The Artist’s Dining Room brings together three German artists working within the tradition of abstraction. The two younger artists, Anselm Reyle and Thomas Scheibitz, are currently significant figures on the international art scene, while Manfred Kuttner is an artist who was active in the 1960s, and whose work, overlooked for many years, is now being reappraised.
All three artists move effortlessly between painting and sculpture, with an eclectic approach to both form and materials. They play with optical illusions, shifting perspectives, tricks of the light, mirrors and reflections, often using new technology, (whether it is the latest developments in paint or digital image manipulation) to reinvigorate familiar forms.
The title of the exhibition, The Artist’s Dining Room, is taken from a work by Pablo Picasso from 1918. Though it is an abstract composition, it also refers to the importance of the domestic and personal realm underlying an artist’s work. The choice of title is intended to remind us of a key moment in the history of European Modernism, while pointing to the way in which the artists exhibited here sample and reference the past.
The Artist’s Dining Room is the third in a series of five thematic exhibitions located in Level 2 Gallery, Tate Modern’s dedicated space for the latest ideas, themes and trends in international contemporary art. The 2006-7 series is conceived and led by Emma Dexter, Curator, Tate Modern. The Artist’s Dining Room is curated by Emma Dexter and Juliet Bingham, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern.
For the first time, Tate Britain is inviting members of the public to contribute to the content of an exhibition. How We Are: Photographing Britain takes a unique look at the journey of British photography, from the pioneers of the early medium to today’s photographers who use new technology to make and display their imagery.
To submit a photograph to the exhibition, simply join the How We Are Now Flickr group and contribute your photograph anytime from 21 May until 25 July 2007. Your photograph must be taken in the United Kingdom and illustrate one of the four themes of the exhibition: portrait, landscape, still life or documentary. The group's photographs will be displayed on screens as part of the exhibition at Tate Britain. The photographs will also be posted and shared on Tate's website and on the website of the exhibition's media partner, The Observer.
In the final weeks of the exhibition, 40 photographs – 10 from each of the four themes – will be chosen by Tate to form the final display in the gallery from 6 August – 2 September 2007. A panel of curators, artists, photographers and others will select the final 40 photographs. The final 40 images will also be archived on Tate Online as part of the exhibition's website.
This is the first major exhibition of photography ever to be held at Tate Britain. It takes a unique look at the journey of British photography, from the pioneers of the early medium to today’s photographers who use new technology to make and display their imagery.
The images in this exhibition have come from the length and breadth of the UK, and include well-known oeuvres alongside mesmerising lost masterpieces. As well as famous names – William Henry Fox Talbot, Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, Bill Brandt, Madame Yevonde, Susan Lipper, David Bailey and Tom Hunter among them – the exhibition includes postcards, family albums, medical photographs, propaganda and social documents. It includes work by many women photographers and photographers from different cultural backgrounds who are usually underplayed in the history of British photography.
Ultimately, this is a treasure trove for any one who loves photography, and presents the extraordinary variety, breadth and idiosyncratic nature of one-and-a-half centuries of image making.
For the first time, Tate Britain is inviting members of the public to contribute to the content of an exhibition. How We Are Now invites you to add your photograph to the exhibition through the community and photo-sharing website Flickr.
Supported by Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation through the American Patrons of Tate
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