Please Welcome Maria Balshaw as new Director of Tate
Dr Maria Balshaw CBE starts as new Director of Tate on June 1. She is the first woman to be appointed to the role. Maria began her career in academia before working for Arts Council England in Birmingham and then becoming Director of the Whitworth in 2006. She quickly became a key figure in the transformation of Manchester’s cultural sector, curating radical and popular programs and expanding the city’s art collections. On behalf of all supporters, the Tate Americas Foundation wishes Maria well in her new post and looks forward to her visits to the Americas in years to come.
Tate Modern Limited Editions Cabinet
In support and celebration of the iconic new building on the south side of Tate Modern a diverse and international group of contemporary artists were invited to create limited edition artworks. Consisting of painting, photography, three dimensional work and a set of stainless steel music boxes this dynamic body of work is displayed within a bespoke museum quality oak cabinet of which only ten have been made. The following artists are represented in the cabinet; Phyllida Barlow, Zarina Hashmi, Mona Hatoum, Cornelia Parker, Taryn Simon, Dayanita Singh, Slavs And Tatars and Wolfgang Tillmans. The full price of the Cabinet is £27,000 ($34,608) but supporters of the Tate Americas Foundation are being offered a discounted price of £21,600 ($27,753). Dollar figures are at today’s exchange rate. Please contact us if you would like more information on either the Cabinet or individual works.
Tribute to Sir Nicholas Serota
Nicholas Serota will be retiring at the end of this month after 28 years as Director of Tate. We would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to him for helping make Tate into an organization respected throughout the world.
It was Nick’s vision that led to the creation of Tate Modern and the redefinition of the original gallery at Millbank as Tate Britain. He led the creation of Tate St Ives and has also sought to strengthen the role of Tate as a national institution through the further development of Tate Liverpool in taking a leading part in the celebration of the city as European City of Culture in 2008 and by establishing partnerships with galleries across the country through the Plus Tate program.
During his term the range of Tate’s collection has broadened to include photography and the geographical reach has been extended across the world, taking a more global view.
The collection has been strengthened by major acquisitions of historic British art, as well as important additions to the modern collection including major works by Bacon, Beuys, Bourgeois, Brancusi, Duchamp, Horn, Mondrian, Richter and Twombly, amongst many others. The contemporary collection has been developed into one of the strongest in the world. He was instrumental in helping to secure the ARTIST ROOMS collection given to Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland by Anthony d’Offay as a collection to be shown across the UK. In the past ten years, he has curated some of Tate’s most acclaimed and popular exhibitions including Donald Judd, Howard Hodgkin, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter and Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs.
In the early days of Nick’s tenure, the American Fund for the Tate Gallery was gifted by Sir Edwin and Lady Manton. The endowment, which was to acquire works of art by North and South American artists, gradually grew into the Tate Americas Foundation. During the last 25 years, the Tate Americas Foundation has raised over $300 million for Tate, the main focus being the creation of Tate Modern and the strengthening of its collection of contemporary art.
While none of this would have been possible without the support of our donors, Nick’s deep involvement in our work has been pivotal in making the Tate Americas Foundation such a success. While we will all miss his leadership, we wish him a very fulfilled and happy retirement.
Thank you, Nick!
Ellsworth Kelly in Focus at Tate Liverpool
A beautiful focus display of the late Ellsworth Kelly has opened at Tate Liverpool. Born in Newburgh, New York, Kelly (1923–2015) is best known for his pioneering paintings, inspired by his observations of overlooked geometric shapes such as shadows on a wall or the architectural features of buildings. Presenting 11 paintings, prints and reliefs from the Tate collection, the display reflects more than six decades of the artist’s career. It demonstrates his transformative impact on post-war abstraction through his use of intense color, chance processes and shaped canvases, in which the painting becomes an object in its own right. The display features Méditerranée 1952 a gift to Tate from the Artist and Jack Shear in honor of Sir Nicholas Serota.
TateShots: Twitter With… David Hockney
For a new series, the legendary David Hockney invited TateShots into his studio for a chat. But in a twist, it wasn’t TateShots asking the questions. Is he a geek? Does he like swimming? What does he think of the credit crunch? All was revealed thanks to those who submitted questions via Twitter. The David Hockney exhibition at Tate Britain runs until May 29, and gathers together an extensive selection of his most famous works celebrating his achievements in painting, drawing, print, photography and video across six decades. Please click here to watch: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tateshots-twitter-david-hockney
Member News (April)
We are pleased to welcome Aimee Labarrere de Servitje (Mexico City) who is joining as a member of the Latin American Acquisitions Committee.
CILDO MEIRELES: A TOWER THAT COULD REACH THE HEAVENS
Get a fresh perspective on Cildo Mereiles in this short film about the artist and his work Babel, 2001 which is currently on display at Tate Modern in Media Networks. Babel explores an ancient myth about the origin of language. In this video Tariq from Tate Collective London (a free event for young people aged 15–25 to experiment, create and innovate through art and ideas at Tate Modern and Tate Britain) presents his perspective on this towering artwork.