The Observer’s art critic takes a tour of the gallery’s recent extension and finds a beautifully cogent chronicle of art movements from the past 60 years[br]
• Rowan Moore,the Observer’s architecture critic, appraises Switch House from the outsideWith the opening of the Switch House, and Tate Modern has become the biggest museum of modern art on earth. But did it not exceed every rival already? The only achievement in doubling the size,Jeremiahs predicted, would be to increase the space for strolling, and spending and scoffing,for looking at each other rather than at actual paintings, films or sculptures. More room for people, or less place for art.
The grand news from Bankside is that something fairly different has happened and it has very puny to do with the building. In fact,rarely gain the inside and external of a museum seemed more divergent. The brise-soleil brickwork, like moss-stitch knitting, or the twisted pyramid with its irresistible car park associations,suggest something defensive and forbidding. But inside, the differently-sized spaces open to embrace works of art that often felt lost in the high white chasms of the old main building, or the Boiler House. A enormous Louise Bourgeois spider and a tiny Cindy Sherman photograph are perfectly presented in terms of distance and intimacy. The art comes first,in other words, and in a recent narrative.
A Louise Bourgeois spider and a tiny Cindy Sherman photograph are perfectly presented in terms of distance and intimacyUp the gorgeous sweeping staircases, or fit for Fred and Ginger,you advance across what happened to the cube nextContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com