Page 24 - Studio International - March 1969

The Tate Now that the plans and model of the Tate and the Evening Standard, which opened their
pages to comment and gave the whole affair
extensions have been put on public view it is
possible for the first time to assess just what sort thorough coverage. Because of this informed
controversy of animal has been gestating in all those years response, it now seems likely that the present
since it was recognized that something had to be scheme will be shelved and the Tate's future
done about the Gallery. It turns out to be very plans will come up for reconsideration. If this is
much the sort of mongrel one might have ex- so, it will be all to the good, provided the ques-
pected. tion is not shelved indefinitely. The one really
Briefly, the plans propose a sort of cubing of the constructive aspect of the present scheme is that
Tate by lopping off the portico, building across it has made the case for something being done,
the site in front, and adding an extension to the but the higher cost of any more radical scheme
rear. This would increase the space available must not be used as an excuse to defer any
by about 50 per cent, make it possible to house scheme at all for a further long term of years.
the Moore gift, and provide better facilities Now that the Prime Minister has said that 'no
such as a lecture theatre and an archive store. options are closed', one hopes that consider-
Within the scope allowed them the architects ation will also be given to the possibility of
have come up with a competent scheme. The setting up a Museum or Gallery of Modern Art
excellence or otherwise of the proposed exten- to house the Tate's modern collection. Not an
sions, however, is irrelevant to the scheme as a inflexible institution, as New York's Museum
whole. So too, is the question of the portico and of Modern Art appears to be in danger of be-
the enclosing of the front of the existing struc- coming, but something between the New York
ture. The present Tate is neither good nor bad. Museum and Stockholm's Moderna Museet,
It has a certain interest in the context of archi- where British and foreign twentieth-century
tectural history, an environmental interest in works could be shown, major exhibitions of
the context of an otherwise dreary waterfront. contemporary art could be staged, films be
But these considerations only obscure the real shown, archives be made available, and more
shortcomings of the proposals, which are that be done to draw in young people.
they offer at best only a short-term amelior- There have been several suggestions as to pos-
ation of the Tate's overcrowding and that, if sible sites for such a museum— Greenwich,
put into execution, they will probably make Somerset House, the Mall. But the best site is
any really worthwhile radical solution impos- adjacent to the Tate, which the army medical
sible. As it is they have all the marks of that services are in any case to vacate in six years'
talent for compromise for its own sake of which time. By using this a 'cultural environment'
we are sometimes accused as a nation. of some worth would be created and the British
In public the Tate's trustees have appeared to collection at the Tate would not be isolated.
be unanimous in their support of the proposals. This would release the Tate to fulfil its proper
One gathers that in private they are less united. role as a gallery of British art, with enough
If this is so one might have hoped for a little space to display its collections, mount major re-
more courage from the dissenters —a minority assessments of British painters and sculptors,
report, perhaps, or a public disassociation. house the Moore gift and any other major gift
One suspects, too, that the Tate's officials are it may receive, and extend its activities to show
less than happy with the scheme, though like some of the excellent existing private collec-
public servants they cannot express their dis- tions of British art before they are bought by
approval. (Besides, the Gallery's desperate the Mellon Foundation, or the work of over-
need for more hanging space—as described in looked British artists (as the Whitechapel has
a recent issue of this magazine by the director, done in recent years).
Norman Reid—is such that any improvement Two such institutions, side by side, would com-
in the situation would be welcomed with relief. ) plement each other. They would greatly enrich
What has been encouraging, however, is the the British scene. And the cost would not be
extent of public interest in the Gallery's future. enormous. If some such project is eventually
There cannot have been many issues involving accepted, it would be no bad thing to open the
the visual arts in recent years which have led to design to international competition, despite all
such general involvement. 20,000 people went the furious lobbying that goes with such
to see the plans; for this we must in great mea- competitions, and enliven the waterfront with
sure thank those newspapers, notably The Times a really good building.

Contributors GUSTAV METZGER came to England in 1939 and since MAURICE AGGIS and PETER JONES, who studied at St
1959 has worked on theories of auto-destructive and Martin's, won the Sikkens Prize in 1967 for 'their con-
to this issue auto-creative art. He has also worked on a large ceptions of spatial structures, and for the significance of
computer-controlled sculptural project since 1963. His these conceptions for the awareness of movement and
work was included in a BBC survey of art in Europe change in a three-dimensional reality as a totality of
since 1945, shown in February 1969. space and time'.

DORE ASHTON, the American critic, is a regular contri- RICHARD HAMILTON, the painter, had an exhibition in
butor to Studio International. November at Studio Marconi, Milan, and an exhibition
of his work is opening at Robert Fraser Gallery, 69
GUY BRETT is art critic for The Times. Duke Street, W.1, on April 4. He has specially designed