Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Razorbill 2020
12 rooms in Modern and Contemporary British Art
This final room in our five-century story of British art features artists of different generations working in Britain today. Some began exhibiting in the 1980s, while the youngest are in their twenties
All of these works were made in the last decade, mostly since 2020, and many are new to Tate’s collection. Our recent history has seen a succession of crises, ruptures and social justice movements in Britain and the world. These include the Brexit referendum, the Covid-19 pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis, the election of Donald Trump, Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo movement, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and civil wars in Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan. Life today is increasingly shaped by the influence of digital technology, social media and the rise of AI. We continue to struggle with the planet-wide impact of the climate emergency.
Some of the artworks in this room allude to these critical events. Others open up spaces for broader reflections concerning community, difference and autonomy. Many speak to Black British experiences and histories of migration. Several centre the lives of Black women and queer people of colour – together or alone, real or imagined, joyful or defiant. Genres are redefined, as artists shift expressive abstract painting to reflect their own lived experience. Older histories sometimes reappear, such as the spectre of the Iraq War and the long decline of heavy industry in the UK.
The ocean is pictured here too. As an island nation with an extraordinarily global history, so much of British culture, society and art is shaped by our relationship to the sea.