Tate Modern

On our trip to London, we visited a lot of museums. Much more satisfying than shopping, though I have to admit I loved the shop in the Victoria & Albert Museum, with all its little knick-knacks, bags and jewellry.

I have already told you about the V&A and the Science Museum. Let me now tell you all about the Tate Modern. Since we had seen a program on the telly a few years ago about the re-designing of it as a museum, it was one of these iconic buildings I really wanted to see, for the architecture of it, more so than for the art on display. As one of the tube stations was closed, it was quite a long walk along the Thames to get to it, but it was a lovely sunny morning, so we didn't mind. (I did mind on the way back, when my legs could hardly carry me any more!)

There is a new pedestrian bridge leading to it, the Millenium Bridge. It links it to just across St Paul's Cathedral, perfect photo opportunities, of couse. And it's just beside the Globe theatre (we didn't have time to go in - maybe next time). As you walk across the bridge, step by step you realise how big the Tate Modern is, a fabulous building, an old power station, transformed into its new life as a museum with fabulous high spaces that can accommodate all sorts of things. Mind you, some of the exhibits seemed to have been chosen for their height rather than for their beauty.

The main highlights were the Roy Lichtenstein, Picasso's Nude Woman with Necklace and Francis Bacon's Study for Portrait on Folding Bed, as well as an installation that consisted of hundreds of pieces of silver hanging from the ceiling (it's actually called Thirty Pieces of Silver). We also liked a piece called Hip Hip Hoorah (pictured here), as it was so full of fun and joie de vivre, and it also made me feel that, some day, I could have my paintings in a museum too! There was also a big painting of a blond woman's head - she had fabulous eyes - but I can't find it on the website.

Don't forget to click on Explore Tate on the website if you want to view the paintings in each room.

And here is a piece of trivia before I leave you for today: I found in the Explore Tate section a painting by Francis Bacon called Figures in a Garden. There isn't much information about it on the website, except this note: "Accepted by H.M. Government in lieu of Inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007" I kid you not! It's on Level 3, Room 2!