LONDON.- Tate Britain opened its new season of BP Spotlights, including David Hockneys portrait of George Lawson and Wayne Sleep. A recent gift from the artist to Tates collection, this is the first time the work has ever been shown in the UK. It hangs alongside two other double-portraits Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy 1970-1 and My Parents 1977 which showcase Hockneys ability to combine psychological intensity with stylistic coolness.
The BP Spotlights are a series of regularly changing free displays at Tate Britain, using works from Tates collection and loans to explore particular themes or focus on particular artists. Other new displays include a selection of work by Anwar Shemza and a group of photographs by Jo Spence. These will be followed in November by a gallery exploring the place of alcohol in British culture as seen through art from the 19th century to the present day.
Anwar Shemza
12 October 2015 October 2016
Born in Simla, India in 1928, Anwar Jalal Shemza left an established career as a writer and painter in Pakistan to move to London in 1956. In Britain he abandoned figurative art and developed vigorous compositions that fused calligraphy, Islamic architecture with Western abstraction. Throughout his career Shemza worked in a wide range of media, repeatedly revisiting a number of different subjects, including the walls and gates of Lahore, the Arabic letter Meem, and plant roots. His last series of work directly related to notions of belonging in the Pakistani diaspora.
Hockney Double Portraits
19 October 2015 October 2016
This display brings together three of David Hockneys celebrated double portraits, including George Lawson and Wayne Sleep 1972-5, which was presented to Tate by the artist last year. Hockney made a series of large-scale double portraits between 1968 and 1977, portraying couples or friends in their homes. They convey the artists preoccupation with the relationship between people in a style which is both naturalistic and highly formalised.
Jo Spence: Save This Exhibition
19 October 2015 October 2016
Jo Spence (1934-92) was one of the key photographers in Britain in the 1980s, developing a political practice that engaged with issues of identity and photographys place in society. This display showcases Spences collaborative work with The Hackney Flashers a socialist-feminist collective from 1974 into the 1980s and with her long-term collaborator Terry Dennett. It will also explore her experience with cancer and her adoption of photo-therapy.
Art and Alcohol
16 November 2015 October 2015
Ever since William Hogarth satirised the Georgian craze for gin, artists have explored Britains relationship with alcohol, whether as social lubricant or as a factor in social breakdown. This display will centre on a contrast between George Cruikshanks vast painting Worship of Bacchus 1860-2, which illustrates the dire effects of drink across society, and Gilbert & Georges Drinking Sculpture 1972, a set of progressively blurred photographs of drinkers in London pubs.
Ongoing displays
Joseph Wright of Derby: Illuminating the Air Pump
Until Spring 2016
This display explores Joseph Wrights (1734-1797) painting An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump 1768, one of the masterpieces of British art, on loan from the National Gallery. It is brought together with visual sources for the work and other paintings by Wright to illuminate his shifting reputation.
Pre-Raphaelite Works on Paper
Until Spring 2017
Pre-Raphaelite paintings began on paper. On sketchbooks, scraps and even the backs of envelopes, artists tried out the ideas that would challenge the establishment. This display showcases the compositions and studies which arose from the close encounter between artist and subject.
Gustav Metzger: Towards auto-destructive art 1950-62
Until Spring 2016
This display examines how Gustav Metzger (b.1926) developed the theory and practice of auto-destructive art. It includes 22 paintings and an installation including works never seen before made during Metzgers influential and creative time as a student of David Bomberg.
Bruce McLean: In the Shadow of Your Smile, Bob
Until June 2016
Bruce McLeans (b.1944) film In the Shadow of Your Smile, Bob 1970 was recently acquired for Tates collection. Its starting point is a photograph of the American artist Robert Morris, and is a playful take on the way individuals pose in order to fit within norms of appearance and behaviour.
Charlotte Moth: Choreography of the Image
Until May 2016
Charlotte Moth (b.1978) has used a photograph taken by Barbara Hepworth as the focus for this display, exploring how images of artworks are choreographed in a range of contexts. Moths installation includes a new film work alongside archive material from the 1930s to 60s.
Tracey Emin and Francis Bacon
Until Summer 2016
Tracey Emins installation My Bed 1998 returns to Tate Britain after it first came to public attention when shown in the 1999 Turner Prize exhibition. It is displayed alongside six of the artists recent figure drawings, as well as two oil paintings by Francis Bacon selected by Emin.