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This is my blog. It's old. Interests: live music, simulations and modeling, languages, iPod, social and business networking, systems thinking, history of science, management, BBQ, trivia, good coffee, organizational learning, traveling, personal histories.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

my date with tate

My itinerary called for traveling through the UK, Gatwick airport, south of London. The flight from Houston was to arrive 7AM and the flight to Prague was NOT until 5PM. Here were my options:
  1. Wander around the duty-free stores for 10 hours.
  2. Work.
  3. Sleep.
  4. Go into London.
After building a decision matrix, I decided to go into London for the day. I was already familiar with the Gatwick Express, an easy 30-minute non-stop train ride into Victoria Station. As a bonus, the train ride also takes you by Battersea Power Station which is:
  1. Really cool looking, and
  2. Was used as cover art for the Animals album by Pink Floyd.
I had made a decision that the ONE THING I would do in London was to check out the Tate Modern. Anything in addition to that would be bonus. It's interesting to note that the building was also a power station at one time, designed by the same guy that did the "PinkFloyd" one. (Thanks Wikipedia!)

Question for anyone reading this: If you had 10 hours in London, what would you do?
|| hcpark, 11:13 AM

4 Comments:

Glad to hear the decision worked out for you. London is a terrific place.
Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:46 AM  
Of all the things to do in London, I'm not sure I would have chose the Tate but I guess that's a matter of person taste. I am not much of a modern art fan. I went to the Houston Contemporary Art Museaum once and was more impressed with the fire extinguisher than anything else hanging on the walls there. Alright, I'll stop ripping on your choice and tell you mine. I would probably go the the British Museum -- one of the finest of its kind in the world. I've been to London a couple of times and intended to go to the British Museaum both times figuring London would have at least one dreary day during my stay. But I have always encountered wonderful weather and thus have stuck to the outdoors.
Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:25 PM  
Thx for the comments. The best thing about the Tate is the view and the building itself. I find Modern Art a hit or miss for me.
Blogger hcpark, at 4:43 PM  
Cezanne's Mountains in Provence, one of his greatest landscapes, was rejected by the Tate Gallery in 1921 just as that institution was opening its galleries to "non-British" art. It prompted Roger Fry, the editor of The Burlington Magazine to write, "Although, of course, the opinion of such enthusiasts varies greatly regarding the relative merits of painters of modern France, all have come to agreement about Cezanne...universally recognized as the father of the whole movement. A Gallery of Modern Foreign Art without Cezanne is like a gallery of Florentine art without Giotto. " (1)

As long as I'm not asked to consider a urinal as the most important piece of modern art...http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/001219.html

Thanks to Nils for clueing me in on that one. http://www.jonssons.org/archives/000485.html

Fry,May 1921, p.209
Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:50 AM  

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