The brand new rehang at Tate Britain has changed a few of its hottest art work to create space for modern works about politics, colonialism and environmental crisis.
In an “inclusive view of artwork historical past”, within the phrases of the gallery’s director, works on show can be accompanied by way of labels which were up to date to offer historic context.
Beside Joseph Van Aken’s genteel portrait of a circle of relatives taking tea in 1720, the textual content explains: “Tea used to be a sour drink, sweetened with sugar produced in British colonies within the Caribbean with the labour of enslaved African other folks.”
Spencer Gore’s Rule Britannia, shooting a efficiency of Our Flag, the preferred patriotic ballet, in Leicester Sq. in 1909, options Danish dancer Britta Petersen as the nature of “England”. The textual content notes: “Then again, the ballet ignores the contested and frequently violent historical past of England’s colonial keep an eye on over the British Isles.”
Round 200 works received for the reason that flip of the millennium are a part of the rehang. To make means for them, many elderly ones aren’t on show. They come with Sir Anthony Caro’s seminal sculpture Early One Morning, which has been held by way of the Tate since 1965.
John William Waterhouse’s Girl of Shalott, considered one of Tate Britain’s hottest art work, isn’t a part of the grand unveiling. Tate mentioned it used to be recently on mortgage to Falmouth Artwork Gallery and can go back.
