Tate Acquires $112 Million in Art, Lists 2009 Shows (Update1)

By Farah Nayeri
Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Tate, the U.K. museum network, said it acquired 63.1 million pounds ($112 million) worth of art in the year ended March 31, including four works by Damien Hirst, and Louise Bourgeois's 30-foot-high spider, ``Maman'' (1999).
At a news conference held for the release of its annual report, Tate said it acquired 494 works, 320 of which were given or bequeathed by collectors and artists, making the year a record one for acquisitions. Tate now owns two more Francis Bacon pictures and a 1939 Stanley Spencer oil, ``The Wool Shop,'' as well as works by Lucian Freud and Balthus. Other recent donations will be accounted for in the next financial year.

Exhibitions for 2009 were also announced. Tate Modern will stage ``Sold Out'' (Oct. 1, 2009 to Jan. 17, 2010), a show about how pop artists and their successors have marketed themselves. Tate Britain presents ``Van Dyck and Britain'' (Feb. 18 to May 17, 2009), which will include loans from Queen Elizabeth II's royal collections.
Tate Modern is battling to raise money for a new wing it aims to open in time for the 2012 London Olympics. So far, 70 million pounds have been pledged out of a total -- in 2012 prices -- of 215 million pounds. Tate is giving itself another year to decide whether to press ahead or shelve the plan.

Serota's Plan
``It would be very nice,'' Tate Director Nicholas Serota said, ``to be in a position where we had all the money before we started to lay the brick, but I don't think there's ever any project that is in that position.'' If only half the money is raised this time next year, with no chance of any more coming, ``then there's no point in continuing,'' he said at the news conference.

Serota said he is talking to donors who have an interest in London, both U.K. citizens and residents. Asked if the group included Russians, he said it ``might,'' and would say no more.

Other exhibitions in Tate Britain's pipeline are ``Turner and the Masters'' (Sept. 23, 2009 to Jan. 2010), showing the Old Masters who inspired the 19th-century British painter. Rembrandt, Canaletto, Rubens, and Constable will feature.
Richard Long, the British sculptor, will get a standalone show (June 3 to Sept. 6, 2009). It will be his first retrospective in London in 18 years.
The ``Sold Out'' exhibition will offer a ``radical re-reading of Pop Art and its legacy'' by focusing on ``ways in which artists have created their own brands and engaged in self-promotion,'' said Tate Modern Director Vicente Todoli. A room will be dedicated to the so-called Young British Artists who include Hirst. Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Keith Haring, and Richard Prince will have works featured.

Futuristic Speed
Tate Modern will also spotlight the turn-of-the-20th-century movement Futurism (June to September 2009) in the first U.K. show of its kind in 30 years. The survey will examine how a group of Italian artists fed on developments in rail and road travel and telephone communications to emphasize speed and immediacy in art, according to Todoli.

Two artists with standalone Tate Modern shows will be Roni Horn of the U.S. and Denmark's Per Kirkeby. Asked why lesser-known artists were showcased after a year of household names -- Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly, among others -- Todoli said the museum would ``fail'' if it only gave visitors what they knew.

``We need visitor numbers, but they don't drive our program,'' he said. ``If they drove our program, we would be a commercial TV station.''
Last year, Tate Modern drew 5.24 million visitors, and Tate Britain, 1.53 million.

Serota ``will be with us until at least 2012'' to oversee expansion, said Trustees Chairman Paul Myners, who said there was currently no term limit on Serota's directorship.

To contact the reporter on this story: Farah Nayeri in London at Farahn@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: September 3, 2008 11:23 EDT