The Tate Modern Highlights Tour

(16 customer reviews)

Just inside the entrance to the Turbine Hall.

Guided by Rick Jones

Walk Times

Day Walk Type Start Time End Time
Wednesday Weekly 2.30 pm 4.30 pm Winter Summer Reserve Online

N.B. this walk will not take place on the following dates:

25-12-2024 01-01-2025

Short read: Greatest Show on Earth in London.

Long read: “Tate Modern, take one, was the ordinary made extraordinary… A few years on, the strangeness was cranked up a notch with the arrival of one of the most enigmatic buildings London has ever seen.”

As for the art… it’s about modern art and contemporary art with masterpieces from around the world.

Surreal, kinetic sculptures. A year collapsed into a document of only six minutes and four seconds. Behold 2009 (steel car bumpers and 4,000 metres of human hair). Bodily deformations to express heightened emotions (Picasso). An archive of misunderstandings, crises and ambivalences. Hommage à Chrysler Corp. 1957.

Let alone Bonnard, Matisse, Braque, Magritte, Mondrian, Moore, Pollock, Lichtenstein, Duchamp…..

Blue Badge Guide and Secretary of the Critics Circle, Rick Jones knows the art, knows his way round the “enigmatic building” it’s folded into.

Translation read: 1) best possible introduction to a landmark building and art that is a series of flashpoints across the last century; 2) crash course in modern art (know your Dali from the Dali Llama).

The Tate Modern Walking Tour – The Practicals

The Tate Modern Highlights Tour is led by arts journalist Rick Jones, Secretary of the Critics Circle every Wednesday at 2.30pm.

Meeting point: The guided tour begins just inside the Entrance to Turbine Hall at the western end of the building. The Turbine Hall – as entrances go, it’s surely the most spectacular one in London (if not the United Kingdom).

Tate Modern is by the banks of the River Thames on Bankside, London SE1 9TG. It comprises the Blavatnik Building (Sumner Street), Turbine Hall and the Natalie Bell Building (Holland Street). It has St Paul’s cathedral opposite it on the other side of the Thames, and historic Southwark to its south. It has great accessibility via public transportation with London Bridge, Southwark, Blackfriars, Cannon Street and St Paul’s stations within walking distance.

Formerly the Bankside Power Station, it was selected as a new Tate gallery site in 1994 and opened in 2000. The power plant building was stripped back to its original steel and brick structure. The boiler house became the Tate collection galleries whilst the turbine hall was cast as a dramatic entrance and display area.

Bring an open mind.

Rick visits the big names in the gallery like Henri Matisse who created, on a vast scale, L’Escargot (the snail, above) in 1953 when he was too old to wield a paintbrush. It recalls the violent clashing colours of his ‘wild animal’ youth.

To the Dutch, there was first Rembrandt, second Van Gogh and third Piet Mondrian whose Composition C (above) painted in 1935, is the ultimate in abstract purity and is seen today on handbags and fabrics all over the world.

Jackson Pollock was a drug addict and an alcoholic who in 1941 expressed his wild inner turmoil in Birth (above). Critics described his talent as ‘volcanic…unpredictable….raw…undisciplined’ and put him on the cover of Time magazine.

Then came Pop Art in the 1950s inspired by advertising, comic books and strip cartoons. The massive dimensions of Roy Lichtenstein’s Whaam (above) make it an ironic statement on the bald excitement of war.

To some, the entire art movement of the twentieth century might as well be thrown down the toilet – which makes Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (above) of 1917 strangely prophetic.

All of these works and more you can see on Rick’s Tate Modern Tour every Wednesday at 2.30 pm.

Tate galleries now comprise Tate Britain (Millbank, London), Tate Liverpool (Royal Albert Dock), Tate St Ives (Cornwall) and Tate Modern (Bankside, London).

There is plenty more to learn about art in London so check out our artistic London tours.

Plus our museum tours, including Victoria & Albert Museum, Natural History Museum and the British Museum

LONDON WALKS PRIVATE WALKS

If you can’t make one of the regularly scheduled, just-turn-up, The Tate Modern Highlights Tour it can always be booked as a private tour. If you go private you can have the The Tate Modern Highlights Tour walk – or any other London Walk – on a day and at a time that suits your convenience. We’ll tailor it to your requirements. Ring Fiona or Mary on 020 7624 3978 or email us at [email protected] and we’ll set it up and make it happen for you. A private London Walk – they’re good value for an individual or couple and sensational value for a group – makes an ideal group or educational or birthday party or office (team-building) or club outing.

GIVE THE GIFT OF LONDON WALKS

A private London Walk makes a fab gift – be it a birthday or anniversary or Christmas present or whatever. Merchandise schmerchandise (gift wrapped or not) – but giving someone an experience, now that’s special. Memories make us rich.

LONDON WALKS – STREETS AHEAD!

Don’t just take it from us.

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16 reviews for The Tate Modern Highlights Tour

  1. Paul Scheufele

    I’ve been to a lot of great museums (Met of NY, MOMA, Guggenheim, Louvre, Uffizi, Prado, National Gallery, to name a few) and Rick Jones is the BEST tour guide I have ever had. Period. Full stop.

  2. Ola Berger Stai

    Thank you again, to London Walks as a company, and in particular our guide Rick Jones for a 2 hours informative and entertaining walk through progression of modern art, showing us some of the masterpieces, and sharing with us the stories behind them.
    Whenever I am in London, – I’m a Norwegian tourist, I try to participate on one ore more of your Walks. I have never been disapointed. Always a highlight of my stay! To my satisfaction I’ve got a lot of Walks left.

  3. Philippa

    Everything everyone else has written about Rick jones and this tour has covered it. Today’s tour was hugely enjoyable. Full marks and thank you!

  4. Andrew Riddell

    This is the way to experience an art gallery. A selection and pertinent information about each chosen work. The best way to avoid being overwhelmed. Rick is an engaging host. You couldn’t do better. Any tour he is guiding is worth doing. More power to London walks, an essential part of any day in London for me.

  5. Giorgio

    Highly recommended tour of the Tate Modern – I have been living in London for years but never enjoyed my time at the museum like today. Rick is a superb guide, very knowledgeable not only of the art but also of the anecdotes, which made the tour even more enjoyable!

  6. Mrs Melanie Goodwin

    Having experienced the Tate Britain tour I thought it was worth trying this one, despite not really liking Modern art. I wasn’t disappointed. Rick is an excellent guide, bringing to life artworks and artists as he shares his extensive knowledge. Highly recommend.

  7. Cinda Hugos

    Excellent. So knowledgeable and informative. Thank you London Walks! Rick is outstanding!

  8. Ed P. from Oregon

    Coming from the West Coast of the USA, we are not locals, but this was our second Walk with Rick Jones. As like our walk last year with Rick (T. S. Eliot), today was marvelous, insightful and a great pleasure. Rick is an outstanding guide and we think one could attend any of his tours-regardless of one’s interest or familiarity with Rick’s subject-and come away with anything other than being pleased by an absorbing and satisfying experience. Thanks LW, thanks Rick.

  9. Marla

    Rick’s tour of the Tate Modern was wonderful. His expertise, understanding, and passion for the subject were excellent. Would highly recommend.

  10. V A MALEGAONKAR

    Tate Modern Highlights tour with Rick Jones is simply unmissable.

  11. James

    Amazing! I took this tour with my 13 year old. Neither of us know anything about modern art and I was worried it might be over our heads. But Rick was the perfect guide, providing context for each piece of art and making it accessible and engaging. So much better than just wandering around on our own. I can’t recommend it highly enough. And crucially, my son says the same!

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