The magic of the Tate...

8:30 p.m.

The city of London has many attractions and the Tate Gallery is surely one of the most important. Among it's vast collection of 500 pieces of English art, three halls are dedicated to sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986), a modern artist of 1920 who gained world recognition on 1948 when he won the first prize at Venice's Biennale. The following work was the first one to be incorporated to Tate's collection. Done in stone from the British soil, the piece was first commissioned by architect Serge Chermayeff for his house in Sussex. But, once finished, Chermayeff was unable to afford the price of Moore's work, so a friend of the artist, Kenneth Clark, took the necessary steps to have Contemporary Art Society buy the sculpture and then transfer it to Tate Britain.

Recumbent Figure, by Henry Moore (1938)

Materials: stone / Measures: 889 x 1327 x 737 mm / Weight: 520 kg

Tate Britain

Why are we mentioning Moore? Because the MNBA has a work of his, where the interaction between gaps and holes, to typical of his art, is well represented...

Another of Tate's highlights is, definitely, a tripthyc by Francis Bacon (1909-1992), which welcomes visitors in one of the halls: it's knwon as Three studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, through which the artist portrays Hitler and other Nazi leaders throughout three panels. The painting, done in 1945, coincides with the publication of the first photos of concentrations camps and other horrors of the war. Bacon's work became, thus, a representation of a world terrorised by Holocaust, nuclear bombs and the weakness of the human nature.

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, by Francis Bacon (c. 1944)

Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: three panels of 94 x 73.7 cm each

Tate Britain

The museum, always avant-garde, also invites contemporary artists to present projects at the Duveen gallery, sponsored by Sotheby’s. This year was Phyllida Barlow's turn, who did a huge cement, polystyrene, plaster and fabric installation. Her work seeks experimentation as main objective to create a colourful and 3D work.