I started to get the British humour in Tate Britain... "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" by Sarah Lucas shows a variety of household objects (e.g. light bulbs for boobs) to produce a metaphor for sexual activity contrasted with a cardboard coffin derived from Freud's seminal text.
Common mistake 1: Tate Britain only shows the old stuff while Tate Modern has all the modern stuff. The Turner Prize, the world's most recognised and prestigious award for contemporary art, has been featured in the Tate Britain for years. If you haven't been, tomorrow (3 Jan '10) is your last chance. My favourite is Lucy Skaer's Leonora (death), a life-sized outline of whale skeleton just visible when viewed from distance. Similarly, Skaer allows only glimpses of a whale skull through the architectural screens constructed around it.
In this afternoon's Artist in Focus session (Tue/Sat pm only), Peter Lanyon's Last Mine was featured, a true modernisation of the landscape painting (doesn't happen often and quite difficult, Rothko would be one) by creating difference perspectives of the painting, almost like a collage.
Common Mistake 2: Tate Britain only exhibits British artists. In reality artists who have lived in Britain for long and have art works showing Britain Life is also featured in Tate Britain. Canaletto's painting of St. James Park, Horse Guard Garden, and St. Martin's in the Fields is very British, although it's a loaned piece.
Speaking of landscape, Constables is the one artist not to miss. Layman life in countryside in such details that the study of his shades of green is as if the decipher of the Egyptian hieroglyphics through Rosetta stone. Millais's Ophelia (in Hamlet) has been one of the most popular Pre-Raphaelite works painted directly from nature itself, as truthfully as possible and with incredible attention to detail, the green river bank, green grass,...
Some portraits are indeed the Portrait of the "Dress" not the figure, which reminds me Karl Lagerfeld (Chanel). The museum also has a small Henry Moore's piece called Helmet Head No 4: Interior - Exterior, which has the intriguing factor as well. The Henry Moore exhibition will be on from Feb, which I much look forward to since the '08 summer exhibition at the Kew Garden.
This month, Turner and the Master is still on. I'd a brief look and will go back because as Turner described "atmosphere is my style." He is so poetic, dream evoking and breath taking!
"EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT." neon light art work was installed on the facade of Tate Britain Millbank entrance created by Martin Creed, the former director of Tate Britain (12 Years) is a brilliant representation of the concise and the containment of Modern and Classical (architecture).
Amongst many museums I visited, Tate Britain gallery rooms are made easy to follow: each room has Big Numbers showing at the door and a small arrow pointing to a small number indicating the "leading to" gallery room number. read more