Today Tate Britain announced its new season of BP Spotlights opening this autumn. They include displays of early films by Eduardo Paolozzi, installations by contemporary artist Martin Boyce, works and oral histories from the revolutionary Kasmin Gallery, and photographs of London’s Caribbean and West African communities in the 1960s-70s. The BP Spotlights are a series of regularly changing free displays at Tate Britain, using works from Tate’s collection and loans to explore particular themes or focus on particular artists.
Brother can you spare some change? Sandringham Road, Dalston, Hackney
1976
STAN FIRM INNA INGLAN: BLACK DIASPORA IN LONDON, 1960 -70s
14 NOVEMBER 2016 – AUTUMN 2017
This display brings together for the first time recently acquired works gifted by the Eric and Louise Franck London Collection by eight photographers. The photographs by Raphael Albert, Bandele ‘Tex’ Ajetunmobi, James Barnor, Colin Jones, Neil Kenlock, Dennis Morris, Syd Shelton and Al Vandenberg focus on those who travelled from the Caribbean and West Africa to live in London, documenting their joy, self-empowerment and desire to belong to British society, as well as the racial tension and exclusion that defined these communities in the capital. The title of the display is taken from the poem It Dread inna Inglan by UK-based Jamaican-British poet Linton Kwesi Johnson.
ARTISTS’ LIVES: SPEAKING OF THE KASMIN GALLERY
28 NOVEMBER 2016 – AUTUMN 2017
Revolutionary in its time, the Kasmin Gallery opened in 1963 and was London’s first specially designed commercial building that was made to show large paintings and sculpture in a single, uninterrupted space. This display unites artworks shown at the Kasmin Gallery that are now in Tate’s collection. The display will also feature extracts from an oral history project, Artists’ Lives, which illustrates the human stories behind the paintings and sculptures. Artists’ Lives is run by National Life Stories at the British Library in association with Tate.
EDUARDO PAOLOZZI: EARLY ANIMATIONS
28 NOVEMBER 2016 – AUTUMN 2017
The display presents the earliest surviving films by the artist Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005): History of Nothing 1962 and Kakafon Kakkoon 1965. In these animations, the unlikely juxtapositions of found images and sounds reflect Paolozzi’s view that juggling different materials and ideas is the very essence of the creative act. In their different ways, the two films strongly portray the modern and mechanised world, in which everything is connected and constantly changing.
MARTIN BOYCE: DO WORDS HAVE VOICES
28 NOVEMBER 2016 – AUTUMN 2017
Turner Prize winner Martin Boyce’s installation Do Words Have Voices (2011) foregrounds his ongoing engagement with modernist forms and ideals. He subtly alters classic design objects and architectural elements in order to highlight how their makers’ original ideals have changed over time. Do Words Have Voices has its roots in an archival image that documents the early twentieth century French sculptors Joel and Han Martel’s work Concrete Trees – four geometric, cast concrete sculptures installed in a Parisian garden for the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925.
ONGOING DISPLAYS
SICKERT AND PHOTOGRAPHY
4 JULY 2016 – 17 APRIL 2017
Walter Sickert was fascinated by the way that photographs could freeze dramatic moments in light and shade. This display shows how he used photography as a source for his paintings, and how he explored and exaggerated their qualities to produce heightened interpretations. Sickert also fed into the public’s interest in current affairs and celebrity, with some of his paintings becoming press stories in their own right. He even created his own public image in the press through self-portraits based on photographs. This display includes Sickert’s dramatic self-portrait The Servant of Abraham, and his paintings of the aviator Amelia Earhart and the actress Peggy Ashcroft.
SYSTEMS
18 JULY 2016 – 17 APRIL 2017
Formed in 1969, Systems was a group of artists who followed rational, systematic procedures to make works of art. Their interest in theory was hugely influential on the way contemporary artists work today. This display presents work by the group’s core members from their most significant moment – an Arts Council touring exhibition in 1972–73 that originated at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. It includes paintings and sculptures as well as drawings, photographs and plans that illustrate Systems’ methodical working process.
NIMAI CHATTERJI
1 AUGUST 2016 – 2 APRIL 2017
This display celebrates Tate’s acquisition of Nimai Chatterji’s archive, documenting international avant-garde activity as collected by someone steeped in the cross-currents of Anglo-Indian culture. Chatterji came to London in the mid-1950s and became a producer for the Bengali department of the BBC World Service. From the mid-1950s, he corresponded with a wide range of artists, writers, musicians and poets seeking out material and information and sometimes being an active participant in their activities. This display gives a sense of the archive’s geographical range, diversity and depth.
PRE-RAPHAELITE WORKS ON PAPER
UNTIL SPRING 2017
Pre-Raphaelite paintings began on paper. On sketchbooks, scraps and even the backs of envelopes, artists tried out the ideas that would challenge the establishment. This display showcases the compositions and studies which arose from the close encounter between artist and subject.
BP’S SUPPORT FOR UK ARTS & CULTURE
BP has supported arts and culture in the UK for over 50 years and currently focuses its support on long-term partnerships with five world class institutions; The British Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Opera House, The Royal Shakespeare Company and Tate Britain. More than 50 million people across the UK engaged with BP supported activities during this time. BP’s long term partnerships, represents one of the most significant long-term corporate investments in UK arts and culture.
