Visiting Tate Modern in London

I spent 4 hours in Tate Modern because there was a lot of exhibitions and I also went to the special event which was about art therapy. (It was a one-day special event, and it was free of charge! I didn’t know that before I came there, how lucky I was!)

The event was so interactive and people can talk and share their artworks and their feelings towards art. I found it really interesting because there was some small workshops that I could actually create artworks with different people in the meantime.

I have never been to neither Australia nor desert, but this landscape painting by Sidney Nolan is overwhelmingly majestic and it shows the silence of Australian desert as well. He was one of Australia’s best known painter and print-maker who was born in Australia and worked in Australia and London. This painting belongs to a series of aerial landscapes that he made in a three-month journey across Australia.

Sidney Nolan
Inland Australia 1950
Oil paint on hardboard

Max Ernst was a German artist who was primary pioneer of the surrealism.  He created this ruined “cityscape” with a technique that Ernst called ‘grattage’, which is scraping. It involved placing the canvas over planks of wood or other textured surfaces, and then scraping paint across it, and its shape formed the basis of the image. This type of technique was one of techniques that surrealist artists explored as a way of blending their work.

Max Ernst
The Entire City 1934
La Ville entiere
Oil paint on paper on canvas

This is one of a series of seascapes A-F which Emil Nolde painted while staying on the island of Sylt in northern Germany. Nolde was a German Danish painter and print-maker and is considered to be one of the great oil painting and water-colour painters of the 20th century. He is known for his vigorous brushwork and expressive choice of colours. Golden yellows is one of the colours which appears frequently in his work, giving a luminous quality to otherwise somber tones. He also did flower paintings which showed his interest in the art of Vincent van Gogh.

Emil Nolde
The Sea B 1930
Meer B
Oil paint on canvas

This is definitely my favourite from the pictures I chose to post here. I never thought of tea stain could also be the “colour” for painting before I’ve seen this! I’m gonna try something like that with print-making later!

Nicholas Hlobo is a South Africa based artist who likes to create artwork with different materials such as rubber inner tubes, ribbon, organza, lace and found objects.

The title, Macaleni iintozomlambo, refers to a traditional Xhosa belief whereby boys would throw rocks into the river before skinny dipping as a sign of respect towards the river.

Nicholas Hlobo
Macaleni Iintozomlambo 2010
Ribbon and tea on paper

The painting below used two basic elements which are the straight line and the curve as a starting point to create simple shapes, and it looks complicated and amazing.

Saloua Raouda Choucair
Composition in Blue Module 1947-51
Oil paint on canvas

There were loads of amazing artwork in Tate Modern,  and most of the exhibitions are free. Click here to see more details if you are interested.