I.

Introduction

Tate Galleries, Britain’s major art galleries, tracing the evolution of British painting from the Tudors to the present day. The first of these, in London, was founded in 1897 as the Tate Gallery by the sugar magnate Sir Henry Tate, who had offered his collection of modern British paintings to the nation in 1890. To these were added other collections of British art previously bequeathed or presented to the nation, and the bequest by J. M. W. Turner of his paintings and watercolours. From the outset the intention had been to have a gallery that would adequately represent modern British art, and Tate Britain, as it has been known since 2000, now encompasses British art from the beginning of the 16th century to the present day (notably works by William Hogarth, William Blake, John Constable, Gabriel Rossetti, Stanley Spencer, Jacob Epstein, Henry Moore, David Hockney, Gilbert and George, and Damien Hirst). Tate Britain also mounts important loan exhibitions of British art. The Clore Gallery, opened in 1987 and designed by Sir James Stirling, houses the Turner Bequest. A major development completed in November 2001 at a cost of £32.3 million saw the creation of four new galleries within Tate Britain’s main building, and six new temporary exhibition spaces—the Linbury Galleries—established on the lower floor; five existing galleries were also refurbished, and a new main entrance created. In 2004 Tate Britain acquired the Barry Joule Collection, an archive of over 1,200 pieces including documents and photographs from the studio of Francis Bacon. These pieces will be studied before being put on display in the gallery.

II.

Tate Liverpool

Tate Liverpool, the Tate’s first provincial branch, opened in 1988. It is devoted entirely to modern art, which is shown in a section of the Albert Docks, a 19th-century structure specially converted into a gallery by James Stirling. Displays consist of works from the Tate’s permanent collections exhibited in Liverpool on a yearly changing basis, as well as exhibitions of contemporary art and touring shows from Britain and abroad.

III.

Tate St Ives

Tate St Ives, which opened in 1993, is a modern purpose-built gallery overlooking Porthmeor Beach, in the centre of St Ives, Cornwall. The gallery features the work of the many famous artists who came to live and work in and around St Ives from the 1920s onwards. They include Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Naum Gabo, Roger Hilton, and many others. Temporary displays show the work of younger artists associated with St Ives today.

IV.

Tate Modern

In 1996 work began on a new project that split the Tate’s London collection between two sites. The disused Bankside power station, on the South Bank of the Thames near the South Bank Centre, was converted into Tate Modern, to house the Tate’s collection of international modern art from 1900 to the present day (including major works by Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol), while Tate Britain, in the Tate’s original building at Millbank, houses the gallery's collection of British artworks. The redevelopment of Bankside was undertaken by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron and the engineers Ove Arup Ltd., and retains the integrity of the original power station, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, while adding a glass roof to allow natural light into the gallery space below. The project was completed in 2000 at the cost of £134 million. In January 2005 the gallery announced that further work is to be done on its building. The electricity substation within the gallery is to be upgraded which will make more space available. This further development will be undertaken by the same architects, Herzog & de Meuron.