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Tuesday 11 November 2014

London Stuff and Sigmar Polke

The ancient city of London has many charms and treasures and chief among these I name the art galleries at the top of the list. This year London has the most amazing blockbuster art shows to visit and tonight I went to view Sigmar Polke at Tate Modern. It was certainly intriguing and I shall go back a few times to absorb the works. So political, so Germanic! And so very masculine! Hardly the analysis that would win me a prize in Art Theory and Criticism but I will write more about it after my next visits. After viewing this show (and others) I am very inspired to start sketchbooks and small drawings based on my observations of life and culture in London. Lately, I have been made so aware of how crowded this city is becoming. London is rich, deep, majestic but, of late, I've been feeling a different type of tension that isn't entirely comfortable. There is an underlying fragility, tension and confusion that is coming to the surface and I would like to resolve it or to work out what is happening on paper. London was always heavily populated but now commuting on the London Underground is uncomfortable and potentially dangerous for that reason. How could I translate these sentiments into small sketchbook statements as did Polke and Malevich? I don't know but it's worth a shot. Some pictures below show a small section of the exhibition and the always dominant, but slightly weird interior of the Tate Modern gallery. I'm tired right now so I won't write any more and my photography might be as tired as my head.


 My favourite of the show. 

  Entrance to the show. 


 A typical early Sigmar Polke 


Turbine Hall

A separate exhibition in the Turbine Hall of Richart Tuttle's work with Fabric.   Not impressed with this. Even with that amount of fabric there was so much more room for massive expression. Nothing compelling about it at all.