Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the National Theatre which examines the process of resetting a theatre between shows via photographs. The theatre had commissioned three photographers to each follow a play in one of their three theatres to record the activities which take place. It was a nice touch to include labels written by the various technicians explaining what they do and what the theatre means to them. It was a shame a number of the photographs were quite small and they didn’t seem to add anything to the story although they were interesting. No end date given but it was still there when I went at the end of October. Review Guardian  

Charming small exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall looking at its foyers and how they have been used over the years. It described how the foyers were designed to give a sense of space and a connection to the river but also how they act as sound insulation for the concert hall within them. I was amazed to learn that until 1983 you had to have a ticket to an event to go into the building and it was only with Red Ken and the GLC that they started to be used as public spaces. I realised I must have started using the building as a coffee/bar stop shortly afterwards but I’d assumed they’d always been open. See you can always learn something! Stop press : I found out over the Easter weekend that the foyers were being refurbished which was probably the excuse for this display. Can’t wait to see what they have planned. Closed 17 February 2024  

Comprehensive but dense exhibition at the National Library of Ireland on the poet William Butler Yates. I must admit I think I had done too much on the day so, when I did this show, I found it hard to engage with it. It didn’t help that as I started to look at it a group of European youth arrived and took over the space. They didn’t seem to be engaging either just talking selfies! I wish I had known more about Years before I went so that the copies of manuscripts and first editions might have meant more. I liked the four little rooms with contemporary settings and good audio visual presentations. I particularly enjoyed the one on the Abbey Theatre as I was off there that evening! I was also interested in the campaign to save the Hugh Lane collection as I had been there in the morning. There was a good leaflet outlining Yeats life but it was a bit too much to read in the show so I’ll look at it as homework. Closes 7 January 2024

Fun exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the evolution of iconic musicals and the craft behind them. It was divided into interesting sections from shows adapted from books, others which look to history and those with a social message. I loved the recreation of the stage managers booth for two shows including “9 to 5” where you could view the different monitors they use and hear their instructions. Having done a small it of stage management I envied their tech! There was a good mix of exhibits including a lot of album covers but my favourites were the costumes. It was lovely to see them close up. Most of them were from current shows which meant I added a lot to my ‘want to see list’.   Closes 27 November 2023 Reviews Guardian Telegraph    

Beautifully presented exhibition at the Moretti Gallery of a newly discovered painting by Zoffany. This was a stunning picture of the actor Edward Townsend on stage from 1792 which has only been changed hands three times since it was painted having staying in the Zoffany’s family after his death. It was in amazing condition and just glowed on the canvas. I loved his embroidered yellow waistcoat. The picture was shown with an excellent commentary on its ownership and a look at recent technical analysis by the Courtauld. Closed 16 December 2022  

Lovely display at the Sam Wannamaker Theatre at the Globe of work by Rutgers BFA theatre designers from New Jersey, USA, who are currently in residence there. Costume design and costume technician students had to design and create a cocktail hat that embodies a Shakespearean character which would work under candlelight. I loved these two for Olivia and Titania. My favourites though were by scenic and lighting design students who were tasked to create an object that with the addition of a single light source there a Shakespeare related shadows. These were small open boxes, each beautiful in their own right, which, when you pressed a switch, produced a shadow on the back which seemed was stunning created from the seat in front. I loved this one for Julius Caesar created from sheets of the US constitution. No end date given

Interesting exhibition at Glyndebourne marking 70 years of their production of a programme to cover the whole season of opera. The Glyndebourne programme, as the commentary said, is “an anthology of ideas on opera, art, history and place.” Over the years they have commissioned well known artists to design them. This year it is designed by Maggi Hambling and there were previous examples by David Hockney and Oliver Messel. I liked this photo print by Mark Vessey, commissioned to mark this event of the edges all the covers. Closes 28 August 2022

Lovely exhibition at the FUJIFILM House of photography of pictures by Rankin to mark the reopening of London theatres. The portraits were a nice mix of stars, chorus and backstage people which showed off the range of skills in the industry. The pictures were simply presented in large format. Everyone was photographed against grey backgrounds which gave the show a sense of unity. It was a nice touch to include a display of all the original shots in a smaller Polaroid style format. The pictures weren’t labelled but there was an online guide to them. It was fun to guess the shows but I’d have preferred a paper guide as reading from the phone was a bit fiddly. Closed 12 March 2022  

Fun exhibition in the windows of empty shop windows in Covent Garden of accessories and props from the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House. There was a window of point shoes where each was designed to represent different departments within the opera house and a fun installation of tutus slotted one inside another. Around the corner I found a window of set designs, props and costumes for the ballet The Tsarina’s Slippers. What a great use of these empty spaces to promote their neighbour and to keep this area looking vibrant and fun in difficult times. Officially closed on 10 August 2021 but I viewed it on 16th.

Excellent exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery looking at the life and work of Noel Coward. This show really caught the flavour of the London theatre at the time of Coward with some wonderful exhibits like the Oliver Messel masks for “Dance Little Lady”. It gave a real sense of how cutting edge his work was at the time. It also gave a picture of the people he worked with and gathered around him. The show also evoked his life and homes with pieces of furniture from his chattel in Switzerland alongside home movies and magazine spreads on the houses. I was fascinated by the section on how Coward created his image and brand and then had to work out how to live with that. It was a lovely touch to end the show with two of the costumes from the new Blithe Spirit movie which demonstrates that Coward still resonated today. Closes 23 December 2021 Reviews Guardian Telegraph  

Stunning exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the Alice books and how they have inspired artists since they were published. This show got a good balance between style and substance. It was a very modern design with lots of installations like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party shown here which helped to space out the show for a post-Covid age but there was also heaps of archive material described in detail. At some points even I felt there might be too many facts, such as sheet music for a peace inspired by Wonderland by Tolkien’s Great uncle! The show started by telling the story of how the books were written, from Dodgson telling the story to the Alice Liddell and her sisters on a boat trip, though John Tenniel’s illustrations and various editions of the work. This went hand in hand with displays on how the book reflected the Victorian era being published just six years after “Origin of the Species” and five years before the 1870 Education Act. Next was a fascinating...

Interesting exhibition at the National Theatre showcasing the shortlisted designers for the Linbury Award award. Drawn from recent graduates of theatre design course, 20 are chosen by a panel to present their work to one of the four commissioning theatres who each chose three to work with. Each designer was then asked to produce a design for one of their forthcoming productions. The prize is then to see their design realised. It’s fascinating to see three designs for the same show and see the effect of a different set and costumes. Each design was represented by set models, sketchbooks and textiles.   I loved Zoe Hurwtiz’s design for a play called Acid at the Nuffield Southampton Theatre which consisted of a glass box with dancers inside, figures outside and a loan figure on a chair behind the box. Different lighting highlighted the different aspects of the set. I would love to see this in action. I also liked the winner Sami Fendall’s design for a ballet set ...

Fascinating exhibition at the Foundling Museum a look at entertainment in Georgian Britain. The show described itself as “a how-to guide to going to a show in eighteenth century Britain” and covered the theatre, the Foundling Chapel, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and music festivals. It took you through every aspect from buying a ticket, what to wear, what you’d have seen and where you’d have eaten. The show ranged throughout the museum with the main section in the basement looking at theatre and was designed like the foyer of a theatre. It examined the opera and spoken word plays with sections on the main London theatres of the time and a look at regional touring theatre. I loved the idea that one ticket was printed for the season with the show name and seat numbers being hand written on each ticket. I’d not realised that a box office originally only sold tickets for the boxes with a pay booth for other tickets. The Handel room at the top of the building looked at the gro...

Lovely exhibition   at the National Theatre looking at the work of the costume department. The clothes were shown in a wonderful display like a low stage packed with some of your favourite National Theater characters from the last few years. It was fascinating to see the clothes close up and, unlike some theatrical costumes, the detail was stunning. I loved the fact that the exhibition looked at all aspects of the wardrobe department not just the designers.There was a interesting section on the dressers with a fun video of a quick change, and a look at the people who have to wash and maintain the clothes. They also looked at how clothes sometimes need to be distressed using an army jacket from Warhorse as an example. I think my favourite was a sheer, gold dress from the recent Anthony and Cleopatra with a green velvet coat decorated with gold scarabs.   Closes March 2020 Review Evening Standard

Nostalgic exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum of photographs of British theatrical productions from the 1980s and 90s by Ivan Kyncl. Kyncl photographed over 500 plays, operas and musicals despite not having worked in the theatre before he arrived in the UK in 1980. Kyncl described his very direct pictures as “in the minute” so the show features 60 shows, one for every second of a minute which was a neat way to corral such a huge output. The pictures were shown with little explanation, just the theatre, date, theatre and director. It would have been nice to have a bit more about the actors, reviews etc but mainly because I approached this show from an interest in the theatre rather than via the photographer. The effect however of taking you through 20 years of the best of British theatre was fascinating. The picture themselves were very intimate as Kyncl often worked by being on stage with the actors. Closed on 7 July 2019 Review Evening Standard

Fascinating exhibition at the National Theatre celebrating 25 years since their archive was founded. The show had invited theatre makers, academics and artists to choose an item from the archive and to describe why it mattered to them. It was an interesting way to showcase this wonderful collection. I loved the striking display in black and pink. As a librarian I loved a poem written in in praise of the archive with the wonderful line “However archives are not places where history is boxed away never to be seen by the wandering eye again. They are treasure troves waiting to be uncovered.”   I’ve used the poster of Equus as my picture on this entry which was shown with a new puzzle version of it made by one of the graphic designers at the theatre.

Interesting exhibition at the National Theatre looking at how scale models are used for set design. It showed how models had been used in theatre since Ancient Greece and how the standard scale is now 1:25 as it is difficult to incorporate detail in anything smaller. I loved a big display of pencils of different sizes to illustrate what scale means. It then went on to look at six productions in the Olivier starting with the 1977 production of “The Plough and the Stars” to show how scale models had been used in practice. It featured a lot of work by Jocelyn Herbert and included a recreation of her studio with an interview with her from the archive playing on a telephone. Each show featured the scale model used and archive material to describe the design process. It was nice to see show’s I’d seen features such as the recent “Anthony and Cleopatra” and the “Comedy of Errors” from 2011.   The display also discussed how the models are used from being in the room dur...

Interesting exhibition at the National Theatre looking at the role of the theatre in the movement to win the vote for women. The show was mainly information boards and archive photographs. There was good use made of quotes and I was amazed to find that there had been over 100 suffrage plays written between 1908 and 1914. I liked the incorporation in the display of a prison cell to represent the role of the theatre at suffrage fairs including re-enacting prison life. I loved a hand bill of the entertainments at the fair. The show threw up lots of fascinating stories and people you want to find out more about. Actress Muriel Matters flew over London in an airship dropping leaflets and Edith Garrud was known as the jujitsu suffragette who taught self-defence to the suffragettes and set up and trained body guards for the leaders. The Actress Franchise League also campaigned for more opportunities for women in the theatre, the end to unsafe working conditions and the end to...

Charming exhibition at the National Theatre pairing photos of theatre makers by young people alongside childhood photos of the subjects.   The pictures are spread throughout the theatre. I think there was a leaflet listing the works but I never found it so I’m not sure if I caught them all. Some were even   on lift doors which was fun but a little irritating if the doors opened as you were looking at them.   The young people were mentored by professional photographers and spent time getting to know the sitters and the older versions were based on a childhood picture. I loved the picture of Rufus Norris, the current director, covered in mud to match a similar version of his cheeky younger self. Richard Eye was shown in a scarf with anchors on as a nod to the sailor suit in the younger picture. Many sitters showed a real sense of fun and an enjoyment in recreating their youth.   I think my favourite was this one of Simon Callow as he still has the same ...

Thin exhibition at the National Theatre looking at the years it was based at the Old Vic, 1963 to 1976 to mark the 200th anniversary of the Old Vic.   I say thin as it was just information boards with archive photographs. The subject deserved a bigger display with possibly some artefacts to break up the show. It looked at how it championed new writers, directors, actors and designers. It looked at how Kenneth Tynan was employed as a literary advisor and featured the group of young actors in the company including Albert Finney, Ina McKellan and Maggie Smith. I liked the pictures of the offices in Nissan huts behind the theatre. Closed