At Tate Modern Extension and Red 117

The new Tate Modern extension does blend well

I  fear I must blame Leslie Primo - (somewhat and also perhaps Kevin Geraghty)  Modern Art is looking to me increasingly superficial ( and thought I'd not never say this) .

I enjoyed looking at the works on show at Tate's new space with a companion but compared to something like Holbein's The Ambassadors or for that matter Hockney's A Bigger Splash it was forgettable and often I thought lacking in craftsmanship.


Odd to find that the arrangement of Bricks ( Equivalent VIII) that created so many news headlines is not alone in being an exercise in an idea carried to extremis - somewhat irritated by Bruce Nauman's 'Corridor with Mirror and White Lights' (1971) - I had wondered about the 'air conditioning' I saw in the pre launch so was on my guard but I'm sure many would have missed this and it would probably not be a great loss for them.

[Having looked at Nauman's 'biog' I can see perhaps why his work is as it is.]

'Corridor with Mirror and White Lights' (1971)

I did enjoy some of the items but having some time after our joint 'promenade I  did go and look at some (so called) retinal art and found that it was for me a richer experience.

My eye was drawn to Meredith Frampton's
'Portrait of a Young Woman' (1935) as an example of a picture that tells us much about the sitter and the time.

Odd to find that Frampton lived until 1984 and note that (for me) his work sits so  comfortably among earlier portraits by revered artists.

'Portrait of a Young Woman' (1935)

[Just to make clear I'm not totally lost to new ideas I was much taken by Tina Sehgal's intriguing 'performance piece' This is Propaganda (2002)  - for some reason or another.]

Red 117

And just across from the Tate Modern a lovely red accessory  

A hat that could have been made for me (but  is better worn by this gentleman )