Royalty and art team up for the Jubilee

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May's issue is on its way - meanwhile, see our two new reviews - Roger Ballen's Manchester show in our Photography and Media section, and David Shrigley in Around the Galleries. And don't forget you can access all past issues via the Archives button next to Log-in (Log-out) at the top right of this screen.

Recently I attended the book launch at the gallery Gimpel Fils of a volume by the lawyer Simon Stokes of the London-based legal firm, Blake Lapthorn. Published by Hart legal publishing, this is the second updated edition of a title which is the bible on that complex and thorny problem of art and copyright law. I understand that the first issue had to be reprinted many times and for this updated version plans are already being made for a reprint. Speaking to Simon was quite an eye opener about the UK copyright situation, which as regular visitors to Cassone will know is a question that presents us and anyone involved in art with huge problems.  This is an issue which should be getting more straightforward, but instead is becoming more and more complicated, often because of people’s greed and opportunism.

I was at the Royal Academy in London for a meeting a few days ago and on entering the courtyard was surprised to see a huge queue of people. They were waiting for tickets for the David Hockney exhibition. One of the staff told me that the exhibition is extremely popular and people queue every day. The day I was there the sun was shining and everyone was in a good mood. We thought in view of the weather and the summer mood here in the northern hemisphere, we would bring you a feature on conservatories this month. Jenny Kingsley has traced the history of these structures back to the time of little houses in Pompeii enclosed with mica slabs, through to the Orangeries of the 17th century and  now the leisure-orientated additions to our homes of today.

As usual this month we have many reviews of newly opened exhibitions. We report on Johan Zoffany at the Royal Academy, Turner in the Light of Claude at the National Gallery, Miro at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and a London show of textiles by innovative, post-war women designers. In America,  abstract artist Richard Diebenkorn’s work is moving across the nation from Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, California to the Corcoran Gallery Washington, DC for late spring and summer. For those who prefer old masters, Rembrandt is on show in Paris, in an exhibition of drawings by the master and his pupils.

In this Jubilee year we have appointed Rosalind Ormiston as Cassone's royal correspondent. We expect some reports from her later this month, but in the meantime take a look at her report on a recent royal visit to Dulwich Picture Gallery, with the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, and probably the biggest crowd puller the Royal Family now have after HM herself, the Duchess of Cambridge

It is always good to hear that another gallery has opened. Ian Jones covers the new exhibition space the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings, England.  The Gallery will house the Jerwood Foundation collection of 20th- and 21st-century art that will be on show to the public for the first time. 

Maria Photiou was first impressed by the work of Haris Epaminonda, a Cypriot artist now based in Berlin, at Tate Modern in 2010. Read her interview with this international artist, about her work and her ties with Cyprus. 

Book reviews this month are as varied as usual. We have books on the photography of the 1970s and ’80s by British lensman Daniel Meadows, and that of early 20th-century American photographers. We look at  the still-influential work of Coco Chanel. It is always interesting when an author chooses to look at the overlooked aspects of art. Our reviews this month include a book about the ways in which windows have been depicted in art, and the symbolism they carry. Art has been used in hospitals for centuries, as we have explored in earlier issues; a new book by Richard Cork considers this long history.