Filed under: Uncategorized — Alan @ 3:22 am
Tate Britain will receive a thorough going over by the way of refurbishment, now that a shortfall of funding has been raised. The gallery will be redone to become one of the finest in London. It will get an overhaul that will allow exhibition of heavy sculptures for the only time in its history and open more space for acquisitions.
Private investors have put more than £28 million toward the project over the course of the past couple of years. The work is slated to begin in February, with about 25 per cent of the gallery closing for the refurbishing.Not much information has been released in terms of the architectural plans for this project, but with this amount invested, it is clear they would have the crème de la crème from the Business Directory of London. A superior arts establishment, highly valued amongst British culture, the Tate Britain will continue with events and exhibitions right through renovations. The Tate Britain has recently shown a surge in attendance even in lieu of the success of its sister gallery, The Tate Modern. The transformation, unfortunately, is not expected to be complete in time for the London Olympics and the gallery will have to run at about 75 per cent during that time.
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 6:01 pm
The new exhibition at Tate Britain, Rude Britannia, combines the best of art and comedy in order to create an intellectual, sensory, and instinctually experience.
Co-curator of Martin Myrone, Cedar Lewis, sees the new exhibit as a source of enlightenment that defines the distinction between stand up comedies of fine art and tosses them aside. Lewis stated that Tommy Cooper can be seen as a performance artist or Martin Kippinberger’s paintings seen as the work of a clown.
The curators at Tate Britain worked along with many of the best curators from around the world in order to create an exhibit that is a composite of comedy performers, satirists, and comic publishers creating a large body of comic art from around Britain dated from the 17th century up until the modern day.
The exhibition is split into several thematic sections allowing each feature comic to have a distinct presence in the rooms such as the Scarfe room which shows political disgust down to Martin Rowson’s room which presents the policies of Tony Blair in regards to the Iraq war.
Also notable is Gillray’s room, which shows William Pitt as the top public enemy in the face of his nation and Hill’s room which is best described as a blend of provocations and puzzles.
Paul Sandby also has an image of an exploding bottom in order to present the Georgian obsession with ballooning as well as several objects pulled out of popular culture such as a flask that is made in the form of a potato.
Throughout the Tate Britain exhibit, the viewer is constantly reminded that British comic art is often grotesque but remains highly meaningful.
