A Trip To The Tate Modern

It’s still too hot for me to be painting so I thought I’d keep the blog ticking over with a report on my trip to the Tate Modern yesterday.

The place is much bigger than I thought it was. It kept me busy for just over four hours, including visits to the canteen and the shops. Entry was free but there were a couple of exhibitions on with entry fees; I didn’t bother with these but still ended up feeling a little gorged on modern art. I wandered round fairly quickly, not wasting time on anything that’s wasn’t of interest. I could easily have slowed down more around the interesting stuff and spun the day out to give or six hours if I’d been in the mood. Oh, and the aircon was fantastic after traipsing around the streets of London and long the South Bank.

That’s all I have to say about the place; this wasn’t intended to be a long review. But I’ll finish with photos of my favourite fifteen pieces on the day. I’ve not taken notes on who all the artists were – sorry about that. And the fifteen are in random order, not ordered by artist name, the order I saw them in or how much I liked them.

Can’t remember what this is called or who it’s by but it’s amazing just how sinister a few random blobs of paint can look if you stick in some googly eyes.

A painting of someone’s back on a mirror. This works perfectly at the TM, being placed on a wall where you expect there to be a access to a neighbouring room.

More nakedness. Or is the guy wearing a shirt? Why are most females painted naked and most males painted fully clothed? And that goes for my paintings too. This is doing my head in.

Yes, I know who this is. It’s Roy Lichtenstein. Can’t say I know the name of the painting but I know it’s famous and I felt like I was in the presence of royalty. This one is huge by the way.

A weird sculpture

This one made more sense when I read the citation. It’s from the early days of motoring and is the scene after a car has sped off into the distance. Yep, I absolutely get this one.

Perfectly coloured, this one.

The only Rene Magritte painting I got to see on the day. I’m a big fan of his but this isn’t his most colourful. The four views of the room all being from slightly different directions adds a touch of menace.

Dali’s lobster phone. I like to think that if Batman had instead been Lobsterman, Commissioner Gordon would have had one of these in his office.

More Dail. The Metamorphosis Of Narcissus. I know this one well: a mate at Uni had an Athena poster erosion of it on his wall. I was surprised to find that the real life version is smaller than the poster was. And that this painting is part way along a long will with loads of others at the TM, rather than having pride of place on a wall of its own.

This one is two layers of newspaper-based papier mache with some holes bashed into it. Might be the one that I spent longest looking at, although it was near the start for me. One where everyone can come up with their own story to go with it.

And what’s this! A face? A hand? A set of letters? Something else?

It brings to mind, for me, the Bands In Town logo, something that looks like a hand but is made out of the letters BIT.

And finally, a sculpted leg. The hairs on it are real human hairs, carefully embedded into the sculpture. This one is randomly placed in an easily missed corridor linking two rooms, the perfect setting for a piece as odd as this.

And that’s me done!