Thursday was our final full day in London. We went to the Tate Modern in the morning before a matinee of Twelfth Night at the nearby Shakespeare’s Globe. It was a nice day (meaning it wasn't raining at that exact moment), so we decided to walk, which gave us a lovely view of many landmarks and attractions that we visited in 2015.
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| View from the Waterloo Bridge |
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| Big Ben and the London Eye |
By the National Theatre is a statue of Laurence Olivier:
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| I really like how the sculpture captures the movement of his cape. |
Our main reason for visiting the Tate Modern was an exhibit called Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. On our way, we stopped by a small exhibit on color.
This piece was very interesting--in person it’s actually painful to look at:
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| Strip, Gerhard Richter, 2011 "Gerhard Richter made a number of multi-coloured paintings using a giant squeegee (a tool with a flat, smooth rubber blade). In 2011, at the age of 80, he used computer software to divide a photograph of one of these paintings into thin strips, splitting and dividing it again and again. The digital print here creates strange effects on our eyes. The marks made by the paint when the artist painted the original picture have disappeared. The digital picture makes us think about what a painting might be in the computer age.What has happened to the role of the artist?" |
Soul of a Nation featured the work of Black artists from the height of the American Civil Rights movement, starting in 1963 and continuing through the next twenty years.
Outside the exhibit were five TV monitors, each featuring video of speeches by a black activist--Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Jamds Baldwin, Angela Davis, and Stokely Carmichael.
There were no photos allowed in the exhibit, but many of the pieces can be found online--I was able to find almost all of the pieces that we took note of. I don’t have the Tate’s descriptions, but I did my best from memory and with additional sources:
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| Romare Bearden, Pittsburgh Memory, 1964 "In a 1969 article, 'Rectangular Structure in my Montage Paintings,' Bearden explained his approach in making collages: 'In most instances in creating a picture, I use many disparate elements to form a figure, or part of a background....I feel that when some photographic detail, such as a hand or an eye, is taken out of its original context and is fractured and integrated into a different space and form configuration, it acquires a plastic quality it did not have in the original....'" Source |
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| Faith Ringgold, The United States of Attica, 1972 After the Attica Prison Riots, Ringgold created this piece, documenting violence and atrocities in American history. |
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| Elizabeth Catlett, Black Unity, 1968 Elizabeth Carlett earned the first M.F.A. in sculpture at the University of Iowa in 1940. |
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| Betye Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972 "Through the use of the mammy and Aunt Jemima figures, Saar reconfigures the meaning of these stereotypical figures to ones that demand power and agency within society." Source |
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| Cliff Joseph, Blackboard, 1969 Joseph: “My art is a confrontation. Among the many realities of art expression, this remains the most constant purpose of my aesthetic. It is, of course, a social art, based on my ‘gut’ perceptions of our worldly conditions; but it draws upon each viewer to confront himself in consideration of his role in affecting those conditions.” Source |
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| David Hammons, Injustice Case, 1970 This piece depicts Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale during his 1969 trial, in which he was bound and gagged. With the cut up American flag around the border, the piece is presented as an x-ray of America. |
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| Wadsworth Jarrell, Revolutionary, 1972 "Here Jarrell celebrates the renowned radical activist and intellectual Angela Y. Davis, who continues to be a leader in the fight for racial, gender, and economic justice around the world. Incorporating Davis’s words, Black Power slogans, and AfriCOBRA’s ((African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) signature vibrant colors, the portrait depicts the intensity and power of her activism." Source |
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| Jack Whitten, Homage to Malcolm, 1970 "A monumental black triangle, it was intended as a memorial to Malcolm X, the black activist who was assassinated in 1965. Dragging an Afro comb across the wet surface of the painting, Whitten revealed underlying red and gold flecks beneath its black surface. In 2015, US president Barack Obama awarded the artist a National Medal of Arts." This is the first time this painting was see by the public. Source |
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| William T. Williams, Trane, 1969 This piece was inspired by (and could be a visual depiction of) the improvisational jazz of John Coltrane. |
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| Alma Thomas, Mars Dust, 1972 Thomas was the first student to graduate with a fine arts degree from Howard University. |
After a quick meal at the museum cafe, we walked over to the Globe. We had really good seats!
The production of Twelfth Night was a lot of fun! Set in 1979 with a disco-inspired score, there was a lot of singing and dancing, as well as the expected general silliness. The casting played a lot with gender; Fabian was an androgynous character played by a woman, Malvolio was played by a (teeny tiny) woman, and Feste was a very striking drag queen, with a full beard and show-stopping gold sequined gown. I highly recommend looking through production photos!
I read later that this was artistic director Emma Rice's last production with The Globe; she’s at odds with the board because she likes to use modern stagecraft, such as lighting and reinforced sound. The board members are a bit more purist. They were probably not huge fans of her less than traditional approach to Twelfth Night--the songs were mostly musical interpretations of Shakespeare’s text, but also included Sister Sledge's “We are Family” and spoken lines from Gloria Gaynor's “I Will Survive.” There was also a fair amount of added text for comic effect, particularly from Malvolio. I really enjoyed Malvolio's performance; she was energetic and snippy and very agile.
It started to rain pretty hard near the end of the performance--fortunately we were protected by an overhang, but those standing in the yard had to weather it out. Fittingly, the rain was still happening when Malvolio proclaimed, “For the rain it raineth every day!”
The one thing that struck me as odd was that Malvolio seemed to commit suicide at the end of the play. After he swears revenge on everyone for tricking him, he puts rocks in his pockets and seems to fall into water (the yard). It was a very dark moment that was completely unprecedented by the raucous revelry throughout the rest of the production.
This performance was also a “relaxed” performance, which means that all audience needs are accepted--folks can get up and move around, exit and return to the theater as needed, or make noise. It seemed that the audience members benefiting the most from this policy were parents with little babies, which I hadn’t considered before as an advantage to a relaxed performance. All the babies near us appeared to be quite content, and it was also sweet to hear older children asking their parents about the plot--they were so engaged!
After the performance, we walked back to Covent Garden over Millennium Bridge:
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| Tiny Tower Bridge! |
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| View of St. Paul's Cathedral |
On our way home we stopped by Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (our favorite stop from our pub tour) for half a pint and some nachos. The nachos were nothing to write home about (and yet I have, I suppose), but we really love the vibe of that old pub. There’s not a lot of bars like that in New York, partly because nothing is as old, but almost nothing is that quiet and homey either.
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| The man in the blue shirt facing us looked a lot like George Lucas. Out of frame, at the table to the left, was another man who looked a lot like George Lucas. They did not seem to know each other. It was fascinating. |
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| Jon ducking on his way up the stairs from the basement level. |
This time around we got to take a picture of the famous Polly. Polly was a parrot who was famous for her foul mouth; she died in 1926 at the age of 40. Her obituary was published in about 200 newspapers! She still lives in the pub…
We continued our walk back home, passing by the Royal Courts of Justice:
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| Can you imagine going to work in this building every day?!) |
That night, we had a late dinner at French restaurant Clos Maggiore. We still have no idea how to pronounce the name, but it certainly lives up to its claim as the most romantic restaurant in London:
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| So handsome! :) |
The food was outstanding; definitely one of our top two meals during the trip, if not the absolute top. All the meat was tender and juicy and flavorful, complemented perfectly with their vegetables and potatoes. Dessert was a dish called Chocolate Sensation, and it was a decadent combination of flavors--sweet, salty, crunchy, creamy, chocolate, honey, hazelnut. The service was also very friendly and attentive. We would definitely return to Clos Maggiore!
It was a perfect end to a beautiful vacation.
We are now back in New York, wishing we could have had more time in London but happy to be home. We'll write a wrap-up post later this weekend!
Xo
Hannah
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