Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the art which emerged from the civil rights movement. Before you went in there was a useful installation of five TVs showing speeches from the main protagonists which gave a good grounding in the politics of the time. The show then ran in roughly chronological order starting with a catalyst of a 1963 show at the Metropolitan Museum called Harlem on my Mind which did not include any art by African American artists. I realise now I come to write that, as the leaflet was mainly a poster style list of artists, I’m not too sure what my notes mean and what bit they apply to! So apologies for this slightly random write up! There was a good room early on looking at street art focusing on the Chicago Wall of Respect which was referred to thought-out the rest of the show as so many of the artists mentioned later had worked on it. Artists partly took to working on the streets as they felt excluded from galleries plus were worki...

Fun exhibition at the O2 using costumes, props and art works from the Star Wars films to explore the idea of where our identity comes from. The identity bit was fun as you go round with a clever bracelet on and making choices and recording the answers which then creates a character for you at the end. I went round being fairly true to how I am an felt quite pleased with the outcome. If it hadn’t been so expensive it would have been fun to go round as an evil character to see what happened! There were interesting videos at each stage looking at nature, nurture, place values etc as elements which help to make up our personalities. However it has to be said most people, including me, were there to see the artefacts. The identity idea gave the show a good narrative but a storm trooper uniform is exciting whatever the context! I think the costumes were my favourite things and It was exciting to see the famous Princess Leia bikini. There was a good mix form the old and new films...

Annual opening of Clarence House giving the opportunity to see five of the ground floor rooms of this Royal house currently home to Prince Charles. I mainly went because the descriptions said that some of the Queen Mother’s art collection was on show and I knew she had collected a lot of the artists I like from the first half of the 20th century.   I wasn’t disappointed as there were a couple of Sickerts, an Augustus John and more Pipers than I could count. I was also to see various models for sculptures I knew such as the one of Churchill and his wife by the lake at Chartwell. It was interesting to see the rooms as well. Although grand they had a homely feel to them and as ever at the Royal Palaces the guide was brilliant and really brought the place to life. She had a good blend of stories from the past and present and showed a real personal interest in some of the objects. Closed on 31 August 2017  

Fabulous exhibition at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne looking at the life and work of Eric Ravilious and the group of friends who grew up around him As the title of show suggests this was as much a show about friendship and loyalty as art although there were some fantastic pictures. The first room was a bit confusing as you seemed to be thrown into the middle of a group of people and ideas but it was enticing and got you asking questions which were then answered in subsequent rooms. I loved the section on Ravilious’s student years and the people he met at the Royal College of Art many of whom stayed with him throughout his life like Edward Bawden and Enid Marx. Other characters had fascinating stories such as Percy Horton who married Lydia Smith a suffrage who had been the fiancé of his best friend and fellow conscientious objector who died in prison. There was a charming section on life in a shared house in London with lovely portraits of many of the characters by P...

Touching exhibition at the British Library marking the 50th anniversary since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain and how life has changed since. There was a good section on life before the Act and the events which were starting to lead to it including the Oscar Wilde trail and the Wolfenden report. I was delighted to see a lot of material from the Bloomsbury Group including a touching recording of Vita Sackville-West reading a letter to her from the author Virginia Woolf explaining that her book Orlando is based on Vita and grew out of their relationship. I’d not realised before that Orlando was published in the same year as “The Well of Loneliness” which was banned. There was a touching section on prosecutions including a photograph of John Gielgud in the play he was in at the time of his arrest. He had been frightened of appearing but the audience cheered him at the end. The show was strong on how literature and popular culture have influe...

Fascinating exhibition at the British Library marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution and looking at its causes and consequences. The show told the story really well using the objects and books to illustrate it rather than letting the story be driven by the objects. The commentary was clear and interesting. It felt a bit wordy in places but this was needed as so many of the books and posters were in Russian so they couldn’t explain themselves. I loved the entrance hall with opulent red velvet curtains and chandeliers but with a copy of the Communist Manifesto displayed in it. The section on the Tsar and the period before the Revolution was wonderful and packed full of stories. There was a good section on the coronation and the stampede following it to get free souvenirs which was rumoured to have killed 1389 people. They had one of the original tin souvenir mugs nicknamed since the “Cup of Sorrows”. It was a lovely touch to include Lenin’s application form for the ...

Fun installation at the Festival Hall by Kalle Mustonen as part of the Nordic Matters festival. Yes this is a giant wooden gnome lying on the floor of the Festival Hall. What more can I say?! I saw it in the early evening so it was shut but I got the impression that earlier in the day you could go inside it to a small hut representing his house. His house in his stomach, a bit odd! I loved the description on the web site which says it all “The Gnome King is both based on a story from Finnish folklore and reminiscent of a certain variety of garden ornament.” Closes on 30 August 2017