The Great British Art Debate » Tate Britain

The Great British Art Debate Conference

Hannah Flynn — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:57:27 +0000

Tony Cragg, 'Britain Seen from the North,' 1981 © Tony Cragg

Event Name: Great British Art Debate Conference

Date and Time: Saturday 3 December 2011, 10.00–18.00
Note: The date for this event has changed from 1 & 2 July 2011.

Venue: Tate Britain

Description: This conference will deal with key questions and debates raised by the Great British Art Debate project about Britishness and art, both historically and into the 21st century. The conference will explore this through a series of panel discussions and a Question Time-style session, addressing urgent questions facing British art: How has ‘British art’ been perceived and understood over time, both at home and abroad? Is British art dominated by a metropolitan centre and how are audiences constructed? Is Britishness relevant in today’s global society? What will art in Britain look like in an age of austerity?

Admission: Free, booking required

Contact: Bookings can be done by tel 020 7887 8888, or in person at Tate Modern or Tate Britain. Online booking is not currently available.
For tickets, call 020 7887 8888.

What’s in a cabinet that makes an artist?

Anna Austen — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:20:11 +0000

For those of you who have already made it to John Martin: Apocalypse, you may have been surprised to see a large piece of furniture included in the show. It was probably made by Martin between 1835 and 1840 – and not particularly well to say the least. Essentially, it’s two pieces of furniture cobbled together with doors that don’t close properly and gaping holes at the back: Martin was certainly no Chippendale!

On one side a series of drawers are labelled with his major paintings, and on the other side drawers are labelled with many of his engineering projects.

On the front another set of drawers identify the various awards and letters he had received from institutions and monarchs. It is a prominent self-congratulatory and public statement, announcing that by this stage in his career, Martin had ‘made it’.

This would have been an important declaration for Martin to make when we consider his humble beginnings. He was born in a one-roomed cottage in Haydon Bridge in Northumberland and began his artistic career as a coach painter, not a fine artist. Throughout his career he struggled to gain recognition from the art elite and was never considered a serious high-minded and intellectual artist. He was often branded with the word ‘populist’, never achieved the distinction of being a Royal Academician in Britain, and was regularly derided by the art critics. Yet, his art was loved by millions; barriers had to be erected in front of his paintings when they were exhibited due to the crush of people, and his prints could be found framed on the walls of many houses up and down the country and as far afield as Australia.

The cabinet cannot simply be seen as serving a practical purpose in storing his working papers: it tells us so much more about John Martin and the way in which he perceived himself, but more importantly, how he wanted others to perceive him.

The bright red fabric, the gold ornament and glossy black paint were intended to make visitors stop and look – to admire the display of medals bestowed upon Martin by foreign monarchs, and note the letters he had received from the aristocracy, including none other than Queen Victoria herself! Every visitor who went to Martin’s house would have seen the cabinet in his drawing room; it wasn’t hidden away in a private part of the house, or merely serving as storage in his studio. This was a definite public statement of Martin’s achievements and reputation, a ‘3D CV’! Today we might cringe at such a display of self-congratulation, and perhaps people did then too? We also know that in the entrance hall to Martin’s house a sequence of plaster busts of Queen Victoria, King Leopold of the Belgians and even one of John Martin greeted the visitor! Was John Martin, the lad from Northumberland going a bit too far to make his connections known? Was it this sort of crass promotion that induced a certain level of snobbery in the art elite of the day?

Or was the achievement of aristocratic and royal patronage so crucial to the success of an artist in the nineteenth century that it needed to be made public? And can we say that things have changed today? If an artist doesn’t get their work exhibited in major exhibitions, win the Turner Prize, be collected by Saatchi, can they be considered serious artists? What is it that determines success and should being thought of as ‘popular’ undermine an artist’s reputation? What do you think Martin was trying to tell us by building his big black cabinet?

Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse

Hannah Flynn — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:21:48 +0000

We’ve long been saying how much of an inspiration John Martin is. It’s true, there’s a whole visual culture in film, art and design that owes a lot to him.

So it was great to hear that the smart folks at Pornokitsch, a leading (and safe for work!) blog about all things fantasy, mystery, horror and science fiction were putting together a story anthology inspired directly by the works from our show. A new generation of inspiration from John Martin!

Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse is made up of over a dozen original stories set at the end of the world, as imagined by science fiction and fantasy writers such as Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Lauren Beukes, Jonathan Oliver, Sophia McDougall and Chrysanthy Balis.

The collection is edited by Pornokitsch’s Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin, with a foreword by Tom Hunter, director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

I’m very excited to share an exclusive preview chapter from forthcoming anthology Pandemonium with you. It’s a cracker: The Architect of Hell

Let us know if you’ve been inspired by John Martin in your fiction, music, art or other creative endeavour – we love to hear that his influence is still going strong!

Interpreting John Martin: What do you think?

Kirsteen McSwein — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:24:51 +0000

For every exhibition at Tate, we produce a range of interpretative materials to help visitors understand and engage with the art on display. Our approach varies with each show, depending on the exhibition’s focus (for example, the interpretation for the Turner Prize is different to that for an exhibition of paintings by Turner). We work very closely with the exhibition curators to produce interpretation that visitors will find useful and informative.

The main interpretation in each room of John Martin is the wall text. The exhibition is arranged chronologically and the texts introduce the main ideas of each section – tricky to do in under 200 words! The curator also wrote captions for most of the works on show.

The exhibition leaflet explores the huge influence John Martin has had on film makers, writers, musicians and other artists. We sourced images – from films like Intolerance (director DW Griffith based the look of the film directly on Martin’s paintings) and 2012 – that show a Martin-like apocalyptic vision. Many people have spoken about his influence and we tried to include quotes from them. Looking at the works on the wall of the exhibition it is amazing how contemporary some of them seem.

A number of Martin’s large oil paintings went on extensive tours and we tried to demonstrate the sense of awe and excitement the viewers of these paintings at the time would have had. We have done this through a dramatic sound and light show. The exhibition curator Martin Myrone discusses it brilliantly on the Tate blog.

We have also produced a pamphlet that recreates the catalogues that were produced to accompany tours of Martin’s paintings (the originals are also on display). They include etched painting outlines and descriptions. We toyed with the idea of putting this information on a wall panel – but in the end we thought it would be more useful (and more fun) to re-create the material in the same format as the original.

We have produced an audio tour for the show. This goes into more depth on about 20 works in the show and is useful for anyone who wants a bit more information – it is especially interesting to hear Martin Myrone talking about John Martin.

You could argue that the final painting in the exhibition provides a final piece of interpretation. It is The Tragic Conversion of Salvador Dalí (after John Martin) by contemporary artist Glenn Brown. It was a curatorial decision to put it in the show but its juxtaposition with the John Martin works that inspired it perhaps makes a comment about the Martin paintings that words cannot do… What do you think?

I am really interested to find out about what you think about exhibition interpretation. Is there too much text on the walls? Not enough? What is the purpose of the leaflet? Should it contain the wall texts or can it be an additional information resource?

Loud Tate 2011 in Pictures

Hannah Flynn — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:16:15 +0000

Loud Tate 2011 took place on the hottest October weekend you could possibly imagine, lending a nicely apocalyptic turn to proceedings.

Did you come down? Can you spot yourself in any of these pics?

The classic Tate Collective badge making was a big hit, with members of the public designing their own all day (we also took it to Underage Festival, everyone loves badges!).

Our urban portraiture photo booth gave visitors a chance to pose with some excellent props.

Supernatural characters in a giant wall mural by Zombie Collective, with visitors contributing their own Underworldly character designs.

Congrats to the Tate Collective team, another stomper of a Loud Tate! Join Tate Collective online to share your artwork with other young people around the world, and be first to know about the next Tate Collective events.