freewheelin-on-line take 5 |
|
freewheelin 203 July 2002 |
|
It
must have been a gigantic risk: spending a few million quid on the
conversion of an ugly old disused power station on the wrong side of
the river into a modern art gallery. Perhaps the brains behind the
project had od’d on ‘Field of Dreams’: ‘if you convert it,
they will come’. Well
actually we did: in our droves. To see another fantastic exhibition at
the Tate Modern – this time the subject was a comparison of the art
of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). The exhibition ran at the
Tate Modern from May to August 2002; before that it was in Paris,
after that it will be in New York and after that it will be gone
forever. Matisse and Picasso were great friends and also great enemies. They infuriated each other, copied each other, fought for the centre ground of a progressive art movement and, above all, respected and loved each dearly. I have tried to get Dylan into the Matisse and Picasso picture. I have made his eyes collide head on with their names and their art but all to no avail – he was only interested in looking at Elvis! Makes you feel like standing on a table and proposing a toast to the King. Which reminds me: what happened to those summer days and summer nights? |
Theo Casamegas |
