Tate Modern: Classic or Dud?

Anyone who claimed to like everything in there would be lucky to have very catholic taste, or no taste at all.

I like the Founders Arms and the Ring, and the Anchor Bankside's OK if it's quiet.

I find the whole thing a bit overwhelming, as I've said before, and am much happier seeing smaller shows in selling galleries (which of course bring their own problems).

Sometimes I feel like making the argument that to see modern art in the TM is like knowing about pop by listening only to the NME's top 100 LPs ever. Then I think there's something fundamentally wrong with the argument, but I can't work out exactly what. Incoherence ahoy!

I loved it except perhaps that people aren't going to Tate Britain so much now. The contrast in size between the enormous central space and the normal-sized galleries is great too - yes the crowds are annoying but its worth it to get people looking. So many of *them* come out moved and educated.

However, (I'm going to repeat this on the other thread) people should listen to David Lee, who has been shouting for a while about the dodgy practises at the top of the art world and the few people who control too much. Serota and gang definitely have too much power.

Next day I have a Zones 1-4 travelcard, I will go. But I really think that I need to plan an all-day thing to visit it properly and do it justice. It looks freaking huge.

Bah! Now I wish I'd said I did like it, because by saying it's superfashionable to slag it off you are making yourself ultrafashionable by saying 'actually I love it'. Or am I making that old confusion between being cool and being fashionable? If being fashionable means being in synch with the popular opinion, then I'd say it is still very fashionable to say the Tate Modern is great. Just look at the visitor numbers. Presumably you believe that a 'fashionable' view is different from a 'popular' one either:

(a) because of the specific type of people holding it (the cultural elite?), or
(b) by virtue of the reasons for holding it; 'fashionable' opinions infected by a desire to impress the right people, be a smart-arse, whatever.

The galleries themselves I feel are a bit of a jumble sale in that I had to hunt through an awful lot of tat before I found something that made me stop and have a look. The concentration of things I liked or found interesting was far lower than in a smaller gallery like, say, the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow. I just found myself huffing and puffing and wondering how many works would enjoy the same kind of appreciation in a hundred years time as they do now (I know that sounds fogeyish, but it was my honest reaction).

Having said that, I do like museums and galleries you can dip into. Like the V&A, you could never get round the Tate Modern in a day (nor should you try to) but a couple of hours at a time works very well. Tate Modern is open until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays so if you don't want crowds, the time to go is probably while everyone else is in the pub.

That said they should have Dean's sugar cube tower in there.

Bill

I kind of have a problem with galleries in general because they suck the life of potentially interesting pieces and then hang their corpses on the wall. Or something like that.

Anyway, I've now reversed my whole position and I'm now in favour of it on the simple grounds that it's a perfectly pleasent place to spend an afternoon.

I've also reversed my opinion on all art too. I used to be much more interested in the motive rather than the product but I've decided that if you make ugly things for noble reasons, you're still left with ugly things. If you make pretty things for inane reasons, at least you have a pretty thing.

I've become the type of person I used to hate. Now I just want things that'd look nice on the wall. And I just want nice places to spend the afternoon.

Visitors to Tate Modern will be able to try out five giant slides that have been unveiled at the London gallery.

The largest of the spiralling slides is more than 55m (182ft) long and descends from the fifth floor of the venue.

Artist Carsten Holler said his work, Test Site, was a "playground for the body and the brain". He says slides can help combat mental health problems.

The slides are the seventh exhibit in the series commissioned for the gallery's Turbine Hall.

Previous works in the 500ft (152m) long and 115ft (35m) high hall have included The Weather Project, a foggy sunset by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, and Anish Kapoor's giant, red Marsyas sculpture.

Holler, 44, has constructed slides before, including one at the Prada headquarters in Milan connecting boss Miuccia Prada's office and the car park.

He says studies back up his belief that slides can help combat stress and depression.

Think I'd prefer a giant bouncy castle like the one they had in the Roundhouse a few years back, but still looks fun.

Did this happen? Did any of you slide? Are they still there!?

They were there, I slid, they're gone.

Not that impressive really. If the whole hall had been filled with slides maybe, but just 4 of 'em was a bit meh, and for a big scale art installation it was just pretty cheap and lazy.

However Olafur Eliasson's Weather Project aka the Big Giant Sun they had there a few years ago was an incredible use of the space and hands down my favourite installation ever. Marsyas (Anish Kapoor's huge red trumpet thing) was pretty awesome too. Juan Munoz's elevators, Louise Bourgeouis' Towers, and Doris Salcedo's crack (lol) all ok. Rachel Whiteread's Cubes, Bruce Nauman's sound installation, and the slides all lame. Overall barely scraping a 50% success rate - could do better.

i slid

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46534000/jpg/_46534232_008109685-1.jpg

Wonder if this will be any good?

ooh, might check it out tomorrow.

really enjoyed eduardo paolozzi's history of nothing film that's showing at the tate at the moment. worth checking out.

The Cielo Meireles exhibit at the Tate was the best art exhibit I ever saw in my life.

yeah i really loved that one too. not the best i've ever seen but the "powder room" was really beautiful.

I was talking about the Meireles exhibition at the weekend, wonderful stuff. I loved the radio tower and the clock room as well as the powder room.

What's the new turbine hall installation? It looks huge and apocalyptic.

I just went and had a poke about:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3491/4008241805_dde66db52f.jpg

Somebody with a better camera and photoshop skills than me could probably do some really great tiltshift images from the top balcony.

It didn't get quite dark enough inside as I thought it would so it might be better to go at night when there's no sunlight streaming into the hall.

I was just there myself! I thought it was plenty dark enough, was surprised by the walls more than once. Started to acclimatise after about 5 mins. I like it. It's not *amazing* but it's fun, as seems to be the standard for these things.

Really loved Meireles too, went three times.

Seriously thinking about going again and sitting right at the back with a picnic.

Who has seen FILM and can report back to me about it?

Seen it several times, what do you want to know?

Did you like it? What is it like? Do people seem into it?

A friend sent me the catalogue/book but I doubt I will be back in the UK in time to see it.

SEVERAL times indicates that you like it...or you work at the Tate

Clearly this guy pussied out of dropping the real sinny on FILM. I bet he's bonig up on Hollis Frampons "On The Camera Arts and Consecutive Matters" right NOW, the snivelling psneud

i hope to get to it; i might buy the catalogue but don't know if i can make the exhibition. the new yorker profile on her is a great read also.

Is it? I read it this AM and can't remember a damn thing about it

i liked it; tbh the thing i remember about it is the writer getting hung up on the ~crazy irony~ of her film camera having been facilitated by lasers & digital technology (which was kinda nonsensical bc afaik dean is arguing for using film, not fetishising the use of specifically analogue equipment, &c).

i didn't really know her beforehand (& just missed her talking around here) so was fascinated, ymmv

oh well she is one of my favorite visual artists that I am talking about

i really like her blackboard drawings/paintings didn't she just make a file about cy twombly also?

a film? Yes she did

no, a file :D

i made a file about jed

i hope it's in a hardwood drawer with handwritten file cards.

Sorry for not dropping the real sinny earlier, too engrossed in reading hollis frampton and p adams sitney essays to get to ilm. I don't work at the tate but, on account of recently moving here, I've been going often to go through all of the collection + richter + the george kuchar screening last sunday.
I'm kind of ambivalent about FILM, it definitely looks nice, and I like that I can lie down and inconspicuously nap there, but I'm unclear about exactly what her motivations behind the use of film are wrt to the film itself. I blame the wall text which i found pretty confusing.

Awesome pic here of the turbine hall in the pre-gallery days.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BjufI1sCUAAEZZP.jpg

Has anyone here ever taken a guided tour of Tate Modern - either one provided by the museum itself or through an independent tour company?

We're visiting in March and our highest priority is enjoying Tate Modern. I especially want to give my wife the best possible experience there, and am trying to figure out if booking a tour with an expert for a couple of hours would be a good way to get an overview of the place before we wander on our own. (I've been there once, 6 years ago, and know how huge it is.)