Tate Britain (Tate Britain in general)

Member Name: siantone

Product:	Tate Britain in general
Date:	19/05/09 (8 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A visually satisfying all round experience

Disadvantages: Trumped by Tate Modern in the Tate family

Tate Britain- which was nearly called Tate 2 with Tate Modern being Tate 1- is an excellent starting point for exploring what it means to be British today. Tate Modern may be more glamorous but arguably Tate Britain provides the visitor with a more grounded and profound experience of art.

It is of course principally an art gallery dealing with visual culture but the gallery is ambitious in its scope and smart curators embrace much more that what you see in the paintings, prints, photographs, digital works and sculpture. In its early days as Tate Britain, the permanent galleries were hung thematically, but interestingly, there were so many critics to the art of hanging works across centuries by themes, that the gallery has moved back to periods.

However, the displays are not afraid to provide the visitor with strong contextual material which means you will find out more about the world of e.g. William Blake, William Hogarth, the Pre-Rapahelites and so forth as well as analysis of their artworks. Thus you learn more about Britain over the last four hundred years at Tate Britain than you do at the British Museum.

For any visitor wanting to understand more about high quality art generally, how to look at it and understand meanings plus what modern day Britain is about, I would suggest you visit Tate Britain as it is not just another international art museum.

Summary: An important place to visit on any trip to London- satisfying on many levels