Watercolour

Tate Britain, London

The exhibition presents a full and fresh assessment on the history and future of watercolour painting. With works spanning 800 years, this boundary-breaking survey celebrates the full variety of ways watercolour has been used. From manuscripts, miniatures and maps through to works showing the expressive visual splendour of foreign landscapes, watercolour has always played a part in British Art. Watercolour also offers the chance to see rarely displayed works by artists ranging from Turner and Thomas Girtin to Anish Kapoor and Tracey Emin.

comunicato stampa

curated by Alison Smith

Watercolour takes us back to the origins of watercolour in the form of medieval illumination and traces its history thereafter, showing how the increasing portability of the medium allowed artists to travel with their paints to far-flung regions, documenting what they saw, from new fauna and flora to on-the-spot recording of new landscapes and events. Before the advent of photography, watercolour was the medium of choice for eye-witness evidence.

Acknowledging the association of watercolour with British artists such as William Blake, JMW Turner and Thomas Girtin, and examining it within a modern and contemporary context in the work of artists such as Patrick Heron and Tracey Emin, the show goes much further in presenting a medium which has long had a huge range and appeal; for amateurs and professionals, for show and for intimacy, for realistic representation and for hallucinatory or abstract creation.

The most ambitious exhibition about watercolour ever to be staged, with works spanning 800 years, this boundary-breaking survey celebrates the full variety of ways watercolour has been used. From manuscripts, miniatures and maps through to works showing the expressive visual splendour of foreign landscapes, watercolour has always played a part in British Art. Watercolour also offers the chance to see rarely displayed works in all their luminous glory, by artists ranging from JMW Turner and Thomas Girtin to Anish Kapoor and Tracey Emin.

The exhibition presents a full and fresh assessment on the history and future of watercolour painting. It aims to question our thoughts on what watercolour stands for, presenting famous and lesser-known works side by side and bringing this popular, universal and enduring medium back to the centre of our cultural heritage.

Image: Howard Hodgkin, A Storm 1977 Tate © Howard Hodgkin

Tate Britain Press Officer:
Selina Jones Tel: + 44 (0)20 78874906 Email: selina.jones@tate.org.uk
Assitant Press Officer
Alex O'Neill Tel: + 44 (0)20 78878732 Email: alex.oneill@tate.org.uk

Tate Britain
Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
Open every day 10.00–18.00
Last admission to exhibitions 17.15
Open until 22.00 on the first Friday of each month for Late at Tate Britain
Admission:
£ 12,70
concession £ 10,90

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IN ARCHIVIO [116]

Susan Philipsz
dal 19/11/2015 al 2/4/2016