London, Part Two

I was determined to see the Rothko exhibit, so after sleeping in I set off to wander Central London once more with the intent to slowly work my way back to the Tate Modern. I went down Regent Street this time with all its high end stores, hitting up Oxford and Piccadilly Circus, then detouring to see Buckingham Palace:

Victoria Memorial and Palace:

Roar:

Another view of the Victoria Memorial:

View up Constitution Hill:

Duke of York Column from the Mall:

Duke of York Column from the North looking south into St. James’s Park:

Trafalgar Square with Nelson’s Column (another study of three peaks, one of which I believe is St. Martin-in-the-Fields; the third, smaller one in the background may be the Coliseum Theatre):

The National Gallery, on the north side of Trafalgar Square had a great exhibit going on which included one of my all-time favorite paintings “We Two Boys Together Clinging” by David Hockney:

Some architecture that struck me as I walked down to the Embankment:

I liked the balconies on this one:

I wandered through the Victoria Embankment Gardens the flowers of which were in full fall bloom and did the north side of the Thames walking across the Waterloo Bridge. Here are some shots west from the bridge:

Close-up:

I made my way back through the South Bank, passing this same guy who was sitting under a bridge arch the day before:

He had poems for sale for all occasions, spread out on brightly colored construction paper and written in big, bright crayon letters. I’m usually a bit suspicious when it comes to anything poetry-related in the public world or anyone claiming to be a poet, but he made me smile.

And so I made it to the Tate Modern with enough time to see the Rothko exhibit. Some views of the interior, this one from the ground floor:

This one from one floor up:

The Rothko exhibit showcased the late work of Mark Rothko, in particular his late series. As someone partial to sequences and series in my own work I found myself intrigued by his process, “the strategies of repetition and variation on a theme”. At the core of the exhibit in the largest room were the series of murals he made for The Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram building, a series that never made it to its intended destination as Rothko withdrew from the commission after expressing doubts about the appropriateness of his work for the setting.

One quote I like from Rothko sums up why I think so many people feel a rapport with his work: “To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience. However, you paint the larger picture, you are in it. It isn’t something you command.” I think we viewers like that sense of getting lost in his large scale, full-wall canvases.

The other rooms in the exhibit showcased his Black-Form paintings that initially just appear to be black canvases until you sit and really study them, the subtle layers and gradations revealing themselves in greater and greater detail and complexity the longer you look.

The last series of Brown and Gray and Black on Gray didn’t do as much for me, but I may have just been fatigued from all the wandering around town and seeing the all the work in the museum and the crowds.

After Rothko I wandered up through Covent Garden checking out all the Theatres and little sidestreets.

The gate to Chinatown (I have a thing for Chinatown gates; this one was small compared to ones in Philly and San Francisco):

I wandered into SoHo and found myself in a gayborhood with lots of bars, including the G-A-Y bar where I believe Madonna once performed an intimate gig when Confessions… was releaseed, and your typical sex shops and “licensed bookstores”. Felt like home.

Back up Regent’s to a little pizza place on the corner of Baker and Marylebone where I had a yummy dinner for one with a thin crust pepperoni pizza and glass of white wine. And then early to bed for day one in the London Office…