We started off from Bond Street station and wandered through Hanover Square to visit St Mary’s which I had previously visited with Harry in order to admire the medieval stained glass that stands behind the altar.
After spending a few minutes in the church we made our way to Saville Row and the gallery district. A cup of coffee in a nearby cafe upped our caffeine count and then we began to pop into various galleries in Cork Street.
I really liked some of the Jack Whitten works. Unfortunately this picture doesn’t do it justice. Ray was similarly impressed. Ray was particularly struck by Ken Curry’s art. All the works had been based on his thoughts about the Outer Hebrides and the people and the landscape of the region. It reminded him of the many times he has visited the islands.
We then walked on to Mason’s Yard. Ray always likes to visit The White Cube where they showed an exhibition of the art of Danh Vo. I thought it all a load of rubbish but he liked some of the work.
The image above and the broken sculptures represented absolutely nothing to me. However also in Mason’s Yard sits a small gallery called Vigo. A nice greeting and chat our host talked about Ibrahim El-Salahi and his work which were all line drawings and very attractive they were too.
From here we walked across St Jame’s Park and on towards Tate Britain stopping off in a pub for lunch. I had looked at the Tate’s web site and expected to see three different exhibitions, Chris Olfili, Turner Prize and a photographic exhibition. In the end the only Chris Ofili was the staircase he had painted. The photographic show wasn’t due to begin until November. The only thing left after walking up the Ofili staircase was the Turner Prize nominees rubbish.
Of the four nominated artists only one, Claudette Johnson had anything to offer me. She had portraits and scenes of black life and people. The others all came from the artistic school that assembles bits of old junk and assemble them and then call it art.
After our very poor experience of the Tate we took the train home.