Thursday, 16 August, 2018
Liat has a friend at the Tate Modern and she can get us free entry to exhibits. Now, I’ve been inside the museum many times but mainly because the Turbine Hall is spectacular. (Hate that it’s now divided up by a newer middle bridge section. The view was so stellar before that.)
The Turbine Hall in numbers:
Height from ground level: 26m (85ft).
Size of area where works of art can be shown: 3,300 m2 (35,520 sq ft).
Length: 155m (500 ft), width: 23 m (75 ft), height: 35 m (115 ft).
Roof light consists of 524 glass panes.
Total area of basements under Turbine Hall, boiler house and sub-station: approx 1.1 hectares (2.75 acres), with an average depth: 8.5 m (28 ft).
I’ve never been into an exhibit and there are two at the moment.
One is Picasso 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy (just that year!). The other is Shape of Light, an exhibit of 100 Years of Photography & Abstract Act (it mostly shows how artists have worked with light – and subsequently shadow.
I don’t really like Picasso. So many millions disagree with me, therefore I must be missing the point. But taste is taste. Mine doesn’t lean to Picasso. I won’t say much more but I’ll caption some photos from the exhibit for you to ponder.
A few words on the next two pieces. The program reads, ‘Picasso turned to a new and darker subject matter: the threat of drowning, and the possibility of rescue.’ This happened after his lover got a viral infection after swimming in contaminated water. ‘This is suggested by some of the works on paper in which fatal accident is transformed into sexual violence.’ What? This might lend a clue: ‘Some biographers have argued that, since the childhood death of his younger sister…Picasso felt doomed to cause women to suffer.’ Do I need to say more? Maybe. Maybe not. Not now, anyway. Sorry, Picasso, you’re not for me.
The photography exhibit bored me a little. I was hoping to be inspired. There were one or two pieces that I did like and the last piece, which was a mix of real art on the walls and projections, was quite wonderful.
Thanks, Tate. And hmmm…I suppose modern art and me aren’t very good friends. It’s one area I am decidedly not contemporary.
The best art is outside
