Cathy's Art Diary

Fabulous exhibition at the King’s Gallery of the late Queen’s clothes. It started with her childhood clothes and war time ones culminating in her wedding dress. The small middle section looked at her everyday clothes with tweed skirts, riding boots etc and a selection of scarves. I was very touched by a pair of Fair Isle gloves. The big room was formal wear when she travelled   and was mainly beautiful evening dresses. There was fantastic embroidery and lots of detail representing the countries she visited. Next were ceremonial clothes including the Coronation dress.  The final room was formal daywear arranged in rainbow colours. Throughout you kept recognising outfits you remembered. We said we couldn’t think of any famous outfit which wasn’t there.  Closes 18 April 2027 Reviews Times Telegraph

Lively online discussion from the Wallace Collection exploring how Churchill engaged with modern art. Barry Phipps from the University of Cambridge was in conversation with co-curator of the Wallace Collection on Churchill, Lucy Davis. I got the impression that Davis had expected to just be the chair but Phipps was also asking her questions about how she picked works for the show and how she organised them. The discussion felt a bit random but covered the contemporary artists that Churchill worked with, his writings and speeches on modern art and his relationship in later life with the Royal Academy. They also talked about how his art became more well-known after the Second World War and toured America.

Interesting exhibition at Hauser and Wirth of new work by Roni Horn. The bulk of the work was a large number of drawings of the phrase "I am paralysed with hope" written over and over again drawn over with crayon which gives the words the impression of melting. As I went on a very hot day these seemed very appropriate as I enjoyed their air-conditioning. They were shown with one of her one of her glass sculptures whose top resembles a pool of water to such an extent I had to feel it to be sure. Closes 1 August 2026

Strange exhibition at Hauser and Wirth looking at the career of 20th century artist Francis Picabia. I say strange because this gallery usually shows new contemporary work but this was organised with the Comite Picabia and covered his whole oeuvre. Having just seen lots of stunning art from this period at Sotheby's I'm afraid a lot of this felt like a pastiche as he experimented with contemporary styles including Dadaism, Surrealism and Cubism. It seemed to be guided tour of isms. Closed 1 August 2026

Interesting exhibition at Sotheby's of contemporary art. I only say interesting not anything more exciting as I came to most of this exhibition late in my visit and my mind had been blown by this point so a large Hockney print of Yorkshire, a lovely William Kentridge of a café, a Grayson Perry vase and a large Gilbert and George seemed fairly basic. My favourite pieces were three small portrait drawings by Lucien Freud, two of them shown in a hinged frame so you could see the verso. Closed 24 June 2026

Mind-blowing exhibition at Sotheby's of works for an Old Masters sale. If you've been reading these blogs you'll realise I had a really good morning at Sotheby's looking at amazing 20th and 21st century works but then I spotted a darker room at the back and my mind blew at finding Old Masters including a Botticelli and a Memling. I caught the guard's eye and made a head exploding gesture and he grinned. Looking at the catalogue online these just seem to have been a selection of works from a series of sales. I'm not sure my mind would have coped with all of them! Closed 30 June 2026

Confusing but amazing exhibition at Sotheby's of the highlights in a sale of modern art. Modern had quite a broad definition in this case basically meaning 20th century. I say confused as it was unclear in the show which pieces were from the Lewis Collection plus works from other sales seemed to be shown with them but after a while I really didn't care as I came across more and more stunning pieces. Works included Kandinskys, a Gauguin still-life, a Van Gogh drawing and a Picasso of Dora Maar. I think my favourite was this Felix Vallotton of the beach at Dieppe on Bastille Day from 1903 but I couldn’t help to smile at this rude Toulouse-Lautrec! Closed 24 June 2026