Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery to mark International Women’s Day looking at how women artists have supported other women artists. The discussion between Amy Mechowski and Jon King started by looking at Rosa Bonheur and how she mentored her female partners who were also artists. They also used her to look at how difficult it was for women to train as artists until the late 19th century. They also looked at Adelaide Labille-Guiard and Louise Vigree le Brun and how society set them up as rivals in the 18th century. They also looked in detail at Labille-Guiard’s self-portrait with two of her pupils. They came up to date by looking at some of the artists in residence in the gallery and what they have done to rebalance the collection.  

Fascinating exhibition at the National Gallery introducing the shortlisted candidates for art works for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2026 and 2028. I always try to see this show and vote for my favourite and love seeing how the ideas translate into a finished work. You have to remember that the maquettes are just concepts and not the detail of how they will be achieved or will finally look. In previous years you have voted for two and I picked two only to find this time you got one vote. My vote went to Thomas J Price’s “Ancient Feelings”, a dramatic, huge, gold head of a woman. I love Price’s with and would love to see it writ large in a public space. I was disappointed not to be able to vote for Andra Ursuta’s untitled work which presented a   hollow, life-sized equestrian statue covered in a shroud. It would be decided at a future date with statue would be used as the base. I thought it set up an interesting dialogue with other works in the square. I was unsure h

Interesting exhibition at Canada House of prints from pictures by Ningiukulu Teevee reflecting stories told by the Inuit people of Canada. The commentary explained how her drawings have been translated into prints for the Kinngait annual print collections. The studios there have produced an annual print collection every year since 1959. I loved the clarity of the work and the descriptions helped to me to understand the stories that had inspired them. It was interesting to read how stories had been shared across different areas and I found some of them similar to British and Irish stories such as that of the kelpie translated here into a fox. I loved this image based on the story of the owl and the Raven. When you look you can see that the head of the owl is actually a raven. Closes 1 June 2024  

Charming small exhibition at the Wallace Collection of watercolours by J.M.W. Turner and Richard Bonington. There were just ten pictures in the show but they were beautiful and delicate. The commentary was well and clearly written covering the techniques used as well as the stories behind the pictures. I loved the pictures of Venice by Bonington, an artist I had not come across before. He was based in France and was known to admire Turner. As well as the Venice works there were pictures of Normandy. The four Turner pictures were of Yorkshire and were all done for the brother-in-law of his friend   Walter Fawkes, with who he spent holidays in the county. They felt like his version of holiday photographs and included the two men in the landscapes.   Closes 12 May 2024 Review Evening Standard

Charming online interview from the Victoria and Albert Museum with the costumier John Bright. Bright was interviewed by curator and film historian Keith Brodwick and they went through Bright’s career starting with BC costume dramas but with an emphasis on the work he did on Merchant Ivory films. He talked about how he uses vintage pieces where possible. He did this work via his company Cosprop which he wet up in 1965. They discussed collaboration with actors so it was fascinating that Helena Bonham-Carter joined the conversation to talk about the importance of the clothes to building a role and the process of working with Bright on a number of films including “A Room with a View”. The talk ended by looking at Bright’s recent charity work and the creation of the Bright Foundation to bring art education to young people with a theatre and museum space in Hastings.

Fascinating online lecture from ARTscapades looking at how art in 19th century France reflected the politics of the time. Lois Oliver, a curator at the Royal Academy and guest lecture at the Courtauld, took us through the paintings that were shown at the salon in Paris from around the 1830s and the political implications of some of the works. Not having studied this period it was all ideas which had passed me by. She concentrated on the work of Alexandre Antigne, Gustave Courbet, Jules Breton and his daughter Virginie Demont-Breton,   Jean Francois Millet and Rosa Bonheur. A couple of the artists were new to me and I’ll be looking out for them in the future. I was particularly fascinated by the art of the Second Republic from 1848 to 1852 when so much seemed to be happening and who knew there could be so much politics in gleaning!