Cathy's Art Diary

Innovative new website providing online exhibition and collaboration space for artists, filmmakers, photographers, musicians and writers. The site currently has three live projects delivered via Vimeo. Two recreate the sense of walking into an art cinema to see a film. You enter through the foyer and into the screening then settle before a screen which open out to show the film. One is a relaxing piece of found pictures of graffiti and textures from Brighton and Berlin which gentle merge into one another and the second is a music video for a song called Crow. The third project creates a video space to recreate the atmosphere of a contemporary art venue and starts with a piece of video art with that sense of walking into a dark space to view it then leads you into galleries of photographs and paintings some of which have interesting commentaries by the artists. I particularly liked Alex Hesslenberg’s three photographs and Elizabeth Vicary’s haunting paintings. This web site is the c...

More of this enjoyable series of short videos from the Metropolitan Museum filmed during lockdown highlighting recent exhibitions and specific works of art. These are emailed to members and patrons once a week, so I hope it is OK to share the links. Most take the form of a talk from the curator’s home with a powerpoint presentation. A number of the curators have picked works which are particularly poignant at this time.   Episode 7 : Zhang Feng's Landscapes Joseph Scheier-Dolberg, Oscar Tang and Agnes Hsu-Tang Associate Curator of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, discusses Zhang Feng's album of landscapes painted in 1644 as the Ming Dynasty fell. These are delicate drawings from single trees to full scale mountainous ranges and seem to perfectly reflect the turning to nature in times of fear. Episode 8: TheAutun Virgin and Child Lucretia Kargère, Conservator for The Cloisters discusses the Autun Virgin and Child at The Cloisters including the findings of a technical ex...

A fun series of videos by Philip Mould looking at pictures people had sent to him of themselves with art works in their homes following his first series of films from his own home “Art in Isolation”. There have been three films so far each focusing on a genre of art covering animals, landscape and portraits far. He uses the pictures to talk you through different aspects the genre. The pictures are beautifully filmed with close ups of peoples faces panning across to their art works. Most interestingly though it is a study of what stunning and eclectic art works people have in their homes.

Delightful series of online events from the Victoria and Albert Museum, delivered daily by email, to mark what would have usually been their members week. Due to a prior diary commitment I usually miss this week at the museum, so it was nice to get involved virtually this year. Each day a themed email was sent out with links to talks filmed in lockdown, videos and installation shots of old exhibitions, articles and short films about aspects of the collection.  I really enjoyed the variety of formats.  Monday looked at the history of the museum, Tuesday at watercolours to mark the cancellation of the Renaissance watercolours show, Wednesday was fashion, Thursday Rock, pop and performance and Friday looked at activities for and about children.  My highlights were a fun talk on Victoria and Albert’s involvement with the museum and collection. It was just a sound recording of a lecture but delivered so wittily that you didn’t miss what were obviously, from the au...

Enjoyable series of short videos from the Metropolitan Museum filmed during lockdown highlighting recent exhibitions and specific works of art. These are emailed to members and patrons once a week, so I hope it is OK to share the links. Unfortunately, I deleted the first one and can no longer find it. Most take the form of a talk from the curator’s home with a Powerpoint presentation and are made rather endearing by their different styles of presenting and occasionally IT issue. It is a shame the start and end of each follows quite a prescriptive script, but the sentiments are welcomed. I certainly look forward to more arriving in my inbox.  Episode2: Crossroads: Power and Piety C. Griffith Mann, Michel David-Weill  Curator  in Charge of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. Looks at a new cross-departmental installation which brings together objects from the Medieval period across cultures which reflect religious power and piety. It groups 12 objects in four themes...

Series of excellent videos from Visit Flanders guiding you through various exhibitions and displays of Flemish art all filmed post lockdown. Each presenter has a slightly different style and all the videos come with subtitles which is particularly helpful for the two which are not in English. I love they cover which a wide period from Van Eyck to Ensor in the late 19 th century and you do start to spot similar themes and styles thought Flemish art. You have to draw parallels between Ensor’s “Entry of Christ into Brussels” and scenes like Bruegel’s Nativity. I wonder if there will be more in the series. Episode1 : Van Eyck I have reviewed this already as it is a film of the Van Eyck exhibition in Ghent. Episode2 : Bruegel This is set in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels and focuses on their collection of works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Michel Draguet, the director fo the museum, takes us on a whistle stop tour of the pictures pausing to discuss...

Charming series of short videos on the Metropolitan Museums website to share stories gathered from visitors to the museum about what it means to them. This is part of an initiative to mark 150 years since the founding of the Museum and at the time of writing there were four episodes on the site covering nine different people. I loved the fact it includes well known people but also members of the museum staff and cultural figures. I enjoyed the chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s piece which compared the experience of viewing art to that of eating a shared meal with lovely pictures of food from the collection running in the background and Tim Gunn, host of Project Runway talking about how he realised designers didn’t know about the history of fashion so he started bringing students to the museum to not only show them the fashion collection but also the ancient statues and Great Master paintings. I enjoyed two pieces by museum staff. Stephane Post, a photo archivist, talked about her...