Tate Britain's Artist & Empire plus Red 318

Go in you'll find out more

From past experience this time of year is a good time to visit galleries, exhibitions and museums as nearly everyone is out at the shops.

Last time I was at  Tate Britain 'Artist and Empire' was just about to open so Yesterday I went to  see  what delights it held..

I thought the exhibition was very interesting and was a rich blend of aesthetics and history.

What was good for me too was that I was re-introduced to figures I've encountered previously under different guises - first in this mould was in Part 1, Mapping and Marking where there was one MacDonald Gill's excellent maps  the 'Cable and Wireless' commissioned  'Great Circle Map'.

Another highlight (Part 3) for me were two pictures by Henry Nelson O'Neil  they were Eastward Ho! and Home Again strong in both technique and emotion.

In Room 4 the emphasis was on Power Dressing and I found a great photograph by Julia Margaret-Cameron called  'Dejatch Alamayou King Theodore's Son' also liked the picture of  Maharaja Sir Pratap Singh Baaharaja Ju Deo of Orchha (1925) After R Hotz.

Room 5 had a nice picture by Johann Zaffany called Colonel Blair with his family and an Indian Ayah (sometimes called an 'Indian Girl').

In Room 6 I was taken with Woman and Billabong by Sidney Nolan - this was under the umbrella of a rejection of Western illusionism.

and finally bringing the exhibition to an end was the 'Legacies of Empire' section here we could see that cultural traffic was far from one way - and this was tangible in Hew Locke's revisiting of Bristol Statues and EnTWINed by the Singh Twins - the whole exhibition provided plenty of food for thought  - had quick look also at other stuff (of course).

Red 318

A work at Tate Britain referencing Red

Other stuff included Richard Long's work called Red Slate Circle (1988)