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Tate and National Gallery
 One of my big plans was to
see a lot of paintings, and I
had a couple of guided tours at Tate and National Gallery.
I have this feeling seeing a painting is just like
reading a book: a story is being told, or a feeling is being conveyed, or... Trouble is,
in this case the book is in Japanese, or in other words: I don't quite know the language
of painting yet. Which is why I need the guided tours, because they translate the paintings
for me. I saw a depressing picture (1), and didn't know that depressing was "bad" at
the time it was painted - today it is accepted. I saw a picture with nature showing its teeth
(2) - and didn't know, that at the time grandeur of any kind usually was connected with the
greatness of God. And then one of the really complicated pictures, where everything was a
symbol for something (3): the number 9 on the sun dial (the holy trinity if I remember correctly),
the poppy flower (opium addiction), the dove (innocence) and so on. I saw Virgin Mary in a
blue dress (4) - blue usually meant royalty, because the color blue was very expensive. And so on,
and so forth. I just loved the guide mentioning the hover tiger (5)! And for some
reason, I quite liked the few van Goghs I saw (6). And of
course, with some pictures (7), the story wasn't
that important - the colors were beautiful, that was everything that mattered. And
with other pictures (8), I never quite understood why the painting was ever done - there
was no story I could see, it was ugly and so on.
The boring details. (1) The field of Waterloo; JMW
Turner. (2) The fall of an avalanche in the Grisons; JMW Turner. (3) Beata
Beatrix; Dante Gabriel Rossetti. (4) The virgin and child; Masaccio. (5) Tiger
in a tropical storm (surprised!); Henri Rousseau. (6) Sunflowers; Van Goghs
chair; Long grass with butterflies; A wheatfield, with cypresses; all by Vincent van Gogh. (7) Norham Castle,
sunrise; JMW Turner. (8) Sunny morning - eight legs; Lucian Freud.
Created: 15 December, 2005 - Last changed: 15 December, 2005 - Comments (0)
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