20 Oct. - Tate Modern

 Image: ... Rockets blazed through the sky. Whaam! Roy Lichtenstein, 1963

Wandering near St Paul's on a Sunday morning, the prolonged peal of bells echoed from the neighbouring buildings, filling the surrounding streets, lanes + squares with curious + delightful chords + harmonics.

The surprise of low tide + a flight of riverside steps found us mud-larking under Millennium Bridge, before crossing the Thames to Tate Modern opposite.

Being fond of 'starting at the top', we strolled their galleries in reverse order - fast + disparaging past the 'meaningful' contemporary rubbish - but delighting when sighting our favourites; Rothko, Riley, Mondrian, Modigliani, Lichtenstein, Magritte + co.

The Tanks still reek of oil + sometimes the building + furniture 'out-art' the works but our heads were weary from visual overload as we braved the crisp London air back to Bayswater.

Notes: It is easy indeed to lose time immersed in Tate Modern. We can 'view' artworks so easily now on our home desktop screens or mobile devices, but nothing compares to standing in the presence of the original. I am reminded though of Ursula K. Le Guin's comment 'Some people believe that art does not need craft. They are mistaken.'