Tate Britain

BP Walk through British Art

• 1 July 2014 — 31 December 2016 *on now

The BP Walk through British Art offers a circuit of Tate Britain’s unparalleled collection from its beginnings to its end. This ‘walk through time’ has been arranged to ensure that the collection’s full historical range, from 1545 to the present, is always on show. There are no designated themes or movements; instead, you can see a range of art made at any one moment in an open conversational manner.

As part of the BP Walk through British Art there are also two galleries on the main floor which are devoted to Henry Moore, one of Britain’s pre-eminent sculptors. The rooms explore Moore’s close personal relationship with Tate, investigate his working processes and highlight his public sculpture of the 1950s and 1960s.

The BP Walk through British Art also includes The Clore Gallery which is dedicated to the Turner Collection and houses the artist’s bequest to the nation. A room of works by Turner’s great rival and contemporary, John Constable, are also on display. The upper floor of the Clore gallery showcases a changing selection of representative works from Tate’s outstanding collection of paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints by the visionary artist William Blake.

Suitable for

• Family friendly

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain

Anwar Jalal Shemza (1928–85) moved to London in 1956, leaving an established career as a writer and painter in Lahore, Pakistan.

In Britain Shemza abandoned his illustrative and figurative approach and developed vigorous compositions that fused calligraphy and aspects of Islamic architecture with Western abstraction. He repeatedly revisited subjects, including the walls and gates of Lahore, the Arabic letter ‘Meem’, and plant roots.

His last series of work directly related to notions of belonging in the Pakistani diaspora.

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/display/bp-spotlight-anwar-shemza

Jo Spence (1934–92) was a photographer who explored and challenged the way in which women were represented.

Drawing on personal experiences and the use of performance, she commented on broader political issues. This display showcases the vast breadth of Spence’s ground-breaking work.

The photographs and archival material on view relate to her collaboration with the socialist-feminist collective Hackney Flashers, her involvement in developing a form of photo therapy, and her examination of her experience with breast cancer.

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/display/bp-spotlight-jo-spence

On display for the first time ever in the UK, George Lawson and Wayne Sleep 1972–5 by acclaimed artist David Hockney, will sit alongside two of Hockney’s other celebrated large-scale double portraits in this awe-inspiring display.

Created between 1970 and 1977, the three paintings portray couples or friends in their homes. Presented together, they demonstrate Hockney’s fascination with people’s relationships, showcasing his ability to combine psychological intensity with a stylistic coolness.

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/display/bp-spotlight-hockneys-double-portraits

Since William Hogarth satirised the Georgian craze for gin, artists have explored Britain’s relationship with alcohol – as social lubricant, or as factor in social or family breakdown. This fascinating display examines the role of alcohol in British art from the 19th century to modern day.

The display contrasts two works from Tate’s collection; George Cruikshank’s Worship of Bacchus, a critical panting illustrating in one huge canvas the effects of drink on society, and Gilbert & George’s Drinking Sculpture, a wall-mounted montage of photographs (progressively blurred) of drinkers in a London bar.

Cutting across time, generations, class and gender, reflecting changing tastes and attitudes, alcohol and its consequences are shown to exert a catalytic effect. Never have the nation’s drinking habits been so captivating.

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/display/bp-spotlight-art-and-alcohol

The Turner Prize is an art award set up in 1984 to celebrate new developments in contemporary art. It is awarded each year to a British artist for an outstanding exhibition from the twelve past months.

Nominations are invited each year, and the prize is judged by an independent jury which changes each year.

The four shortlisted artists will present their works at Tate Britain before the winner is announced in December.

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-prize-2016

Paul Nash is one of the most distinctive and important British artists of the twentieth century and this is the largest presentation of his work for a generation.

Known as a landscape artist, who engaged with the downland and coastal landscapes of southern England and its ancient past, those landscapes also provided a stage for his engagements with an international modernism, specifically Surrealism.

The exhibition presents the artist’s major works from his early Symbolist manner, through to the iconic works of the First World War, as well as his landscapes of the interwar period. It also features his involvement with Surrealism and his post-war landscape series engaging with natural cycles such as the phases of the moon. There are oils, watercolours, assemblages and photographs as well as books and archive material.

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/paul-nash

One of the most popular and influential British artists of the 20th century returns to Tate Britain for his most comprehensive exhibition yet.

This exhibition gathers together an extensive selection of David Hockney’s most famous works celebrating his achievements in painting, drawing, print, photography and video across six decades.

As he approaches his 80th birthday, Hockney continues to change his style and ways of working, embracing new technologies as he goes. From his portraits and images of Los Angeles swimming pools, through to his drawings and photography, Yorkshire landscapes and most recent paintings – some of which have never be seen before in public – this exhibition shows how the roots of each new direction lay in the work that came before. A once-in-a-lifetime chance to see these unforgettable works together.

Suitable for

• Family friendly

Admission

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/david-hockney

Presenting the first UK show to focus exclusively on queer British art.

The opening of Queer British Art marks the 50 year anniversary of the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England. Featuring works from the Pre-Raphaelites to Francis Bacon, the show explores how artists expressed themselves in a time when established assumptions about gender and sexuality were being questioned and transformed.

Deeply personal and intimate works are presented alongside pieces aimed at a wider public, which helped to forge a sense of community. Together, they reveal a remarkable range of identities and stories, from the playful to the political and from the erotic to the domestic. With paintings, drawings, personal photographs and film from artists such as John Singer Sargent, Dora Carrington and David Hockney the diversity of queer British art is celebrated as never before.

Admission

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/queer-british-art

Celebrating over 25 years of Rachel Whiteread's internationally acclaimed sculpture.

The most comprehensive exhibition to date of Rachel Whiteread, one of the Britain’s leading contemporary artists. Her work is characterized by its use of industrial materials such as plaster, concrete, resin, rubber and metal to cast the surfaces and volume in and around everyday objects and architectural space, creating evocative sculptures that range from the intimate to the monumental.

Born in London in 1963, Whiteread was the first woman to win the Turner Prize in 1993. The same year she made House (1993–1994), a life-sized cast of the interior of a condemned terraced house in London’s East End, which existed for a few months before it was controversially demolished. Major public projects, such as the Holocaust Memorial (1995) in Vienna, and Cabin (2015) in New York, have marked her career ever since, and have prompted key series of works represented in the exhibition in the form of sculptures, drawings and documentary material.

This study of Whiteread’s career brings together well-known works such as Ghost (1990), Untitled (100 Spaces) (1995) and Untitled (Staircase) (2001) alongside works that have never been previously exhibited.

Suitable for

• Family friendly

Admission

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/rachel-whiteread

The story of the artists who fled to Britain to escape war in France.

This exhibition presents captivating works by Monet, Tissot, Pissarro and their compatriots.

In the 1870s, France was devastated by the Franco-Prussian war and insurrection in Paris, driving artists to seek refuge across the Channel. Their experiences in London and the friendships that developed not only influenced their own work but also contributed to the British art scene.

This exhibition is the first to map the connections between French and British artists, patrons and art dealers during a traumatic period in French history. Highlighting their engagement with British culture, traditions and social life, their art is a fascinating insight into how London was perceived by the visiting French artists and the remarkable works that came from their time here are not to be missed.

Suitable for

• Family friendly

Admission

Website

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/impressionists-london-french-artists-exile