TATE MODERN

Description

Essentials about Tate Modern in brief

A trip to London is simply incomplete without a visit to the Tate Gallery of Modern Art (usually just called Tate Modern for short). Tate Modern is one of the world’s largest and most famous museums of modern and contemporary art. Those who are not enthusiastic about this kind of art should at least take a look at the spectacular building of the Tate Modern from the outside. The art museum is located on the south bank of the Thames in a converted power station and is directly connected to the north bank and St. Paul’s Cathedral via the famous Millennium Bridge.

The history of Tate Modern

Historically, Tate Modern goes back to the initiative of the Tate Gallery to create a collection of international painting and sculpture from the 20th century. As the collection grew enormously over time and gained in popularity, a new exhibition space had to be obtained. Since 2000, Tate Modern has resided in the former Bankside Power Station. The museum was originally designed for just under two million visitors per year, but within a few years the number of visitors rose to over five million, so the exhibition space was once again massively expanded with an extension opened in 2016.

The exhibitions in Tate Modern

Tate Modern presents works from all major art movements since the beginning of the 20th century: Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism as well as Pop Art, Minimal Art and Conceptual Art. The list of important and influential artists of classical modernism and the present day, who are represented with works in Tate Modern, is as long as one can imagine: Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and many more.

The permanent exhibition is divided into four sections: States of Flux, Idea and Object, Poetry and Dream, and Matter and Gestures. The exhibition does not follow art historical epochs, but arranges objects from different eras under these headings. In addition, there are large special exhibitions and large individual objects in the former turbine hall, now the entrance hall.