Reply To: National Gallery Extension

Funny to think that we criticise (rightly I think) Georgian pastiche or fake Victoriana and yet hail as a masterpiece what is essentially a pastiche of the work of Corbusier (and not a particularly well thought out pastiche – Ronchamp meets Chandigargh meets Shodhan and gets it off with Garche!!!) I do like Benson and Forsyths work but it looks pretty dated and pointless to be re-hashing the same old motifs and ‘iconic references.

Methinks this is the Post modernism writ over!!!.

Also to be honest the building has a major flaw – it is essentially a series of retail and cafeteria spaces with a somewhat isolated series of galleries up top.

When I visited it was packed – but there was little to show of paintings. I had to re-enter (via a fairly tortuous route) the ‘old’ Galery to actually view an exhibition that had any coherence.