Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery introducing their exhibition focusing on Degas’s “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando”. The co-curators Anne Robbins from the Muse D’Orsay and Chiara Di Stephano from National Gallery took us through the themes of the show and introduced us to new material which had been found. They looked at the life of Miss La La (Anna Albertine Olga Brown) using newly discovered photographs of her then moved on to discuss the circus itself and how it became an inspiration for artists. They then took us through the studies for the painting and talked about how he developed the image. These included sketches made at the circus as well as drawings of Miss La La in his studio. Some time was spent on the time Degas spent with family in New Orleans and the influence of seeing black people there and the effect of figures silhouetted against the bright light had on his art. Finally they outlined the ownership of the work until it came into the Nation...

Small art fair held at the Garrison Church at Chelsea Barracks. It’s always nice to get to events at this converted church and the work looked good in the space. There was a nice selection of work and it went for quality rather than quantity. I spotted a nice Auberbach drawing, a Bridget Riley print, Picasso prints, a Tracey Emin and more. There was an interesting balance of paintings and sculpture. Pieces that caught my eye included this fun sculpture made of bone china cups and saucers and the portrait by Waldemar Lorentzon who I’d not come across before. Closed 29 June 2024    

Disappointing e xhibition  at the National Army Museum looking at Shakespeare and war. I say disappointing because, although the narrative was set out clearly, the vast majority of items on the show were reproductions and photographs of works. The show looked not only at how Shakespeare wrote about war but how it has been used in times of conflict from the English Civil War to contemporary readings. I was fascinated to read that Charles I had a copy of the folio which he was reading as he waited trial which he annotated. The Napoleonic wars were mainly represented by satirical prints often using Shakespearean quotes and the First World War section included a copy of the complete works which were given to wounded and sick soldiers. It was an interesting idea to add contemporary productions which included a video of the National Theatre Othello which had had a military adviser who had been head of the armed forces in Iraq. Closed 1 September 2024

Beautiful small exhibition at the Garden Museum looking at the role of garden to the women of the Bloomsbury Group. If you read this blog you’ll know I’m a great Bloomsbury fan so I was excited to see this show and it delivered. It’s only a small exhibition space but it was used well to look at Ottoline Morrell, Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. It made good use of paintings, particularly in the section on Ottoline where it featured many of the artists who had stayed with her at Garsington. There was also lots of archive material and good use made of books and book covers in Virginia’s section. It would have been nice to have had a small section on the gardens as they are today as at least three of them can still be visited however I think they may have videos online to cover this. If you don’t know the group this would be a nice gentle introduction. Closes 29 September 2024 Review Telegraph

Moving exhibition at the Imperial War Museum on the work and career of war photographer Tim Hetherington. Hetherington, who was killed on assignment in 2011, would not have liked to be described as a war photographer. The show started with a wonderful quote by him “I do not set out to make a work of journalism, but rather a visual novel that draws upon real people and places.” The show used a selection of his projects to explain his working methods, using a vintage camera which meant that he didn’t cover his face when taking pictures but instead engaged with his sitters. It also looked at his films which he made at the same time as taking the photographs. I found the most moving pictures were from when he was embedded with the US army in Afghanistan mainly talking photographs of the soldiers off duty and using them partly as a study in masculinity.   Closes 29 September 2024 Review Times    

Enlightening online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the life of Lady Eastlake, wife of the first director of the gallery, who worked closely with him. This was the annual Anna Jameson Lecture which came from the Society of Antiquaries and was given by Julie Sheldon from Liverpool John Moores University and the co-author of a book on the Eastlakes. She outlined Lady Eastlake’s career covering her publishing as well as how closely she worked with her husband in buying art for the gallery in its early years. As Sheldon concluded she was a significant figure in the history of the gallery even if it was soft power. Sheldon made excellent use of archive material showing us sections from Lady Eastlake’s letters and number of her beautiful sketches particularly of Old Masters they saw and bought on their travels. She outlined Lady Eastlake’s publishing including her work to finish Anna Jameson’s “The History of Our Land as Exemplified in Art” after whom this annual lecture ...

Useful if disjointed online lecture from ARTscapades giving an overview of portraiture from Roman times to now. Kathryn Galitz from the Metropolitan Museum Art took the starting point of how important portraits still our to us from major exhibitions in the last few years to the controversy over the debate over the altered image circulated by the Princess of Wales earlier this year. We expect a portrait to be a visual truth but it is multi-faceted. She talked about different uses of portraits over the year from the promotion of an image in the Roman world, through Renaissance wedding portrait to discuss how deception was often an accepted practice. She moved on to how the merchant classes often wanted to show a sense of self and their wealth and then looked at how portraits became more symbolic such as Van Gogh’s painting of his chair. Galitz finished by looking at how artists have portrayed themselves from Rembrandt to Cindy Sherman, often playing with identity via their own ima...