Tate Gallery of Modern Art, London
The building was transformed from an old power station by the Swiss architectural duo Herzog & de Meuron at a cost of 130 million pounds. This gallery of modern art and sculpture is becoming very popular. Located at Bankside, SE1 (Southwark, Blackfriars) it features international Modern Art organized in four themed groups - “Landscape”, “Still Life”, “The Nude” and “History”. Tel: 0207 887 8000.The Tate Modern art gallery is in the former Bankside power station. Sir Giles Scott who designed the building was also the designer of Battersea power station and, on a smaller scale, the famous London red telephone box. Tate Modern is famous for work by Rothko, Matisse, Dali, Cezanne and Picasso, and contemporary works by Matthew Barney, Chris Ofili and Gerhard Richter. Also for the large-scale commissions in the turbine hall.
When the Tate Gallery Of Modern Art opens the doors of the transformed Bankside Power Station to the public on May 12, the international museum landscape will never be the same. Comparisons between the central London institution’s debut and the opening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1929 or the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1977 don’t seem farfetched. The museum’s press material has played up the fact that Tate Modern will represent not only a major new museum for modern and contemporary art but also the public face of twenty-first-century London.
In the basement of the gallery is one of the best catering venues in London combining an interesting environment with good food and a competitive wine list. The gift shop has some unique art books and postcards as well as T shirts etc. You will be heavily leaned on to make a donation, making use of the catering and gift shop facilities is another alternative way of supporting the gallery.
Tate Modern displays the Tate collection of international modern and contemporary art from 1900 to the present day. Tate Modern is more than just an art gallery. The amazing space of the Turbine Hall - has housed a succession of installations which have caught the imagination of the public. The arrival of Tate Modern has had a huge impact on the locality, and Tate has worked hard to forge good relations with the Bankside community.
London’s new Tate Gallery of Art, which is scheduled to open in 2000, is becoming part of fabric of London’s cultural life; before museum opens, there will be a program of site-specific art installations around former power station and series of screenings of films by popular contemporary artists; new $208 million Tate is biggest news in London art world for some time.
An Architectural Marvel
The Tate Modern building is an architectural marvel in London’s landscape, which was designed by the renowned Swiss firm - Herzog & De Meuron. With a total floor area of 34,500 sq.m and inclusive of gallery suites, special exhibition suites, a 250 seater auditorium, café and restaurants, a members room, exclusive office space and art handling area makes Tate Modern one of London’s most sophisticated art galleries.
One only begins to comprehend the full scale of the building from inside. Herzog and de Meuron have divided its massive 200m length in half, and the west entrance opens onto the great Turbine Hall, a space the length and height of the whole building. On the northern side of the building, windowed off from the Turbine Hall, are five floors of galleries.
Directions
Tate Modern is located on the south bank of the River Thames at Bankside, near Blackfriars Bridge, opposite St Paul’s Cathedral and next to the Globe Theatre. Underground: Southwark (Jubilee Line) and Blackfriars (District and Circle Lines) are the closest underground stations both of which are less than ten minutes walk away from the Tate Modern.
