowles who examine themes of obsession, fandom, and personal memory via the Fab Four. It’s a striking display and appears to include archive material however from the blurb I sense some of that might be manufactured, if not it would have been good to have some sense of the source which would have added more depth. Closed 2 November 2025

Clever exhibition at the Royal Academy examining the influence of Van Gogh on Anselm Kiefer. I’m glad I’d done a lecture on the topic as the connections weren’t always clear from the blurb. They not only look at similar subjects of rural life but at 18 Kiefer undertook a tour of places Van Gogh travelled and studied his technique. I love the monumentality of Kiefer and the paintings looked great in the space but they dwarfed the Van Gogh’s which were mainly corralled in the central room. It might have worked better to show the Van Gogh’s first then open up into the Kiefer. There was one Van Gogh after Millet which created a nice link to the two shows at the National Gallery at the moment and I guess therefore a link from Millet to Kiefer. Closed 26 October 2025 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Surprisingly good exhibition at the Royal Academy showcasing and celebrating the creativity of young artists. I say surprising as, when I hear the words children's art my heart sinks, but this work was so interesting and of an amazing standard both in technique and imagination. Shout outs to "The Challenges of History" by Beatrice aged 18 addressing issues of racial equality in a patchwork of historical scenes, Millie's detailed painting of a string shopping bag full of branded groceries   commenting on consumer culture who was again 18, the quirky wall sculpture "Eggs on Toast" by Holly aged 16 and a special mention to Nia aged 7 for her expressive painting of a tree. I think my favourite was this picture of the head of a chicken by Erin aged 15. Settling it against a blue background gave it the feel of a Renaissance portrait! Closed 10 August 2025

Small exhibition at the Royal Academy of work by Lyndon Barrois Jnr. Barrois is the current holder of the Starr Fellowship, a one year's residency at the Royal Academy Schools. The show borrows from film making to create what he describes as "static filmmaking".   Evidently, his work alludes to a heist at a museum but I must admit that passed me by. The work consisted of small, beautiful portraits mounted on camera stands alongside groups of drawings of museum objects around a candle. They looked good in the space but I'm not sure they needed to be an installation. The works would have stood alone. Closed 17 August 2025

Fresh iteration at the Royal Academy of their annual summer exhibition. I have found the show has been getting a bit tired and samey in recent years but this year, with just a few tweaks, it feels fresher and more open. They haven't reinvented the wheel just adjusted it a bit. Changes including mixing up the artistic and architectural work making the architectural pieces easier to see and digest. They have also altered the direction which you go round which strangely makes you look at the rooms in a different way. I think my favourite object was this tiny organ made from a hymn book by Jane Hewitt and my favourite painting was by "I Don't Want to Talk About It" by Frances Featherstone, a figure in blue striped pyjamas and blue striped bed sheets. However I also loved this tiny painting called "View from the Loo" by Katherine Lees and another small poignant work by Pavel Isupov "Self-Portrait at Immigration". Both works held their own among th...

Surprising exhibition at the Royal Academy of drawings by the author Victor Hugo. I’d gone along on the basis I try to see everything but wasn’t expecting a lot, however I was blown away. There was an odd mix of works of amazing draftsmanship and surprisingly experimental and abstract work. It made me think of William Blake. I think my favourites were the detailed, accurate works including this amazing chain. I also liked the atmospheric castles. I loved that the first work was this cartoon called “The Art Lover” and here we ask were. Closed 29 June 2025 Reviews Times Telegraph Evening Standard  

Confusing exhibition at the Royal Academy, one of a series of three showcasing the work of 2nd year students in the schools. I have found all these shows annoying for the lack of information about the work. It’s often conceptual in nature and needs some explanation. It might cope with that if it was beautiful but on the whole it hasn’t been. This one took the biscuit as they had run out of the handout, not that it is that useful, so I didn’t even know which work was by which student. By checking the website I think I worked out that these striking paintings are by Djofray Makumbu and that possibly the small model is for an animation and is therefore by Zachariah Riley but if so it might have been nice to see one of his animations to put it in context. As for the other work presumably by Katrina Cowling and Joshua Fay who knows which was which. I rather liked a mechanical wave of corn which I thought was quite witty and the fact the arch of the staircase had been encased in fabri...

Vibrant exhibition at the Royal Academy of art from Brazil from about 1910 to 1980 known as Brazilian Modernism. The art was bright and engaging and I liked the organisation of the layout into ten artists giving space to each which also led roughly to a chronological narrative. I love early modernism and found myself drawing parallels with other art that I know well like the Bloomsbury Group. I was interested to see that many of the earlier artists trained in or came from Europe, such as Alfredo Volpi from Lucca, whereas the later ones tended to be untrained and have started in other professions like Djanira  Da Motta e Silva who had been a seamstress. There were some beautiful portraits which punctuated the show but I think my favourite work was Tarsila do Amaral’s “Farm with Seven Piglets” from 1943. A fun picture with an engaging title. I was interested to see the 1944 show of Brazilian art held at the Royal Academy featured as I had seen an excellent exhibition about i...

Strange exhibition at the Royal Academy featuring work by four second-year students studying at the Royal Academy Schools. I do like to see these annual series of shows but as ever do wish they would offer some explanation of the works. It would be good practice for the artists too to learn how to describe and promote their work. The stand outs this time were the two painters both of which seemed to have hidden elements in their work, drawing you in for a closer look. Mohammed Adel presented dark, monotone works like this one entitled “Living Room”. The lighting was such in the show that it was only when looking at my photo of it that I saw the detail. Francisca Pinto’s worked looked like pillars of fire but writhing in them you found figures. One was called “The Room Where You Are” and think it did show the exhibition gallery itself therefore putting you in the picture and yet transporting you to a different world. Closed 30 March 2025  

Interesting display at the Royal Academy looking at how artists have approached representing the body in art from the Academy’s foundation to the present day. The display related to the body in different ways, in some it is a trace of a figure, or a suggestion of one. I must admit when I was at the show I didn’t realise the older works were part of the show as I had seen them before in that gallery but was impressed how they picked up a similar theme! Oh well it had been long day. I liked the fact the display included the caste of the Belvedere Torso which is cropping up a lot in a course I am doing at the moment on the High Renaissance. There were some nice contemporary works including this lovely picture by Elinor Stanley which at first look looked abstract then I realised it was a figure from above. I also like liked this wooden torso by John Skeaping. I loved the use of a beautiful Jenny Saville circular drawing to fill the space vacated by the Michelangelo tondo which was...

Fascinating exhibition at the Royal Academy focusing on the years in the early 16th century when these three great Renaissance artists were working in Florence. I have done various courses and lectures which have covered this period and I was grateful that I had as I would have liked a bit more scene setting in the narrative and display. A roundup of what the two established artists, Michelangelo and Leonardo, had done before this point would have been useful as well as some more sense of what the city was like and where it was politically. That said, to an art history geek like me, the show was a joy, focusing on a short period of time and covering some iconic projects. I liked the contrast between the mature artists and the young Raphael who was learning from looking at their works. The first room looked at Virgin and Child works and how they were influenced by the “Taddei Tondo” owned by the RA. I liked the depth of this examination. It led into the second room which looked i...

Interesting exhibition at the Royal Academy featuring work by three second-year students studying at the Royal Academy Schools. I   like to see these annual series of shows but do wish they would offer some explanation of the works. They are often conceptual work which you do need a bit of help to understand. I liked Lolly Adams’s weird sculptures using found objects centred, in both cases, on a bright pink mannequin head. One seemed to be a fountain and as the friend I was with said, it was a shame it wasn’t working. I also liked Dwayne Coleman’s large blue work made up of a patchwork of blue material. Was it a statement on Indigo and colonialism which is a common theme in contemporary art? His two smaller works seem to have had sound associated with them but I missed that. Maya Gurung-Russell Campbell offered a strange wall sculpture which looked like a discarded fishing net. Some help would be appreciated! Closed 16 February 2025  

Confusing exhibition at the Royal Academy in their Architecture Window space looking at a nomadic studio commissioned by Ukrainian arts foundation in exile, IZOLYATSIA, to offer a space for artists visiting Kyiv. The work is a collaboration between artist James Capper with designer Thomas Pearce and architect Greg Storrar, and is an 8m long inhabitable space on hydraulic legs so it can move. It seems to contain tools and set into the walls and the outer shell shows their outline. It all seems like an interesting idea but I couldn’t work out if it had actually been made or was just a prototype. I know the arts are important to morale in the Ukraine but I wasn’t convinced this was the answer to the country’s problems. Closes 29   November 2025