LXXI
The Tate Modern is useful
If you've half an hour to kill.
All aspects of modern art are there
And Life - both moving and still.
Without lables you wouldn't know
What an exhibit was supposed to be
And I often find it hard to guess
What I am meant to see.
Little squares of colour -
Little swirls of paint
Might be bright and cheerful - but
A masterpiece it ain't.
What can we admire in
A wall that's painted grey?
Does it tell us something -
If so what does it say?
Black oblongs splashed against
A background of darkest red,
The artist is fussy about it's position
The Art lecturer said.
In this artistic country of ours
The best modern art could contribute
Was three-minute time-lapse film of
A bowl of decaying fruit.
This is from a prejudiced viewpoint but - a painting had been hung upside down for quite a while
before the error was realised - and no one noticed!
May 2005
To H. and R.
