Overalls used by Walter Sickert in France (Tate Archive ref: TGA 8132)
From Vanessa Bell’s photograph albums (Tate Archive ref: TGA 9020)
John Piper sketchbooks (Tate Archive ref: TGA 20033)
Fabric designed by Cecil Collins and produced by Edinburgh Weavers (Tate Archive ref: TGA 200015/3/8)
A metal paintbox used by J.M.W. Turner (Tate Archive ref: TGA 7315/6)
Donald Rodney’s sketchbook (Tate Archive ref: TGA 200321)
Used with permission
Paul Nash’s camera (Tate Archive reference: TGA 8313/4/8)
An Audio Arts cassette (Tate Archive ref: TGA 200414)
Used with permission
Photograph by Eileen Agar, from the TGA Photograph Collection
Tate Archive contains a wealth of material on artists, art world figures and art organisations in Britain from 1900 to the present day.
Over one million items that relate closely to Tate’s collection are held, including artworks, sketchbooks, letters, writings, audio-visual material, photographs, printed ephemera and press cuttings.
Archive material is often shown in the Tate galleries, as part of special exhibitions and alongside collection displays.
In the Archive
Major collections include the papers of the artists Naum Gabo, Ben Nicholson, and John Piper, the critics Kenneth Clark and Barbara Reise, the Goupil and Hanover commercial galleries, the Art Fund and Contemporary Arts Society funding bodies, exhibiting bodies such as the New English Art Club and the London Group, and the Fluxus collective and the Bloomsbury Group.
Tate Archive also holds collections of audio-visual material, artist-designed posters and 100,000 photographs of artists and their studios.
Access the Archive
Anyone can search or browse the Archive catalogue online and access the collection in person at the Hyman Kreitman Reading Rooms. Registration is necessary.
Donations and loans
Tate Archive welcomes gifts, bequests and long-term loans. Material from the Archive can also be lent to approved venues for display .