Skip navigation

Main menu

  • What's On
  • Visit
  • Art
    • Discover Art
    • Artists
    • Artworks
    • Stories
    Stories
    Stories

    Watch, listen and read

  • Learn
    • Schools
    • Tate Kids
    • Research
    • Activities and workshops
    Tate Kids
    Tate Kids

    Games, quizzes and films for kids

  • Shop
Become a Member
  • View All
  • Exhibitions And Displays
  • On Today
  • Events
  • Tate Modern
  • Tate Britain
  • Tate St Ives
  • Tate Liverpool
  • Families
  • Accessibility
  • Schools
  • Private tours
  • Discover Art
  • Artists
  • Artworks
  • Stories
  • Schools
  • Tate Kids
  • Research
  • Activities and workshops
Tate home page

Try searching for...

  • A Bigger Splash
  • James McNeill Whistler
  • Julio Le Parc
  • Tate Britain Commission 2026
  • Tate Membership

DON'T MISS

Exhibition

Frida: The Making of an Icon

Tate Modern
Until 3 Jan 2027
FREE FOR MEMBERS
Exhibition

Hurvin Anderson

Tate Britain
Until 23 Aug 2026
FREE FOR MEMBERS
Become a Member
  • Research
  • Research Publications
  • Modern American Art at Tate 1945–1980
  • Collecting and Exhibiting American Art at Tate

Collecting and Exhibiting American Art at Tate

The essays in this section explore the significance of three survey exhibitions of American art held at Tate during the post-war years in relation to Tate’s engagement with American art more broadly during the directorships of John Rothenstein and Norman Reid. They examine Tate’s institutional attitudes towards American art, revealing the opportunities and challenges it faced in building a world-class collection of art from the United States, and the transatlantic relations that had an impact on post-war British art and society.

Jackson Pollock, Number 23 1948 Tate T00384 © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2019
read

American Art under John Rothenstein, 1938–64

Alex J. Taylor

As Director of the Tate Gallery, John Rothenstein showed a commitment to transatlantic relations and a distinctly national view of …

Mark Rothko Black on Maroon 1958 Tate T01031 © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko/DACS 2019
read

American Art under Norman Reid, 1964–79

Pam Meecham and Julie Sheldon

Norman Reid’s directorship of the Tate Gallery was marked by several high-profile and sometimes controversial acquisitions and exhibitions of American …

The King and Queen examining John Singleton Copley’s painting The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781 1783 at the Tate Gallery, 1946
read

American Painting , 1946

Caroline M. Riley

Presented at the Tate Gallery in 1946, American Painting: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day was the first …

Jackson Pollock, The She-Wolf 1943, Museum of Modern Art, New York
read

Modern Art in the United States , 1956

Frank Spicer

The 1956 exhibition Modern Art in the United States introduced visitors to the Tate Gallery to a wide range of …

Catalogue of The New American Painting as Shown in Eight European Countries, 1958–1959, Tate Gallery, London 1959
read

The New American Painting , 1959

Frank Spicer

Keen to present the latest American painting to British audiences, the Tate Gallery secured a place for itself in the …

Peggy Guggenheim and guests at the dinner for The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Tate Gallery, 6 January 1965 Tate Public Records, Photographic Collection List No.11
read

A Failed Charm Offensive: Tate and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Andrew Stephenson

Keen to expand Tate’s holdings of modern international art, the Director Norman Reid tried hard to persuade the American collector …

E.J. Power in his flat at 37 Grosvenor Square, London c.1979
read

E.J. Power: A Pioneering Collector of American Art

Jennifer Mundy

E.J. (or Ted) Power was the first, and for a period, the only substantial collector of contemporary art in Britain. …

read

‘Realism Reconsidered’: Ben Shahn in London, 1956

Julia Tatiana Bailey

On the occasion of his inclusion in an exhibition of American art at the Tate Gallery in London in 1956, …

Photograph of the private view of 54–64: Painting and Sculpture of a Decade, 22 April – 28 June 1964, Tate Gallery, London
read

An ‘Outcast’ Abroad: Ad Reinhardt in London, 1964

Moran Sheleg

When Ad Reinhardt’s first solo exhibition in the UK opened in 1964, the artist chose to present himself as an …

Artwork
Close

Join in

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Sign up to emails

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tate’s privacy policy

About

  • About us
  • Our collection
  • Terms and copyright
  • Governance
  • Picture library
  • ARTIST ROOMS
  • Tate Kids

Support

  • Tate Collective
  • Members
  • Patrons
  • Donate
  • Corporate
  • My account
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Contact
© The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery, 2026
All rights reserved