8/11/2000
William Blake
Tate Gallery, London
This exhibition will take a fresh, bold look at the unique and innovative Romantic British artist and poet, William Blake (1757-1827). This will be the first major exhibition of Blake's work in more than twenty years and will include more than 200 works drawn from public and private collections throughout the world. The exhibition will offer a clear and informative overview of his life and work, putting him in context with the political and social upheavals of his time and bringing the symbolism of such popular works as Jerusalem, The Ghost of a Flea and The Tyger to life.
This exhibition will take a fresh, bold look at the unique and innovative Romantic British artist and poet,
William Blake (1757-1827). This will be the first major exhibition of Blake's work in more than twenty
years and will include more than 200 works drawn from public and private collections throughout the
world. The exhibition will offer a clear and informative overview of his life and work, putting him in
context with the political and social upheavals of his time and bringing the symbolism of such popular
works as Jerusalem, The Ghost of a Flea and The Tyger to life.
The exhibition will contain four sections, each of which will
look at a facet of Blake's art and life. One of these sections
Chambers of the Imagination, will be an exploration of
Blake's thinking as a visionary artist. Another looks at the
artist's years in Lambeth during the 1790s. This was the time
of the French Revolution and the rise of radicalism in Britain.
Along with this came Blake's pioneering development of a
form of print-making and book-making through which he
could express and circulate his own revolutionary thoughts.
One special feature of this part of the show will be a
're-creation' of Blake's studio which, through the display of
engraving tools and aspects of his engraving process, will
explain the very practical skills which Blake had mastered in
order to be his own man.
The curators for the exhibition are Robin Hamlyn, Curator,
Tate Collections and Michael Phillips, art historian and
lecturer, University of York.