tourist at home: the Tate Britain

when it comes to the London museum scene, the Tate Britain is kind of like the sleepy kid who doesn't say much in class to get himself noticed yet is consistently on the honor roll. And like many things that are solid and unremarkable, this establishment is often exactly what one needs to quench a craving for art when Sunday rolls around. Sure there's tons of edgier choices (Shoreditch art galleries) and the big 3 (British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Modern) are always good for a stroll, but I have to say that over the years the "other" other Tate has fast become one of my faves. Of course a lot of that has to do with my personal tastes, which tend to veer to the classical and expressive, but there's also a tranquil serenity one feels when walking through the halls of this place that isn't always found in major museums.

As far as its permanent collection, there' s a good mix from masters of British painting like John Millais, with a particular highlight being the prodigious Turner collection, the biggest in the world. And there's one of my all-time favorite paintings, a depiction of the Channel under a particularly resplendent sky, of which I can never seem to recall the creator, but that I've never failed to stop by on my visits to the TB. Many of the works are grouped by theme and historically, with generally insightful commentary on the signs that gives some clues as to what symbolism was placed by the artist in the work in question, which is always good for neophytes like me. One minor quibble I have is the languid heat that reigned in some of the rooms (isn't it kind of bad for paintings to have too much heat and/or humidity?).
There's also generally an exhibition for which admission is paying, whereas for the permanent collections it isn't. Right now there's one about British photography, which I would've loved to see as a big fan of photography but we preferred to spend more time in the general wings, since the friend I went with had never been to the museum.

Overall this is a museum I like going to because I always seems to discover new things each time, even though its collection is far from massive. It might not be for the more contemporary-inclined (although right now there's a couple of more modern pieces, like Mark Wallinger's recreation of the Parliament Square protest camp), but if you've got an itch for the classics and think bucolic portrayals of typical English life in the XIX century are nice to look at, you can't go wrong with this choice.