Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2008 was Tate Liverpool’s most successful year to date – with over a million visitors throughout the year and nearly 200,000 of those visiting the Gustav Klimt exhibition. The legacy of this year is reflected in the quality, ambition and variety of Tate Liverpool’s programme, which in 2010 is defined by a distinctive global approach – presenting art from around the world in innovative ways, commissioning international artists to create new works and collaborating with international partners.
Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic
29 January - 25 April 2010
Admission charge applies
Supported by Liverpool City Council
This major survey exhibition, inspired by Paul Gilroy’s book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993), identifies a hybrid culture, a network of contacts crossing the Atlantic, which connects African, North and South American, Caribbean and European cultures. It will reveal how black artists and intellectuals have played a central role in the formation of modernism from the early twentieth century to today. It will map out aesthetic and cultural hybridity in modern and contemporary art that has arisen from the dispersal of peoples of Black African descent, and will also present key moments within the cultural politics of the Black Atlantic. The exhibition features works by Romare Bearden, Edward Burra, Aaron Douglas, Ellen Gallagher, David Hammons, Isaac Julien, Wilfredo Lam, Jacob Lawrence, Glenn Ligon, Wangechi Mutu, Chris Ofili, Helio Oiticica, Uche Okeke, Pablo Picasso, Tracey Rose, Kara Walker and others.
Picasso: Peace and Freedom
21 May – 30 August 2010
Admission charge applies
Supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
This is the first exhibition to reveal Picasso as a tireless political activist and campaigner for peace in the post-War period. It will challenge the widely-held view of the artist as creative genius, playboy and compulsive extrovert, reflecting a new Picasso for a new time. Picasso: Peace and Freedom will bring together 150 key paintings and drawings as well as posters and documents related to war and peace from 1944-1973. The centrepiece will be the artist’s masterpiece, The Charnel House (1944-45), last seen in the UK more than 50 years ago. This remarkable work was Picasso’s most explicitly political painting since Guernica (1937). Picasso’s Dove of Peace became the emblem for the Peace Movement and a universal symbol of hope during the Cold War. The dove also had a highly personal significance for Picasso who named his daughter ‘Paloma’ – Spanish for ‘dove’.
In collaboration with Albertina, Vienna.
DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture
Throughout 2010. New displays opening July 2010
Free admission
Sponsored by DLA Piper
DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture continues to explore the trajectory of Modern and contemporary art throughout the 20th and 21st century by focusing on the expanded notion of sculpture. Following the acclaimed collaboration with co-curators from different cultural disciplines (In 2009: Michael Craig-Martin, Tim Etchells, Mike Figgis and Wayne Hemingway & Son), Tate Liverpool extends the invitation to other internationally renowned figures from the cultural arena. They will be invited to transform Tate Liverpool’s second floor galleries in July 2010 and develop new exciting visions for sculpture from the Tate Collection.
Liverpool Biennial
18 September – 28 November 2010
Established in 1999, the Liverpool Biennial is the UK’s largest festival of contemporary visual art. Its sixth edition continues to place an emphasis on commissioning new work from leading and emerging international artists. It features some of the most exciting contemporary art from across the globe presented over multiple sites in Liverpool including Tate Liverpool, FACT, the Bluecoat, Open Eye Gallery and the public realm. At the heart of this new edition of the Liverpool Biennial will be an exploration of the power of emotion and obsession.
Nam June Paik
17 December 2010 – 13 March 2011
Admission charge applies
Nam June Paik (1932–2006) was one of the most innovative artists of the twentieth century, and is widely considered to be the first video artist. The first major survey of Paik’s work in the UK, this exhibition traces the artist’s avant-garde spirit and the experimental nature of his production throughout his career. The exhibition includes his early Fluxus performances (in particular his collaborations with Charlotte Moorman in the 1960s), icons of media art such as TV Buddha from the 1970s, his manipulated videotapes and well-known Robot and TV sculptures from the 1980s, as well as his late large-scale installations.
Tate Liverpool has established a partnership with FACT, the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, on the occasion of this retrospective exhibition. Focusing on Paik’s innovative use of creative technology, FACT will feature a number of large-scale sculptural works from the artist’s later career.
In collaboration with museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf