Peter Walk, Part: Tate Britain

Posted by Benji

Well a lot's happened since the last post, so much so that it's been hard finding time to put the past into blog-form, but here I go. This post recaps our journey with Peter to the Tate Britain, a beautiful art museum in London. We focused on a few specific works of art that spanned a pretty wide range of time period. Peter, as always, added his own commentary to each work. The pieces are both traditional, as well as extremely bizarre, so keep reading! Here they are!

Unknown
Portrait of Mary Kytson, Lady Darcy of Chiche, Lady Rivers c. 1590.

Peter initially pointed out to two things. How enormous the dress was, and how tiny her hands were. At the time, this sort of portrait was commissioned by the husband to show off his most prized possession, his wife. However, don't expect this painting to look anything like the actual woman. The painter didn't painted to reflect what she really looked like, but rather what her husband wanted her to look like. 










The crest in the top left of the portrait is another way for the man to establish his ownership over his wife. It's his crest, not hers. Peter says: "No one holds their hands like that." I agree.

Portait of Six Servants
William Hogarth Mid-18th Century

In contrast to the prior piece, this was the beginning of painting how people actually looked like, rather than a completely fabricated and inaccurate ideal. The faint line visible of above his right eye (stage right) is a scar that he included in the portrait. 











What else is interesting about this piece, is the portrait within a portrait that he paints, as well as the way his coat seems to merge with the curtain behind the dog, as Peter pointed out to us just there.

Giovanna Baccelli
Thomas Gainsborough, 1782

This painting uses the a contrast between blurred strokes and fine detail to create an impression of the background, while at the same time drawing your eye to the clearness of the woman's face. From the background we would usually be led to believe this was an impressionist painting, though it would be another century before the Impressionist movement surfaced.


Ophelia
Edward Millais, 1850

For those of you familiar with Shakespeare, this comes from the play Hamlet. Ophelia drowns at sea. This is supposed to be here dead body, though her face seems more life-like than normal. Frankly this picture kind of gave me the heebie-jeebies.


King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
Edward Burne Jones, 1884

The scene below shows the king bringing back his beggar maid (as the title suggests). Notice the big sword and massive pike drawn into the painting. The modern equivalent would be a guy driving around a hummer and walking a great dane to try and prove himself a man. The beggar is a symbol of the king's sexual conquest. She's scantily drawn and, unlike blue-dress from two pictures above, here the maid's face is blurred while her body is defined.


An Athlete Wrestling with a Python
Frederick, Lord Leighton, 1877

This is one of my favorite works of art in the Tate Britain. The time period makes it a Victorian, post-freudian sculpture that is designed to be one thing, while meaning something else entirely. Just try and guess what that something else might be?




Peter pointed something funny out. If this were a greek athlete, and he really were wrestling a snake, why on earth would he be completely naked? Just one of those things you have to accept, haha.



Abstract
Ben Nicholson, 1932

This is one of those works of art that leave me completely dumbfounded. In 1930, one of the movement in art was not to create something that represented something else (like naked snake-man above) but to create something that simply IS what it IS. Some questions Peter pointed out that the creator probably wanted his audience to ask when they saw it: What is it? Where does it begin? Where does it end? Is the frame part of he work? Are the holes cut at equal depths?

We're supposed to be encouraged to spend time actually looking at the art work here, instead of glancing at it and moving on.



Three Forms
Barbara Hepworth, 1932

Barbara was fascinated by three things linked together. In this case those things were a ball, a plane, and a hole. But then we asked ourselves, which piece is the plan? Is the base part of the three pieces? I'm not saying I understand this piece... but I guess I respect it for it's confusing powers.


Herro Mike. Notice his strategic placement of the peace sign. Sublime.



Three figures at the Base of Crucifixion
Francis Bacon, 1944


This was one of the weirder ones... One thing to remember with this work (All three pieces combine to make one piece of work) is that Bacon loved to imply connectivity without clearly defining it.
There are lines in the background that almost form up, but not quite. Picture these three painting side by side; that's how they were in the museum.
Each picture has body parts of some sort or another attached to them but there doesn't seem to be any continuity. I was frankly creeped out. This reminds me of a zombie nightmare on acid.

Horizontal Stripe Painting: November 1957-January 1958
Patrick Heron, 1957-8

There's not much to be said about this painting. If you can call it that.  I mean I'm sure there is. I just don't think I'm the right person to say it. It hurt my eyes. It was weird.





Top Gun 1994
Fiona Banner

While it DOES push the boundary between what may be traditionally (I don't even know what traditional art is anymore after the Tate) considered art, I thought this was really really cool. It's the entire script of Top Gun written out in pencil on one single, massive piece of paper. 



Here are some memorable quotes:


"Goose is dead."


"Eject! eject! eject!"


"Bingo Maverick's dead."




So that's the Tate Britain. Well, a very abbreviated and shortened version of the Tate, but hopefully you got a decent picture of the place. This was only the 1st half of that day, so keep your eyes peeled for the 2nd! Until then!

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London Church Walk With Peter

Posted by Benji

We started the gloriously bright day knowing 2 things: We were going to see a lot of churches by the famous architect, Christopher Wren; And we were going to St. Paul's Cathedral. It was a beautiful day, if exhausting (Peter's ruthless walks usually are) but it was worth it in the end. Believe it or not every one of my blogs is pared down to a fraction of the pictures I take, but I still end up with tons of photos. For most of the churches--and for the sake of a manageable blog--I'll give a photo of the outside, and one of the inside. Except for St. Paul's of course. That gets special attention. Also, intersp

St. Paul's Cathedral

We began our day walking up from the Tube stop and marveling at St. Paul's from a distance (below).
Tiny fact: That dome you see, one of Wren's biggest achievements, weighs in at 65 thousand tons! or 1 and a half Titanics!


This is the outside left (when facing the Cathedral). A side porch if you will. I was sitting and staring (we had some time to kill before the rest of the class caught up) when lo and behold Nhi and Rebecca showed up!




There's Peter and the first stream of students gathering on the steps of the Cathedral (left) Unfortunately, the sheer size of the thing is too much to capture in one decent photo, but I tried here (right).



Some facts: The designer of St. Pauls, Christopher Wren, was originally a professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford. St. Paul's Cathedral was originally a Gothic Cathedral comprised entirely of wood and much larger than the stone fortress Wren envisioned. The old version, like everything else wooden, was destroyed in the great fire of 1666. When it started falling apart, he was called in to build the replacement. One of his biggest hurdles was not the logistics of building the cathedral, but the opposition that came from the Church, who constantly opposed the plans he presented. Still, Wren was the only architect to see his cathedral built within his own lifetime.



I got a shot on the stairs! And then took some pictures of the girls too! From the left: Amanda, Hannah, Ellie, Clair, Bonnie, Lauren and Michaela. Say, herro.





Those statues you see was another source of contention between Wren and his employers, the Church. Wren was a strong proponent of pure shapes and lines (see the triangles, squares, rectangles, and circles) He was vehemently opposed to "gaudy" statues or ornaments. Those statues standing there now where only added after his death.



There's Ellie pretending to take notes for the camera! ;)



And we entered....


Like most things with a beautiful interior, we were prohibited from taking pictures inside. This was lame.


Fortunately, we had an awesome guide who let us sneak some shots right here:

The Geometric Staircase 

88 stairs, each inserted into the wall 3 inches and supported only by the stair below it.



If this looks familiar, then you must be a Harry Potter fan. This is where they filmed some of the scenes for the Prisoner of Azkaban.









This was the gracious guide who let us take the wonderful pictures. We split into three groups from then on. Each of our guides was fantastic.

It's a sad, sad fact that I don't have pictures from within the cathedral itself. Normally I would have taken then anyways when no one was looking, but our guides were so nice, and we were with them for so long, that I didn't want to get on their bad side. Still, once we started climbing to the top I was able to whip out the camera once more. Here begins our epic journey upwards to the heavens. It was a grueling climb. I'm not kidding. All of us were sweating. Some of our nerves failed and people turned back, but the brave persisted...

Until we made it!

Here's shots of London from a bird's eye view!


Believe it or not, we still weren't at the very top. This is Michael psyching me up for the next climb with his game-face.

The next series of stairs were a little less... conventional. It was like climbing through an abandoned chemical factory.



Then we squeezed through the smallest hallway imaginable. The entire thing was designed to discourage us, I swear.


This shot's really cool. It's a view of the center-most spot of the cathedral, from the top down. Another interesting fact about Wren and the Cathedral is that Wren was meticulously detail oriented. He wasn't a jerk about it, though. In fact the men loved him, but he was also willing to discharge anyone for foul language, no matter what position they held. When he grew older, he would have workers hoist him up with rope and pulley in a bucket so he could personally investigate the work that was taking place.

Finally, the very Top. Behold, London!

My beautiful Michael & Jordan. On the right is the front of the Cathedral seen from behind and above.

More of London:


Here's a beautiful picture of the square we later ate lunch in. It's quite lovely seen from this angle isn't it? Those people clustered around the plinth are eating their lunch on the steps.

Some high-risers and the Gurkan (Egg-shaped building)

This is the controversial Shard being constructed in London. When completed, it'll be the tallest standing building in Europe! The controversy stems partially from the modern design--it's supposedly designed to resemble a glass shard, and partially from the fact that London has historically been a low-rise city. This goes against the grain.

            There I am!

And London Traffic on the bridges heading over the Thames.
And so, after reaching the stars, we descended.

When we emerged from the Cathedral, we were surprised to see droves of people eating their lunch. They had all come out from work to enjoy the sun in a wonderfully scenic area. Londoners are spoiled like that. I would envy their joggers--if I liked jogging.


This the square and the statue that we saw from the top of St. Paul's. A ton of people were still eating. On the right is the cafe where we had out lunch! Notice the awesome swordfish hanging from the wall?



Well with St. Paul's out of the way we now begin the spring through London's Churches by Wren. Interspersed between the pictures and facts are some of the quotes from students I managed to gather. I won't get too into detail with the churches, just a few facts that you'll hopefully enjoy!










St. Vedast Church

At 1,853 pounds, 15 shillings and 6 pence, this is the cheapest of Wren's churches. One interesting thing about this church is the ceiling. The proprietors at that time almost invariably directed Wren to use ALL of the available space in building the church. This asymmetrical ceiling is proof. The way it tapers isn't a trick of perspective. It really gets smaller towards the exit.



St. Anne and St. Agnes


Peter called this, "Beautifully harmonious and very restful. But more so without the gold."


"A quote? Is this a big deal? Omg." -Lauren    


To right is the face she gave me when she realized that was the quote I would use, lol.







"A quote? Like, how much I would pay for something? (slight pause) "....Ohhhh." -Andreina

St. Mary Lebow




Gutted in 1941 and remodeled in 1961. The total cost was 8,000 pounds, 5 1/2 of which was spent on the tower. They wanted it to look "Impressive and Imposing." Here Peter's commenting on the ridiculous porch-within-a-porch of the church.  
















"I'm gonna go home and dowse myself in suntan oil." -Ellie



"What's Ellie's quote?" -Clair

St. Mary Aldermary

Peter explained that the church's beautiful interior was a byproduct of the proprietor's request for a "traditional gothic" style church. He gave it to them, Wren style.






"I just need a brownie right now. That's all I can think about." -Hannah

St. Stephen Walbrook 

Peter: "Wren Would have been amused the estuary's a Starbucks now." You can see the sign in the picture below.
 The inside was beautiful, as they tend to be where Wren's involved.

Moving on...

St. Mary Abchurch
Peter called this, "One of London's treasures that's always closed." It lived up to that name today. The churches are basically tended by volunteers who sit around to ward of vandals and thieves. Apparently they didn't have any volunteers that day.


St. Magnus

Peter: "This is a Wren Morgue because they ruined it."
 Wren wasn't much for gaudiness, and this certainly had that.

"Oh, I'll think of something cool! Actually, don't quote me....I say stupid things." -Amanda
How true that is.




Say hello, class! I love these guys.


St. Margaret Lothbury 


This was one of Wren's last churches that we saw. The picture to the bottom right may look like I can't hold a camera, but it actually IS slanted that way. Per orders, Wren had the church built on every square-yard of the premises. And this time he took a turn at wood carving himself. The cork screw design on the right is carved from one solid piece of wood. This



St. Mary Woolnoth 

I didn't commit an error. St. Margaret Lothbury really was the last Wren Church. St. Mary Woolnoth was built by Wren's pupil, Sir Nicholas Hawksmore. Unfortunately, Hawksmore had a quite a bit more trouble breaking away from the mold than did Wren. Where Wren went against the grain with his asymmetry, airiness, and creativity, Hawksmore returned to the traditional "Big, solid, clumpy, heavy."

Thus unded the Age of Wren. Welcome to the past, again?

This church was built only 17 years after Wren's passing.

With him vanished his own particular and unique architectual style. Luckily, his work has been so appreciated and adored over the decades that it has become taboo to tear down anything he designed.
The End: of the church tour.

Well that's the end of the Church tour. If you thought that was a lot to take in, try walking to all of those in one trip. but even through it all we had a blast. Peter's an amazing tour, and London is the perfect nest for all of his hatchling chicks to break free from their eggs, spread their wings on the currents of knowledge, and sour like Eagles in the WIND! Dramatic? It deserves it. 


To everyone back home, we miss you! We're having the time of our lives and learning so much. Keep me in your prayers, ya?

 Until next time!


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