About Tate Britain
Images © Tate
Tate Britain is the national gallery of British art. Located in London, it is one of the family of four Tate galleries which display selections from the Tate Collection. The other three galleries are Tate Modern, also in London, Tate Liverpool, in the north-west, and Tate St Ives, in Cornwall, in the south-west. The entire Tate Collection is available online.
Tate Britain is the world centre for the understanding and enjoyment of British art and works actively to promote interest in British art internationally. The displays at Tate Britain call on the greatest collection of British art in the world to present an unrivalled picture of the development of art in Britain from the time of the Tudor monarchs in the sixteenth century, to the present day.
The Collection
View imageThe Collection comprises the national collection of British art from the year 1500 to the present day, and international modern art. Some of the highlights of the Tate collection of British art include rich holdings of portraiture from the age of Queen Elizabeth I; of the work of William Hogarth, sometimes called the father of English painting; of the eighteenth-century portraitists Gainsborough and Reynolds; of the animal painter George Stubbs; of the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood who revolutionised British art in the nineteenth century; and in the twentieth century of the work of Stanley Spencer, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Francis Bacon and the Young British Artists (YBAs) of the 1990s. The very latest contemporary art is presented through the Art Now programme and the annual Turner Prize exhibition.
Blake, Turner, Constable
Special attention is given to these three outstanding British artists from the Romantic age. Blake and Constable have dedicated spaces within the gallery, while the unique Turner Collection of about 300 paintings and many thousands of watercolours is housed in the specially built Clore Gallery. See Turner Online for more information on Turner.
Collection Displays
The displays at Tate Britain feature selections from the Tate collection of British art arranged in a broad chronological sweep from 1500 to the present. Within this chronology individual rooms explore particular themes or show one artist in depth. In order to show the full riches of the collection, displays are changed on an annual basis. These changes are made possible by the support of BP. Each room has an introductory text and each work has a short introductory caption.
Also available online:
Collection Displays with a full room by room guide
Explore Tate Britain a fantastic interactive gallery tour
Guided Tours
Special Exhibitions
The displays of the permanent collection are complemented by a continuous programme of temporary exhibitions exploring broad themes of British art as well as the work of individual artists.
Events & Education
Tate Britain has extensive and innovative interpretation, education and events programmes. Interpretation begins with texts in each room about the display and a caption for each work. Captions can be read online in the Collection or in Explore Tate Britain. There is also a multimedia guide (audio & visual) to selected highlights of the collection displays.
There is also a wide range of talks, lectures, free and paid-for gallery tours, symposia, seminars, courses and workshops, as well as film, music, performance, schools, family and community programmes and online events. For details of all programmes go to Events and Education.
Visitor Information
Full details about visiting Tate Britain, access and all services can be found under Visiting Information.
About Tate
Learn more about Tate as an organisation: its history and plans; funding and governance; Board of Trustees, senior staff, curators and conservators; press office; market research; licensing; contacts, and much more.
See also:
About Tate Modern |
About Tate Liverpool