Modern Art on a Grand Scale
Summary: Modern Art on a Grand Scale.
Inverting Dr. Johnsons famous observation: As I'm never tired of life, Im never tired of London.
On my latest visit there I found four brand new attractions to be experienced.
The most impressive new addition to the capital, at least in terms of sheer size and novelty, is the Tate Modern. Its a whoppera modern art gallery thats Londons answer to the Pompidou Center in Paris and MoMA in New York .
It s housed in a colossal former electricity generating station, designed in 1947 by Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Liverpool Cathedral and designer of the red British telephone kiosk (now being painted black by horrible British Telecom) and sited on the south bank of the Thames between the Royal Festival Hall and London Bridge. For information tel. (44)207-887-8687.
As a result the well-known old Tate Gallery, on the Westminster side of the river has been rechristened Tate Britain since it now only houses British art.
I wouldnt bother about the art in Tate Modern. Its mostly piles of old garbage, broken stones, and rows of repetitive photosall tellingly arranged, of course. But a characteristic of such modern artistic displays is that each one requires immense amounts of spaceenough for a dozen Gainsboroughs, at least, or two dozen Monets.
Luckily this is the one commodity Tate Modern has in abundance. The most impressive thing about this immense brick building is not the so-called art but its Pharaonic size and the skilful way it has been turned into a seven-story gallery.
From the restaurant at the top I enjoyed a splendid view of the thatched roof of Shakespeares reconstructed Globe Theater and the elegant new pedestrian suspension bridge spanning the Thames and leading to St. Pauls Cathedral.
Depressed by modern art
That bridge would have been on my list of new London attractions to visit had it been open. Built to commemorate the millennium, it started swaying as soon as the first pedestrian put a toe on it and no one had been able to stabilize it yet.
Depressed by the moderness of modern art, I made my way up the Strand to the newly refurbished Somerset House to try something more traditional. I remember when this splendid 18th-century palace housed public records while its elegant courtyard served as a car park for tax inspectors.
Both have now happily been banished. The front of the building houses the Courtauld art collection, which Ive explored previously. New to me, however, were the dancing fountains which now fill the empty center courtyard in summer, to be replaced in winter by Londons only open-air ice rink.
In the south buildings are two splendid new exhibits. The Hermitage Rooms display a constantly changing collection of treasures borrowed from the great St. Petersburg museum of that name. Entrance costs $9 but because the rooms are small, tickets must be bought in advance and are for a specified time. (Tickets from Ticketmaster or tel. (44)207-413-3398).
Easier to visit is the new Gilbert Collection of antique English and Continental gold and silverware, Italian mosaics, enamel portrait miniatures and Indian Howdahs (these are the silver seats Rajahs sat in when riding their elephants. The driver sat on the beasts neck and poked it with a bejeweled rod to make it turn corners.) Entrance costs $10.
Supermarket magnates art collection
The collection, housed in a spanking new exhibition hall, was put together by a Brit called Arthur Gilbert. Born in London in 1913, he went out to California and made a mint building shopping malls which he then spent accumulating all this loot. In 1999, he gave the whole caboodle to Britain, collecting a Knighthood from the Queen in return. Her Majesty got a bargain.
What I like best in Sir Arthurs collection is the pair of solid silver chamber pots made for the Second Earl of Warrington (1675 to 1758) and a gold ewer found in Anatolia dating from 2,500 B.C., with a Swastika on its base. This was a symbol of good luck in those days, of course.
On your way out, dont forget to visit the 18th-century red and gold barge of the kind in which the upper classes were once rowed up and down the Thames. The river was wider, shallower, and slower moving in those days, which explains why it regularly froze over allowing the common people to hold frost fairs on the ice.
My final call was at the British Museum, near Russele Square, to see the new Great Court created by glassing over the space around the famous circular reading room (where Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital) and which used to contain the museum librarys book stacks.
Stacks and reading room have now been transferred to the new British Library beside St. Pancras station. What remains is the newly refurbished reading room, without books or readers, but swarming with visitors who use the glassed-in space to escape the rain and consume exorbitantly priced snacks.
The final new attraction, of course, is the famous London Eye. This is an immense white ferris wheel with glassed-in passenger cabins standing across the river from the Houses of Parliament, revolving slowly and giving riders splendid views across London, or so it is said. Londons Eye Sore is what it should be called. I was glad it had broken down when I was there. May it stay that way.
William Chamberlayne has been a contributing editor to International Living for more than 17 years. You can read more of his articles at www.internationalliving.com.
Have you visited the Tate Modern, The Somerset House, Sir Arthur's Collection or The British Museum? What are your favorite pieces? What other London Musuems and cultural attractions would you recommend to newcomers?
First Published: May 01, 2001