You paid HOW MUCH for that catalogue?!

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February in England is a strange month this year: the weather is still inclement but the shoots of bulbs are heralding a promise of spring. It's a new season in art too, as several of the major galleries  launch new exhibitions, and we will be covering them as and when they open. Frances Follin and I went to the V&A to see the wonderful silk woven by the Golden Orb Weaver spiders of Madagascar, and Frances tells us of this extraordinary story. We were very struck by the slim, attractive and very accessible booklet, priced at £5.00,  which accompanied this small exhibition.  Congratulations to all involved in its production at the V&A. We feel very strongly that exhibition catalogues get bigger and more expensive all the time, and much of the nature of their content is very academic. We wonder what the public actually get out of them.

 Catalogues seem to be an opportunity for academics and museum professionals to talk to each other, at the expense of gallery-goers who probably don’t read much of the content. If you want to take away reproductions of the paintings you have just seen, and some information about them, the doorstop catalogue is often your only option. Scholars buy the catalogues for the latest academic thought contained therein; in fact catalogues are sold worldwide for just that purpose, often to people who will never visit the exhibition. Very rarely is anything produced for the ordinary gallery visitor. Cassone would like to see smaller cheaper catalogues written in an accessible way to run alongside the expensive academic tome.    Support our campaign on Facebook and LinkedIn, or follow us on Twitter @CassoneArt

Meanwhile just like the emerging spring bulbs, Cassone writers have also been getting out and about! Jenny Kingsley visited the splendid St Fagans open air National History Museum just outside Cardiff,  and  back in London she examined the architecture and decoration of the Globe Theatre. Jenny saw at first hand how this reconstruction of Shakespeare’s playhouse is so similar to the original, thanks to the tireless work of the late Sam Wanamaker. She also found out how difficult it is to act in Elizabethan costumes, especially for male actors playing female roles as happened in Shakespeare’s days.

Eleanor Robbins tells us that one of the richest collections of mediaeval art in the United States, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, is a must to visit, while the catalogue for the British Library exhibition 'Royal Manuscripts' is reviewed by Larry Silver. Readers able to get to London still have time to visit this stunning show. Award-winning painter Alexander Massouras reports on a show of post-war British art currently on display at London’s Haunch of Venison gallery. At Cassone we include the smaller exhibitions as well as the record breaking ones.

7 February 2012 will be the bi-centenary of the birth of the author Charles Dickens (1812–70). Throughout the year there will be many exhibitions created around the life and work of the great man. One of these is currently on at the British Library and one at the Museum of London, and Rosalind Ormiston reviews both for us. She also tells us of the Royal Mint's £2.00 Dickens' coin, which will be launched this month.

The colourful art of Cuba is the subject of two articles by Susan Platt, the first of which appears in this issue.   Susan shows us the stark lifestyle differences between the ‘official’ and the unofficial artists on this Communist-run island.

We have reviews of books and catalogues on a great variety of styles and talents with Alice in Wonderland, a recent exhibition at Tate Liverpool; two children’s books in which the drawings of Tove Jansson illustrate the stories of Lewis Carroll; plus other titles on the work of Magritte, the late Pop artist Richard Hamilton, and Pieter Bruegel, and a new look at Abstract Expressionism.

Architecture and Design books include a look at highly collectible posters from the early days of mass travel, and a guide book to Ottoman architecture. Our photography books include one on the work of Eugene Atget, now regarded as an artist even though it seems he never set out to be one.

Don’t forget Valentine’s day looms and a good idea for an art-loving special person’s present is a subscription to Cassone – a gift of the past, present and future. What could be more appropriate?

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