Page 43 - Studio International - February 1965

My years at the Tate

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Pablo Picasso
Seared Nude 1909-10
36!;- X 28¾ in.
Bought in 1949 and one of the
finest works of the artist's Cubist
Period in Great Britain. One of ten
works by Picasso in the collection
which includes paintings. a collage
and a bronze

Henry Moore
Recumbenr Figure 1 938
35 X 50 in.
Presented by the Contemporary
Art Society in 1939 and the first
work by the sculptor to enter the
collection. In pursuance of the
Tate's policy of representing major
figures as fully as possible, nearly
forty of his carvings, bronzes and
drawings have been acquired

MOORE

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with the cordial approval of the trustees. while after the British painter or sculptor, or even one of unusual talent,
war our acquisitions of works by such artists as Leger. were unrepresented at the Tate. During my directorship
Picasso. Rouault, Matisse, Gris, Miro, Giacometti, the collection has grown from 2.500 works to nearly
Tobey, Pollock and a number of other modern masters 5,000. Before 1 946 we had no official purchase grant
was greeted with general approval. Indeed there at all, and up to the beginning of the present financial
would have been criticism had such men been ignored. year we received a total of under £300.000. less than
During the past decade or two an extraordinary reversal half the figure which one foreign gallery recently paid
of taste has come about The prejudice against what was for a single painting.
n3w simply because it was new has been replaced by its During these last years the Tate has attracted a vast
opposite: namely by prejudice, hardly less pronounced. public-the visitors one year exceeded a million-but
in favour of innovation-of what kind scarcely matters. this is largely due to a happy but fortuitous circum­
This change of prejudice may well have caused us. stance. London has no special gallery for temporary
instead of acting with undue caution, to welcome the exhibitions. When the Arts Council was established in
new without sufficient critical appraisal. It may well be, 1946 the Tate placed a group of rooms at its disposal.
indeed it must certainly be, that posterity will judge a Ever since then the Arts Council has brought to the
number of our modern acquisitions as of small account Tate a series of exhibitions, which includes Van Gogh,
This. after all, is posterity's habit But it would surprise Mexican Art, and Picasso, which have been a con­
me if posterity were to discover that any major modern tinuous source of delight and illumination, and which
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