TATE MODERN

                                                                          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.