The Tates in London - Tate Britain, Tate Modern

It's been a while since my last post - too much fun!
I want to share some of the great work I saw in Tate Britain and Tate Modern.
Tate Britain is currently organised with a chronological walk through large beautiful galleries from very early ca C15th through to contemporary. Also there is a huge wing devoted to Turner, a gallery with quite a few Constables and a smaller gallery with William Blake and Samuel Palmer.
I was hoping to see more work by Walter Sickert.
However it was great to see one of Patrick Heron's garden series - bright and fresh and large.

This image does nothing to relay the absolute knockout painting by Peter Lanyon. It's a fantastic painting and you really feel his experience of the air currents and energy.

This great work by Peter Blake - so good to see it for real! It is really loaded with imagery and it is wonderful to 'read' it all.

A knock out work by Brigid Riley

This is a huge painting by Gillian Ayers who is still working at 80. I have always loved her work , there is a realy powerful small work by her in Canberra.

Wonderfully large and powerful painting by Auerbach - so exciting to see this one!

Also this painting by Kossof - wow!!

This work is huge - at least 2.5 x 3.5m by Chris Olifi. It really literally glistens with the thousands of sequins. It's fabulous!!!

Finally this absolutely huge work by Peter Doig is terrific from a distance and increasingly fascinating up close. The surface of the work is just staggering. This one is especially beguiling and not sure what he does ot how but it's great to look at!

 This is a detail of the surface of Peter Doig's work.

I think I must be pretty conservative in that I just love to see what people do with paint. The final room was all work by the Chapman Brothers who are huge here. I need to think about their work. Haven't decided whether they are clever and witty or a couple of hipsters! They are very 'clever' which always worries me! The Cool Britainnia crew or Britpack are now all successful and mainstream, no more so than the entrepreneurial Damien Hirst.

In Tate Modern now - couldn't take photos in the Paul Klee and Mira Schendal exhibitions. Mira Schendal is worth looking at - fabulous paintings in early career then really into text, working with rice paper and heaps of change and development. She worked in Brazil after getting out of Germany in 1949.
The sculpture above by Louise Bourgeois is from 1994 and made around time of the bronxe series of hands I saw in the Tuileries garden

 Arshile Gorky - wow

Karel Appel - love this work!

 A wonderful Matisse

 Some great works by Max Ernst

 This huge work by Golub was made during the Vietnam War - terrifically strong.

 This is an early work by our Joan Mitchell!!!!

 The room with the Gerhard Richter pieces is terrific - a smaller room and the proximity of the huge works is even better.

 Detail

 Detail

 Detail

 A late abstract work by Philip Guston - I reckon there are figurative hints here

Lee Krasner

 Wonderful Kossof again

 This image doesn't do any justice to this work by Dubuffet - fabulous surface

 Terrific work by Picasso from probably around 1907

 That painting is just beside this sculpture of Fernande by Picasso - really great to see the 2D and 3D

 Groovy Elsworth Kelly

 The Josef Albers' works are beautiful

 The peacock green one is beside these three - a lovely area of colour

  This is an early wonderful work by Mondrian.

 Not sure who this artist is now - woops, but it fills the space really well

 Of course the room with the Cy Twombleys is a knock out! There are four works as above - the sheer energy and physicality of these painting is like an opera!

 Also in the same room are sculptures by Twombley. Usually hard to capture but I got this one - painted bronze.

Finally another work by Nikki de St Phalle - I want to find out more about this artist.