The Tate Modern

[UnquietDad]

Was in London for work this week and managed a quick pop to the Tate.

Liked a lot of the dadaist and surrealist stuff, but come on, some of it, esp. the minimalism is really taking the piss.

I mean, this, FFS It may be a cliche but my 5-year-old DS really could have done it.

They're filling in "the Crack" right now so the Turbine Hall is empty. I wanted to ask if the filling-in was itself an act of art.

I also had a really HORRID blueberry muffin which was the texture of sandpaper and fell apart on the plate in nasty little bits. I was thinking of giving it free to Nicholas Serota and entitling it "Hunger". It was a profound exploration, I thought, of the interface between the eating and the eaten, and invited the observer to reflect on the fundamental dichotomies and hypocrisies of the affluent world's attitude to waste.

Of course it;s done to make people have conversations like this.

WE are doing all the work.

Two whole floors are free, though?...

Meant the catering offer re the overpricedness

I'm liking the whole interface between the eating and the eaten spiel

i think you could have a future in curating

mazzy - oh, gosh, yes - all museum/gallery cafes are overpriced though aren't they?

but the building is incredible too

and the view across the thames from the balcony

you can always get a seat there ime

and i love walking across the bridge and into st pauls

such a magnificent juxtaposition of different experiences

i get quite overwhelmed

i am dying to go tho with someone else as i always go on my own

lots of romantic potential

I loved it because it was my first trip back to the big smoke since moving away from London, so I was very excited...I like it's hugeness.

gush..barf lolol

Um yes, nice view from the top floor caff, especially, must concede that
Don't specially like the architecture - I think the planning, circulation is all wrong - my memory of the stinky inaccessible toilets will be with me forever
Size isn't everything, as most of the stuff they have chosen to show in the Turbine Hall shows
Its good in that its THE thing that has created a knowledge/interest/curiosity in contemporary art in the minds of the general public.

oh yes the toilets are weird with those strange oversized doors....not good at all

but its only pubs i judge by the quality of the toilets [old person emoticon]

yes the loos were very disappointing and not pleasant

Is Rothko the big red paintings in the dark room?
I liked them

I take ds to the Tate Modern and he loves it, although he shares your disdain for Rothko (apparently it's 'interior design, not flipping art').
Did you see the Russian prop art mags and the Lichtenstein, I love all that myself, quite like Pollock too but ds is really into Picasso in a big way.

I love Tate Modern. Just love the size of it as much as the art. Must take dd...

Fave thing ever was a room filled with amazing video installations of people diving into water - some backwards, slowed down, etc. Loved it.

I don't like Rothko either - looks like Ikea paintings to me. But that's ok - all art is subjective!

We love the Tate Modern as a space and how its presence on the South Bank has made that stretch of the river endlessly interesting
Am more of a Tate Britain/NPG person as far as the collections are concerned, and foodwise we picnic or treat ourselves to Wagamama
Doris' crack has kept the dcs and their friends talking for ages on the occasions we've visited recently.
Sorry that Louise Bourgeois' fantastic spider is elsewhere at the moment

We saw a bronze cast of the spider at the Guggenheim in Bilbao during the Easter hols.

Now that is an amazing building.

Marina, talking about Tate Britain, can't wait for the Francis Bacon exhibition in September

We went to Tate Britain to see the Camden painters exhibition, it was really good.

louise bourgeois spider is on my profile i love her work she is amazing

Blimey Zippi, you're glam! That's not how you describe yourself.

the most lovely thing i have seen at TM was olafur eliasson's sun, i have always remembered it.

lol the resolution isnt much good is it

the other photos are us in li
thuania two weeks ago

the hens are where i garden they arent mine

Interior design is a good way of describing it.

That chap who is "playing with ideas of space" by covering the entire room with geometric black-and-white shapes - same could be said of him. Greta wallpaper.

Great wallpaper. Not Greta.

WEll - ponce alert warning - I love the Rothkos and DS (6) loves the Rothkos. WE always go in there and spend a long time.

And since DS has a close relative who is an artist, he has recently been given free range on a BIG canvas with some REAL oil paints. Interestingly, what he has done is more Hodginson-influenced - he realy worked at it, has covered the canvas with fantastic deep colours and has thought about texture etc - but it is quite clearly the work of a 6 year-old and not a real artist. It is clumpy and naive anddoes not have depth.

He actually did a series in soluble pastel which he says are rothkos - but nope - they are fabulous but still the work of an eager unskilled 6 year-old.

The actual colour and layering of the pigment, the exact tones, the exact proportions, they are not accidental, they are the ingredients of art.

But why am I telling you all this UQD - you are prefectly well aware of it - and just as you blithely say that about art, you know full well that there are, apparantly millions of 5 year-olds out there who could write contemporary poetry, and EVERYONE has a novel in them that they could easily write.

But don't.

And can't.

Umberella, I kick myself that we missed the Eliasson, dsis says it was unforgettably beautiful
Last time we went we had a friend of ds's with us, whose dad is an antiques dealer. We talked about why Doris Salcedo's art was different from eg Hepplewhite or Chippendale, and (for you UQD) whether the process of restoring the floor in the Turbine Hall was part of Shibboleth or not.
Even dd, who is four, had an opinion. The Tate Modern gets children talking about art. There are great education officers and programmes in London's other major galleries, but the Tate Modern is the one that sparks their imaginations before you are even through the door. (Can't wait for the Bacon either Cam).
Has BoyBlu seen the wonderful Offili room at Tate Britain, Blu? That one had ds boggling for days.