Tate Britain
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| Established | 1897 as National Gallery of British Art; became Tate Britain in 2000 |
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| Location | Millbank, London SW1, England, United Kingdom |
| Visitors | 1,700,000 (2005) [1] |
| Director | Stephen Deuchar |
| Website | www.tate.org.uk/britain |
Tate Britain is a part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, along with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is housed in the Tate's original premises on Millbank on the site of Millbank Prison. The front part of the building was designed by Sidney R.J. Smith with a classical portico and dome behind. Construction commenced in 1893 and the gallery originally opened on 21 July 1897 as the National Gallery of British Art. There have been several extensions over the years. The central sculpture gallery was designed by John Russell Pope. The gallery was renamed "Tate Britain", when "Tate Modern" opened in 2000. It is now dedicated to the display of historical and contemporary British art. It includes the Clore Gallery of 1987, designed by James Stirling, which houses work by J.M.W. Turner.
Shows
The main display spaces are used to show the permanent collection of historic British art, as well as some contemporary work in the collection. The gallery also organises temporary major exhibitions of British Art and career retrospectives of British artists.
Tate Britain hosts the annual and usually controversial Turner Prize exhibition, featuring four artists under the age of fifty, selected by a jury chaired by the Tate Director, Sir Nicholas Serota. This is spread out over the year with the four nominees announced in May, the show of their work opened in October and the prize itself given in December. Each stage of the prize generates media coverage, and there have also been a number of demonstrations against the prize, notably since 2000 an annual picket by Stuckist artists.
Every three years the gallery stages a Trienniale exhibition in which a guest curator provides an overview of contemporary British Art.
Art Now is a small changing show in a dedicated room of a contemporary artist's work.
Facilities
The front entrance is accessible by steps. A more recent side entrance at a lower level also has a ramp for wheelchair access. The gallery provides a restaurant and a cafe, as well as a Friends room, open only to members of the Tate. This membership is open to the public on payment of an annual subscription. As well as administration offices the building complex houses the Tate Gallery's Library and Archives and the Director's Office. The restaurant features a mural by Rex Whistler.
Tate Britain is attempting to reach out to a different and younger audience with Late at Tate Britain on the first Friday of every month, with half-price admission to special exhibitions, live music and performance art.
Tate Britain and Tate Modern are now connected by a high speed boat along the River Thames. This is decorated with spots, based on paintings of a similar theme by Damien Hirst.
Artworks
Tate Britain is the national gallery of British art from 1500 to the present day. As such, it is the most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world (only the Yale Center for British Art can claim similar expansiveness, but with less depth). More recent artists include David Hockney, Peter Blake and Francis Bacon. It has in focus rooms dedicated to works by one artist, such as: Tracey Emin, John Latham, Douglas Gordon, Sam Taylor-Wood, Marcus Gheeraerts II. Currently Room 30 is occupied by a specially constructed wood-lined room for Chris Ofili's work The Upper Room, 1999-2002.
While individual works occasionally move between the different Tate galleries, popular works usually on display at Tate Britain include:
- The Painter and his Pug by William Hogarth
- Newton by William Blake
- Horse Attacked by a Lion by George Stubbs
- Giovanna Baccelli by Thomas Gainsborough
- Sketch for Hadleigh Castle by John Constable
- The Great Day of His Wrath by John Martin
- The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse
- Ophelia by John Everett Millais
- The Death of Chatterton by Henry Wallis
- Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
- The Golden Bough by J.M.W. Turner
- The Resurrection, Cookham by Stanley Spencer
- Norham Castle, Sunrise by J.M.W. Turner
- Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion by Francis Bacon
- Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen by Joshua Reynolds
- The Cholmondeley Ladies by Unknown 17th Century Artist
- The Mud Bath by David Bomberg
- Recumbent Figure by Henry Moore
