04.26.05
From Tate to Tate with Caitlin and Caitlin
I have mentioned my friend Caitlin who works for the same company before. She is my museum/gallery buddy and we jokingly call ourselves the Caitlin Culture Club or CCC, of which we are joint-presidents. So far, we have been to the Encounters exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum (last year), the Turks exhibition at the Royal Academy (earlier this year) and recently, the August Strindberg exhibtion at the Tate Modern.
Here is a picture of us outside the Tate Modern at South Bank:
Caitlin and Caitlin at the Tate Modern 
The August Strindberg exhibition was really good and very uncrowded, which made a nice change after the rush and crush of the Turks exhibition. He paints these amazing turbulent seascapes but also lovely, calm seashores with a solitary flower. He is an interesting guy – a contemporary of Monet and the like but too much of an individualist to be part of any school. He was Swedish but lived all over Europe, including Germany, Switzerland and France. He was a photographer and writer as well as a painter. It seems that he was a bit of a misogynist and firmly believed that a woman’s place was in the home and the greatest feminine virtue was motherliness. Paradoxically, he was always attracted to strong career women! He was married three times – and separated/divorced three times – and had five children.
After a lovely morning at the Tate, Caitlin and I went our separate ways and I walked along the Thames to the Tate Britain at Pimlico. I was meeting my aunt and uncle from Scotland who were down for a couple of days. They were off to the sold-out exhibition of Turner Whistler Monet and I met them for lunch beforehand. Then I walked home via Vauxhall and Clapham Junction so I did loads of walking that day!
Panorama of the Thames and London Eye
Statue of Emmeline Pankhurst behind Westminster
PS I have every intention of writing about my trip to Paris but haven’t had time to do it justice.
