Tate Modern

We are not big fans of "modern" art, but we'd not visited the Tate Modern before, and we thought we'd give it a go. Besides, if the art didn't excite, then the building might: it is the former Bankside Power Station, which provided London with electricity for much of the 20th century. The architects who undertook its transformation are the same who did the Bird's Nest in Tokyo for the 2008 Olympics, so we had high hopes. 

From the other bank

Approaching from the Millennium Bridge

In the great old Turbine Hall, definitely some space available if
you have some really large format works to offer

You have to wonder what she was thinking

We headed straight for the permanent collection;

here, Modigliani's Little Peasant, 1918

Braque's Mandora, 1909; it's a musical instrument

Picasso's Head of a Woman, 1909; they later
broke up

Dali's Autumnal Cannibalism, 1936; so far so good, modern-wise

But in the next room, things began to go
downhill; this is Barnett Newman's Moment,
1936; quite similar to the painting I was
doing in the late 1980s (seriously); in my
Artistic Statement, I described my work as
"unfettered by either talent or training"; I
liked to just mix up a bunch of earth-tones,
slather them on, and see what they suggested;
if anything; Moment reminds me also of some
scenes we saw recently in Iceland, as the lava
cooled

Vicki was never particularly appreciative of my artistic endeavors,
which took place mostly in the kitchen (not carpeted; though I
worked mostly in acrylics: easy clean-up); in an unrelated incident,
she left one of my works looking pretty much like this

The one that had the same tones as this item from Gerhard Richter's
John Cage series; I still have the battered painting rolled up in a box
in Missoula, waiting for some wise curator/conservator to restore it

Yves Klein's Paint on Canvas on Plywood, 1959; the paint
color is International Klein Blue, which he claimed to have
invented and trademarked; why didn't I think of that?

Obligatory Warhol

One of three walls of books redecorated with the names of 
immigrants who have achieved some degree of renown in 
Britain; The British Library, by Yinka Shonabare CBE; we
actually liked this

Nicole Eisenman's The Darkward Trail, 2018,
said to be a satire/allegory on America's 
conservative and Trumpian turn; a bit subtle...

From a collection of Soviet photo books

Cecilia Vicuna, Quipu Womb

At this point, the title of which I did not get, we were about
done; there was much more to look at; but we were done

A view across the Thames from the restaurant

The Turbine Hall, again, from on high

DIY modern art below

More outside