Cathy Lomax Exhibition: a preview

Last Friday, there was a lot of drilling going on at the museum, I thought perhaps the ropey canopy was being taken down, but no it was Sophie Cummings and Cathy Lomax putting up the new exhibition in the small section of the main gallery. I hadn't expected such a hands on approach to hanging, but here are a few of the photos I took, they give a bit of a taster of the exhibition which will be officially open to the public tomorrow:

 Below Cathy kindly stopping what she was doing to pose:

 Sophie getting things straight

 and wondering which picture to hang next

The museum's website describes the exhibition like this:
'Cathy Lomax’s work is a contemporary and personal exploration of popular culture, beauty, celebrity and identity. Her projects have included an ongoing Film Diary, ‘Mock Tudor’ inspired by the art of Hans Holbein, and American Tan, which explores Hollywood glamour.
In 2016, Lomax won the inaugural Contemporary British Painting Prize. The competition was organised by Contemporary British Painting in order to celebrate and share the many important and exciting contemporary painters working in Britain today.
This exhibition showcases recent and paintings and three dimensional work concerned with reflection, the gaze and female identity.'
To find out more, come to Cathy's free lunchtime talk tomorrow, Wednesday 6 September at 12.30pm, or the Friends' talk at 7.30pm on Thursday 28 September. Tickets £6/8
www.friendsofsmag.org or reception at the museum

Picasso's Linocuts talk

Last Thursday, 31 August, Peter Davies gave us an evening talk entitled Picasso's linocuts in the gallery at the museum. It was a sell out, with a fabulous atmosphere, and when you look up Peter on Google, you can see why, he has a reputation for writing books about art and is passionately keen about his subject.
Not to be confused with the painter Peter Davies, our speaker makes linocuts himself, and talked a little bit about about that process.
This was one of my favourites, Still Life under a Lamp' 1962, bought in 2013 by the British Museum:

The slides of the linocuts were lovely, and the image of Picasso's posters attached to lamp posts ready for the taking was a fascinating one, Peter needed to be encouraged to stop reading essential quotes and talk about the linocuts.
Here's a photo of the audience:

and the poster Ray Ward made to advertise the talk:

Such a great subject. Our next talk is by Cathy Lomax on Thursday 28 September at 7.30pm. Tickets
www.friendsofsmag.org and museum reception.