Tate Britain opened its new season of BP Spotlights, including David Hockney’s portrait of George Lawson and Wayne Sleep. A recent gift from the artist to Tate’s collection, this is the first time the work has ever been shown in the UK. It hangs alongside two other double-portraits – Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy 1970-1 and My Parents 1977 – which showcase Hockney’s ability to combine psychological intensity with stylistic coolness.
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. Other new displays include a selection of work by Anwar Shemza and a group of photographs by Jo Spence. These will be followed in November by a gallery exploring the place of alcohol in British culture as seen through art from the 19th century to the present day.
Anwar Shemza
12 October 2015 – October 2016
Born in Simla, India in 1928, Anwar Jalal Shemza left an established career as a writer and painter in Pakistan to move to London in 1956. In Britain he abandoned figurative art and developed vigorous compositions that fused calligraphy, Islamic architecture with Western abstraction. Throughout his career Shemza worked in a wide range of media, repeatedly revisiting a number of different subjects, including the walls and gates of Lahore, the Arabic letter ‘Meem’, and plant roots. His last series of work directly related to notions of belonging in the Pakistani diaspora.
Hockney Double Portraits
19 October 2015 – October 2016
This display brings together three of David Hockney’s celebrated double portraits, including George Lawson and Wayne Sleep 1972-5, which was presented to Tate by the artist last year. Hockney made a series of large-scale double portraits between 1968 and 1977, portraying couples or friends in their homes. They convey the artist’s preoccupation with the relationship between people in a style which is both naturalistic and highly formalised.
Jo Spence
19 October 2015 – October 2016
Jo Spence (1934-92) was one of the key photographers in Britain in the 1980s, developing a political practice that engaged with issues of identity and photography’s place in society. This display showcases Spence’s collaborative work with The Hackney Flashers – a socialist-feminist collective from 1974 into the 1980s – and with her long-term collaborator Terry Dennett. It will also explore her experience with cancer and her adoption of photo-therapy.
Art and Alcohol
16 November 2015 – October 2015
Ever since William Hogarth satirised the Georgian craze for gin, artists have explored Britain’s relationship with alcohol, whether as social lubricant or as a factor in social breakdown. This display will centre on a contrast between George Cruikshank’s vast painting Worship of Bacchus 1860-2, which illustrates the dire effects of drink across society, and Gilbert & George’s Drinking Sculpture 1972, a set of progressively blurred photographs of drinkers in London pubs.
Ongoing displays
Joseph Wright of Derby: Illuminating the Air Pump
Until Spring 2016
This display explores Joseph Wright’s (1734-1797) painting An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump 1768, one of the masterpieces of British art, on loan from the National Gallery. It is brought together with visual sources for the work and other paintings by Wright to illuminate his shifting reputation.
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.
Gustav Metzger: Towards auto-destructive art 1950-62
Until Spring 2016
This display examines how Gustav Metzger (b.1926) developed the theory and practice of auto-destructive art. It includes 22 paintings and an installation – including works never seen before – made during Metzger’s influential and creative time as a student of David Bomberg.
Bruce McLean: In the Shadow of Your Smile, Bob
Until June 2016
Bruce McLean’s (b.1944) film In the Shadow of Your Smile, Bob 1970 was recently acquired for Tate’s collection. Its starting point is a photograph of the American artist Robert Morris, and is a playful take on the way individuals pose in order to fit within norms of appearance and behaviour.
Charlotte Moth: Choreography of the Image
Until May 2016
Charlotte Moth (b.1978) has used a photograph taken by Barbara Hepworth as the focus for this display, exploring how images of artworks are ‘choreographed’ in a range of contexts. Moth’s installation includes a new film work alongside archive material from the 1930s to 60s.
Tracey Emin and Francis Bacon
Until Summer 2016
Tracey Emin’s installation My Bed 1998 returns to Tate Britain after it first came to public attention when shown in the 1999 Turner Prize exhibition. It is displayed alongside six of the artist’s recent figure drawings, as well as two oil paintings by Francis Bacon selected by Emin.
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BP’s support for UK Arts & Culture
BP are a major supporter of UK arts with a programme that spans over 35 years, during which time millions of people have engaged with BP-sponsored activities. BP’s investment of almost £10 million in extending its long term partnerships with the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Opera House and Tate Britain until 2017, represents one of the most significant long-term corporate investments in UK arts and culture. Due to this ongoing commitment of world class culture; BP is Tate’s longest standing sponsor, partnering together on a range of programmes since January 1990. This has allowed over 37 million people to experience the national collection of British art. BP’s sponsorship of the Tate Britain collection is the longest on-going sponsorship commitment to a permanent collection in the UK.
Image Credit: David Hockney’s George Lawson and Wayne Sleep 1972-5. Acrylic paint on canvas. Presented by the artist 2014 © David Hockney