About Wren 300 in the City of London

Today is the tercentenary of the death of Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) 

He's the closest equivalent to Leonardo da Vinci - except he didn't paint! He was however a mathematician, astronomer, physicist, anatomist and one of the United Kingdom’s greatest architects. 

One of the more remarkable things he did was rebuild 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666. This of course included what is generally regarded as his masterpiece, St Paul’s Cathedral. Wren is buried in St Paul's and part of the Latin inscription on his gravestone translates: 'If you seek his monument, look about you.'

In 1670, the first of the Wren churches was built; 87 churches had been destroyed in the fire, some parishes were united, and 51 were eventually rebuilt. Over the next 46 years, Wren was to design and supervise the building of these churches (and much more).

The Wren 300 festival is celebrating his achievements with a year-long education and conservation programme for children and adults.

The Henry Moore Altar - made of Traventine Marble
in St Stephen Walbrook, surrounded by very contemporary Matisse like knee cushions!

His tercentenary is being marked by The Wren300 Square Mile Churches programme which has been awarded a £241,00 grant from the National Lottery Fund. It offers a range of opportunities to explore the work of Sir Christopher Wren through conservation, heritage, and musical activities. The idea is to help a great range of people to appreciate the architecture, arts, heritage and music of his time.

Projects include: 

• A Schools Programme 
• The 'Dastardly Triple Dome - school pupils building a replica of the dome of St Paul’s during School Science Week
• A Conservation Workshop - about new construction techniques and sustainable conservation materials - run by Cliveden Conservation Workshop
• The ‘Wrenathon’ - working with choirs from across The City of London to sing music ranging from the baroque to the contemporary and jazz!

Plus an exhibition of fire artists. In September 2023, a number of churches will be hosting exhibitions of fire artists, depicting the destruction and rebuilding of Churches by Wren following the Great Fire of London.

I had the very great pleasure on Monday of being taken on a walk of four churches:

• St Stephen Walbrook (1672 and 1679) - The 63 feet (19 m) high dome is based on Wren's original design for St Paul's, and is centred over a square of twelve columns. This is also the church where the Samaritans were. founded by Chad Varah and started out in the crypt.
• St Mary Abchurch - first mentioned in 1198–1199 / rebuilt 1681–1686. It which has a magnificent alterpiece carved by Grinling Gibbons
• St. Mary Aldermary - the most important late 17th-century Gothic church in England, according to Pevsner - and looking not unlike Kings Chapel, Cambridge but on a smaller scale - with a cafe at one end!
• St Mary-Le-Bow - which has the Bow Bells

with guidance from Harry Mount, the architectural historian and Editor of "The Oldie". 

Wren was hugely skilled at making churches seem extremely spacious even when they were located on tiny sites. He also was able to create designs which mixed the Gothic spires with the Classical style he preferred - so the skyline looked the same - but the interiors felt light and spacious

Below you can see some of the photographs I took of the amazing designs and interiors. 

Review: Royal Society of British Artists Bicentennial Exhibition

The Bicentennial Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists is currently on display at the Mall Galleries and this post comments on the exhibition and the artwork I liked.

This is a review of what I saw last week and also identifies artwork I liked.

You can read who won the prizes in this post Royal Society of British Artists 2023 | Award Winners published by the Mall Galleries.

See also my previous posts

• Call for Entries: 200th Anniversary Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists - the RBA invited 200 non-member artists to exhibit in the 2023 Bicentennial exhibition.
• RBA Bicentennial: Sales before opening!
• Renowned Ukrainian sculptor exhibits at RBA Bicentennial

There are 489 artworks spread across the three galleries of the Mall Galleries.  Rather a lot of them seemed to me to be smaller than usual.

One of the display walls in the centre of the west gallery.

You can see digital images of all the artwork on 

• the Mall Galleries website page for the exhibition - which includes links which enable you to buy online
• the RBA Bicentennial Exhibition Page (I'd personally prefer much bigger images of the artwork and much smaller buttons for the "find out more")

I'm also uploading my photos of the artwork in the exhibition to my Facebook Page -  - and will list the gallery albums below.

 
You can see albums of my photos of the exhibition irrespective of whether or not you are a member of Facebook or are logged in or not. I think these help you to appreciate the size of works better and what they look like on the wall with frames etc

• RBA Bicentennial Exhibition - West Gallery
• RBA Bicentennial Exhibition - East Gallery
• RBA Bicentennial Exhibition - North Gallery (includes artwork by Young Artists)

North Gallery

This is a YouTube Video of Mick Davies, President of the RBA introducing the exhibition during the hang process.

The galleries seemed a tad more crowded than usual - but that's unsurprising given the nature of the exhibition and the wish to include 200 artworks from the Open Entry to mark the Bicentennial.

Styles of artwork are as varied as ever and coupled with the fact the RBA accepts drawings, paintings, original fine art prints and 3D artwork makes for a very eclectic exhibition - but one which is rather more contemporary than exhibitions I can remember from when I first started covering this art society's exhibition. The RBA has come a long way in recent years under the Presidency of Mick Davies.

The feature wall next to the Cafe

Most of the smaller 3D art, ceramics and sculpture are in the East Gallery - with larger pieces seen elsewhere in the exhibition.

There is a very impressive Bicentennial Catalogue 1823 - 2023 which provides an excellent one page profile of each of the members in 2023. I can't find a link to where you can purchase it online but it's available at the exhibition.

I did have a niggle. I didn't think either of the normal feature walls i.e. the walls at the extreme west and east of the Mall Galleries had the impact they should have had. Nothing against the art on the walls - it just wasn't the right art for those walls i.e. artwork which makes you want to walk over and take a closer look - from 50 feet away - and didn't have a particularly coherent hang! 

Renowned Ukrainian sculptor exhibits at RBA Bicentennial

Ukrainian sculptor Alexander Lidagovsky is a guest exhibitor in the current RBA Bicentennial exhibition at the Mall Galleries. 

Iron Horse by Alexander Lidagovsky
Steel Corton
(Currently on exhibition in the RBA Exhibitions at the Mall Galleries)

He specialises in public art and has a number of much larger sculptures on the streets of Kiev.

Alexander Lidagovsky
with his Iron Horse

He's in this country because his studio in Kiev was destroyed within an hour of the Russian invasion. 

He's now living in Kingston - with his wife and daughter - while his two sons are fighting in the war with Russia. 

He's also working in a new studio and looking for new opportunities to exhibit his sculptures

Below you can see some of his sculptures in Kiev - as they were before he left.

Bio and social media details are listed at the end of this post.

 

There are many sculptures "on a rope". In almost all cases, balance is achieved by the fact that some part of the sculpture is below the rope and is heavier than the upper one. As an example, at least my Cherkasy sculpture "High Note" (violinist). Here is another solution. "The balance", 2013 bronze, steel, height-6m

Alexander Lidagovsky BIO:

• 1961: born in in the city Huliaipole of Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. 
• 1982-1987:  studied at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design

REFERENCE:

• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AlexLidagovsky/
• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/alexlidagovsky/?hl=en

Finn Campbell-Notman wins Landscape Artist of the Year 2023

This is about the Final of Series 8 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 at Portmerion in North Wales - which was won by Finn Campbell-Notman.

The Finalists with their Final Paintings

Some fans of the programme were quite apprehensive as to who might win. Fortunately, we had a new worry as soon as the programme started! Why no Dame Joan? What have they done with her - and why no explanation?

You can find all my reviews of previous programmes in this series at the end of this post.

The Prize

The prizes are:

• a £10,000 commission for the Royal Museums Greenwich to create an artwork celebrating the Van de Veldes at an exhibition of their work at the Queens House in Greenwich
• the title "Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2023"

The Finalists

Left to right: Finn, Helen and Stefano

The Finalists were - in order of their episode:

• Finn Campbell-Notman (Episode 1 / Heat 1?)
• Stefano Ronchi (Episode 3 / Heat 5?)
• Helen Lloyd-Elliot (Episode 6 / Heat 6?)

I go out on a limb in my reviews of the Heats and say who I think will be in the Final - so you also get what I said about each artist in my review of each heat!

Finn Campbell-Notman (Facebook | Instagram | Twitter)  

Finn in the pod

• a professional painter and illustrator. 
• Born in London in 1970, he grew up in rural England as part of an artists' commune. His art education also includes BA (Hons) in Fine Art at U.W.E. Bristol and at Wolverhampton (to 1993), a double First Class B.A. (Hons) in Illustration from Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, UK. (1998-2001) and an M.A. in Communication Art & Design from the Royal College of Art, London (2002-04). 
• You can see his illustration work here. 
• Since 2020 Finn has been without a studio or permanent home and divides his time between Bristol and Andalucia.

He competed in the very first heat shown - near Blackpool North Pier - see Review: Episode 1 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 - Blackpool Beach and Pier

What I said

You could say I predicted his win - because this is what I wrote in my review of the first episode of this series

Interestingly, if you went through all the websites and social media sites prior to viewing the programme, I'd have very definitely been selecting Finn for my shortlist for this heat.

Indeed I think he might stand a good chance of making it to the Final (see below)! 

an afterthought - by me!

• The winner of LAOTY 2022 was the winner of the first heat
• The winner of PAOTY 2O22 was the winner of the first heat

I know I have a formula for writing these posts. Do the production team from Storyvault ALSO have a formula for which episode they decide to air first?

 

Stefano Ronchi (Facebook | Instagram)  

Stefano in the pod and the sunshine and the intense heat

• from Italy, lives in Hackney and can work big. 
• He describes himself as a "punk surrealist painter". He has been influenced by Leonardo, Brueghel, Dali, and Hieronymus Bosch mixed with comic book art. 
• His very large impressive submission was called The Hill (Acrylic on canvas, 120x80 cm 2017)

He appeared in the 3rd heat at Castle Ward in Northern Ireland - See Review: Episode 3 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 - Castle Ward

What I said

This is what I had to say about Stefano's heat painting and submission

For my part, I have to say I'd draw a very sharp distinction between:

• something which is very good art - of a surreal / comic book variety
• an excellent landscape

Both of Stefano's painting are the former and not the latter. It was quite simply fantasy. He's a surrealist painter - and a very good one - but he's not a landscape artist.

In response to Kate's comment, being unable to stop looking at it does not make the painting qualify for the competition!

We've subsequently had an email correspondence and he's a very nice chap who is very talented.

 

Helen Lloyd Elliot [Instagram]

Helen - in her pod,
very sensibly wearing a wide brimmed hat to protect her head and eyes from the sunshine

• live and work in Dorset and London. 
• Primarily a landscape and portrait painter - and a nature lover. 
• Has exhibited at leading open art exhibitions in England. 
• Tai described her as a colourist and I agree.
• She's made prints of all the paintings she made during the series
• Her four paintings from the heat, semi-final and final plus her original submission are all for sale on her website

What I said

The winner was Helen Lloyd Elliot - and very deserved it was too. I thought she might get edged because in some ways she's very close to the winner at Blackpool in Episode 4.

The view was that she was a great painter, using great brushmarks while hovering between abstraction and realism.

I think Helen will be in the final. She talked about the win giving her confidence. I don't think she needs it, I think she just knows how to respond to a scene and how to paint it.

and in my last review - of the semi-final

Helen is a very effective colourist and observer of scenes who delivers more than can be seen by more ordinary mortals.

I'm hoping she wins the Final.

 

The Location

The Final has two locations:

• the location for the Final Painting in 4 Hours
• the place(s) about which the Commissions are painted.

Portmeirion - the Final Pod Paintings

Reasons not to see David Hockney: Bigger & Closer

I've been to every David Hockney exhibition in London for many years - and reviewed many of them over the last two decades - but I will NOT be going to the David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) lightshow xtravaganza at the Lightroom at Kings Cross.  

• First, because I've seen virtually all the original artwork first hand 
• Second because I'm NOT a fan of huge immersive "experiences"; and 
• Third, although I'm OK with a dark room and a video playing during an exhibition: 
• and I always watch those all the way through
• and I loved Hockney's videos of changing seasons in the Yorkshire Wolds. 
• But I'm not a teenager....
• and I don't want to spoil my memories of "the real thing".

However if you want to get a taste of what it looks like and what other people think see below.

This is a video of some of the 50 minute experience which I found on Facebook (Yorkshire Post)

The Reviews of David Hockney: Bigger and Closer

Seems like I'm not alone in NOT wanting a sensory overload in a crowded room.... I've not seen so many 2 star reviews of anybody for quite a while! 
(If you want to see my reviews of his 'real exhibitions - see the end)

The shorthand conclusion seems to me to be that if this were to be the last show of his work in his lifetime - this would be a major disappointment.

Two star reviews

Gigantic projections of the painter’s work fill entire walls in this immersive audiovisual extravaganza – but there is no real art to catch the memory or move the soul The Guardian

• David Hockney: Bigger and Closer review – an overwhelming blast of passionless kitsch | Jonathan Jones | The Guardian
• David Hockney at the Lightroom review: full immersion into the artist’s career produces mixed results | Evening Standard
• David Hockney: ‘Bigger & Closer’ | Time Out

there’s too much that disappoints and irritates. You don’t really get a feel for much of the best of his work. There are none of the marvellous paintings from the very early 1960s, the exquisite drawings of the 1970s. There’s limited art history, too, so there’s no explanation as to why so much of what we’re looking at resembles the work of Picasso. Neither do you get a feel for the materiality of the media he extols; somehow the luscious beauty of paint, its very stuffness, gets entirely lost when blown up this big. Evening Standard

Non-starred reviews

• I don’t need a lightshow to immerse myself in art | Jan Dalley | Financial Times
• ‘Affecting’ or ‘Passionless’? Critics Are Divided on David Hockney’s Newly Opened Immersive Light Show | artnet news
• David Hockney: Bigger & Closer, Lightroom, review: Colossal sensory overload | Florence Hallet | i

David Hockney at Lightroom

Photo by Justin Sutcliffe

More about David Hockney

I've written about David Hockney on a number of occasions on this blog. You can READ my posts BELOW - they're organised backwards by years. Plus see images of a lot of his artwork in proper exhibitions!

2019

• David Hockney: Drawing from Life (2020) at the National Portrait Gallery (May 2019)

2018

• Hockney adds another way of making art to his portfolio (September 2018)

2017: 

• About David Hockney and Watercolour

David Hockney Midsummer: East Yorkshire 2004 (watercolours)

2016: 

• A biography of Hockney on iPlayer first shown by the BBC in 2015 (and repeated in 2016)

2014

• Hockney, Printmaker (Review #2) - The Etchings - about Hockney Printmaker at Dulwich Picture Gallery
• The Arrival of Spring - David Hockney's latest exhibition - 85% of the digital drawings in The Arrival of Spring had been sold before this exhibition opened at Annely Juda Fine Art.
• Hockney is bigger than Van Gogh!- about my final and fourth visit to A Bigger Picture on the final night

2012

• David Hockney on sitting for Lucian Freud
• Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture

Woldgate Woods, 21, 23 & 29 November 2006, 2006 by David Hockney
Oil on 6 canvases, 182 x 366 cm
Courtesy of the Artist | Copyright David Hockney | Photo credit: Richard Schmidt

• 22nd January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week? "This post this week has rather a slant towards Hockney, digital art on an iPad and pastels - which pretty much reflects my week."
• 15th January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week? This has a lot of references to the publicity overdrive for the A Bigger Picture exhibition at the RA and includes references to interesting articles

2009 

• David Hockney - recent exhibitions - about various recent exhibitions in various countries
• Review: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture - about Bruno Wollheim's film David Hockney - A Bigger Picture
• David Hockney "15 sketchbooks" DVD - a further update

2007

• Turner Watercolours with Hockney and Shirley - about Hockney's curation of BP Summer Exhibition: Hockney on Turner Watercolours (11 June 2007 – 3 February 2008).
• Drawing, tea and DVDs at the National Portrait Gallery - another long slow look at the at the David Hockney Portraits exhibition before it closed

2006

• David Hockney: Fifteen Sketchbooks 2002-2003 - Update on DVD availability

• David Hockney and Shirley - sharing art and sketchbooks - about the David Hockney Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and his Fifteen Sketchbooks completed in 2002-3003
• Two London exhibitions for David Hockney about 
• "David Hockney Portraits - Life Love Art" at the NPG and 
• "A Year in Yorkshire" in at the Annely Juda Gallery

and finally for other fans this is the David Hockney website - http://www.hockneypictures.com/home.htm