Robert Motherwell, Africa 3 1970. Tate. © Dedalus Foundation, Inc/VAGA, New York and DACS, London 2025.
The two artists in this room use the colour black and abstract forms to draw attention to how materials can express hidden stories and emotions
Motherwell made this set of screenprints Africa Suite in 1970. Part of the abstract expressionist movement, he created this series of ambiguous black forms through freely experimenting with ink on paper. In these abstract shapes, he saw the potential of an emotion forming, although not yet defined.
The silkscreen printing technique is similar to stencilling. Motherwell was satisfied with the effect created for this series but preferred other printing techniques. He once explained that ‘Silkscreen is essentially a clumsy medium … If you try to modulate silkscreen, it is very difficult, the way it is difficult to modulate gouache or poster paintings.’
Born twenty-four years after Motherwell, Chase-Riboud creates abstract sculptures and works on paper. She plays with oppositions so that hard materials appear soft, and soft materials appear strong. She has said ‘I was exploring the dynamics of opposing relationships … the metamorphosis of power from one to the other.’
Chase-Riboud’s work on display in this room is part of her series Zanzibar, the island off the coast of Tanzania that was the base for the Indian Ocean slave trade from the 17th to the 19th century. Fascinated by sculpture’s ability to subvert expectations, she makes works that seem to defy their material. Here she uses the ‘lost wax’ method of casting bronze on thin sheets to allow it to flow, creating a ripple effect.
The room also features Chase-Riboud’s poem Why Did We Leave Zanzibar? that reflects on the impact of slavery and histories of resistance. Her work as a poet speaks to the potential for words to be used as material, which could be both literal and abstract.
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain 1917, replica 1964
This work, signed with the pseudonym ‘R. Mutt’ in black paint, is an example of what Duchamp called a ‘ready-made’ sculpture. These were everyday mass-produced objects presented as artworks. The title Fountain is a playful nod to how urination can resemble a fountain’s spurt of water. Duchamp’s use of a pseudonym, the title, and the reorientation of the urinal from its usual upright position, all point to his interest in double meanings, words and role play. Like cruising, Duchamp described the selection of a ready-made artwork as a matter of timing and ‘a kind of rendezvous.’ The original work is now lost. This is a 1964 replica made from glazed earthenware and painted to resemble the original porcelain.
Gallery label, April 2025
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artworks in Barbara Chase-Riboud and Robert Motherwell
Wolfgang Tillmans, The Bell 2002
In this image, Tillmans presents a stainless-steel trough urinal, scattered with deodoriser blocks and cigarette butts, as an object of contemplation. The toilet is located inside a pub in King’s Cross, London, formerly known as the gay venue The Bell until it closed in 1995. Tillmans first visited The Bell in 1986. Years later, he took this photograph as an act of remembrance for a space that had been important to the queer community since 1982. At the time Tillmans had primarily been working on abstract photographs made without a camera. However, here he was drawn to ‘the contrasting coexistence of the beauty of the colourful reflections and the urinal as something found clearly disgusting by most people’, the artist explains.
Gallery label, April 2025
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artworks in Barbara Chase-Riboud and Robert Motherwell
Art in this room
Marcel Duchamp
Fountain
1917, replica 1964
Sorry, no image available
Miguel Angel Rojas
On Porcelain
1979
Wolfgang Tillmans
The Bell
2002