This solo exhibition devoted to the work of acclaimed artist Tacita Dean, which is presented across the two galleries on the upper floor of the museum, is formed around two recent projects: a trilogy of works designed for The Dante Project (2021), a ballet inspired by The Divine Comedy, and One Hundred and Fifty Years of Painting (2021), a 16mm filmed conversation between the artists Luchita Hurtado and Julie Mehretu.
Since the early 1990s, Tacita Dean (b. 1965, Canterbury) has developed a singular body of work using multiple mediums, like film, photography and sound; drawing, printmaking and collage. Encompassing a diverse array of subjects, her work is characterised by a careful observation of time, a keen attention to history and a love of the fine details in life. Dean also welcomes chance as one of her guiding principles. A great believer in the non-deliberate act, Dean sometimes allows contingency, circumstance and accident to dictate the final outcome of a work. Since 2011, the artist’s work has also had to deal with digital imaging eclipsing photochemical film and photography, a topic she has written and spoken about at length, describing an exponential accumulation of images: ‘A world that does not forget is a world that is drowning in its inability to forget.’
Curators: Suzanne Cotter and Christophe Gallois, assisted by Clémentine Proby
Biography
Tacita Dean (b. 1965, Canterbury) has recently held solo exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2021); EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland (2020); Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark (2019); Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal (2019); and Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2018). In 2018, she had three simultaneous exhibitions in London entitled LANDSCAPE, PORTRAIT and STILL LIFE at the Royal Academy of Arts, the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, respectively. In 2011, she made FILM, as part of the Unilever Series at Tate Modern, which marked the beginning of her campaign to protect and preserve photochemical film. In October 2021, a new ballet based on Dante’s Divine Comedy entitled The Dante Project premiered at the Royal Opera House in London with Royal Ballet’s resident choreographer Wayne McGregor (b. 1970, Stockport), conductor-composer Thomas Adès (b. 1971, London) and with sets and costumes designed by Dean. In 2014–15, she was the Artist in Residence at the Getty Research Institute. She lives and works in both Berlin and Los Angeles.
