Tate Britain: The permanent collection

UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages MA in Museums, Galleries and Contemporary Culture Tziourtzia Eleni 13464776 Tate Britain: The permanent collection Art Museums and Contemporary Culture LONDON 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction…………………………….…………………………………………….. 3 Chapter 1: The collection and the hanging system………………………………………………..6 Chapter 2: Evaluation and impact on the visitors…………………………………………………. 12 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….. 18 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………… 20 Source of illustrations………………………………………………………………….. 23 [2] Introduction [3] Art museums are institutions with the general purpose to acquire, preserve and provide access to the works of art.1 Thus, they have the unique ability to decide which art works will represent man’s finest works, shaping – in this way – an aspect of society’s understanding of the past. Hence, their role is of extremely importance and art museums intentionnowadays isto provide to their public, not just an aesthetic experience, but educational outcomes too. One of the most important art galleries in the country is Tate Britain,an art institution “owned by, and existing for, the public”.2 According to the museum’s purpose, Tate’s mission is to increase public knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of British art.3 Starting as the National Gallery of British art, it soon renamed into Tate Gallery, after Henry Tate who donated his private art collection to the nation in 1890.4The building, which initially had just eight displaying rooms, is today massively extended, housing the British art from 1500 to nowadays.5 Tate Britain manages to contribute to the understanding of the country’s art history through its collection, which is always increasing with new acquisitions,several learning and entertainment programmes - aiming to both children and adult groups, and its frequent temporary exhibitions which are examining different aspects of art themes or artists.In addition, Tate has also an online presence via its official website, where one can access almost the entire collection, and through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. In this way, the museum is keeping up with technology and the new ways of communication between people, while it is getting feedback from its visitors in the 1 James Cuno, The Object of Art Museums in Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust, ed. James Cuno (New Jersey; Woodstock: Princeton University Press, 2004), 49; Andrew McClellan, Ideals and Mission in The Art Museum from Boullée to Bilbao (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 13-14 2 “About Tate” in Tate’s official website, accessed 31 December 2011, http://www.tate.org.uk/about/ 3 “About Tate” in Tate’s official website, accessed 31 December 2011, http://www.tate.org.uk/about/ 4 Tate Gallery in Encyclopedia Papyrus Larousse Britannica, vol. 49 (Athens: Papyrus Publishing, 2007), 338 5 “Tate Britain Extensions” in Tate’s official website, accessed 31 December 2011, http://www.tate.org.uk/archivejourneys/history/ [4] most efficient way and making itself friendlier. The gallery today is attracting over 1.5 million visitors per year, being one of the most visited museums worldwide.6 1.Tate Britain promotes understanding and enjoyment of British art through a series of events and exhibitions. Left - Late at Tate adult event: promoting flyer. Right - John Martin, Apocalypse exhibition: promoting poster 6 Exhibition and museum attendance figures 2010 in The Art Newspaper, No.223, April 2011,http://www.theartnewspaper.com/attfig/attfig10.pdf [5] Chapter 1 The collection and the hanging system [6] Tate Britain is devoted into collecting and displaying British art from 1500 onwards.7 The art works exhibited though are not necessarily by British nationals but also from artists who have lived and produced their work in Britain. Thus, a visitor to the gallery can admire, not just the work of British artists, but also the work of Hans Eworth, for instance, a Netherlandish national who worked in England during the 16th century.8The museum possesses a wide collection of historic, modern and contemporary art works which are currently exhibited in twenty-nine rooms9. The new director of Tate Britain, Penelope Curtis, has decided to reorganize the collection in order to give it a fresh look. The new hung and redevelopment is still in process and the final renovation works will end up in 2013.10 According to Curtis, she wants the new collection “to be bolder” and focus into visitors being attracted, not by blockbuster exhibitions, but from the permanent collection itself.11 Thus, the museum has chosen to display the collection in chronological divided rooms, without pointing out schools, styles or epochs. In this way, different art styles come together with the only common that they have been made in the same era. Apart from the chronological divided rooms, there are some in focus rooms where certain artists or art themes are examined. The current displaying system though seems to be problematic; although the new hung in its current form is only temporary, it fails to balance the exhibited amount of pre-20th century art 7 “About Tate” in Tate’s official website, accessed 31 December 2011, http://www.tate.org.uk/about/ Richard Humphreys, Tate Britain Companion to British Art (London: Tate Publishing, 2001), 19 9 Bendor Grosvenor, What’s going on at Tate Britain? In Art History News, accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.arthistorynews.com 10 “BP British Art Displays” in Tate’s official website, accessed 31 December 2011, http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/CollectionDisplays?venueid=1 11 Charlotte Higgins, Penelope Curtis: beyond the oil painting, The Guardian, 30 November 2010, accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/nov/30/penelope-curtis-tate-britaininterview?showallcomments=true#end-of-comments 8 [7] works and these of the 20th century. c As Jonathan Jones marked, the fouur-fifths of the total amount of Tate Britain’s colleection are displayed in just one third of the space.12 Today the t visitor of the museum m can pass through the Occtagon into the Historicc Collection, a big room diisplaying paintings from 15550 to 1880. Since the currrent hung is not 2. Tate Briitain's floor plan permaneent, it is only 13 displaying key works of the period. p Thus, sixty-six works of art are coovering the walls of this room, presenting an overrcrowded group of paintings. As shown in tthe museum’s floor plan, the rooms marked withh yellow are covering the period before the 20 2 th century. Apart from the big room next to the t Octagon, the museum has three more sspaces, focusing in certain themes or artists, dedi dicated to pre-20th century art; the Atlantic B Britain, with fifteen works, focusing on paintingss that refer to themes connected with the colonial period of Britain14; Rubens and Britainnreferring to Rubens work and influence in Britain, and in the same space a second theme, The Protestant Church after 1660, referrinng to the paintings commissioned by the Churcch after the Restoration15; and Colour annd Line: Turner’s Experiments, a space with fiffty-five works dedicated to Turner’s revolutiions in watercolour 12 Jonathan Jones, Tate Britain’s reh hung is a terrible idea, The Guardian, 1 December 201 10, accessed 2 January 2012,http://www.guardian.co.uk/aartanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2010/dec/01/tate-brritain-rehang-revamp 13 “Explore Tate Britain” in Tate’s offficial website, accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exp plore/etb.jsp 14 “Explore Tate Britain, Atlantic Briitain” in Tate’s official website, accessed 2 January 20 012, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exp plore/room.jsp?roomcode=3&tourid=undefined&actio on=1 15 “Explore Tate Britain, Rubens and d Britain/The Protestant Church after 1660” in Tate’s o official website, accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exp plore/room.jsp?roomcode=8&tourid=undefined&actio on=1 [8] images and prints.16 The wing marked with blue is dedicated to Romanticism, exploring the art theme from its origins to the 20th century’s Neo-Romantics, while it also refers to Turner and Constable.17 The rooms surrounding the central gallery, marked with green, are dedicated to a chronological presentation of the 20thand 21stcentury art works while there are some rooms dedicated to specific artists, like the Don McCullin room, and art themes, like the Thin Black Lines room.18 The rest of the museum’s rooms, marked with red, are currently closed for renovation. With the current distribution of the art works, Tate Britain seems to promote the British modern and contemporary art, while the museum is dedicated into British art from 1500. Although the current display is only temporary, it is still keeping a significant amount of important art works out of the sight of the public. Hence, a visitor, a tourist for instance, coming in Tate Britain will leave with the impression that the country has mainly produced art works in the 20th century, having not much from anything older to show. The object-oriented display19, followed by Tate Britain, is focusing on the promotion of the aesthetic experience of art providing minimum, if any, interpretation. While Anselm Jappe is supporting the lack of any extra educational information, promoting an open dialogue between the visitor and the art work20, the laconic captions might exclude a part of the public in understanding the art works’ history.Of course the chronologically divided rooms achieve to give a sense of continuity but, although the view of “the real thing”21 is in itself pleasing for a portion of the public, the museum should provide more information about the works 16 “Explore Tate Britain, Colour and Line: Turner’s Experiments” in Tate’s official website, accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/explore/room.jsp?roomcode=T10&tourid=undefined&action=1 17 Sam Phillips, The Art Guide: London, (London: Thames & Hudson, 2011), 108 18 “Explore Tate Britain” in Tate’s official website, accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/explore/etb.jsp 19 David Dean, Museum Exhibition: Theory and Practice, (New York: Routledge, 1996), 4-5 20 Anselm Jappe, The aura of the old museums versus the experience of the new ones, paper presented in the symposium “Beyond the Acropolis Museum - Ideology, Museology, Architecture”. Thessaloniki, Greece, 13-14 May 2011 21 David Dean, Museum Exhibition: Theory and Practice, (New York: Routledge, 1996), 6 [9] presented, in order to reach more varied audiences, giving the opportunity to the visitors to learn more about a certain piece or solve any confusions that might occur. On the other hand, the lack of any extra information could significantly improve the visitor’s critical thinking. Without detailed captions there are no guided conclusions about the deeper meaning of an art piece. Thus the visitor is leaded into thinking on his own about the importance of an art work, developing in this way his observing and associating skills.22 Tate Britain maintains the old museum aura, providing access to art without limiting, with additions and distractions, the public’s responses to it. Of course the purpose of an art museum is also to provide enough assistance to its visitors in order to make sense of the art they see.23 Especially today, one can obtain access to a painting using the Internet. The role of the museum is not just to provide the authentic sight of the art pieces but to create the aesthetic experience and to achieve an emotional impact of the art pieces in the museum’s environment, helping the visitor to learn through art, come up with his own conclusions and thoughts about it and evaluate its importance by himself. The balance in the museum’s interference in the art it is exhibiting is maybe the key to the successful display style, as it manages, not just to attract people’s curiosity, but to create“venues of discovery and learning”.24 Overall, Tate Britain’s collections are exhibited in a modern style, while the museum has postmodern elements in its function. The gallery’s architecture refers to White Cube rooms, while the laconic captions and the elitism essence in the museum’s environment are characteristics of the old museum. At the same time though, the museum is making 22 Donald N. Roberson Jr., Free Time in an Art Museum: Pausing, Gazing and Interacting, Leisure Sciences, Vol.33, 2010, 73 23 James Cuno, The Objects of Art Museums in Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust, ed. James Cuno, (New Jersey; Woodstock: Princeton University Press, 2004), 49-73 24 Glenn D. Lowry, A Deontological Approach to Art Museums and the Public Trust in Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust, ed. James Cuno, (New Jersey; Woodstock: Princeton University Press, 2004), 134 [10] itselffriendlier and reaches new audiences through its online presence on popular social networks. Tate is evaluating the public’s opinion and is including the general public in its matters, reaching everyone via the web. Thus, it has transformed itself from an institution dedicated to collecting and preserving the British art to an institution dedicated into communicating its content to the public in the most efficient way. [11] Chapter 2 Evaluation and impact on the visitors [12] Art museums’ survival is due to their ability to transform their function and purpose in order to meet the needs and expectations of the public.25 Thus, a museum’s collection is always reflecting the “aspirations, characteristics and values”26 of the society. Tate Britain cares about its visitors and their opinion about the collection and is conducting frequent evaluations in order to understand its public’s needs and expectations, since its purpose is “to promote public understanding and enjoyment of art”.27 There is a strong relationship between the visitor’s reasons for coming to a museum and the outcome of the visitor’s experience. Generally, the public will enjoy a visit in a museum if the experience of the visit will much the public’s prior expectations. As David Dean marks, museums need to know their audiences28 in order to address their needs. Giving to the public the opportunity to be heard and become a part of the museum’s processes is something that Tate Britain is doing well. One of the museum’s current programmes is the Write Your Own Label. Tate Britain is giving to 3. Tate Britain's Write Your Own Label programme the public the opportunity to decide what it will be written in 39 art works’ captions in order to describe them.29 Tate will pick up the most interesting comments and use them as the art works’ labels, while in the same time it will have the opportunity to see how people perceive these art works, what they see in them, what elements makes them important, or not, for the audience. Apart from the evaluation outcomes the museum will gain, this is an opportunity 25 Andrew McClellan, The Public in The Art Museum from Boullée to Bilbao (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 155 26 Simon J. Knell, Museums, Reality and the Material World in Museums in the Material World, ed. Simon J. Knell, (London: Routledge, 2007), 23 27 “About Tate” in Tate’s official website, accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/about/ 28 David Dean, Museum Exhibition: Theory and Practice, (New York: Routledge, 1996), 19 29 “Write your own label”, in Tate’s official website, accessed 3 January 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/writeyourown/ [13] for the public to get involved and to insert some short of interaction between the art pieces and the visitors. Another initiative contacted by Tate Britain is the Create Your Collection competition. In this programme the audience is asked to select a number of Tate Britain’s works and create a collection of his own. The best collections are printed and distributed to the visitors of Tate Britain in the form of leaflets while the museum is placing posters in the tube stations too.30 4. The Your Collection initiative, contacted by Tate Britain: Some of the collections that were printed by Tate This competition is making Tate Britain friendlier and is also giving the opportunity to the public to see art in a more casual way. By this programme, Tate Britain is managing to make its content more accessible in the eyes of the audience, contacting the idea that art can be accessed by everyone, without the need of prior in depth knowledge of art history. Apart from these indirect evaluations of the museum’s permanent collection, Tate Britain is contacting in-depth and qualitative researches, in order to understand its audiences. In the stages of these researches the audience is initially expected to observe and explore the collection and afterwards, to give a record of this experience. On a final stage, the museum is contacting post experience interviews with the visitors. From these researches, the museum has outlined four types of visitors; the spiritual visitor, looking for inspiration and fulfilment in the museum’s collection; the emotional visitor, seeking the aesthetic experience; the 30 “Your Collection” in Tate’s official website, accessed 3 January 2012,http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/yourcollection/ [14] intellectual visitor, searchingg for knowledge from the collection and thee social visitor that needs to spend time with othhers and is visiting for the socializing facttor.31In order to be successful, a museum needs to be organized to address the most possibble visitors. Tate is managing to include in its funnction all of the above visitor types; the lack ck of any scheduled paths and educational inform mation is giving the opportunity to the spirit itual and emotional visitors to find the inspiratioon and the aesthetic experience they are loooking for, creating opportunities for open dialoguues between the art works and the public. Tatte’s official website is full of analytical informatioon that can fulfil the needs of the intellectual visitor v while events such as Late at Tate are ann excellent opportunity to include the soccial visitors to the museum’s community. From a survey I contacted reggarding the Tate Britain’s permanent collectioons32, 53.2% of the responders were between the age of 21 to 29 from a total amount of sixtty-two participants. As shown in the chart below, none n of the participants feels unwelcome in tthe museum’s environment, whicch indicates that Tate Britain has succeeded to create a friendly space where the audience caan enjoy art. There was a comment from a participant though claiming that the museum’s ennvironment “is very sober”. 31 Sabine Kohler, Understanding aud diences, presentation at Tate Britain, 14 October 2011 1 Tate Britain: Visitors Evaluation, ssurvey contacted through Survey Monkey, access avaiilable on request 32 [15] On the other hand, Tate Britain received ambiguous answers regarding the kind of the collections it owns. Although most of the participants knew that the museum is collecting British art, there was an amount of 21% of responders that believed Tate Britain is collecting European art too, as well as International art by the 22.6% of the participants. Also, there was a small amount of 6.5% of responders that believed Tate Britain owns Greek and Roman art, while the 16.1% didn’t knew the kind of the museum’s collections. This could be explained by the misbalance of the historic and modern art works in the museum, making it seem like a second Tate Modern. As a participant commented “The have art collections mainly from 1900 until now”, making it clear that people feel that the museum doesn’t have much to show from anything older that the 20th century, while another participant is confused about the museum’s collections asking for “[…] more collections that are related with Britain.Visitors would like to know more things about Great Britain and its culture.” In addition, most of the participants feel that the museum is organized in a logical and an ‘easy to follow’ way, although 8.1% of them think different. The small amount of people [16] feeling confused with the rout they should follow in the museum might be due to the renovation works that are currently going on in Tate Britain, causing an overcrowded result. As for the lack of educational information, one of the participants, giving a recommendation for Tate Britain asked for “More information on the labels of works. Also, labels at a lower eye level with appropriate language for children too”, marking the need for a certain amount of the public to have access to more information while visiting the galleries. [17] Conclusion [18] Tate Britain is making significant steps into reaching more diverse audiences and communicate its profile in a friendlier and more casual way. It is in contact with the public, evaluating its opinion and views and renewing its collection’s communication in order to suit to the society’s preferences. The new rehung, although it is currently not finished, excludes from the public’s sight a significant amount of pre-1900 works, creating the impression that the museum’s vast collection is mostly about modern and contemporary art pieces. The chronological ordered rooms, if they will be organized like a root, will help to the understanding of the progress and evolution of the art styles through the years. Overall, a more balanced display of the collection, covering rightfully the period from 1500 to nowadays, will contribute positive to people’s views and knowledge about the British art. Apart from the temporary exhibitions of the museum, Tate Britain should foster the public’s interest into the permanent collection, instead of keeping most of the art works locked in store rooms. [19] Bibliography [20] BOOKS – ARTICLES – PAPERS Cuno James. Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust, ed. James Cuno. New Jersey; Woodstock: Princeton University Press, 2004 Dean David. Museum Exhibition: Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge, 1996 Encyclopedia Papyrus Larousse Britannica, vol. 49. Athens: Papyrus Publishing, 2007 Exhibition and museum attendance figures 2010 in The Art Newspaper, No.223, April 2011. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/attfig/attfig10.pdf Grosvenor Bendor. What’s going on at Tate Britain? inArt History News. Accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.arthistorynews.com Higgins Charlotte. Penelope Curtis: beyond the oil painting. The Guardian, 30 November 2010. Accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/nov/30/penelope-curtistate-britain-interview?showallcomments=true#end-of-comments Humphreys Richard. Tate Britain Companion to British Art. London: Tate Publishing, 2001 Jappe Anselm. The aura of the old museums versus the experience of the new ones. Paper presented in the symposium “Beyond the Acropolis Museum - Ideology, Museology, Architecture”. Thessaloniki, Greece, 13-14 May 2011 Jones Jonathan. Tate Britain’s rehung is a terrible idea. The Guardian, 1 December 2010. Accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2010/dec/01/tate-britain-rehangrevamp Knell J. Simon. Museums, Reality and the Material World in Museums in the Material World, ed. Simon J. Knell. London: Routledge, 2007 Kohler Sabine. Understanding audiences, presentation at Tate Britain, 14 October 2011 Lowry D. Glenn.A Deontological Approach to Art Museums and the Public Trust in Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust, ed. James Cuno. New Jersey; Woodstock: Princeton University Press, 2004 McClellan Andrew. The Art Museum from Boullée to Bilbao. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008 Phillips Sam. The Art Guide: London. London: Thames & Hudson, 2011 Roberson N. Donald Jr. Free Time in an Art Museum: Pausing, Gazing and Interacting. Leisure Sciences, Vol.33, 2010 [21] WEBSITES “About Tate” in Tate’s official website, accessed 31 December 2011, http://www.tate.org.uk/about/ “BP British Art Displays” in Tate’s official website, accessed 31 December 2011, http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/CollectionDisplays?venueid=1 “Explore Tate Britain” in Tate’s official website, accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/explore/etb.jsp “Tate Britain Extensions” in Tate’s official website, accessed 31 December 2011, http://www.tate.org.uk/archivejourneys/history/ “Write your own label”, in Tate’s official website, accessed 3 January 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/writeyourown/ “Your Collection” in Tate’s official website, accessed 3 January 2012,http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/yourcollection/ [22] Source of Illustrations Image 1 Tate Britain promotes understanding and enjoyment of British art through a series of events and exhibitions. Left - Late at Tate adult event: promoting flyer. Right - John Martin, Apocalypse exhibition: promoting poster, accessed 2 January 2012, kenhollings.blogspot.com and tate.org.uk Image 2 Tate Britain floor plan, initial image accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/explore/etb.jsp Image 3 Tate Britain's Write Your Own Label programme, accessed 2 January 2012, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/writeyourown/ Image 4 The Your Collection initiative, contacted by Tate Britain: Some of the collections that were printed by Tate, http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/yourcollection/createyourcollection.do [23]