Tate Modern

Let me just be blunt, I am not interested in history, I'd rather be on Oxford Street spending my money. After being required (and feeling guilty for not liking history) I decided to go to Tate Modern and I am happy to say my opinions have changed somewhat on museums. This museum wasn't like the others. In my opinion, it had more excitement to it. The museum was created in 2000 in its current location.The art pieces in this particular Tate museum starting from the 1900s to present. Tate Modern had pieces ranging from sculptures to photographs and everything in between. The great thing about this museum is that you actually recognize some of the artists. They have pieces from artists Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol which was nice to see some people you can say, 'Oh yeah I have heard of them'. After strolling through the galleries in awe over the exquisite sites I found one piece that really caught my eye. It was from Mitch Epstein's series of American Power. In his series of photos he showed the different meanings of American Power, originally he intended the photos to be dealing with coal-fired power plants, but in the end it turned out to be about how 'to convey how Americans live, what Americans want and what it costs to get'. As I looked at the photos more carefully I noticed one of the pictures from Hurricane Katrina.

While I do love London it was nice to see a piece of home hanging on the wall in this famous museum that millions of people see daily. It made a picture we saw so many times on TV come to life. If anything else this one picture made my trip to Tate Modern worthwhile. I definitely recommend to anyone not very interested in history to visit the Tate Modern.

By: Amber Rutland

Tate Modern

Tate Modern (1/2 required Museum Visits and Writing Summary)

I have always had a craving for modern art. One of my favorite museums in San Francisco is the SFMOMA (SF Museum of Modern Art). So, I was very excited to visit the Tate Modern, located just at the end of the Millennium Bridge (famous for the scene in Harry Potter when the bridge is bombed and destroyed by Death Eaters) But the best part about the Tate Modern is that it is absolutely FREE, as are most of the museums in London, but you can chose to purchase tickets to some of the more famous temporary exhibits.

According to the Tate brochure, it claims to be the home of international art dating from 1900. It holds varying exhibits from Monet's Water-Lilies to Picasso's Three Dancers and of course a lot of innovative and quirky work from Jackson Pollock. The Tate pamphlet also details its founding by Henry Tate's charitable donations of 65 works in 1897. Tate Modern gathers 7 million visitors a year.

My favorite exhibit was a temporary one of American artist Taryn Simon. Her exhibit displays photographic portraits of distinctive worldly individuals and their direct bloodlines. The series of photographs tells a variety of stories such as poverty, hunger, disease, success or even the life of the admin of Hitler in the Nazi army during WWII. I wasn't allowed to take pictures of this specific exhibit, but essentially one piece would hold a series of images from each member of one individuals family. Then photographs adjacent to the portraits showed artifacts or supporting images that helped tell a story about the families' history or struggles. It was a very interesting take on understanding bloodlines across the world and international perspective on issues of war, hunger, poverty and other global troubles.

Here are some other pictures from the Tate Modern:

(above) Thousands of hand crafted ceramic sunflower seeds by artist Ai Weiwei form China.


(above) Poetry and Dream: Theme of permanent exhibit




(above) Writings on the wall show a timeline of art movements and the artists that developed them


Written by: Anna White, BSP Journalism class 2011

Location:London, England