Tate Gallery Research Articles

Does Cultural Regeneration Work? : The Tate Gallery Liverpool and the Greater Albert Dock Re-development

Does Cultural Regeneration Work? : The Tate Gallery Liverpool and the Greater Albert Dock Re-development

Representing slavery in visual art: a multimodal approach

Abstract This article explores some issues related to the trauma of slavery, colonialism and identity-formation processes through a multimodal analysis, which is particularly useful in studying the manifold meanings and relationships emerging from the forms of cultural and social representation such as visual art. A series of images, chosen within Ellen Gallagher’s art exhibition “AXME”, held at Tate Gallery in London, is investigated to deal with the discursive constructions of gendered and racial identities. Employing Kress and van Leeuwen’s model (2021 [1996]. Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge), this article attempts to identify the signs related to categories such as gender and race, as well as the persistence of stereotypical representations in our contemporary societies.

The Licensee Called - He Wants His Peace Back!

English jurisprudence has long established that only those with a legal interest in land may bring an action for nuisance. Although thought to have been challenged by the Court of Appeal in Khorasandjian v Bush, the House of Lords in Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd affirmed the original position, noting the importance of nuisance as a tort against land. With the highest Court in the nation in Fearn v Tate Gallery reframing nuisance as a tort against land, it appears that Courts have conclusively closed the prospects of relief under nuisance for those whose rights fall short of a legal interest in land such a licensees. Yet the policy imperatives advocating for the converse are not insignificant. Licences are important not only in both the domestic and commercial context. This paper seeks to examine the principles on standing to sue for nuisance to consider whether there is anything to gain from extending its protection to licensees. It argues that there is sufficient reason to afford some protection for licensees, albeit it might best be done not by expanding the tort of nuisance, but through the development of a new tort following Manchester v Dutton as identified by Professor Adam Baker.

Liability in nuisance: Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery [2023] UKSC 4

The author discusses the recent Supreme Court case of Fearn v Tate Modern Galleries. In Fearn, the court was required to determine whether the defendants’ allowing visitors to the viewing gallery, which was situated at the top of the Tate Modern, to stare into domestic flats, which were situated close to the Tate, constituted a nuisance in law. The claimants flats’ were of an unusual design, in that the external walls which faced the Tate, were constructed entirely of glass, thereby allowing visitors to the Tate to stare into the interior of the flats. By a bare majority, the court held that such a use of the defendants’ premises ranked as a nuisance. Whereas the majority of the court upheld the traditional view, that for a claimant to succeed in a nuisance action, the use of the defendant’s land required to be unreasonable, in order to determine whether that use was unreasonable, one was required to ascertain whether the defendant’s use of land had caused substantial interference with the ordinary use of the claimant’s land. However, in turn, the claimant could not complain if the use which was interfered with was not an ordinary use of that land. The court held that the use of the viewing gallery had caused a substantial interference with the ordinary use and enjoyment of the claimants’ property.
 The majority of the Supreme Court concluded that both lower courts had erred by laying store by the fact that the use of the viewing gallery was of public benefit. However, public interest was a factor which required to be addressed only when the court was ascertaining whether to grant an injunction or an award of damages.
 The author argues that the dissenting judgement of the court is to be preferred over that of the majority, most importantly for the following reasons. It may be difficult first, to determine whether the defendant’s use of land deviates from the norm, and therefore does not rank as a ‘common and ordinary’ use of land, and secondly it may prove difficult to weigh such user of land against that of the claimant. The author argues that the test of reasonableness as a test for liability in nuisance, as hitherto employed by the courts, is more conducive to clarity. The traditional test also allows the law to develop both coherently and incrementally, by considering the changing norms of society.

Private Nuisance: The UK Supreme Court Take a View

Abstract Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery, required the UK Supreme Court to resolve claims that by operating an open-air terrace, from which visitors could enjoy a high-level view of London, the defendants were committing the tort of private nuisance against the owners of nearby luxury flats. The Court decided that the intrusive staring into the flats by visitors to the terrace could be a form of private nuisance, but split as to whether the tort was being committed; a minority thought that it would be necessary to take account of the claimants’ flats being glass-walled, and consequently unusually vulnerable to ocular intrusion, and the possibility of the claimants mitigating their discomfort by using blinds, whilst the majority insisted that it was straightforward to hold the defendants liable. This article concentrates on the majority’s re-statement of the basic test for liability in private nuisance, in particular their shift from an approach that assesses the “reasonableness” (or otherwise) of the defendant’s activity to one that relies heavily on a distinction between “common and ordinary” and “special and unusual” uses of land. It concludes that several key elements in the re-statement will require further elucidation, and that the key distinction does not reflect the values that its proponents hoped that it would.

The View from the Top: Visual Intrusion as Nuisance in Fearn v Tate Gallery

In Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery the UK Supreme Court unanimously held that visual intrusions are in principle actionable under the tort of private nuisance. On the facts, a narrow 3:2 majority found that the Tate Modern was liable for the operation of its viewing gallery where the public could see into the claimants’ flats. This note argues that the court's landmark determination on the scope of nuisance is a welcome one insofar as it decentres physical interference and aligns the operation of the tort with its normative underpinnings. More dubious is the majority's emphasis on the ‘common and ordinary use’ of land, an uncertain concept which is likely to generate difficulties in future cases. Finally, the note considers some of the broader implications of Fearn, reflecting on the public reaction to the decision and considering what the case means for privacy protection in particular.

The Conditions of Success: a Change in Bowness Model

This text presents a reformulation of the model that Alan Bowness — former director of the prestigious London’s Tate Gallery — used to represent the way in which an artist achieves success. The reasons why the modification of the cited model seems coherent are presented from a theoretical and pre-experimental perspective. The results intend to be coherent and plausible. Nevertheless, they are generic and can differ in different specific contexts. Our conclusion is that Bowness model is outdated and does not show the current paradigm of art and its market, being this reformulation necessary. On the other hand, it must be clarified that when we refer to ‘success’, we are referring to a success which is primarily economic, or derivate from the economic one.

Rasheed Araeen’s Bismullah

Rasheed Araeen’s Bismullah is noteworthy as the first work by the Karachi-born, London-based artist to enter the collection of Britain’s Tate Gallery in 1995. Bismullah deploys strategies of juxtaposition, disjunction, and doubling to combine visual imagery that references religion, empire, art history, and the artist’s personal biography. Through its montage tactics Bismullah not only maps the binaries of self and other that structure colonial discourse within and beyond the artistic field, but also recontextualizes these signifiers.

Slow Looking at Slow Art: The Work of Pierre Bonnard

Abstract Slow looking is an increasingly prevalent strategy for enhancing visitor engagement in the gallery, yet there is little research to show why looking at artworks for longer should be beneficial. The curator of a recent exhibition of Pierre Bonnard at the Tate Gallery in London encouraged viewers to look slowly in order to enrich their experience of Bonnard’s paintings. This article explores some of the reasons why Bonnard’s work, in particular, rewards the viewer who spends more time studying it. The authors draw on various scientific studies of the ways in which observers process color contrasts, spatial configuration and figure-ground segregation in artworks and in everyday vision. They propose that prolonged interactions with works of art can facilitate perceptual learning, and they suggest ways in which these effects could be empirically studied using psychological methods.

Anderson, Emily Hodgson. Shakespeare and the Legacy of Loss.

Anderson, Emily Hodgson. <i>Shakespeare and the Legacy of Loss</i>.

British Art for Australia, 1860-1953: The Acquisition of Artworks from the United Kingdom by Australian National Galleries, by Matthew C. Potter

Reviewed by: British Art for Australia, 1860–1953: The Acquisition of Artworks from the United Kingdom by Australian National Galleries by Matthew C. Potter Sarah Scott (bio) British Art for Australia, 1860–1953: The Acquisition of Artworks from the United Kingdom by Australian National Galleries, by Matthew C. Potter; pp. x + 254. London and New York: Routledge, 2019, £120.00, $160.00. British Art for Australia, 1860–1953: The Acquisition of Artworks from the United Kingdom by Australian National Galleries by Matthew C. Potter provides a detailed study into the acquisitions of the Australian national galleries in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Adelaide, an area of study that has not previously been covered in any detail. In so doing it gives insight into British-Australian relations more broadly and challenges the assumption that "British art was forced on Australia as cast offs" (227). Instead, Potter suggests that the acquisition of works required "complex transcultural negotiations" that led to "the Australian colonists freely taking inspiration from U. K. examples in order to establish their own identities" (42). British models were central not only to the shape of the collections but also to the establishment of governing structures and the architectural and curatorial approaches of the national galleries themselves. Potter identifies when and how the national galleries were established and gives a brief history of the relevant bequests to the galleries, looking into how these shaped the opportunities available to, and the collections formed by, these institutions. The book is divided into two sections. In the first part, Potter looks at "structural and contextual themes" and examines how British values were reflected in the acquisitions of works for the national galleries, in addition to the impact and constraints of the global market on the purchase of British artworks for Australia (10). The book is most engaging when it pursues the ideologies behind the purchases of pictures for the national galleries. [End Page 277] For this reason, I found the second thematic part of the book more interesting than the first. Here Potter examines the acquisitions of British Old Masters and landscape painting, Pre-Raphaelite art, and British modernism by the national galleries. The dominance of British art within the collections, Potter suggests, was not so much due to a desire by British advisors and buyers to "dump" second rate art on the dominions but because Australians saw themselves as British-Australians (5). As British immigrants or first generation Australians, the population still had a strong sentimental attachment to Britain, even if this diminished over the course of the time under investigation in this volume. Many of the works acquired, such as the first Pre-Raphaelite work to enter an Australian collection, Chaucer at the Court of Edward III (1847–51) by Ford Maddox Brown, were seen to be of educational value, illustrating in this case "the birth of the English language in the person of Chaucer" (176). Civic humanism was also an ideology that supported the acquisition of British art. Gallery acquisitions of British art reflected changing attitudes toward what it meant to be British and the nature of Britishness. The debates surrounding identity came to the fore around the attempted acquisition of works like Christ in the House of His Parents (1849–50) by John Everett Millais. Frank Rinder, the selector for the Felton Bequest, was particularly influential given that the Bequest of £378,033 to the National Gallery of Victoria allowed the gallery to purchase works of art that were not within the budget of other, less wealthy Australian galleries. He argued that British paintings such as Christ in the House of his Parents would be capable of promoting a "spiritual entente" between the center and the Antipodes of the Empire (186). Rinder also argued that Australians' sacrifices during the First World War made Australia eligible for the picture. Ultimately, though, the National Art Collections Fund and the Tate Gallery opposed the NGV's attempts to acquire the picture. The war poet Siegfried Sassoon and other celebrities supported this stance, with Sassoon arguing, "It would indeed be a great pity if the picture were allowed to go out of England" (qtd. in Potter 187). The volume summarizes an enormous amount...

Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery: A Lost Opportunity for the UK's Protection of Physical Privacy

The inadequacies of English common and statutory law have left a noticeable gap in the UK's protection of physical privacy. Mann J's 2019 decision in Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery helped fill this gap as it acknowledged that overlooking between neighbours could constitute an actionable nuisance. A year later, the Court of Appeal reversed this development and reaffirmed that private nuisance cannot be used to combat breaches of privacy. This article evaluates the extent to which the High Court decision in Fearn was a useful and desirable tool for defending physical privacy in order to assess the correctness of the appellate decision. The article contends that Mann J's extension was a justified development as it conformed with precedent, the scheme and principles of private nuisance, the text and horizontal effect of art 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, cases decided in the European Court of Human Rights, and broader policy. However, the article acknowledges that Fearn was also a problematic development with limited potential as a protection mechanism. Its limitations arose from the conflict between traditional understandings of the right to privacy and nuisance's association with property, the land-based rationale for compensation in nuisance, the standing restrictions retained from Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd, irregularities with the common law's favourable attitude towards children's privacy, and Fearn's similarities to anti-harassment legislation. Overall, the article concludes that although Fearn was imperfect in its treatment of physical privacy, it was a step in the right direction and contributed at least partially to filling the persistent lacuna in English privacy law.

Sir Rex Edward Richards. 28 October 1922—15 July 2019

Rex Richards was renowned for his research in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Very early on, in the late 1940s, when NMR was in the domain of physicists, he foresaw that the technique might play an important role in chemistry. He embarked on a highly successful research career in which he combined the design and development of new NMR spectrometers with novel applications, initially in chemistry and subsequently in the biological sciences. One major outcome was the establishment of the Oxford Enzyme Group's NMR research programme. Another was the development of 31 P NMR spectroscopy as a non-invasive method of probing the biochemistry of intact biological tissue. Rex was an outstanding teacher and mentor. He also had highly impressive administrative skills, as recognized through successive appointments at the University of Oxford as head of the Physical Chemistry Department, then warden of Merton College and finally vice-chancellor. He was subsequently appointed director of the Leverhulme Trust and became widely respected in the arts world, as reflected by his remarkable array of committee memberships at the National and Tate Galleries.

Fearn v Tate Galleries: Privacy and the law of nuisance

This note considers the decision of the Court of Appeal in Fearn v Tate Galleries. It considers the Court’s decision specifically with regards to whether the law of private nuisance discloses an action in pure overlooking cases. It argues that as a matter of historical precedent, the Court of Appeal is correct in assessing that the weight of authority argues against such an action. It then analyses how the Court of Appeal’s reasoning can be viewed from the lens of understandings of property and ownership, and as part of the discussion of the interaction between planning and private law.

Contributors

Contributors

Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery: A Lost Opportunity for the UK's Protection of Physical Privacy?

The inadequacies of English common and statutory law have left a noticeable gap in the UK's protection of physical privacy. Mann J's decision in Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery helped fill this gap as it acknowledged that overlooking between neighbours could constitute an actionable nuisance. However, the Court of Appeal reversed this development, reaffirming that private nuisance cannot be used to combat breaches of privacy. This paper evaluates the extent to which the High Court decision in Fearn was a useful and desirable tool for defending physical privacy, so as to assess the correctness of the appellate decision. It contends that Mann J's extension was a justified development as it conformed with precedent, the scheme and principles of private nuisance, the text and horizontal effect of art 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, case law in the European Court of Human Rights and broader policy. However, the paper acknowledges that Fearn was also a problematic development with limited potential as a protection mechanism. This is due to the conflict between traditional understandings of the right to privacy and nuisance's association with property, the land-based rationale for compensation in nuisance, the standing restrictions retained from Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd, irregularities with the common law's favourable attitude towards children's privacy, and Fearn's similarities to anti-harassment legislation. Overall, the paper concludes that although Fearn was not perfect in its treatment of physical privacy, it was a step in the right direction and contributed at least partially to filling the persistent lacuna in English privacy law.

A Participatory Social A/r/tography: Bodies and Houses Metamorphosing from Schools in Tegucigalpa to a Liverpool Tate Exchange Event

AbstractSocial a/r/tography combines three dimensions of a/r/tography (artistic creation, education and research) incorporating a fourth collaborative, participatory community‐based approach. This ongoing project began in two primary and secondary schools located in the slums of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as cooperative action for curricular development in art education. As participatory action, students created a mural drawing inspired by Sol Lewitt's wall drawings, as well as photo pairs on the theme of body and nature inspired by a lithograph by Uta Barth. The drawings and photographs created by the students in Honduras were presented at an event in the Exchange space of the Tate gallery in Liverpool as visual provocation for the creation of drawings and visual metaphors. The concept of visual dialogue, which we define as ‘to teach human beings to have visual conversations with other humans through the visual content of images’, helps us to consider images as questions which are answered with new images whose meaning is subsequently transformed in function of artistic, school and social contexts.

Sensitivity in the law of nuisance: Should people in glass houses expect voyeurs? Fearn v Tate Gallery [2019] EWHC 246 (Ch)

The case Fearn v Tate Gallery involved claims brought by luxury London flat owners for breach of privacy in relation to the Tate Modern’s nearby viewing platform. One of the key issues in the case, heard by Mann J in the High Court, was whether the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the flats – through which members of the public on the viewing platform could easily gaze – meant the residents were unduly sensitive users of the land for the purposes of the tort of nuisance. This case note considers this question along with the principle in nuisance that it is normally no defence to say that the claimant came to the nuisance. Both sensitivity and the coming to the nuisance (non-) defence are important elements of nuisance as an environmental tort and hence the case is worthy of note for environmental lawyers.

Charles I. King and collector

Wherever this catalogue finds a shelf-place beside Oliver Millar’s The Age of Charles I (Tate Gallery, 1972), the comparison will prompt reflection on how vastly budgets for major art exhibition catalogues, as for the exhibitions themselves, have grown in the years between these publications. Charles I. King and collector benefits from more ambitious design, more (and more accurate) colour, and larger dimensions. The satin paper on which much of the volume is printed is so thick that fingers feel for pages that might be stuck together. Extravagance, even that encouraged by a major City sponsor, tends to have a limit, and in this catalogue, it is reached at page 233. Here, somewhat alarmingly (as there are only a further 38 pages), the catalogue proper begins. This is set in 8 point and printed on cream matte paper, as are the endnotes, bibliography and index. Next to each entry sits a thumbnail image; helpful, as large reproductions of all except three of the 140 exhibits are to be found in the earlier sections of the book. There, almost lost amid the plentiful images – those of the exhibits being supplemented by a further fifty-five works not lent to this exhibition – lie the essays.

Blake in Exhibition and on Display, 1904–2014

This article comments on the record of exhibition and display of Blake’s works in Britain from 1904 to 1914. It provides two check-lists: one of Blake loan exhibitions held in the UK over that period, the other a record of Blake’s presence on display at the national collection of British art, the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) in London. These records suggest the possibility of an as-yet-unwritten account of Blake’s reception history in the twentieth century, based on physical encounter with the works as well as the record of textual commentary.