My main reason for visiting the Tate was to see Simon Norfolks exhibition but I turned up early to observe everything. I was prepared to be confronted by lots of "tosh" being passed off as art but much to my surprise I loved loads of it. Don't get me wrong, there was the expected amount of crap, Cy Twomblys crap scribbles with a paint brush, Matisse letting us down with the Snail, Ellsworth Kellys Mediterannee and Lucio Fontanas Spatial Concept "Waiting", but there were also some real magical finds.
Simon Norfolks works was great, a 17 minute film explaining his reasons for the work where he states that he uses the beauty in his images to get people to view them, it wouldn't be an important factor for him if it wasn't for that. He has great disdain for the occupation and consequent destruction of Afganistan and all the lives that have been taken in the mean time, and the effort he has gone to to get his images is remarkable.
Diane Arbus is on show which I loved and knew I would but there were some photographers unknown to me on show and brilliant. Akram Zaatari is a lebanese portraitist who has roomful of portraits on show, Guys holding an AK, Families and Kids using a radio as a prop, Gays and 2 touching images of a woman whose negatives were scratched by her jealous husband. Boris Mikhailov and Guy Tillim were 2 other photographers of note.
On a non photographic note there were a number of artists who amazed me. Ai Weiwei's sunflower seeds were fantastic and Meredith Frampton's work was unknown to me before the visit and I loved his work (must look for more!). There were the obvious pleasure, Picasso, Monet, Pollock and a few more.
The whole thing kept me occupied for about 4 hours.
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| "Burke + Norfolk + Baeron" |
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| "Weiweis seeds, made of ceramic and individually painted" |
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| "A pile of Weiweis seeds" |
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