Alexander Calder, Mobile c.1932. Lent from a private collection 1992. © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / DACS, London .
An introduction to some of the best-loved artworks in the Tate collection
We live our lives in colour. Each one of us perceives colour differently, and how we react to colours might depend on our eyesight, our mood or where we are from. Artists often use colour to explore their thoughts or feelings or their place in the world. Artists have tried to expand the way colour is used, from paint to film to new materials. You can see examples in this display and throughout the rest of Tate Modern.
Where Do I Start?
Here are some ideas you can use in Start and the rest of the gallery. You might see artworks that make you question what art is. It could help if you look closely and think about:
- What is your first reaction to the work?
- Why does it make you feel or think like that?
- What is it made of?
- Why has the artist chosen those materials?
- Does the size of the work affect your experience of it?
- Where is the artist from and when did they live? How has this influenced them?
- What do you think the work is about?
- Why don’t you take a photograph of this list, so you can refer to it when you look at the art?
Let us know what you think #TateStart.
Giacomo Balla, Abstract Speed - The Car has Passed 1913
Ballà was a leading figure in the Italian Futurist group. He believed that the power and speed of machines such as cars were the salient characteristics of the modern age and aimed to express this idea in his work. This painting was originally the right-hand part part of a triptych. The left-hand part of the triptych was called 'Line of Force Landscape' and the central one 'Lines of Force Noise'. The theme of the triptych was the passage of a car along a white road, with green and blue forms, evoking earth and sky, in the background. The pinkish areas in this painting suggest the exhaust fumes left by the passing car.
Gallery label, September 2004
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artworks in Room two
El Lissitzky, 1. Part of the Show Machinery 1923
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artworks in Room two
El Lissitzky, 2. The Announcer 1923
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artworks in Room two
El Lissitzky, 3. Sentry 1923
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El Lissitzky, 4. Anxious People 1923
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El Lissitzky, 5. Globetrotter (in Time) 1923
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artworks in Room two
Wyndham Lewis, Composition 1913
At first glance Composition presents a compressed series of mechanical forms and abstract references to the modern city. However, it is possible to recognise traces of human figures. Dynamic thrusting shapes rise from the lower left but are contained within a claustrophobic, abstract environment. These forms can be seen as a dancing couple. The woman, on the right, bends backwards. The white parallelogram halfway up the right edge is perhaps her hair. The pleated curving architectural form at the bottom centre could be her skirt.
Gallery label, October 2020
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artworks in Room two
Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space 1913, cast 1972
In the early years of the twentieth century, industrialisation swept across Italy. The futurist movement was founded by writers and artists like Umberto Boccioni, who enthused about new inventions such as cars and electricity. In Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, the figure is aerodynamically deformed by speed. Boccioni exaggerated the body’s dynamism so that it embodied the urge towards progress. The sculpture may reflect ideas of the mechanised body that appeared in futurist writings, as well as the ‘superman’ envisaged by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Gallery label, February 2016
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artworks in Room two
Andra Ursuţa, Predators ‘R Us 2020
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artworks in Room two
Art in this room
Giacomo Balla
Abstract Speed - The Car has Passed
1913
El Lissitzky
1. Part of the Show Machinery
1923
El Lissitzky
2. The Announcer
1923
El Lissitzky
3. Sentry
1923
El Lissitzky
4. Anxious People
1923
El Lissitzky
5. Globetrotter (in Time)
1923
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