Tate Modern am I missing something about Sigmar Polke?

Yesterday in town and after my weekly City Lit Philosophy session (more of this tomorrow), I decided to take the shortish trip to St. Paul's and walk across the Millennium Bridge to see the new installation at Tate Modern by Richard Tuttle.

Part of a very big work by Richard Tuttle

The work is in Fabric and Wood and called  ' I Don’t Know . The Weave of Textile Language' it is very big and seems to be getting a lot of attention particularly from school groups.

Tuttle is an American artist working in multiple fields and is also having a retrospective at Whitechapel.   

A school group enjoying the scale

As well as looking at the enormous presence in the Turbine Hall I took a (second) look at the Robert Mapplethorpe photographs, very relevant following Monday's photography session and the impending one on portraiture.

Mapplethorpe who died in 1989 has many fine pictures on display they are of assorted artists in monochrome who are generally looking at the camera there are also a selection of some more controversial images on show .

 Amongst the artist I recognised  I really  like the photo's of Roy Lichtenstein and William Burroughs - Burroughs not being fully contained in the frame.

Sigmar Polke exhibition 

A nice programme 

I also looked at the Sigmar Polke exhibition which was extensive and varied  which was a chance for me to see the work of a German multi media artist who was new to me. 

Sigmar Poke disappointed me on some levels

I felt a little like I was looking at work by an 'invented artist' who mainly captured the Zeitgeist (surely appropriately for a German artist?)  but I didn't feel that I came to his essence, much as Faust the German band  were clever and influential (but for me) not loved I felt that Sigmar was an encapsulation of various projects and trends but that his work was more about a considered attitude without a real commitment and heart.

Having said that I did like some (of very many) of the artefacts on show including 'Women at the Mirror' (1966), 'Moderne Kunst' as well as a Mao print on Fabric.

What I was not so keen on were the messy (to my mind) films of various trips(?)- not sure why these were such a feature of artists of the period