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Tate Modern: The Guide
This book celebrates the opening of Tate Modern in London and introduces readers to the building, the collection, and the new approach to modern and contemporary art. The gallery presents the twentieth century through the reinterpretation of four classic themes: the nude, landscape, still life, and history painting. Their reemergence in modern art as the body, the environment, the everyday, and society is discussed in four introductory texts and through selected writings. The second half of the book is an A to Z of 100 key artists in Tate Modern's international modern collection that are introduced by eleven art historians.
The Tate's collection of international modern art begins with the revolutionary developments that were taking place at the turn of the twentieth century and continues through to today's radically different situation, when media, techniques, and forms of presentation inconceivable 100 years ago dominate the art scene. The benefits of thematic rather than chronological organization are immediate and wonderful, allowing, for example, a view of Monet's Waterlilies next to a stone circle of Richard Long. Such pairings eloquently bear witness to both the great distance and the tremendous affinities between works of art and ways of working at either end of a century.
Tate Modern's individuality lies not only in its collection or its location in the middle of London, in the historical and culturally diverse Bankside district of Shakespeare and Dickens, but also in its architecturethe dramatic conversion of the Bankside Power Station. The Handbook illuminates the movements and terms that have shaped our understanding of the past century. This book is not just about one of the most influential museums in its field, but is also an important tool for the understanding of modern art.
The Tate's collection of international modern art begins with the revolutionary developments that were taking place at the turn of the twentieth century and continues through to today's radically different situation, when media, techniques, and forms of presentation inconceivable 100 years ago dominate the art scene. The benefits of thematic rather than chronological organization are immediate and wonderful, allowing, for example, a view of Monet's Waterlilies next to a stone circle of Richard Long. Such pairings eloquently bear witness to both the great distance and the tremendous affinities between works of art and ways of working at either end of a century.
Tate Modern's individuality lies not only in its collection or its location in the middle of London, in the historical and culturally diverse Bankside district of Shakespeare and Dickens, but also in its architecturethe dramatic conversion of the Bankside Power Station. The Handbook illuminates the movements and terms that have shaped our understanding of the past century. This book is not just about one of the most influential museums in its field, but is also an important tool for the understanding of modern art.
- GenresArtArchitectureReference
Hardcover
First published April 17, 2000
About the author
Tate Gallery
232 books3 followersTate Gallery was founded in 1897 as the National Gallery of British Art. When its role was changed in 1932 to include the national collection of modern art as well as the national collection of British art, it was renamed the Tate Gallery.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 1, 2026
I have bought (and fully read) many museum guides. Tate Modern: The Handbook is BY FAR the best. It can be valuable even if you don’t plan to visit the museum.
The best modern art book I have read is The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes, which will take you from 0 to 100 km/h if modern art makes zero sense to you. After reading it, read Tate Modern to understand the brave philosophical exploration 20th century artists decided to embark on.
The book has it all, starting with beautiful pictures of course, as well as impeccable graphic layout. But what sets it apart is the quality of its texts. While based in deep (and mandatory) academic knowledge, but never obtuse or pompous, they all show the passion the authors have for their specialty and soar almost into literature.
The museum’s founding committee made a bold decision in how to arrange the artworks info four themes and the guide reflects that in its sections:
- Lands | Matter | Environment
- Still | Life | Object | Real Life
- History | Memory | Society
- Nude | Action | Body
A must-have for art enthusiasts, especially if you don’t really get modern art.
In between chapters the guide has a section of quotes from artists and art critics. The following two encapsulate the founding principles of modern art:
A work of art is and individual and distinct thing. Something self-contained and possessing its own purpose within itself; yet there is at the same time represented in it a new “whole”, a total image of reality.
— Immanuel Kant, “The Critique of Judgement”, 1790.
l believe that men will long continue to feel the need of following to its source the magical river flowing from their eyes, bathing with the same hallucinatory light and shade both the things that are and the things that are not. Not always quite knowing to what the disturbing discovery is due, they will place one of these springs high above the summit of any mountain. The region where the charming vapours of the as yet unknown, with which they are to fall in love, condense, will appear to them in a lightning flash.
—André Breton, “Surrealism and Painting”, 1928.
The best modern art book I have read is The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes, which will take you from 0 to 100 km/h if modern art makes zero sense to you. After reading it, read Tate Modern to understand the brave philosophical exploration 20th century artists decided to embark on.
The book has it all, starting with beautiful pictures of course, as well as impeccable graphic layout. But what sets it apart is the quality of its texts. While based in deep (and mandatory) academic knowledge, but never obtuse or pompous, they all show the passion the authors have for their specialty and soar almost into literature.
The museum’s founding committee made a bold decision in how to arrange the artworks info four themes and the guide reflects that in its sections:
- Lands | Matter | Environment
- Still | Life | Object | Real Life
- History | Memory | Society
- Nude | Action | Body
A must-have for art enthusiasts, especially if you don’t really get modern art.
In between chapters the guide has a section of quotes from artists and art critics. The following two encapsulate the founding principles of modern art:
A work of art is and individual and distinct thing. Something self-contained and possessing its own purpose within itself; yet there is at the same time represented in it a new “whole”, a total image of reality.
— Immanuel Kant, “The Critique of Judgement”, 1790.
l believe that men will long continue to feel the need of following to its source the magical river flowing from their eyes, bathing with the same hallucinatory light and shade both the things that are and the things that are not. Not always quite knowing to what the disturbing discovery is due, they will place one of these springs high above the summit of any mountain. The region where the charming vapours of the as yet unknown, with which they are to fall in love, condense, will appear to them in a lightning flash.
—André Breton, “Surrealism and Painting”, 1928.
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February 12, 2026review text for 4402
September 2, 2007
What else needs to be said about the Tate Modern that already hasn't been said. I love their Rothko room - I could have spent hours sitting in there staring at all of his paintings.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews