Tate Britain's permanent collection will be completely refurbished. First time in 10 years

London’s Tate Britain will unveil the complete refurbishment of its permanent collection on May 23, 2023: the first time in a decade. The public will discover more than 800 works by over 350 artists, from beloved and iconic works to recent discoveries, along with new commissions.

Among the most iconic works on view are John Everett Millais’ Ophelia and William Hogarth’s The Painter and his Pug to David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash, Barbara Hepworth’s Pelagos, and Chris Ofili’s No Woman, No Cry. More than 100 works by William Turner will trace his output, and there will be rooms devoted to key figures in British art history such as William Blake, John Constable, the Pre-Raphaelites and Henry Moore, and a series of solo exhibitions that will change periodically exploring other artists, including Annie Swynnerton, Richard Hamilton, Aubrey Williams and Zineb Sedira.

“When the new exhibition opens on May 23,” said Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain, “visitors will be able to explore 500 years of revolutionary change in art, culture and society, culminating in new work by some of the most important contemporary artists. We will celebrate the best of British art and show how it speaks to us, challenges us and inspires us.”

The rearrangement will reflect the ongoing transformation of the Tate’s collection by showcasing more than 200 works that have been acquired since the millennium. These include 70 works that have entered the collection in the past five years alone. Visitors will also find works by a new generation of young artists joining the permanent collection for the first time, such as a kaleidoscopic canvas by Rachel Jones and a series of photographs capturing 21st century British life by Rene Matić.

Women artists will be better represented than ever before. Half of the contemporary artists in the exhibition will be women, from Bridget Riley and Tracey Emin to Kudzanai-Violet Hwami and Lydia Ourahmane. The Tate’s long-standing commitment to diversify its collection has led the museum to show great women artists of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including many women artists never before exhibited at the Tate. These works include a full-length portrait from 1650-1655 by Joan Carlile, believed to be the first woman in Britain to work in oils as a professional painter (acquired in 2016), a selection of watercolors by Emily Sargent made during her travels in North Africa (acquired in 2021), and Marianne Stokes’s 1899 painting A Fisher Girl’s Light (acquired in 2022).

There will be no shortage of art installations: large-scale complex works made from unusual materials, from the eight tons of rice and two thousand flowers that make up Vong Phaophanit’s Neon Rice Field and Anya Gallaccio’s Preserve ’beauty’ respectively, to the glass and steel sculptures embedded with UV lights in Hamad Butt’s spectacular Transmission, which will be shown for the first time at the Tate. To celebrate the opening of the refurbishment, contemporary artists will also create and install works beyond the gallery spaces, including two scalable concrete sculptures by Sarah Lucas on the front lawn of the museum and a site-specific ceiling painting by France-Lise McGurn in the Djanogly Café.

Andrea Schlieker, director of exhibitions and displays at Tate Britain, said, “This will be a wonderful time for Tate Britain and a great opportunity for us to showcase British artistic talent. By working with innovative contemporary artists, we can offer a new lens through which to view the art of the past and provide inspiration to future generations.”

Re-fitting work is now underway and will continue in the coming months. More details will be announced in May.

Photo by Rikard Österlund

Tate Britain's permanent collection will be completely refurbished. First time in 10 years

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