Free Display
Materials and Objects
Discover artists from Tate's collection who have embraced new and unusual materials and methods
Photo © Tate (Sam Day)
The Materials and Objects display looks at the inventive ways in which artists around the world use diverse materials.
Increasingly over the last hundred years, artists have challenged the idea that certain materials are unsuitable for art. Some employ industrial materials and methods, while others adapt craft skills, or put the throwaway products of consumer society to new uses.
9 rooms in Materials and Objects
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain 1917, replica 1964
Fountain is Duchamp’s most famous work. It is an example of what he called a ‘ready-made’ sculpture. These were made from ordinary manufactured objects. He then presented them as artworks. This invites us to question what makes an object ‘art’? Is this urinal ‘art’ because it is being presented in a gallery? The original 1917 version of this work has been lost. This is one of a small number of copies that Duchamp allowed to be made in 1964. Do you think it makes a difference that it is not Duchamp’s original urinal?
Gallery label, July 2020
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Enrico Baj, Fire! Fire! 1963–4
Baj’s works were influenced by the absurd humour and unconventional techniques of surrealism and dada. He was also associated with CoBrA, a group of European artists who adopted a highly expressionist painting style inspired by children’s art. In the mid-1950s Baj started painting caricatured figures on found fabrics, adding details made from collaged objects. In Fire! Fire! pieces of Meccano construction toys form a figure, while the leaves on the woven fabric are suggestive of flames. Other works of this period poke fun at ideas of power and authority, such as Baj’s portraits of military officers ‘decorated’ with real medals.
Gallery label, November 2021
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Doris Salcedo, Shibboleth II 2007
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Susumu Koshimizu, From Surface to Surface 1971, remade 1986
Koshimizu investigates the substance of wood by sawing planks into different shapes, exposing their surface qualities through different kinds of repetitive cuts. Koshimizu was part of Mono Ha (‘School of Things’), which reacted against the embrace of technology and visual trickery in mid-1960s Japanese art. They sought to understand ‘the world as it is’ by exploring the essential properties of materials, often combining organic and industrial objects and processes.
Gallery label, January 2016
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Anna Boghiguian, Institution vs. The Mass 2019
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Leonardo Drew, Number 185 2016
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Leonor Antunes, discrepancies with T.P. (II) – random intersections #29 – Lena #8.1 2012–23
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Highlights
Marcel Duchamp
Fountain
1917, replica 1964
Enrico Baj
Fire! Fire!
1963–4
Doris Salcedo
Shibboleth II
2007
Susumu Koshimizu
From Surface to Surface
1971, remade 1986
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