TATE MODERN

2014.09.20 

I went to the Tate Modern Gallery to see their collection displays, the one that interested me most is the Poetry and Dream - Beyond Surrealism. The central room in this wing contains over 70 paintings and sculptures by the surrealists and their associates, who prized the power of the unconscious and dreams.

the overall environment in the exhibition rooms is OK, White coloured walls and high ceilings, all paintings are well spaced so the exhibition room does not look to busy. The lighting was mellow so it is comfortable to look at the pieces.  There were people at all ages and lot of parents with their kids, so the room was a bit over crowded, but it was interesting listening to how the parents explain a piece of artwork to their child.

One of my favorite piece in this exhibition, it is 'The Entire City' by Max Ernst. The piece is done using the technique 'grattage'. Which gives the work colors almost like the twinkling lights. It has also given the piece some texture when looking at it in the exhibition. Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism. Dada movement, or Dadaism was an artmovement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. Many claim Dada began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916, spreading to Berlin shortly thereafter but the height of New YorkDada was the year before, in 1915.

One thing that I am not agreeing with the curation of this exhibition is how they displayed the captions of the art works. I think they should label the works more clearly by putting the captions just next to the works, instead of placing them too far away, I think the Sattchi Gallery has done a very good job on this, all the work and captions are all clearly linked and it is really easy for the audience to ready and recognize.