Tate Modern Art Gallery - London
International Modern Art on London's South Bank
What Sir. Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul's, would have thought of Tate Modern is something we do not know, but it has become one of London's top attractions.
Standing in the middle of the Millenium bridge on London’s South Bank, with St. Paul’s Cathedral on one side of the river and Tate Modern on the other, you are faced with architecture covering three hundred years.
London's Tate Modern Art Gallery - The Turbine Hall
Tate Modern was an empty power station before it was stuffed with art galleries. The scale of the place is mind-boggling. Architect Giles Gilbert Scott designed the power station and work began in 1947. The Turbine Hall which once was home to the giant electricity generators of the old power station, is five storeys tall with 3,400 square metres of floorspace. It is now one of the largest, if not the largest, indoor art gallery spaces in the world.
London's Tate Modern Art Gallery - Riverside Location
The power station was closed in 1981 and for many years was at risk of being demolished by developers eager to get their hands on this desirable riverside location. Campaigners fought for it to be named an important ‘listed’ building. Not everyone agreed, after all, it is not a particularly attractive building, being not much more than a huge brick block with a tall tower attached. It certainly was no artistic gem.
London's Tate Modern Art Gallery - Once Bankside Power Station
Fortunately, there were people with foresight who had the audacious idea of turning this icon of Britain’s industrial past into one of the greatest modern art museums in the world. The Bankside Power Station became the home of Tate Modern, which opened in May 2000, and is one of the most significant of the many projects that were created for Britain’s entry into the new millennium. A symbol of London in the 21st-century.
London's Tate Modern Art Gallery - International artists like Louise Bourgeois and Doris Salcedo
You may not like everything you see at Tate Modern. Apart from the permanent collection, which really does have something for everyone, some of the exhibitions in the Turbine Hall have been the stuff of heated discussions.
The current one (Feb.08) by the Columbian artist Doris Salcedo is probably the most controversial of all. Along the entire length of the huge hall runs a jagged crack in the concrete floor; it looks like a dangerous faultline. A fence is embedded into the trench which the artist suggests will recall the perimeter of Guantanamo. Walking into a room with a giant crack down the middle of it is certainly unsettling, and perhaps this is what the artist wants us to feel.
The work of 95-year-old artist Louise Bourgeois also causes strong feelings to emerge - especially if you have a spider phobia. A giant bronze and steel spider stands (not permantly) outside the front entrance. It is called Maman, the French word for mother, and has a large basket of eggs hanging from its stomach.
London's Tate Modern Art Gallery - Mark Rothko Exhibition
A big treat coming up is The Mark Rothko exhibition, to take place in September 2008. It will be the first major exbibition of the American artist’s late works. The Rothko Room is one of the most popular in Tate Modern, housing nine paintings known as the Seagram murals.
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