Museum Report, Part 2: The Tate

I know a lot of things change over the course of 30 years, an entire generation grows up and starts on a generation to replace them. And I also know that you can't repeat an experience the same way it was the first time. However, the ecstatic experience I had when viewing the Pre-Raphaelite gallery at the Tate in 1984 was nearly equaled to the disappointment I felt at my latest visit to the Tate last Tuesday.

We left the British Museum and walked through the West End area, passing by many theatres  and wandering in Covent Garden shops, and had lunch at a nice pub, with Kate guiding us along.

The Warhammer store in Covent Garden.

She led us to Trafalgar Square, where the 4th corner is a changing installation. It's currently displaying a gigantic blue cock (a rooster. Get your mind out of the gutter.). Trafalgar is also where a lot of the street performers are that used to be someplace else (I forget now). It reminded me a bit of Times Square in NYC. 

Rich, the Big Blue Cock, and I, Trafalgar Square

A Scary guy Floating in the air at Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Fountain. I quite like this statue.

We ended up hiking down to the Queen's Palace and then taking a taxi to the Tate, because we were just too tired to walk the remaining distance (and the museum was going to be closing in an hour or so).

Buckingham Palace

We get there, only to find that there no longer exists a gallery of Pre-Raphaelite paintings; there is now a room called "the 1840's" and you can't go in, besides. It's roped off.

Please Mind The Ropes. No admittance to this gallery.

To add insult to injury, there is this... shambles... installed in the center of the museum. Piles of wood, that looks like someone is demolishing their kitchen, some large black plastic garbage bags hanging from the ceiling, cardboard wrapped in a tube, held together with different colors of duct tape. The only thing I could think that makes it artistic was the scale of it. None of us "got" it, and really, why wasn't it in the Tate Modern? The only good thing about this visit was that we didn't have to pay to get in.

I'm sorry, but I Just Don't Get It.