Press Release

2012 ARTIST ROOMS TOUR ANNOUNCED – 19 new exhibitions and displays go on show at 17 venues across the UK

National Galleries of Scotland and Tate are delighted to announce plans for the fourth successive ARTIST ROOMS Tour in 2012 thanks to continued support from the Art Fund. In 2012 a total of 19 new exhibitions and displays will go on show at 17 venues across the UK, including six new to the project. The works being shown are drawn from ARTIST ROOMS, the collection of modern and contemporary art established through the extraordinary gift made by Anthony d’Offay in 2008, held by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland for the nation. The Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for works of art, continues to sponsor the tour with funding of £250,000.

In 2012, ARTIST ROOMS exhibitions and displays will be seen outside the capitals in Banff, Belfast, Bristol, Dunoon, Glasgow, Hull, Leicester, Linlithgow, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Perth,Sheffield, Wakefield and Walsall. A further venue, Mostyn in Llandudno will continue to show the work of Anselm Kiefer into the New Year. By the end of 2012, ARTIST ROOMS will have been shown in 44 museums and galleries nationwide and 92 displays and exhibitions will have opened since 2009.

This year, important new works have been donated to the ARTIST ROOMS Collection by Vija Celmins, Martin Creed and Alex Katz. Creed’s work was not previously represented in ARTIST ROOMS and he is the first new contemporary artist to join the Collection. He has donated a group of seven works which will be shown together at Tate Liverpool in 2012. Alex Katz has donated two large-scale paintings, Full Moon 1988 and Black Brook 1988; and Vija Celmins has donated a group of six mezzotint prints to complement the existing holdings of her work. The Collection has continued to grow through the generosity of artists who have responded to the national reach of ARTIST ROOMS and its vision for bringing art into the lives of young people.

ARTIST ROOMS: The Game, a new online resource will also be launched today to give young audiences the chance to put together their own virtual exhibitions, selecting works by ten artists in the ARTIST ROOMS Collection. The game offers an insight into exhibition-making in ‘real-life’, as players overcome the challenges of choosing artworks, employing staff, selecting lighting and marketing their show. They can also assess the cost, time and impact of their choices. The game also allows players to share the exhibitions they create with their friends, through social media. ARTIST ROOMS:The Game was developed byThoughtden, the Bristol-based design agency.

To play ARTIST ROOMS: The Game visit young.tate.org.uk/artistrooms or nationalgalleries.org/collection/ar_page/4:21490

 Highlights of the 2012 tour will include:

  • Robert Therrien at new contemporary arts venue The MAC in Belfast as part of its inaugural opening programme
  • Exhibitions at two newly refurbished venues in Scotland: Burgh Hall Dunoon and Linlithgow Burgh Halls, West Lothian
  • The Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour which will see the work of this artist travel to Dunoon, Linlithgow and Perth
  • Richard Long at The Hepworth Wakefield
  • Two unique exhibitions of the work of Jannis Kounellis at Tramway, Glasgow and mima, Middlesbrough

Works donated to the ARTIST ROOMS Collection this year are:

A group of seven works donated  by Martin Creed that will be shown together at Tate Liverpool in 2012:

  • Work No. 837 (Sick Film) 2007, four-part colour video
  • Work No. 890 (Don’t Worry) 2008, neon
  • Work No. 944 2008, twenty-one part drawing
  • Work No. 1102, Work No. 1103, Work No. 1104, Work No. 1105, 2011, sequence of four paintings

Two large-scale paintings donated by Alex Katz:

  • Full Moon, 1988
  • Black Brook1988

A group of six mezzotint prints to complement the existing holdings of her work, donated by Vija Celmins:

  • Web Ladder 2010
  • Divided Night Sky 2010
  • Reverse Galaxy 2010
  • Falling Stars 2010
  • Dark Galaxy 2010
  • Starfield2010

ARTIST ROOMS has had a profound impact up and down the country since the touring programme commenced in 2009. In 2011, Southampton City Art Gallery and John Hansard Gallery collaborated to show the biggest presentation of Warhols in the UK outside London to date, with record visitor numbers received. Southampton City Art Gallery saw over 27,700 visitors, more than double their usual numbers for the same period and John Hansard Gallery recorded some 7,500 visits. In the first three weeks of opening its Francesca Woodman ARTIST ROOMS exhibition, the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull had over 4,000 visitors.

ARTIST ROOMS is owned jointly by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland and was established through the extraordinary gift made by Anthony d’Offay to the nation in 2008, with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund and the Scottish and British Governments. The tour is made possible thanks to the support of the Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for works of art that helps museums buy, show and share art throughout the UK. ARTIST ROOMS On Tour with the Art Fund has been devised to enable this collection to reach and inspire new audiences across the country, particularly young people

The full 2012 ARTIST ROOMS tour will be as follows:

 Mostyn, Llandudno
Anselm Kiefer
Until 11 March 2012 (opens 3 December 2011)

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh   
Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #1136
Until November 2012 (opens December 2011)

Tate Liverpool
Martin Creed
24 February – 27 May 2012

The Burgh Hall, Dunoon (part of Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour)
Robert Mapplethorpe
March – June

The MAC, Belfast                           
Robert Therrien
26 April –14 July 2012

Duff House, Banff
August Sander
1 April - 31 August 2012

Graves Gallery, Museums Sheffield    
Andy Warhol Self-Portraits
7 April – 1 December 2012

Tate Modern, London                    
Joseph Beuys
Bruce Nauman
Spring 2012 – Spring 2013

Tate Britain, London                     
Vija Celmins
27 February – 2 September 2012

Summer

Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
Andy Warhol
2 June – December 2012

Linlithgow Burgh Halls,West Lothian (part of Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour)
Robert Mapplethorpe
July - October 2012

The Hepworth Wakefield               
Richard Long
23 June – 14 October 2012

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery     
Conceptual Art
30 June – 23 September 2012

Tramway, Glasgow                       
Jannis Kounellis
13 July – 9 September 2012

Autumn

New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester           
August Sander
29 September 2012 – 6 January 2013

The New Art Gallery Walsall         
Damien Hirst
October 2012 – October 2013

Perth Museum and Art Gallery (part of Mapplethorpe Scottish Tour)       
Robert Mapplethorpe
November 2012 – April 2013

mima, Middlesbrough
Jannis Kounellis
23 November 2012 - 10 March 2013

To find out more information about ARTIST ROOMS on Tour please visit www.artfund.org. To see the full ARTIST ROOMS collection please visit ARTIST ROOMS and www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms

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