Tate

‘In my painting, it is difficult to say whether the central form is figurative or abstract. But that does not bother me.’ - ​Ernest Mancoba 🎨

Mancoba believed in the importance of spontaneity and freedom of expression. His bold colours and dynamic gestures reveal his painting process. Born in Johannesburg, Mancoba left for Paris in 1938. He moved to Copenhagen after the Second World War. There he became one of the founding members of CoBrA, an artist group whose expressionistic painting style was inspired by the art of children. He returned to Paris in 1952, where he lived until his death.

🖌️ Ernest Mancoba, Untitled (detail), 1957 © Courtesy of the Estate of Ernest Mancoba / Galerie Mikael Andersen. On free display at Tate Modern 🏭 https://bit.ly/3ZpjAuN

When did you last see the sea? 🌊

🎨 William Evelyn Osborn, Beach at Dusk, St Ives Harbour c.1895, Tate collection

'I paint for people who have an unspoken voice deep inside them' - Félix Vallotton

This painting, made by Vallotton in 1922, shows the French town of St Paul, a short distance from Cagnes where he often spent the winter months. The artist often conjured a sense that something mysterious lay beneath his scenes.

🎨 Félix Vallotton, Road at St Paul (Var), 1922, Tate Collection https://bit.ly/3ToZttc

Packing only the essentials. 🎻 🎶 🎨

Looking for that perfect autumnal outing? Check out our latest September event highlights below.

📷 14 to 15 September: Free this weekend? There are still places available on our Young Photographers Weekend. Join us for a two-day workshop focused on the essential skills for emerging photographers, inspired by our Tate Modern exhibition, Zanele Muholi. https://bit.ly/3XgoTtY

🍲 19 September: Join Natoora founder Franco Fubini, former Faviken chef Magnus Nilsson, and author of Eating to Extinction Dan Saladino for a panel discussion at The Corner, as we explore the power of ‘flavour’ and its power to fix our broken food system. https://bit.ly/3XG7U5A

🎶 21 September: Join us at Tate Modern for an Afro-Rave featuring South African music and dance, headlined by Toya Delazy and Nakhane. There will also be special DJ sets from PRNCSS and Sweetny.Ivy to open and close the evening. https://bit.ly/3zqhMXR

🧵 24 September: Saskia Weir hosts Sew Social, a hands-on clothing repair workshop at The Corner. Upskill in an evening class designed to equip you with vital repair skills to add longevity and creativity to some of your best-loved garments. https://bit.ly/3ySJaNN

🎥 25 September: In this film screening, join us for a unique journey into the work of Diego Marcon. Using the language of horror films, Disney musicals, home movies and cartoons, Marcon subverts cinematic conventions to explore how popular media shapes collective beliefs. https://bit.ly/3N4xifz

🏭 27 September: Tate Modern Lates: Join us for a special evening of music, artist-led workshops, short talks and film screenings to celebrate Zanele Muholi at Tate Modern. https://bit.ly/3aPlFtf

🎙️30 September: Over at Tate Britain, join us for our talk ‘Choreography, Conservation and the Museum’, an exciting opportunity to hear from artists Rochelle Haley and Shelley Lasica in conversation with Louise Lawson. https://bit.ly/3XnSyl4

🏛️ 4 October: Late at Tate Britain. Explore how machine learning technology can be used to transform the way we understand museum collections. This special evening of events at Tate Britain celebrates the collaborative efforts dedicated to developing responsible machine learning tools for critical application in museums. https://bit.ly/4ek3NSd

🎨 Weekends and Wednesdays until 23 October: UNIQLO Tate Play Make Studio, The Joy of Not Knowing. Let your imagination run wild with a variety of hands-on activities for the whole family, all using recycled materials sourced right from within our galleries. https://bit.ly/3XH604V

Explore our full programme of events here ➡️ https://bit.ly/3MLNrpK

💐 Mark Gertler, Violin Case and Flower, 1930. Tate Collection

Tickets are now on sale for Leigh Bowery! at Tate Modern. 🎟️ 🎉

Artist, performer, model, TV personality, club promoter, fashion designer and musician, Leigh Bowery took on many different roles, all the while refusing to be limited by convention. His extraordinary life left a distinct, undeniable mark on the art world and beyond.

From his emergence in the nightlife of 1980s London through to his later daring and outrageous performances in galleries, theatres, and the street, Bowery fearlessly forged his own vibrant path. He reimagined clothing and makeup as forms of painting and sculpture, tested the limits of decorum, and celebrated the body as a shape-shifting tool with the power to challenge norms of aesthetics, sexuality and gender.

Opening 27 February 2025, join us in what will be a glorious celebration of the boundary-pushing career of Leigh Bowery ➡️ https://bit.ly/3TucSAa

📸 Fergus Greer Session VII, Look 38, June 1994 © Fergus Greer, courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery, London.

‘London, like the paint I use, seems to be in my bloodstream. It’s always moving – the skies, the streets, the buildings. The people who walk past me when I draw have become part of my life.’ - Leon Kossoff 🏊

In the 1960s Kossoff set up a studio in Willesden, north London and in 1967 a swimming pool opened close by. He began taking his son there to teach him to swim, and between 1969 and 1972 he created four large paintings of the pool, of which this was one. All have a lightness of touch and a sense of movement, noise and space that's characteristic of Kossoff's style, giving us that feeling we’re at the pool alongside the artist himself.

🎨 Leon Kossoff, Children’s Swimming Pool, Autumn Afternoon, 1971, © Leon Kossoff https://bit.ly/3z6bYmv

David Hammons has consistently challenged the conventions of artmaking, using found materials that others might consider waste - from cooking fat, to hair swept from barber shop floors.

This unique body print captures a figure in a vest, their hands raised in a gesture that could be seen as either a shrug or a moment of spiritual devotion. Hammons made this artwork by applying cooking fat to his body and then pressing it onto the paper. The artist also pressed his face against the surface several times, creating a blurred, moving effect between his hands. He finished the work by adding powdered pigment, which set the image.

Hammons' work often touches on themes of racial identity and oppression in the US, while also offering a deep exploration of intimacy, sensuality, and directness.

You can find this work 'Untitled' 1975 on free display in Tate Modern: Materials and Objects, alongside other works by the artist.

David Hammons, Untitled 1975, presented as part of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift 2023. https://bit.ly/3ZduBzt

‘They react as we react. My machines are not washing machines or cars. They have a human quality, and they must change. They get nervous and must stop sometimes. If a machine stops, it doesn’t mean it’s broken. It’s just tired. The tragic or melancholic aspect of machines is very important to me. I don’t want them to run forever. It’s part of their life that they stop and faint.’ – Rebecca Horn

We are deeply saddened to hear that Rebecca Horn has died. The pioneering German artist’s iconic films and sculptures turn familiar materials, gestures and settings into emotionally charged scenes, with objects often taking on a life of their own.

In the late 1960s, Horn began to create wearable sculptures. She later used these ‘body extensions’ in staged actions performed for the camera. The isolation and restraint she felt while confined to bed due to illness inspired these works. She designed them to experiment with how the body moves, senses its surroundings and relates to other people. Her interest in out-of-the-ordinary movements led Horn to develop mechanical sculptures. With them she could explore actions beyond the limits of the human body and mimic animal behaviours.

🪭 Mechanical Body Fan, 1973–4 © Rebecca Horn (Images 1-5)
📷 Installation photography of Rebecca Horn 2009 display at The Tanks, Tate Modern showing: ✏️ Performances II, 1973 and 🎹 Concert for Anarchy, 1990 (Images 6-7)

‘I have constructed, not destroyed.’ - Lucio Fontana 💭 ✨

In 1959, Fontana began to cut the canvas, with dramatic perfection. These cuts (or tagli) were carefully pre-meditated but executed in an instant. Like the holes in some of his other canvases, they have the effect of drawing the viewer into space.

In some, however, the punctures erupt from the surface carrying the force of the gesture towards the viewer in a way that is at once energetic and threatening. Discover Fontana’s artwork up-close in our free Tate Modern display, Artist and Society: A view from São Paulo. https://bit.ly/3Xq5Ptw

✂️ Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept ‘Waiting’, 1960 © Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan

‘I think of myself as a woman, an Igbo woman, a Nigerian, an African, a person of colour, an artist. The fascinating thing is that the layers I add to how I identify myself change over time. It just keeps broadening as I move farther out into the world’ - Njideka Akunyili Crosby 🎨
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​Akunyili Crosby was born in Nigeria, where she lived until the age of sixteen. In 1999 she moved to the United States, where she has remained since that time. Her cultural identity combines strong attachments to the country of her birth and to her adopted home, a hybrid identity that is reflected in her work.
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'Predecessors' is a diptych by the artist, completed in 2013. Made in acrylic, charcoal and pencil, two separate sheets of paper are displayed unframed and unmounted. The left-hand sheet features a single figure wearing a pink dress, seated in a domestic living-room environment. The subject is the artist’s alter ego, a modern African woman who embodies the nature of the African cosmopolitan lifestyle through her costume, style and mannerisms. She appears consistently in Akunyili Crosby’s works. On the right we see a kitchen with several utensils and kitchen tools which belong to different periods of Nigeria’s history. Completing the imagery in both parts of the work are family photographs and personal memorabilia, mixed with cut-outs from popular magazines and newspapers.

🎨 Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Predecessors, 2013. © Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Photo credit: Sylvain Deleu. Currently on loan Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (Kaohsiung, Taiwan) in Capturing The Moment https://bit.ly/3XcZDot

From laden apple trees to yellowing leaves, autumn is often described as ‘the painter's season’ for its inspiration to generations of artists and writers.

Hope you feel inspired this week.

Ford Madox Brown, Carrying Corn 1854–5
Ivon Hitchens, Damp Autumn, 1941
Dame Ethel Walker, Seascape: Autumn Morning, c.1935
Thomas Gainsborough, Wooded Landscape c.1747
William Holman Hunt, Our English Coasts (‘Strayed Sheep’) 1852
Winifred Nicholson, The Hunter’s Moon 1955
Adrian Stokes, Autumn in the Mountains, 1903
Sir Alfred East, Golden Autumn c.1900

https://bit.ly/3Mz19we

Do you have a favourite thing to photograph? 📷 ⛰️

Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky’s mountain shots have us feeling inspired. ✨

📷 A mist covered mountain range in Lower Austria, July 1987
⛰️ A cloudy mountain range and field in Altaussee, Austria, 1988
⛰️ A rocky mountain face Altaussee, Austria, 1988
🏡 A mountain range in Majorca, 1988
⛰️ A mountain range at dusk in Altaussee, Austria, 1988
📷 A rocky mountain in Cascais, Portugal, 1994
📷 A mountain range in Austria, 1980
🏡 A field and mountain in Hagengut, Austria, 1984

🎞️ © Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust https://bit.ly/3TfZM9v

American-born artist Rita Keegan moved to England in the late 1970s. Drawing from her family archive dating back to the 1880s, Keegan creates striking monoprint collages, tearing up old photos and documents to form new imaginative compositions.

Here, Keegan employs images and fragments from this archive to create monoprint collages. The artist describes her practice as a response to ‘a feminist perspective' of 'putting yourself in the picture’.

In talking about her process, Keegan explains ‘I’ve always felt that to tear somebody’s face can be quite violent, but if you’re doing that to your own face, you’ve given yourself permission, so it’s no longer a violent act. It’s a deconstructive act. It’s a way of looking.’ https://bit.ly/3XaUIVa

Rita Keegan, Love, S*x and Romance 1984

How's your day sounding? 🎵

🎹 William Chase, The Keynote, 1915 https://t.co/tQRXdGoULn

Have you seen his artwork before? 👀

Joseph Wright, born on this day 1734, was a painter of portraits and subject-pictures who spent most of his life in his birth-place, Derby. From the mid 1760s he began to paint scenes of contemporary scientific and industrial life, of which 'An Iron Forge' (seen here) is one of the most striking.

The central figure of the picture is the iron-founder, presented in a commanding pose as he pauses in his work to cast a proud eye towards his wife and children. The workman, or 'finer', with his back to the viewer, holds the glowing metal over the anvil with a pair of tongs, ready to be hammered. The iron-founder's role as overseer and his relaxed attitude - even his faintly dandyish striped waistcoat - suggest that the introduction of new machinery in his forge has brought about a lightening of his workload.

Discover the painting up-close on free display at Tate Britain. 🏛️ https://bit.ly/47ecNGv

☀️ Good morning, September! ☀️

In 1976-7, British artist and Yorkshireman Peter Brook created a lithograph of each month of the year. Brought up in a farming family, the artist had a strong connection to the Yorkshire landscape. The resulting series shares Brook's muted and serene vision of the changing seasons, and the beauty within each. As well as being a celebrated artist in his lifetime, Brook was also an art teacher. He told his students: 'if you want a subject, look around you'. Nicknamed 'The Pennine Landscape Painter', Brook passed away in 2009, his life's work living on as a tribute to the British countryside he called home.

🐑 SEPTEMBER Cornfield - Sheep on the Wrong Side of the Gate
🛣️ OCTOBER Pennine Road
🍃 NOVEMBER Late Afternoon
❄️ DECEMBER Sheep Coming In
🏔️ JANUARY Pennine Valley
🐕‍🦺 FEBRUARY Fill-Dyke in Wigan
🌾 APRIL Showers
🛶 JUNE Canal
🎪 JULY After the Gala
🏠 AUGUST Cottage in Anglesey

Ready for the beach?
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​​Swiss photographer René Burri (1933–2014) made numerous trips to Brazil during his lifetime, capturing Rio de Janeiro's iconic coastline and famous beaches. He loved to capture photographs from rooftops and balconies, finding symmetry and pattern in people and architecture. ​​In this colourful beach scene, the different designs of the sun umbrellas give the image rich colouration against the light beige of the sand, peppered with eye-popping patterns.
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​Burri’s use of both bird’s eye views and his attention to the effects of light and shadow are reminiscent of techniques used by modernist photographers in the early 20th century.
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Rio De Janeiro, Brazil 1967, printed 2014 © Estate of René Burri © DACS 2022.

https://shorturl.at/3fg3f

J.M.W. Turner painted the sea and the sky more than anything else in his lifetime. He travelled regularly with his sketchbook in hand, making sketches of ships, coasts and clouds. He was always looking up, so much so that in his paintings it sometimes seems that our planet is but a platform from which to see the sky.

Turner would not have intended his late, loose watercolour studies to have been exhibited publicly. Nevertheless, these (once) private, informal paintings reveal how he thought of landscapes in terms of pure colour. 💙

☁️ Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sea and Sky, English Coast c.1832, Tate Collection https://bit.ly/4dwzqHO

🖤 Man Ray, producer of some of the most celebrated photographs of the modern era, was born on this day in 1890.

Man Ray was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all.

Man Ray was best known for his pioneering photography, and was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. He is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called "rayographs".

📷 Eileen Agar snapped this portrait of her friend and fellow Surrealist Man Ray at the beach in Juan-les-pins, France, in September 1937.

Bank Holiday Monday + International Dog Day = A selection of sleepy dogs. 💤
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🐕‍🦺 Edwin Henry Landseer, Sleeping Bloodhound, exhibited 1835
📷 ​Eileen Agar, Photograph of Joseph Bard sitting with Dandy the dog, 1930s
🐩​ John Singer Sargent, The Misses Hunter, 1902
🛋️ ​Lucian Freud, Girl with a White Dog, 1951–1952
🐶 ​David Wojnarowicz, Untitled, 1988
🪑 Meraud Guevara, Seated Woman with Small Dog, c.1939
​🐕 Vanessa Bell, Black and white negative of Angelica Bell smiling and holding Clinker the dog in front of a brick wall at Charleston, Firle, Sussex, c1927–8
​🎶 Ithell Colquhoun, Painting showing a woman and man (playing a flute) sitting in the countryside with a dog, c.1927–30

Giddy up! Today marks 300 years since the birth of one of Britain's most beloved horse painters, George Stubbs. 🐎🖌️🎨

Stubbs’ paintings of horses marked a milestone in animal painting. Rather than appearing as supporting characters in his paintings, Stubbs brought these majestic creatures to the forefront—making horses the mane event. 👀

The self-taught artist was devoted to understanding horses, from the hide to the muscles, arteries, tendons, and down to the bone. By studying horses in detail, Stubbs achieved unbridled realism in his images.

🐴 Otho, with John Larkin up 1768
🐴 Mares and Foals in a River Landscape c.1763–8
🐴 Grey Hunter with a Groom and a Greyhound at Creswell Crags c.1762–4
🐴 Bay Hunter by a Lake 1787

📍 See Stubbs' four-legged beauties up close in our free Tate Britain display 'Stubbs and Wallinger: The Horse in Art'. https://bit.ly/3yFWFRg

It’s Notting Hill Carnival weekend! 🎉

These photos are by Horace Ové, a Trinidadian-born British photographer, filmmaker and founding member of the Notting Hill Carnival. He documented the birth of the celebration and its growth through the 70s and 80s.

As his son Zak Ové remembers: ‘His peer group brought this tradition with them when they migrated from the Caribbean… They were attracted to one another because they wanted a better world, and the world they imagined was nothing like the one they inherited.’

🎶 Generations, Notting Hill Carnival c.1969
🖤 First Generation Children, Ladbroke Grove, 1969
☀️ Walking Proud, Notting Hill Carnival c. 1972
🔊 Sound System Boys, Notting Hill Carnival c. 1980
🎨 Clowns, Trinidad, 1969