My girlfriend’s and my interest in, and study of, landscape painter William Turner, along with the fact Dot hadn’t visited any of the art galleries in London before, meant it was an absolute must for us to go and absorb as much as possible. We visited the Tate Britain, Tate Modern, National Gallery, and the Royal Academy. We spent a long time in the Tate Britain and in the Turner Gallery. It was really good to have as long as we wanted there so we could really study his paintings closely.
I was also interested in seeing the paintings by Mark Rothko in the Tate Modern. I had written about his work in a recent Art History essay and I was eager to see some in person – they didn’t disappoint. I was drawn into them with a slightly sceptical outlook but soon found myself engulfed in a bleak maroon landscape. I was travelling through the painting and it was fantastic.
I don’t think I have ever given so few paintings such attention and time before. I was in the room for over an hour looking at these eight paintings. Some I fixated on for about twenty minutes!
As I continued around the Tate I discovered that I was looking at things quite differently as a result of Rothko. In a way, he had unlocked for me a lot of previously unapproachable modern art.
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