Iva

1973, Joan Mitchell

'Whenever I look at an abstract work, I find that it helps me explore how I’m feeling. The bit of the bottom where orange meets a lilac-y colour reminds me of the sunsets in Margate. The brown in the middle section reminds of going for walks in woodlands. I like the messiness of the two canvasses either side, but the more time you spend with it, the more you home in on what’s beautiful.

A lot of my memories of Tate Modern have my dad in them. He was drawn to abstract work too and was always taking pictures of walls and textures. I wondered why he was so interested in peeling paint, so this picture reminds me of him.'

– Seraphina Neville, Tate Photographer

Delivery Dancer’s Sphere

2022, Ayoung Kim

'Artworks exist in a latent stage, capable of holding multiple meanings within their uncertainty. So, what does it mean for this work to be exhibited at Tate Modern alongside the early 20th-century futurist masterpieces, as well as works by fellow contemporary artists? The gallery space is charged with artistic expressions of ‘city and velocity’ from different perspectives. As a kind of retroactive futurist, how could I imagine a bolder approach than this?

As I write this, it’s 19.00 – the evening peak time is back. Time for another delivery.'

– Ayoung Kim, artist

Spell on You!

2020, Outi Pieski

'These installations create a spiritual forest carrying wisdom and a variety of contradictory forces – fears, wishes and desires. The Sámi land is often pictured as a no-man’s land, a wilderness area, serving the politics of industrial land use. I want to show it is a cultural environment that has evolved in coexistence with all living entities, including humans.

We are living in a time with huge international interest in the exploitation of the natural resources of the arctic regions. When we open our ears to the marginalised and side-lined ‘minority’ representatives in our society, we increase our awareness of issues that are topical and meaningful for everyone.'

– Outi Pieski, artist

Art and Religion Room From Museum of Contemporary African Art

1997–2002, Meschac Gaba

'Years ago, I studied at the London College of Printing [now London College of Communication], and I remember not being very impressed with installation art. But I like sitting in the centre of this artwork when I do my tarot readings because it’s in the shape of a cross: it makes sense to me.

I like the comparative religions aspect, because what I do also includes a bit of everything: I chant in Sanskrit, I use the Chinese I-Ching, I do the sacred miracle code known as Angel Numbers, and I do tarot, which is European.'

– Barbara Iwowo, Intuitive Consultant

The Echo of an Ancient Form of Knowledge

2021, Edgar Calel

'The artist met stall holders at New Covent Garden Market and picked out the fruit and vegetables himself – it was important for him to meet the people who had brought it in.

The fruit shrinks and contracts in the sunlight and gallery conditions, so when I arrive each morning to do artwork maintenance, I find fruit and veg all over the floor, which I then have to pick up and put back on the rocks. I love plants, and in my previous house share I used to grow butternut squash in my front garden. I seem to have the magic touch for root vegetables – just don’t ask me to grow tomatoes.'

– Hannah Crowley, Tate Production and Installation Assistant

Woman in Leopard Print

2019, Farah Al Qasimi

'I recently graduated from Central Saint Martins doing Textile Design, specialising in print making. I just knew even as a child I wanted to see my illustrations on dresses.

I don’t usually like leopard print, but I’m really drawn to it in this portrait. Culturally, when I was growing up, leopard print and other animal prints were considered a bit low-class and associated with characters like Kat Slater (from the soap opera Eastenders). But somehow the lady in this portrait is pulling it off beautifully. I think it’s the combination of colours, in her top and her hijab.'

– Emem Usanga, Tate Collective Producer

Black on Maroon

1958, Mark Rothko

'The Seagram Murals seem bracingly modern but are, in fact, built on the models of artistic giants of the past. Ancient Greek temples and Michelangelo’s windowless Laurentian Library in Florence were his strongest influences. And, inspired by Mozart who created masterpieces from the simplest of means, my father expressed only essences in these works.

The warm embrace of English artists and art lovers moved my father to gift these paintings to Tate, knowing it was also the home of works by JMW Turner, with whom he felt a profound kinship.'

– Christopher Rothko, son of Mark Rothko

In Search of Vanished Blood

2012–20, Nalini Malani

'This is probably the most ‘essential’ of the works I have created. Historically, women have neither been listened to, nor heard. This is why I’m so drawn to the story of Cassandra’s tragic gift.

Showing this work at Tate Modern feels like coming home, as in 2001 I participated in Century City, the gallery’s inaugural exhibition. It was the beginning of the 21st century, when contemporary Indian art went global. Over the years, Tate Modern has grown in enormous popularity. One cannot imagine London now without Tate Modern.'

– Nalini Malani, artist

Matanzas Sound Map

2017, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Neil Leonard

'I think the video shows the culture of Cuba. It shows the land, the people, their lifestyle and their struggle. How they must work to look after their families. It’s typical of what country life is all about in most Caribbean countries. I was born in Venezuela but grew up in Trinidad until I was about nine.

In my role you move to a different position every half hour, so you don’t get a chance to be bored. You get to explore the artwork. When I’m in here I read everything, I listen. The sound is not just a background noise, you literally feel it. Sometimes you can be in here and it gives you chills. It’s amazing.'

– Leila McEwen, Tate Visitor Engagement Assistant

Burning Country

1998–2020, Arahmaiani

I’ve forgotten day and date / I’ve forgotten month and year / I’ve forgotten names / I’ve forgotten places / I’ve forgotten numbers / I’ve forgotten streets / I’ve forgotten neighbours / I’ve forgotten events / I’ve forgotten messages / I’ve forgotten dreams / Only your voice remains

I’m home.

(from the song Going Home (Aku Pulang), written Yogyakarta, 2002)

– Arahmaiani, artist

Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum? Update

2012, Guerrilla Girls

'I’ve been working at Tate for seven years and started in the print department. In the shops we are trying to address the gender imbalance: Guerrilla Girls was a natural choice for us because their work is about inequality in the art world and because they also enjoy making merchandise. When we communicate with them on Zoom calls we don’t use cameras so that they remain anonymous.

Not everyone can afford to buy art, but you could afford to buy a postcard. The shops are a welcoming place. You don’t always know what to do in an art gallery, but you know what to do in a shop.'

– Elizabeth Lovatt, Tate Buying Manager, Merchandise

Lungenflügel

2009, Pipilotti Rist

'I think the artwork gives an account of the origin of the human species: first in the way our ancestors transitioned from the water to the land. It then shifts to Judeo-Christian myth in which the pig is in the Garden of Eden – chomping on apples, of course. And then the woman tending to the tulips in a monoculture, showing us in a paradise of our own creation.

This transforms into a rubbish heap, with trash littering the stream. We end on rotting fruit. This is the world we have made.

It’s a birthday and a fine time to review the history of our species.'

– Armand Marie Leroi, Evolutionary Biologist

Babel

2001, Cildo Meireles

'My very first task in this job was adapting around 100 of the 800 radios. It was a bit of a blind encounter since none of them are the same and no one really knew how the whole thing worked.

Back in 2015, we ended up assigning some of the work over the Christmas holidays to a guy who used to do live events at Tate Modern. I remember cycling up a very steep hill to his house in Forest Hill. It had a ‘Goonies’ vibe and there was just equipment everywhere, and pizza boxes because they were working around the clock just to get the artwork ready.'

– Marco Testa-Ryan, Tate Senior Time-based Media Technician

Untitled, from Eel Series, Venice, Italy

1978, Francesca Woodman

'My great-grandfather came over here from Italy in the 1880s, set up shop in the area initially selling ice cream, and we’ve been dealing in pies and eels ever since. The area has changed a lot in the 25 years since Tate Modern opened – it used to be a no-go area.

There are four elements in this picture that resonate with me: the eels, the Italian connection, the terrazzo floor like in our shop, and the white enamel bowl in which eels used to be prepared. The photograph could have been taken here yesterday.'

– Rick Poole, M.Manze Pie and Eel House, Tower Bridge Road

On 22 and 23 August, Wenceslas Square was Cleared of People, August 1968

1968, printed 1970s, Josef Koudelka

'Who is the audience for these images? You would think it is the people of the country itself, but for political reasons they wouldn’t see them until decades later. I initially came across this photograph through Respekt, the Prague magazine that first published the series in Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s under Koudelka’s real name.

I came from an artist family of dissidents who didn’t emigrate, unlike Koudelka. I’m glad this artwork is being highlighted: it feels like Tate is making a statement about the importance of artists who risk everything to document critical moments in history.'

– Sandra Sykorova, Tate Senior Learning Curator, Public Programmes

A Tax Haven Run By Women

2010–1, Monster Chetwynd

'As I first made this work in 2010, there is the oddest sensation that the work is alive again, not dead and dusty.

Here at Tate Modern in 2025, the room has a flow to it and the hang is exactly as I asked it to be. For example, the costumes are nailed directly to the wall – bang! The poor conservators!'

– Monster Chetwynd, artist

Marilyn Diptych

1962, Andy Warhol

'My first encounter with this work was just before 2000, when we were preparing for the opening of Tate Modern. Since then, it’s been on several tours of the United States. When it came back, we said, it’s not going anywhere until we’ve cleaned it. I now think of it as this incredibly fragile painting that needs to live forever. But it needs protection. I like the fact that it’s slightly wonky in the frame, because it emphasises its handmade element.

During our research, I learned that the original photograph was very sexy. She had on a plunging halter neck that shows her décolletage. Yet he’s cut her off at the chin and focused on the face. It’s giving her humanity back in a way.'

– Annette King, Tate Paintings Conservator

This artwork is on display in In the Conservation Studio: Andy Warhol.

The Snail

1953, Henri Matisse

'One square is like the size of a TV. It’s just going square, square, square … and then there’s other colours and then it’s done.

I wouldn’t put it in my home because it wouldn’t fit. See, I live in a flat so I wouldn’t have a chance to put it [there]. But if I had a rich house and I got some friends to help, we could do a heist. But I still wouldn’t put it in my bedroom because it could fall down and crush me. I would be like a pancake.'

– Riley, age 7, Charlotte Sharman Primary School

Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams I

1961–5, Ibrahim El-Salahi

'It reminds me of when we used to do masquerade when we were growing up. After the Nigerian Civil War, it was very tough for families. Every Christmas, we would go to rich people’s houses to dance and sing with them. A local artist would get the wood for the mask and carve it. A human face with different marks.

I’ve been working at Tate Modern for five years but the first time I came was for my interview. Now I can tell visitors about Dalí, Picasso, Jackson Pollock … My favourite artist in the collection is still Picasso. I saw the Dora Maar exhibition at Tate Modern and learned about the connection. She taught him many things.'

– Uche Ifeanyi, Tate Security Officer

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

1943, Dorothea Tanning

'My mum came to the Dorothea Tanning exhibition in 2019 where she saw this painting for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it. It really reminded her of the dreams she had as a kid. I remember she came home with a book on the artist that she still has out on the living room coffee table.

I messaged her a couple of days before we hung this, and said, ‘Oh, just to let you know, I’m installing Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’. She said, ‘No way! I’m so proud of you. It’s so funny to see how far you’ve come. I never thought that we would be in this situation.’ It was really sweet, and clearly very meaningful to her.'

– Scott Sowerby, Tate Senior Art Handling Technician

Lobster Telephone

1938, Salvador Dalí

'It’s like something you’d find in an old shop – you go rambling through and oh! Lobster Telephone – I’ll have that. I mean, most people don’t even have telephones in their houses now do they? It reminds me of the 80s. Those times were crazy. I was out there, you know, nightclubbing, all groups of lads going out and enjoying yourself. Back in those days you got your wage packet on a Friday in an envelope, and off you go to the pub.

When I started at Tate, I was only supposed to be here a month. I had that (Nicholas) Serota on the bus once. I said to him, ‘You don’t mess about do you?’ The others said to me, ‘Don’t you know that’s the main man?’ Yeah, he got on with everyone!'

– Paul Simpson, Tate Intersite Minibus Driver

Fountain

1917, replica 1964, Marcel Duchamp

'I’ve always had a soft spot for the Fountain. I saw another version in Philadelphia with my father and brother when I was 13, and have a really funny photo from then, posing in front of it. My dad has a goofy sense of humour and did a whole photo shoot of him pretending to ‘use’ the fountain.

I’m grateful for Tate Modern prompting this new connection. What has been really fun in doing research for my tours is finding queer connections and histories when they are less obvious. It’s been interesting to ‘queer’ the collection more generally, and this display feels like a fun way of bringing a new perspective and identity to a very well-known artwork.'

– Anya Clark, Tate LGBTQIA+ volunteer guide

European Mask

1990, Pacita Abad

'European Mask combines African masking traditions with Indian embellishments but takes on the whole debate of who gets to embrace culture. The title and the work do a lot together.

My abiding memory of Pacita is of her working at home. Pacita’s home was many things: a museum, a meeting space, a dance floor and her studio.

Home was both a definite place and a space she took with her when she travelled. She would invite people from different backgrounds – journalists, artists, aid workers. We talk about multiculturalism as a tick-box concept, but Pacita actually lived it.'

– Pio Abad, artist and nephew of Pacita Abad

Life of Imitation

2009, Ming Wong

'I graduated from art school in London the same year that Tate Modern opened. I recall stomping across the ‘Wobbly Bridge’, with Tate Modern looming in the distance like a beacon of hope for a young artist striking out in the world. Descending the ramp into this ‘temple’, you would encounter what could be described as the aura of wonder.

That experience for me has evolved over time, from frustration to solace, ennui to affirmation. Today I think back in disbelief at how life’s meanderings have brought me back here.'

– Ming Wong, artist

Sentinel

2019, Simone Leigh

'Sentinel is a little scary but I think – I hope – she’s there to protect me. Clearly not in a sappy or soft way. But like a strict grandmother or aunty, keeping herself at a point of remove and demanding my utmost respect.

I think places like Tate Modern need people, like the sentinel, who are unshakeable in their mission to offer protection and advocate for the people who need it. They don’t have to be your friend, but they’ll stand up for you anyway. Museums also need silly, sappy softness. Both things together, like a comedy duo.'

– Debbie Meniru, Tate Assistant Curator, Interpretation