London Art Tours - for the visitor to London who wishes to view and experience the incomparable art and architecture of the city, via galleries and exhibitions.

Tate Modern Bankside, SE1. Tel: 020-7887 8000 www.tate.org.uk tube: St Paul's/Southwark daily 10.00 - 18.00 (late night Fri/Sat until 22.00) admission: free (charges for special exhibitions)

From the moment it opened in May 2000 Tate Modern became one of the most popular galleries in London and joined the Pompidou in Paris and MOMA in New York as one of the three most popular museums of modern western art in the world. The collections comprise the art of Western Europe and the USA beginning where the National Gallery ends - in the year 1900 - and continuing right up to the present day. Rather than being presented chronologically, the permanent collection is shown in a thematic display providing the opportunity to compare works from different artists and periods but dealing with the four genres of: History/Memory/Society Nude/Action/Body Landscape/Matter/Environment Still Life/Object/Real Life Bizarrely, the building was originally an oil-fired power station which produced up to half of central London's electricity before its closure in 1981. Triumphantly converted by the Swiss firm of Herzog and de Meuron, the galleries retain an industrial aesthetic and many of the original features of the building such as the 325 feet high chimney and the monumental turbine hall. To enter the space of the Turbine Hall is an unforgettable experience and in recent years this has been the location for a series of installations by contemporary artists. The range of work on display at Tate Modern is truly astonishing. So to is the scale of the building. More than 80 galleries display everything from iconic works of the 20th century through to challenging and often provocative contemporary works. Rodin, The Kiss, 1901-4 Modigliani, Head, 1911-2 Monet, Waterlilies, 1916 Picasso, The Three Dancers, 1925 Bonnard, The Table, 1925 Matisse, The Backs, 1909-29 Mondrian, Composition in Red & Blue, 1935 Dali, Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937 Pollock, Summertime 9A 1948, 1948 Matisse, The Snail, 1953 Rothko, Seagram Murals, 1958 Warhol, Brillo, 1964 Picasso, Nude with Necklace, 1968 Cragg, Britain Seen from the North, 1981 Landy, Scrapheap Services, 1995 People often say that modern art is intelligible but a London Art Tours guide will give you a unique insight into this amazing collection.