(left) Pablo Picasso, La danse: oil on canvas, 215cm x 145cm, 1925.
Around the corner from Pimlico tube station stands Tate Britain, her outer walls still pockmarked from WWII britzkrieg bombings, but inside her womb lie some of the great art treasures of the world. Jonathan, my South African artist buddy who's been in London for a few years already and who has the good sense to own an Annual Visitors Card, swooshed us in and next moment we were in LaLaLand, the wonderful world of art.
Tate Britain, the older of the two Tates, had a Triennale on the go with some interesting installations, videos, sculptures and wallwork but the piece that caught my eye was a large pencil drawing of hyena-type characters devouring strange looking seagulls on a detritus-ridden beach. There were also some shadowy pieces, large graphics on coarse burlap that caught my curiosity. Plus a series of photo-portraits in process-type colours but the two or three floors loaded with artworks from bygone eras were all good. A few hours was not enough but time was running out so off we strolled across the River Thames to see Ma'am Tate's younger sister, The Tate Modern.
Yeah, a nice big minimalist sort of entrance with a huge installation that I didn't want to spend too much time on because I knew that upstairs there were treasures waiting for me, including Picasso's famous (or infamous?) La danse.
Yeah-yeah, saw all the early Abstract Expressionists, a playful and poetic Kandinsky abstract caught my eye, then a disturbing Joseph Beuys installation of sledges lining up to embark into the back of an old German Combi plus supporting sketches, notes and cryptic artifacts, some Mondrians, a few Bacons, a good ol' Jackson Pollock - quite a nice figurative oil painting (I didn't know the swine could even draw!) and then... next to the Pollock... the awesome hideous threesome! La danse!!!
"...and the female of the species is more deadlier than the male..."
But blast it heck I love those girls! Standing there, staring at this great canvas, the thick, gooey industrial cyan paint (Picasso was a bit of a shmuck with his art materials) baubling with caustic, vengeant fervour off the canvas surface through the aging process, ahh... it all came together, I realised just why I'm a junkie for the paint (did you know, some of my favourite paintings - my works - are lying in Helsinki all because I was a sucker for some slob female, that I - like the romantic fool that I am - honoured a commitment to the aforesaid "piece-'o-white-trash" telly-tubby? WTF! NEVER be too honest, especially to a wimmin. It's as bad as being a compulsive liar I tell you, you WILL lose all as a man if you over-commit to love)
Anyway, there's a long and interesting story behind this La danse piece, I'm not going to explain it to you now but if you're a Picassophile you can pick up some of the drift of it in that link above or just do your own research. Ugh clue: Picasso was driven to paint this piece over the death of a mate of his (see the black silhouette face in the background?) and these three girls were involved in old what's-his-name?- Ramon Pitxot's - passing on. You got it - this is Picasso voodoo-cursing the wicked again!
"Oi Jono! Thanks for a GREAT day (and night) with The Tate Sisters man!"
(and a special note to SOME white women - oh, the offspring of Her Highness The Great, Beautiful and Bountiful Ma Nature, wake the *omigosh* up! - your race, YOUR SPECIES is dying heck, start becoming accountable for some of your dumb and irresponsible actions)
In a perfect white world women would be denied the vote because they wouldn't want to vote anyway - preferring to be REAL white women - as opposed to feminazis.