Cathy's Art Diary

Imaginative exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of drawings from their collection which involved grid patterns to compliment the current Mondrian and Nicholson exhibition. It included works on which a grid had been drawn to transfer them to canvas of painting. There was a fascinating sketch by Auberbach which he had drawn a grid pattern on to make sense of the composition. I loved a Canaletto of the inside of a nunnery where the grills through which visitors spoke to the nuns where reflect as a gird pattern on the floor and drove the perspective throught a view of Venice in the doorway. And of course I wanted the Omega design for a tray with a grid design on it! 

A scholarly exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery examining the relationship between Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson during the 1930's. when they were leading forces of abstract art in Europe . The works of both artists were hung next to each other so that you could compare and contrast easily. I had not really understood Mondrian before but seeing the works up close showed me that there is much more artistry in them that a reproduced image can ever show. I was fascinated by the letters and other ephemera which were shown with the pictures and the detail of the artists’ lives this showed. I find the theory of abstract art rather serious and philosophical but this was an exhibition which will make me take more interest in abstract work as objects and individual pictures. 

Small exhibition at Somerset House of the work of Horiyoshi III, an influential Japanese tattoo artist. The exhibition was of very delicate silk paintings with a mix of action, such as the tiger and thunder bolt and peace, such as my favourite of a fish. This was a wonderfully modern take on traditional Japanese art, or at least it seemed to be to my very untrained eye.  

Very good study day at the Courtauld Institute of Art to complement their current exhibition looking at the work of Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson and the links between them. The morning looked at the lives of the two artists up to the point they met with Caroline Levitt looking at Mondrian and Jeremy Lewison at Nicholson. I did not know much about either artist and these talks gave me good overview of their artistic development up to 1934. The afternoon put them in the context of 1930s artistic London in an interesting talk by Sam Rose, although I could have done with a few less long quotes. Finally we brought the two artists together in a talk from co-curator of the exhibition Lee Beard. This was a fascinating overview of the parallels between their work and how they may have influenced each other. I would have liked to hear a bit more about the personal links between them as later in the exhibition I was fascinated to see that Winfred Nicholson, Ben’s wife, was the firs...

Wonderful installation in the courtyard of Somerset House by Fernando Casasempere. The whole of the courtyard has been given over to a low grass mound covered in ceramic flowers in shades of brown, cream and pink. Each one is individually made and mounted on metal stem. They are arranged in clumps and give the effect of a meadow of flowers. The work made me feel very peaceful and I wanted to walk round all sides of it to get the different views. If it had been a bit warmed it would have been nice to just sit with it. It reminded me slightly of Anthony Gormley’s “Fields” which also give me this immense sense of calm. Although it is called “Out of Sync” it had the opposite effect on me. 

Fantastic lecture at the National Portrait Gallery given by co-curator of the current Lucien Freud exhibition, Sarah Howgate. This was a fascinating look at how an exhibition is put together from the moment this idea was muted to the prospect of 225,000 visitors in total. It was very interesting to hear about the mechanics of how the pictures have to be delivered to the gallery in an particular order and how many of them had to be unpacked and hung in front of the couriers who had brought them. It was interesting to hear her talk about regular lunches with the artist and the effect his death during the process had on the final exhibition. I loved the fact that some people wouldn’t lend their pictures because they couldn’t bare to be without them for the year. A real tribute to Sarah was how the questions flowed at the end. She had a very real and approachable style which put people at ease and made them feel they could ask more.

Very small display at the National Portrait Gallery in their Photograph of the Month series picking for April Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic. Even I don’t always mention a display this small but I have to for personal reasons. Throughout the Titanic celebrations I have been waiting to see a photo of Captain Rostron of the Carpathia, the ship which came to the Titanic’s rescue. A friend of my father’s was the grandson of Captain Rostron so I  always think of him when Titanic is mentioned. There next to the photo of Captain Smith, in an example of the how the photo was used in the press, was a picture of Captain Rostron so I now feel he has been marked in some way. OK I could have found a picture on the web but it wouldn’t as been an moving as coming across it in a gallery!