Out of Town part 1 Call me a nancy Southerner b…
Out of Town part 1
Call me a nancy Southerner but I have recently been amazed by the quality of work being shown at Galleries outside of London. I don’t know why this should shock me but it has. I suppose I imagined it to be grim and provincial ‘up north’ but the complete opposite seems to be true.
For example I called by Walsall Gallery a month or so ago and was stunned at that such a gorgeous exhibition space existed outside of our capital. The gallery it’s self is built in the warm modern wood paneling that the guys at IKEA would kill for. The result is a homely space that brings the paintings to life for the audience. And the curators are not afraid to put their heads above the cultural parapet too judging from the exhibitions that they have lined up (Gavin Turk in June). If the quite surreal herds of Japanese school girls, replete in authoritarian uniforms I might add, is anything to go by it’s reputation is surely spreading.
The mention of hoards brings me nicely round to the monstrous blockbuster that is Tate Modern’s Matisse and Picasso. The Tate themselves have long been busy drumming up unwarranted trade for this new show which by definition of it’s title is a guaranteed to be a success. They have hounded my mailbox at least twice in the last month trying to put the fear of God into me saying ‘it’ll be full! it’ll be packed!! book now before the plebs get there first and block your view!’
I’m sorry, but if it’s going to be that busy Mr Tate, you can keep it.
I’ll buy the tea-towel instead.
Or just get on a train and get out of town.
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- Safe Sex I recently went to the surrealism exhi…
- Turning Up Paid a visit to the old Tate Gallery…
- Last Chance To See - Hogarth,Proesch and Passmore
- Bollocks We’re All Angry Looks like I’m going t…
- The Godfather of Flesh The new Lucian Freud Ex…
