Modern Art and St Ives and Haegue Yang

This one-way route guides you through the Modern Art and St Ives displays, taking in spectacular views out onto Porthmeor beach, followed by the exhibition Strange Attractors by celebrated South Korean artist Haegue Yang.

You can visit all or some of the galleries on this route, as long as you follow the one-way system designed to keep all visitors safe. There is also access to toilets and changing facilities, and to the Tate St Ives shop and cafe.

What you can see

Modern Art and St Ives explores the stories and histories of pioneering modern artists who are connected to St Ives. The first room is an introduction to some of the artists commonly associated with the town, such as Barbara Hepworth, Alfred Wallis and Patrick Heron.

Adjoining rooms consider the national and international migration of artists and ideas that contributed to St Ives’s prominence as a centre for modern British art during the twentieth century. Works by Piet Mondrian, Eileen Agar and Pablo Picasso are displayed alongside artists who worked or lived in Cornwall including Marlow Moss, Peter Lanyon and Sandra Blow.

Further rooms connect St Ives with wider global ideas about modern art from the 1950s and beyond. These include the abstract sculptural forms that fascinated artists in Britain and abroad, from Mary Martin and Victor Pasmore to Lygia Clark and Gego. The final room considers the diverse ways in which painters broke new ground and offered new perspectives, including works by Pauline Boty, Mark Rothko and William Scott.

Between the two halves of the Modern Art and St Ives collection display is the exhibition Strange Attractors. Bringing together new and existing works spanning installation, sculpture, drawing, collage and painting by Haegue Yang. Renowned for creating immersive environments from a diverse range of materials, Yang's sculptures and installations often use industrially made objects, interwoven with labour-intensive and craft-based processes.

These processes reflect pagan cultures and their deep connection with various seasonal rituals in relation to natural phenomena. The context of St Ives, and the Cornish landscape and its ancient archaeological heritage are important points of inspiration.

Artwork highlights