Look Again – serie

Tate Britain: Look Again: the National Collection of British Art reimagined for today. Gender is a polyphonic portrait of the representation of gender in art, from acclaimed playwright and artist, Travis Alabanza.Gender is performance. Think of the acts of drama that go hand-in-hand with our experience of gender: a man spreading his legs on a tube; a woman showing biceps in a boiler suit saying, ‘We Can Do it!’; a stiletto heel stepping on a briefcase. It seems wherever gender goes, there follows a show of what it might be trying to say. Art is also wrapped up in performance. We see a piece of art as a still of a performance in motion, a moment of drama, a snapshot, a glimpse into a spectacle ­–­ it captures a breath to be immortalised.In this book, celebrated playwright and artist Travis Alabanza offers a revelatory new perspective on the ways that art and gender have interacted through the ages, taking us into the drama that always follows gender, and the drama that always follows art. Through a number of recognisable works from the national collection of art, we discover who is really putting on a show, and what they are trying to tell us.

Tate Britain: Look Again: the National Collection of British Art reimagined for today. Feminism is a powerful new interpretation of British art from an intersectional feminist perspective, from one of Britain’s greatest writers.‘Art museums have long drawn me into their spaces. The infinite possibilities of the language of art opens me up to methods of communication quite unlike my own. I am fascinated by the most interesting and adventurous artists, who are surely among the most innovative thinkers on the planet. I am in awe of their talent and endless inventiveness, and my imagination is nourished by theirs. I am challenged to think differently about how we might understand, recreate, reshape, re-imagine life itself – animate, inanimate, spirit. My senses are stimulated, my emotions stirred, my brain whirrs away in the background and I feel very much alive. When I was invited to write this book, my first time writing about art, I immediately knew that I would turn my attention on women and womxn (to include non-binary people) of colour in British art because, similar to the story throughout the arts, either as creator or curator, we haven’t been very visible. This book is personal – about the art I’ve seen, and the art I’ve loved – and my interpretation of the art in the national collection and beyond, from an intersectional feminist perspective.’

Look Again is a new series of short books from Tate Publishing, opening up the conversation about British art over the last 500 years, and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today. Written by leading voices from the worlds of literature, art and culture, each book sheds new light on some of the most well-known, best-loved and thought-provoking artworks in the national collection, and asks us to look again.How we dress can be a deeply personal matter. But can dress also be the object of deeper artistic enquiry? And can it tell us something more about the societies in which we live? These are the questions at the heart of Fashion.From Piet Mondrian and Yves Saint Laurent to Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama, there is a long-standing relationship between art and the high fashion world: artists can influence designers, and avant-garde fashion can also inspire avant-garde art. But what about the everyday dress that features in so many of the works in Britain's national collection of art? What can we learn by inspecting the turban on the head of a footman, the fabric gathered in the lap of a seamstress or the pleats of a dress swirling around the neck of a girl walking on her hands on a beach? In Look Again: Fashion, esteemed academic and broadcaster Shahidha Bari guides us through the surprising insights that come of these questions - and reveals that thinking about dress can take us into the heart of society, culture, and politics.

Look Again: Reimagining the National Collection of British Art for today. An incisive exploration of the relationship between social class and art by an extraordinarily gifted young writer. Class is a subject that has shaped the art world in Britain for as long as it has existed. At a moment when galleries and museums are seen to be upholding outdated and damaging class structures and systems, how is it possible to trace and tackle the legacy and impact of class in art throughout history, and today?Class is a radical reframing of some of our most relevant and respected artworks, recasting the national collection of art in socio-political rather than chronological or art-historical terms, and by doing so, broadening access to art for all. It journeys from the London of Henry James and Hogarth, through Gilbert and George’s Swinging Sixties and beyond, past the Young British Artists to a new generation tackling the question of class, and the intersection of social, racial and political inequality.

Tate Britain: Look Again: the National Collection of British Art reimagined for today. Empire is a vital exploration of how Britain’s colonial legacy has shaped its art, by one of the UK’s most influential voices on the subject.In twenty-first century Britain, ‘empire’ is a word we cannot ignore. Our history of war, conquest and slavery continues to shape our present, and future. In Empire, award-winning author and broadcaster Afua Hirsch explores the ways in which Britain’s imperial history and its national collection of art interact, and how artists from Britain and around the world have responded to the dramas, tragedies and everyday experiences of the Empire.Featuring an array of historic and contemporary works, Empire challenges the story of art we have been led to believe. It explores how the value and meanings of some of the most recognisable and best-loved artworks have changed throughout history, and about what they still mean to us today.

Embarking on dangerous journeys to flee violence and persecution, migrants and refugees arrive on the shores of Britain to seek help and hope. And yet, they become scapegoats, vilified by anti-immigrant rhetoric. Examining the work of artists like Tania Bruguera, Arshile Gorky and Mona Hatoum, Look Again: Strangers challenges this narrative. It sidesteps the dehumanising language in political depictions of migrants, offering a deeper insight into the struggles and humanity of these strangers. Look Again is a new series of short books from Tate Publishing, opening up the conversation about British art over the last 500 years, and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today. Written by leading voices from the worlds of literature, art and culture, each book sheds new light on some of the most well-known, best-loved and thought-provoking artworks in the national collection, and asks us to look again.

Look Again is a new series of short books from Tate Publishing, opening up the conversation about British art over the last 500 years, and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today. Written by leading voices from the worlds of literature, art and culture, each book sheds new light on some of the most well-known, best-loved and thought-provoking artworks in the national collection, and asks us to look again.Author, photographer and broadcaster Johny Pitts examines the notion of 'visibility' in Tate's galleries, asking who gets to be seen - and why.The well-known faces of our best-loved paintings hang visible on the walls of Tate - but look beyond and you will also see the 'invisible' figures in the background whose stories have been obscured by history, hidden in plain sight. And yet, these stories belong to those on whom the galleries depend the most: standing guard in the corners, serving in our cafes and cleaning in the early mornings. Featuring original sketches by Tate staff that respond to works from Britain's national collection of art, Look Again: Visibility asks us to bear witness to figures who have long been overlooked by a system that profits from their labour while simultaneously dismissing it as 'unskilled' - and suggests that perhaps the way to reach a fuller understanding of our history is to start looking at it through new eyes.

Look Again is a new series of short books from Tate Publishing, opening up the conversation about British art over the last 500 years, and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today. Written by leading voices from the worlds of literature, art and culture, each book sheds new light on some of the most well-known, best-loved and thought-provoking artworks in the national collection, and asks us to look again. Bookended by visits to Henry Tate's mausoleum and the tomb of Lord Mayor Henry Tulse, the author of critically acclaimed poetry collection Surge goes for a six-mile walk across London, 'this city I love', to think about the meaning of complicity. We live in the legacy of colonialism. It permeates the very fabric of the social structures in which we exist. It visibly haunts the streets of London, anchored by statues and monuments that commemorate a violent imperial past.What does it mean, then, to love this city that was once the heart of an Empire? Punctuated by works in Britain's national collection of art, Look Again: Complicity is an insightful meditation on how art can help us reckon with a dark history and an uncertain future.

Look Again is a new series of short books from Tate Publishing, opening up the conversation about British art over the last 500 years, and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today. Written by leading voices from the worlds of literature, art and culture, each book sheds new light on some of the most well-known, best-loved and thought-provoking artworks in the national collection, and asks us to look again.Author Philip Hoare takes us on an exploration of the sea and the way it has provided a deep source of inspiration for artists featured in the Tate collection, from William Blake to Maggi Hambling.Artists have always seen the sea as a mirror of their anxieties and desires; an endless resource for their creativity and their dreams. Under our human sway, the sea has shifted in meaning, from creation myth to economic wealth, from mystic wonder to modern exploitation. Look Again: The Sea dives into the breadth of historical and contemporary works in Britain's national collection of art, as well as the beloved literature they have inspired. By reframing them within a social and political perspective rather than a chronological or art-historical one, prize-winning author Philip Hoare shows how art has continually borne witness to the power and allure of the sea.

Experiences of girlhood are shaped by art and visual culture as much as they are represented by them. Claire Marie Healy explores this relationship, guiding us through the making and meaning of girlhood in Britain's national collection of art. She traces the journey of 'the girl' in art, from a silent subject of portraiture to a self-expressive creator of self-portraiture. By studying the images that are made, collected, and shared by teenage girls today, Look Again: Girlhood invites us to re-address patriarchal art historical narratives and explore diverse contemporary expressions of girlhood/s — both in the gallery space, and on our screens.Look Again is a new series of short books, opening up the conversation about British Art over the last 500 years, and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today.Written by leading voices from the worlds of literature, politics and culture, each book sheds new light on some of the most well-known, best-loved and thought-provoking artworks in the national collection, and asks us to look again.

Faith is a subject that has shaped the art world in Britain for as long as it has existed. The walls of Tate’s galleries exhibit paintings like John Martin’s The Last Judgement and The Great Day of His Wrath – both dramatic scenes that foretell apocalyptic destruction and biblical catastrophe. But faith can also exist in the small tender glimpses of hope, of love and joy. Responding to works in Britain’s national collection of art, from Frank Holl to Agostino Brunias, Look Again: Faith is a powerful meditation on the presence and meaning of belief in art. Look Again is a new series of short books from Tate Publishing, opening up the conversation about British art over the last 500 years, and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today. Written by leading voices from the worlds of literature, art and culture, each book sheds new light on some of the most well-known, best-loved and thought-provoking artworks in the national collection, and asks us to look again.