Radar: Constellations at the Tate

Constellations places some modern masterpieces at the centre of a galaxy of artworks - examining the cosmic threads that bind works by Picasso, Matisse and Pollock to others.

tate morris

Is it really possible to trace the lineages, the relationships and similarities between major artists through their works? Tate Liverpool certainly seems to think so - in an imaginative re-hanging of its collection displays, the gallery is staging a kind of Art Family Trees, exploring the threads that connect the likes of Picasso, Matisse and Pollock to newer works.

This new exhibition places these works, many which will be familiar due to their fame and previous appearances at the Tate, at the heart of nine groupings -‘constellations’ if you will - of artworks that includes over one hundred works from the collection and promises to reveal the different narratives that link them. Displaying these modern masterpieces by familiar artists alongside newer works means visitors can join the dots between artists, tracking the paths of their surrounding orbits.

These central works are seen as catalysts for a number of works inspired by them and from 19 July will include Picasso’s Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle; Matisse’s The Inattentive Reader; Man Ray’s L’Enigme d’Isidore Ducasse; Barbara Hepworth’s Single Form (Eikon) and Summertime: Number 9A by Jackson Pollock. The constellations around them include works by Constantin Brancusi, Louise Bourgeois, Isa Genzken, Douglas Huebler, Daria Martin and León Ferrari.

This is the second stage of the DLA Piper Series - where would free art be without corporate sponsorship? - with works by Robert Morris, Hélio Oiticica, Marina Abramovic, and Barbara Kruger already on display as part of the Tate’s recent 25th anniversary celebrations.

Look out too for Cerith Wyn Evans’s Morse code-powered glass chandelier in the foyer as a curtain raiser for the display - and Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla’s Balance of Power, performed every Wednesday at 2pm and 3pm.

DLA Piper Series: Constellations
Tate Liverpool
From 19 July

19 July also sees a series of ‘bite-size’ artist talks inspired by works in the exhibition - check out the Tate’s website for more details