by visiting Tate Modern
On the morning of our last day in London we went to the Tate Modern to see their collection of modern and contemporary art to balance out the older works seen previously. With us were our daughter and granddaughters who were again taking part in another childrens’ tour.
First the building fascinated, starting with the sloping pavement down into the entrance which seemed rather formidable and unattractive at first. The slope continued inside the building, in what is called the Turbine Hall which apparently is an exhibition space but was bare that day. It was a lively gathering place for groups of children and youths, we smiled at a young child chasing a runaway toy down the slope. The huge bookstore next to it looked like it had a rich collection of books though we were not buying. We were first attracted by a fascinating video in the lobby from which we learned that this building in its earlier incarnation was a a power station.
The collections are arranged thematically rather than chronologically which made for some interesting and thought provoking placements of artists. The large open bright spaces of the rooms suited the modern works and never felt crowded except the odd time a guided school group went through. It was exciting to see the famous pieces and also meet some unknowns. Occasionally I was disappointed that there were sometimes only one or two pieces representing certain artists. Again, we took no photos so I’m relying on the Tate’s website to link to a very few of the highlights.
Marlene Dumas’ work excited me for this was my first time seeing it live
Frances Bacon and Anish Kapoor are both favourites of mine
Several Picassos including this sculpture
Roualt was a favourite of mine in my art student days
David Smith’s sculptures I like
Cornelia Parker is an artist new to me, I loved her full room size installation. The photo does not do it justice but do check out the ‘additional view’ for a detail.
Anselm Kiefer is a powerful artist whose work I’ve seen and admired in Germany but I think we missed this room!
In one room, I was suddenly captivated by a window with a perfect view of the Millennium Bridge with St. Paul’s (below left). It almost looked like a piece of framed art like the other works on the walls, a clever architectural detail, I’d say.
Afterwards, we parted from the family and walked across this beautiful bridge and it’s amazing view of St Paul’s Cathedral, as well as the view back of the Tate Modern (bottom). We had no time to stop but kept on walking, even getting lost for a bit, for our wonderful lunch meeting with Mr. and Mrs. B. More walking about London followed, a kind of last look, then back home to pack and get ready for our journey to Paris the next morning.
August 19, 2009 in Art Exhibitions, Other artists, Travel by Marja-Leena
It’s great that you managed to include such a lot of a wide variety of art as well as meeting new friends and seeing family on such a short visit – and now Paris to come! You are unravelling it all beautifully now rather like Cornelia Parker’s Bullet drawing.
Old Tate also had Kiefer, Kapoor, Bacon and Picasso. I don’t know if new Tate has the same works, though. I haven’t had time or money to visit the Tate Modern, but your description of the building even sounds interesting.
I wonder if you noticed that Helsinki will be having a large Picasso exhibition. Now there is a big exhibition of surrealists.
I have seen some Kiefer’s and he is interesting. Maybe I should somehow start saving money.
Ah Olga, my always faithful commenter! Yes, we sure packed in a lot of wonderful things in our two and a half week visit to the UK! I tended to complain sometimes that I didn’t see more because of my low energy but looking back now, we still saw so much! Like you wrote once, in the first visit you just find out what you want to see – and there IS so much more! I hope to be back and hope to meet then!
Oh, and thanks for the mention of Cornelia Parker’s Bullet Drawing, I found it and her other work online – great stuff!
Hi Ripsa! We didn’t make it to the Old Tate. It may be that those works were originally there before the Modern was built and they’ve split the collection? And yes, how great to see the surrealists and that Picasso will be in Helsinki. We ran out of time to see Picasso at the National Gallery, as well as the Picasso Museum in Paris. I’ve seen a lot of his work over the years so I don’t feel too sad when there’s so much other art to see. Ripsa, you are so close to the major European art centres that at least the trips are not long, I envy those living in Europe for just that. It’s an awfully long trip from the west coast of Canada.
Is this that gigantic rectangular building with towers on each corner, as I remember?
Hattie, I only saw this huge former smoke stack in the center (in the lower photo). Maybe the building had two towers in it s earlier incarnation.
I loved the Old Tate and especially the Turner’s. He was a watercolour master. The new one looks as though it would be very well worth a new visit to London. That would be a treat worth waiting for.
Susan, next time I’ll see Old Tate, and you shall see the New!
Enjoyed the tour of the New Tate via your links, Marja-Leena. Another reason to visit England someday.
🙂
Martha, glad you liked the virtual tour, hope you’ll have the real thing before too long!
I love the Tate Mod! Always interesting and they have made some really terrific uses of the turbine space, such as the time they had Carsten Höller’s slides or when they had the carousel or the bodyspacemotionthings.
Kate, thanks for the wonderful links, I love the latter one! Too bad for us that there was nothing on in that space when we were there.
Next time… and there may be one since it looks like daughter’s family will still be living there for a while. A second time one knows better what one wants to see, hmm? There are so many galleries too.