Artist Toby Ziegler during an interview about his painting The Hedonistic Imperative (2nd version) 2006
© Tate
Tate undertakes interviews with artists and art world figures as part of its broad educational mission and to help interpret and care for artworks in its collection.
Many interviews are collection-related and are undertaken by curators and conservators to find out more about particular works and ask questions relating to their future care and display. Other interviews relate to current or planned exhibitions and displays, or to particular events or research projects. They can be wide-ranging or highly focused, depending on the reasons for the interview. They can also be audio-recorded or filmed.
Some interviews are published on Tate’s website. These include filmed TateShots, edited films of roughly three-to-five minutes in length about particular aspects of the interviewee’s life and work, as well as longer Research Interviews (see, for example, ‘Bernard Cohen: Early Mutation Green No.2 1960’). The magazine Tate Etc and online journal Tate Papers also publish interviews with artists and art world figures.
Many interviews are not published onto Tate’s website, or only excerpts are. Transcripts of unpublished interviews can normally be obtained through Gallery Records by appointment following a review of the text for confidential material (see below). Please note that Tate’s artist files may also contain correspondence with artists and questionnaires about particular artworks in the collection.
For details of who has been interviewed at Tate in recent years, please see the following list:
Interviews of Artists and Art World Figures [CSV, 710kb]
The list is updated annually and provides details of who was involved, the date of the interview and how the interview can be accessed. Researchers should email the Gallery Records team (gallery.records@tate.org.uk) to enquire how they might access unpublished interviews. Please note that the materials will be subject to a review by the Gallery Records team so that sensitive data can be removed, if appropriate.
Last updated September 2015.