The sixth re-display of the collections of the Tate Gallery, called “New Displays” and sponsored since 1990 by British Petrolium, opened on 31 January. Once again works were brought out of store, and displays re-organised to reveal fresh themes and to create new juxtapositions. The 1995 “New Displays” present a broadly chronological sequence of thematic room displays, and examine the developments of British art from the sixteenth century onwards, and the connections between British and foreign art in the twentieth century. Among the themes confronted are “The Great Debate: Surrealism versus Abstraction” which explores works of the 1930s by Dalí, Duchamp, Ernst and Magritte juxtaposed with works by Kandinsky, Léger and the Constructivists, and “Existence and Expression” which deals with works expressing intense personal emotion, and brings together Picasso’s “Weeping Woman” with Francis Bacon’s Crucifixion triptych. A group of history paintings are to be found in a room entitled The Golden Age, which includes Johan Zoffany’s “Colonel Mordaunt’s Cock Match”, recently acquired and restored by the Tate, and in a new room of Victorian paintings visitors can see Richard Dadd’s “The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke” and “Contradiction. Oberon and Titania” (on loan to the Tate) together with Sargent’s recently cleaned portrait of the Wertheimer sisters.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Newly hung Tate'