Liverpool - Just Passing Through

It's always great to be in Liverpool.  It's a city that reminds me very much of Glasgow, and after some years of being in flux, with great swathes in decay, knocked down, or about to be demolished, it's gradually coming together again.

This, of course, is the iconic Liver Building.

Down by the Albert Dock, padlocks have been put on the railings, with all sorts of romantic messages.  Well, it looks romantic.  Who knows what it actually says....

I went down to see the Tate's Dazzle Ship by Carlos Cruz-Diez.  I've blogged about it HERE.

How exciting!!

Now where could it be...?

No, can't see it.  I mean, I know it's meant to be camouflaged, but this is ridiculous. I really can't see it.  

Hang on, there's some information about it on a display panel on the side of the Tate....maybe there's a clue here.

 
Ok...let's look again....there's got to be a big ship here somewhere...

So...ok.... it's that thing there that looks like a giant packet of Refreshers...??  Oh, you've got to be kidding...

Mr Cruz-Diez wasn't kidding.  It wasn't what I was expecting at all.  I was really disappointed.  Call that dazzle??  It's just stripey.

So I had to content myself with other things around the Albert Dock.  Like this.

Or this.

Or this.

I even popped in to the Tate itself, which had a rather lovely exhibition called Constellations.  I didn't quite get the whole concept (although you can read more about it HERE), but the main gist was that no artist (to paraphrase Donne) is an island, and no artwork exists in isolation - one thing triggers another.  Anyway, it which featured a really spectacular pastel by the savage messiah himself, Henri Gaudier Brzeska.

Wowsers.

Rather wonderfully, you could even take a look at the back of the picture.

I have to say, I went to see the Wild Thing show about Epstein, Gill etc, and don't recall seeing this pastel.  But never mind, I've seen it now, and very beautifully sculptural it is too.  It has a fauvist Gauguin feel, with bold vibrant colours and an energy of pattern making, and very strong, black, confident outlines to the face, which are quite difficult for a right-handed person to execute in a portrait facing to the right.  However, I've also seen similar heads by him facing to the left.  It would be interesting to know which was his lead hand sculpting.

This is the view out of the Tate.