Tate Papers: Spring 2005

Tate Research

ISSN 1753-9854 Spring 2005 ISSUE 3

VICTOR BURGIN	The Separateness of Things
	In 1986 Victor Burgin made a series of photographic works based on Edward Hopper's painting Office at Night (1940) featuring a female secretary and male boss. In this paper, which is based on a talk given at Tate Modern in 2004 at the time of a major Hopper exhibition, Burgin described the relationship of his own works to Hopper's painting, exploring the sexual codes implicit in both.
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HELEN CHARMAN	Uncovering Professionalism in the Art Museum: An Exploration of Key Characteristics of the Working Lives of Education Curators at Tate Modern
	This paper attempts to articulate the distinctive qualities of the work of Education Curators at Tate Modern in relation to shifting conceptions of professionalism, specialist knowledge, responsibility and autonomy.
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ROSIE FREEMANTLE	Glazing Over: A Review of Glazing Options for Works of Art on Paper
	This paper summarises the advantages and disadvantages of glazing options, focusing on works on paper. In light of continuous improvements being made to the physical and optical properties of glass and plastics, combined with improved museum practice and safer art transport, new products have been introduced and the suitability of glass as a glazing option is re-assessed. The author looks at the results of tests carried out on glazing at Tate and suggests that the performance and safety of any glazing is only as good as the quality of the framing, packing, handling and transportation to which the glazed work is subjected.
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PIP LAURENSON	The Management of Display Equipment in Time-based Media Installations
	Time-based media installations are works of art that incorporate audio, film, video, 35mm slides or computer based elements. This paper aims to develop a practical policy for the care and management of display equipment that forms part of these works. It explores how to identify time-based media installations most at risk from equipment obsolescence. In so doing it touches on key issues, such as how does the conservator balance the artist's and the museum's views about what is important to preserve for the future? What does a conservator do when faced with total loss to a significant component? How can our conservation training and attendant concepts of integrity and authenticity contribute to the development of a good decision or response?
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SAM SMILES	Thomas Guest and Paul Nash in Wiltshire: Two Episodes in the Artistic Approach to British Antiquity
	The artistic representation of British antiquity brings in its wake a problem of methodology: how are the working assumptions of artists and archaeologists to be reconciled? This paper looks at two examples of artists responding to the deep past, both concerned with sites in Wiltshire. Thomas Guest (1754-1818) painted the grave goods from two barrows at Winterslow excavated in the 1810s. His paintings survived and were rediscovered in the mid-1930s. In that same decade the British artist Paul Nash encountered Avebury for the first time and responded to the prehistoric site in his own terms. The paper considers the two approaches and what they may tell us about the relationship between art and archaeology.
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PAUL THIRKELL	From the Green Box to Typo/Topography: Duchamp and Hamilton's Dialogue in Print
	This paper examines Marcel Duchamp's use of the collotype printing process for publishing the contents of his Green Box and Boîte-en-valise in the 1930s. It subsequently traces the linguistic and graphic interpretations of this work by the British artist Richard Hamilton in his 1960 The Green Book and in his recent fusion of this work with the 'topography' of the Large Glass in the print Typo/Topography, published in 2003.
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