Page 14 - Studio International - February 1966

The Tate Gallery's Annual Report

reviewed by Robert Hughes

Is any art institution in Britain, except the maintain and expand its historical collection fittings, lighting and other costs may well
Royal Academy, more criticised than the of English painting. The other is to be a absorb a further half ·million. But whatever
Tate Gallery1 At each year's end, the eyes Museum of Modern Art, and accurately the cost, this is a long overdue decision
of some critics turn towards the Tate with reflect the great movements which have which, I imagine, will be welcomed by
the misty anticipation of drill-sergeants transformed world painting since 1900. anyone who believes the Tate is a necessity,
thinkg of the new straw dummy for To house both collections in one institution not a luxury.
bayonet practice. Even to its supporters, it strikes some of the Tate's critics as schizoid. The Report also defends the Tate's dual
is plain that the Tate suffers under But it only seems so because the Tate is function as international museum and
some difficulties. poor. H the Tate had two hundred British collection, and, as one might expect,
The first of these is the building. It is ill­ thousand pounds to spend each year for the is plaintive about money, in the tone of an
planned and pompous; the architectural next decade, the problem would- well, not aunt disputing her fixed income with
space tends to conflict with the paintings. evaporate, but at least cease to be obsessive. trustees. But rather surprisingly, although
The Tate's facade, designE)d by Sidney Smith In Britain, this seems a huge sum to hope it lists and discusses the big survey
in 1897, is grotesquely heavy; not even for. Were the present tax laws on gifts to exhibitions which the Arts Council mounted
Private View's tribute to its 'Elgarian' public galleries changed, a start could be in t,he Tate, it does not get round to the
proportions can change the incongruity of made: despite the danger of the eccentric inherent problem of the Tate's relationships
arriving at Millbank to view Britain's millionaire who leaves one Pollock, thirty­ with the Arts Council -which will become
museum of modern art and having first to e�ght fakes and three of his own water­ pressing when the Arts Council moves into
penetrate this suety neo-classical exterior. colours to be housed in a special wing. The its own gallery on the South Bank and
The second difficulty is worse - lack of Tate's fundamental problem is that running takes with it the exhibitions it has until
money. In 1964-65, the Tate's Grant-In-Aid a collection on the level it needs is as much now been giving to the Tate.
was £60,000. A special Treasury grant, the a matter of politics as aesthetics, and the Rightly, the Report includes a long,
first of a number of instalments, increased British government's attitude to the arts is detailed and most informative essay on its
that by £50,000 and enabled the Tate to traditionally ungenerous. new Picasso; more questionably, it also
buy its great Picasso, the Three Dancers of Such dilemmas, and several more besides, treats its other big acquisition of the year,
1925. But £110,000 a year is not enough. are discussed with unexpected frankness and Fuseli's Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers,
The Tate still cannot compete with any one fullness in the Tate Gallery's Annual Report as if it were much moro than a fascinating
of six American museums to buy modern for 1964-5, issued by Her Majesty's document of the obsessions of a minor
masterpieces. Consequently it is still unable Stationery Office. (though still underrated) irrational artist.
to solve the problem which was bequeathed The Report opens with a bang: the Tate is But on the whole, the Tate deserves to be
to it by the occasional conservatism and to be remodelled and that facade will be, congratulated for this Report. It has put its
uncertainty of previous directors, who as the Report delicately put it, 'masked' by problems before the public quite explicitly;
failed to buy modern masterpieces when an exhibitions wing, new foyers, and so and now it is the public's responsibility to
they were cheap. forth. This project sounds excellent, even help what is, for all its defects, a vital
The Tate has two functions and it can only though the fi gur e quoted for it - three­ organ in the body of English culture. D
discharge both at great cost. One is to quarters of a million pounds-is optimistic;

Liverpool scheme Moore shown in Eastern Europe Art and merchandising
Liverpool Academy of Arts is proposing to open a Henry Moore's work is being exhibited for the first 'Business uses art' note: a press release from New
small permanent art gallery to supplement the time in Eastern Europe. A large retrospective show York's Midtown Galleries, headed 'Business uses art
activities of the Walker Art Gallery 'by showing the organised by the British Council opens in Bucharest in sales promotion', reports inter alia: 'lmpresse� by
best of the new and experimental work from London, this February under the joint auspices of the the greatly increased mass interest in art and artists,
Paris and New York. as well as shows by leading Rumanian State Committee for Culture and Art and the U.S. Rubber Co .. leading manufacturer of canvas
local artists'. Whether the scheme materialises will the Ministry of Culture. It comprises 40 sculptures and rubber shoes. has turned to the American fine
depend on the extent of public or private subsidy. ranging from work produced in the 1920's to the artist as a colour source, and as an aid in advertising
The Academy is meanwhile organising occasional Archer of 1964, 41 drawings from all periods, and a its prod11ct. Ten canvases by ten leading American
pilot exhibitions. the first of which featured the work special display of statements made by Moore over painters were selected to provide colour inspiration
of John Edkins. a prize-winner at the 1965 John the years. From Bucharest the exhibits will go to for the 1966 Kedettes· canvas casual line. And these
Moores Exhibition. Bratislava and Prague and, this autumn, to Jeru­ paintings will be used in a merchandising promotion
salem and Tel Aviv. which will bring American painting to a vast audience
New galleries in towns and cities throughout the country. An
Recently-opened galleries in Britain include Axiom Tate purchases estimated 1 3,000 stores, from small town shops to
in London (mentioned in this issue's London Com­ The latest acquisitions by the Tate Gallery include great city department stores, Will display colour
mentary) ; and Magdalene Street Gallery in Cam­ an early Hogarth, Satan, Sin and Death, one of reproductions of the paintings in window and store
bridge, which will show the work both of modern Eduardo Paolozzi's recent sculptures, Rizla, com­ displays. along with the canvas shoes being
artists - most recently Peter Hedegaard. Sydney pleted last November, two major works by Soto, merchandised'. The paintings were selected by Mid­
Harpley and Radovan Kragulj - and of earlier and Red Nude, 1956, by William Scott. town Galleries' director, who recently worked on a
epochs (a loan exhibition this March covers the Columbia Pictures promotion in which six artists
Baroque and Rococo and is organised by Granta). painted their interpretation of the film Barabbas.

Due to reasons of space the feature on Cecil Acknowledgements. The colour plates on pages 48
Stephenson has been held over to the March issl!e. and 49 are by courtesy of Sotheby & Co.

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