Culture Holiday

[Sandy Lane]

Well it was a hol with no football, but full of snow and museums -- National Gallery, Courtauld Gallery, V & A, Natural History, and last but not least, yes, the Tate Modern!!  By the end, thought I was going to have to throw m'sen off the Millennium Bridge!!  But which was my favorite you ask?  Tate Modern by a mile!!!  I had been a few years ago and liked the room with a VW bus (ala Little Miss Sunshine) and also a room full of Flexible Flyer sleds, which have sadly gone to pastures anew.  But discovered great Russian art (Kandinsky) surprisingly upbeat and bright, and German art, which was suppressed during WW2 - unsurprisingly dark and violent.  But apparently Hitler was denied a place in art school so consequently ordered all expressionism 'degenerate art' destroyed.  But we saved a lot of this art through intelligence efforts (pre wiki leaks, mind) hiding them in salt mines, etc. -- one of the few good things we did. So if Hitler had been admitted to art school, would world history have changed?  Also saw Andy Warhol's works which were eerily reminiscent of Banksy's stencils, (I'm an idiot as I never put two and two together to realize that a lot of his stencils and ideas were based on Warhol's and other modern artists works).   Also saw Jackson Pollock's # 9A --  reminded me of the Stone Roses song but couldn't remember which # they sang about.  Also, Rodin's 'The Kiss' which apparently is based on an adulteress couple mentioned in Dante's Inferno!!  So sorry to bore you, but wanted to put in a good word for the maligned Tate Modern since it was slated a few months ago in an earlier thread.  So, my dears, today's art history lesson now comes to an end, thank you for listening and you may now exit single file.   Cheers.  (or yawn).  ;-)

[Dagenham Rover]

Glad you've been having a good time shame no footie though.

Hope those cockneys have been treating you ok they can be a bit brusque sometimes

[Sandy Lane]

Thanks Dags.  Had a lovely time, always do and thankfully never seem to experience problems with folk.  Sad to miss the footie and also sad not to have a chance to meet any of you vsc'ers.  Hopefully another time though.  :-)