Kids React to Art - Cildo Meireles's Babel | Tate #kidsreact #funnyvideo

📻 We asked kids to react to Cildo Meireles's Babel, one of 25 artworks celebrating Tate Modern's 25th birthday, and this is what they said...




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How do artists imagine the world in 2050?| Tate

A Year in Art: 2050 is a two-room exhibition at Tate Modern exploring how visions of the future have taken shape in art across time. It brings together historic works by figures like Umberto Boccioni with contemporary voices including Ayoung Kim and Andra Ursuţa and Toyin Ojih Odutola. From shifting cityscapes to speculative technologies, the exhibition invites us to reflect on the future we’re moving toward and how artists help us reimagine and think about what comes next. Take a closer look inside the exhibition with Michael Wellen, Senior Curator of International Art at Tate. If you enjoyed this video, you might like these: 🤖 5 Times Artist Nam June Paik Predicted the Future: https://youtu.be/yMUJB5aFvdo 💻 'I'm painting in the technology of my time' – Samia Halaby: https://youtu.be/SdrYqKOBe5E 🌍 Can art save the world from environmental catastrophe?: https://youtu.be/lQwrCxkMnPM Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl To license Tate films please email film.licensing@tate.org.uk




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Zarina Bhimji on becoming an artist 📸 | Tate #photography #art #contemporaryart

"I remember my foster mother saying that you might not be able to go to university, but you could do something with your hands. And I thought, wow! So I believed in that." 📸 Photographer Zarina Bhimji invites us into her London studio and describes her journey to becoming an artist. 👀 Watch the full film from 2019 here: https://ift.tt/AL93zFH




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Fernando Palma Rodríguez on why we must humanise technology | Tate #art #contemporaryart

"If it does not have a commitment to the environment, to what we are causing, then art has no social function." Watch the full film about Nahua artist Fernando Palma Rodríguez on our channel: https://youtu.be/-hlw0aL_OGM?si=1cfcYJ-qO6qLj1f1




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Dadaism

Dadaism, also known simply as Dada, emerged in the early 20th century as a radical and provocative artistic movement that sought to challenge conventional notions of art, society, and culture. Born out of the disillusionment caused by the horrors of the First World War, Dada took root in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1916 at the Cabaret Voltaire, a gathering place for artists, poets, and thinkers. Its founders, including Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara, and Hans Arp, rejected the rationalism and nationalism they believed had led to war, instead embracing chaos, irrationality, and the absurd.

Central to Dadaism was a spirit of rebellion and experimentation. Dada artists employed unorthodox methods and media, incorporating collage, photomontage, ready-made objects, and sound poetry to disrupt traditional aesthetics and question the boundaries of artistic expression. Works were often intentionally nonsensical or provocative, aimed at jolting audiences out of complacency. This anti-art stance was not merely nihilistic but deeply political, seeking to undermine the seriousness and elitism of the art establishment and to expose the contradictions of modern society.

Though Dada was short-lived, dissolving by the early 1920s, its impact was far-reaching. It paved the way for later avant-garde movements such as Surrealism and influenced generations of artists, from conceptualists to performance artists. More than a style or technique, Dada was a statement—a defiant cry against a world perceived as senseless and corrupt. Its legacy endures in the continued questioning of authority, meaning, and value in art and culture.

Please click here to read more about Dada.

Painting trees 🌲🌳 : a silly thing to do? | Tate #art #contemporaryart

British painter George Shaw on 'humble' picture-making and the universal appeal of drawing. Watch the full film: https://youtu.be/tsKunA_23f0?si=YSu7N0cXMz_PYZAc Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl To license Tate films please email film.licensing@tate.org.uk




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Portrait of the artist on fire 🔥 Meet Liliane Lijn | Tate #art #contemporaryart

Liliane Lijn is the American artist who pioneered the use of technology to make moving art. In the early 1960s, Liliane Lijn’s kinetic sculptures placed her at the forefront of artists exploring new ways of using technology to "see the world in terms of light and energy." Over a six-decade career, her work has continued to blaze a trail while defying categorisation. See her work in our new exhibition at Tate St Ives, Liliane Lijn: Arise Alive: https://ift.tt/enucoS4




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The Guerrilla Girls and The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist | Tate

#photography #activistart




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Kids React to Art: Dalí’s Lobster Telephone | Tate

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'These are portraits of a country' – George Shaw | Tate

Get to know British painter George Shaw, whose evocative landscapes are shaped not by imagination, but by memory. In this personal film, Shaw reflects on growing up in suburban England and the quiet drama of everyday life. Best known for his meticulous enamel paintings of housing estates, garages, and woods, he also discusses his evolving relationship with materials, from pencils to watercolours, and what it means to record the passage of time through art. Shaw speaks candidly about drawing inspiration from the place he knows best. His work captures not only the physical traces of post-war Britain, but also the emotional landscape of youth, suggesting a deep connection to the place and the memories it evokes. Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl To license Tate films please email film.licensing@tate.org.uk




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How Tove Jansson used her Moomins comic strip to humorously critique the financial and creative pressures of being an artist

Elina Druker, Stockholm University

In 1954, the Finnish artist Tove Jansson was commissioned by the Evening News in London to draw comic strips about the Moomintrolls. The strip was syndicated by hundreds of newspapers, introducing the Moomins to an international audience and marking a dramatic turning point in her career.

Between 1954 and 1959, Tove Jansson drew 21 comics, some in collaboration with her brother Lars Jansson, who continued to draw the comic strip until 1975.

The success of the Moomin in the Evening News brought Tove Jansson economic security and helped her with the mortgage of her studio in Helsinki. However, over time, the assignment also became a burden on her creative work – a time-consuming and demanding obligation.

Perhaps because of this personal conflict, the comics often explore themes such as the struggle of artistic creation, the role of the artist and the value of art. Jansson had previously created humorous and satirical commentaries on the art world in various artists’ magazines in Finland, but here she places the Moomin at the heart of the creative process.

Unlike the novels and picture books, the Moomin comic strips were created for adults and can be described as satire. Jansson uses the compact format to comment on society, including the art world. The growing conflict in her own life, between the Moomintrolls and her artwork, is brought into focus in the comic strips.

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This is part of a series of articles celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Moomins. Want to celebrate their birthday with us? Join The Conversation and a group of experts on May 23 in Bradford for a screening of Moomins on the Riviera and a discussion of the refugee experience in Tove Jansson’s work. Click here for more information and tickets.

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The theme of the purpose of art and artistic creation is playfully introduced in one of the first comic strips, Moomin and the Brigands. Here Moomin and his friend Sniff embark on a quest for fortune. They engage in several schemes, including capturing rare creatures and selling them to the zoo, marketing magic rejuvenation potions and creating modern art.

While visiting a Hemulen (a really uptight counterpart to the Moomintrolls who love rules), Moomin and Sniff accidentally break several precious items in her home. Among the broken objects is a large statue of Rebecca at the Well, which falls from its pedestal and shatters. Rebecca at the Well is a classic biblical motif, which is often portrays a model of feminine virtue, symbolising divine guidance and exemplifying ideals of hospitality and moral character.

The friends awkwardly attempt to reassemble the statue by gluing it together. The result is a strangely angular and expressive piece of art, referencing fragmented cubist portraits. Cubism, which emerged around 1907 to 1908, aimed to represent reality in a radically new way by bringing together subjects and figures, resulting in objects that appear fragmented and abstracted.

Sniff immediately sees the potential of the new Rebecca. “She’s more modern now,” he exclaims joyfully. The friends carry the statue to an enthusiastic art dealer who sells it for £500 in his gallery.

The episode with the deconstructed Rebecca is, of course, a funny caricature of the trend-sensitive art market. But the shattered statue with its intricate shapes was also a commentary on the debates about the “incomprehensible” and “obscure” nature of modernist art in Nordic countries during the time.

The destruction of the Rebecca can also be seen as an act of iconoclasm – the breaking of icons or monuments – or rather, a parody of it. While usually associated with vandalism, here, the iconoclastic act leads to the creation of something new. This expresses a desire for renewal and a liberation from restrictive conventions. It is, however, worth noting that Rebecca retains her symbol of virtue – the water jug – even after this pivotal encounter.

Drawing on the work of French philosopher and anthropologist Bruno Latour, iconoclasm can be understood as both destructive and constructive – an ambiguity that also applies to Jansson’s interpretation of the motif.

Later in the story, the money offered by the modernist Rebecca lures Moomin to the field of the arts. For a brief moment, he assumes the role of a painter and wholeheartedly embodies the romanticised ideal of the poor, misunderstood artist.

Moomin dons a Rembrandtian black velvet beret, but despite this, appears lost and bewildered in his new role, muttering: “I only want to live in peace and plant potatoes and dream!”

In a scene of self-parodying metafiction, he is blinded by his oversized beret and ends up tumbling down a cliff, abruptly ending his artistic career.

Tove Jansson’s Moomin comic strips for the Evening News use satire to explore artistic creation, the role of the artist, and the art world.

Through Moomintroll’s and Sniff’s pursuit of fame and fortune via the accidental modernist deconstruction of Rebecca, Jansson satirises romantic notions of the artist, the commercialisation of art and the professions surrounding artistic production. These themes are deeply connected to Jansson’s own experiences as an artist and author, constantly balancing between various professional and artistic demands, between children’s books, public obligations and painting.

Elina Druker, Professor in Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.