On the morning of our last day in London we went to the Tate Modern to see their collection of modern and contemporary art to balance out the older works seen previously. With us were our daughter and granddaughters who were again taking part in another childrens’ tour.

First the building fascinated, starting with the sloping pavement down into the entrance which seemed rather formidable and unattractive at first. The slope continued inside the building, in what is called the Turbine Hall which apparently is an exhibition space but was bare that day. It was a lively gathering place for groups of children and youths, we smiled at a young child chasing a runaway toy down the slope. The huge bookstore next to it looked like it had a rich collection of books though we were not buying. We were first attracted by a fascinating video in the lobby from which we learned that this building in its earlier incarnation was a a power station.

The collections are arranged thematically rather than chronologically which made for some interesting and thought provoking placements of artists. The large open bright spaces of the rooms suited the modern works and never felt crowded except the odd time a guided school group went through. It was exciting to see the famous pieces and also meet some unknowns. Occasionally I was disappointed that there were sometimes only one or two pieces representing certain artists. Again, we took no photos so I’m relying on the Tate’s website to link to a very few of the highlights.

Marlene Dumas’ work excited me for this was my first time seeing it live

Frances Bacon and Anish Kapoor are both favourites of mine

Several Picassos including this sculpture

Roualt was a favourite of mine in my art student days

David Smith’s sculptures I like

Cornelia Parker is an artist new to me, I loved her full room size installation. The photo does not do it justice but do check out the ‘additional view’ for a detail.

Anselm Kiefer is a powerful artist whose work I’ve seen and admired in Germany but I think we missed this room!

In one room, I was suddenly captivated by a window with a perfect view of the Millennium Bridge with St. Paul’s (below left). It almost looked like a piece of framed art like the other works on the walls, a clever architectural detail, I’d say.

Afterwards, we parted from the family and walked across this beautiful bridge and it’s amazing view of St Paul’s Cathedral, as well as the view back of the Tate Modern (bottom). We had no time to stop but kept on walking, even getting lost for a bit, for our wonderful lunch meeting with Mr. and Mrs. B. More walking about London followed, a kind of last look, then back home to pack and get ready for our journey to Paris the next morning.

On our last two days in London, we really packed in the sights and gallery visits. I wrote about the morning of our second-to-last-day’s visit to the Annette Messager exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, after a ride on the London Eye. After lunch, we walked over to The National Gallery which sits so majestically on the top of the grand Trafalgar Square, shown above with St. Martin in the Fields on the right. This is another free institution though the traveling Picasso exhibition in the Sainsbury wing of course was not.

Our granddaughters and their mother joined a children’s tour they had been signed up for while husband and I went about on our own. It was exciting to recognize many many famous art works from the 13th to the early 20th centuries. I can’t remember all my favourites now though I did at first start to write them down but that took too long! We did not take photos (I think it was not allowed) but the National Gallery’s website has the entire collection online so its great to be able to go back and review the collection. Just a few of our favourites:

Jan Van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait – I adore the North European artists
Leonardo da Vinci’s Sketch for The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne – I love his drawings
Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Ambassadors – some fascinating details in this
Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire – I think one of the first Turners I’ve seen in real life.

The Impressionist Collection is gorgeous as well. I was thrilled in particular to see the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s Lake Keitele (above). Many years ago when I was researching Finnish art I fell in love with Gallen-Kallela and especially his work inspired by the Kalevala. He became a significant figure in my BFA Honours thesis.

The interiors are gorgeous with rich brilliant colours on the walls in most of the rooms but I was quite shocked to see mud-coloured ones for the impressionists! As is usual with most huge museums, it was a bit confusing navigating the rooms so as not to miss anything. And as usual, looking at a lot of art exhilarates then exhausts me so, sadly, we did not get to the Picasso exhibit.

Oh, and the children, even the three-year-old, loved their tour, a compliment to their excellent guide! We were then rewarded with delicious treats in the cafeteria to restore some energy for the trip home on the tube and bus. The bus trip that late afternoon rush hour was extra slow and long because it was diverted the long way around due to a water main break near home, sigh.
(Next: visiting the Tate Modern)

Annette Messager: Casino – image from Art Knowledge News

After our London Eye ride, we walked over to the nearby Southbank Centre and left the granddaughters to play with their Opa. Elisa and I went into the Hayward Gallery to see the Annette Messager: The Messengers exhibition.

Since this was a 40-year retrospective of the French artist’s work, we first met numerous tiny sketches, scribbles and cutouts covering walls and floors, and my thought was ‘gosh, if I’d kept every tiny scrap of everything I ever did in my life, I’d need a warehouse to store them.’ She obviously has one, for she’s amassed a huge body of work. It is fascinating to see the development of the artist’s work over the decades, from her interest in stuffed toys, animals, birds, children’s stories, photographs and drawings of children and women’s faces, human parts, and increasingly, broken parts, like the stuff of nightmares or physical abuse and violence. Good thing we did not take the children in for some of it would have been too disturbing for them.

Elisa, also an artist, commented that so many of Messager’s installations of hanging pieces reminded her of the work of one of her favourite artists, Christian Boltanski, who so happens to be Messager’s partner. For the both of us, the most moving installation had to be Messager’s Casino, first shown at the Venice Biennale in 2005. We sat there in front of it for long minutes, breathing in time with the seeming breathing action of the installation itself, almost like being inside a rich red living being, or something underwater slowly moving to the rhythm of ocean waves. It also made me think of a human embryo in the mother’s womb.

I generally like to view an exhibition without too much reading of print material until afterwards in order to respond with my own sensitivities and art experience. Sometimes Messager’s complex work is hard to understand but to me that’s the power and mystery of good art, the leaving of openings for the personal responses of the viewer. Reading about it later has enriched the experience for me.

I was excited at this opportunity to see this artist’s work as I’d first read about Annette Messager at Threading Thoughts about two years ago and found her work even then very exciting, disturbing and compelling. Olga is always a very articulate and understanding reviewer of the many exhibitions she visits. Unfortunately for us, she removes her older posts so we don’t have the link anymore, but I’m grateful to that introduction to a most powerful artist.

Here are some quotes by the artist, from the exhibition brochure in print and online:

For me, it’s a ‘natural’ gesture to rip bodies apart, cut them up… I always feel that my identity as a woman and as an artist is divided, disintegrated, fragmented, and never linear, always multifaceted…always pictures of parts of bodies, fragments and closeups… I always perceive the body in fragments.

I only wanted to use materials that you would be likely to find in a home, an attic: a ball of wool, coloured pencils, fabric, as if there were a kind of sequestration in the desire to be an artist.

I like to tell stories. I like clichés. Children’s stories are monstrous. Psychoanalytically, our entire society is encapsulated in fairy tales. I’ve always been interested in them and they are often one of my points of departure.

It’s been three months since I saw this exhibition. I took no notes or photos so some of my memories are a bit blurry, so apologies for that. I’ve talked about some of my impressions and responses more than specific descriptions about the work. There is a wealth of information online about the artist and her work, far better than I can write. If it interests you to learn more please see some of the links provided at the bottom.

We were unable to get into the bookstore for just as we came out of the exhibition rooms there was an announcement that everyone was to exit the building. Fire? Terrorism? No explanation was given. Ah well, I was saved from the temptation of buying more catalogues or art books of which I have far far too many. I do have a small brochure but the illustrations are limited, hence I’ve had to go online to find a photo to post here, but the photos do not do justice to the experience, especially the Casino one shown above.

There have been been comments here of how many museums in London are free, but this one was not. Elisa’s Southbank membership did not allow guests free entry as she’d thought so I paid up, grateful for the seniors’ discount for 60 plus, something that seemed more common in the UK than in Canada where you usually have to be 65.

LINKS:
Annette Messager’s art of magic in The Guardian, includes reviews and a great slide show
e-flux
about Annette Messager in Wikipedia
Google Images