The_Art_Newspaper_-_November_2016

Mikhailov, Red (1968-75)]. We plan to

continue in this way, focusing on depth

and texture. The Museum of Modern Art

in New York began integrating its pho-

tographic collection in the same way,

which shows that our approach is a good

one,” Baker says.

The Tate has nonetheless played

catch-up in building up its photogra-

phy collection; it now has at least 5,000

photographic works. “In the past seven

years, we’ve built up a definitive collec-

tion of post-war Japanese photography.

Last year, there were photography shows

across all four Tate museums [including

Nick Waplington/Alexander McQueen:

Working Process at Tate Britain].” The

aim is to show a full retrospective by a

living photographer at Tate Britain, as

“this would send out a really important

message. I expect it to happen very soon.”

Baker says that the Tate is collecting

broadly in a “research-led way”, looking

in depth at Eastern Europe. “There are

some incredible works from Poland

dating from the 1960 and 1970s. We are

also focusing on South-East Asia and

Latin America,” Baker says.

He insists, though, that he will not

duplicate major UK photography col-

lections such as the Victoria and Albert

Museum and the National Portrait Gallery

in London, or even European collections

such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris. “I

think it’s interesting that curators at insti-

tutions in New York might be acquiring

the same things. We have to be sensible

regarding what we acquire,” Baker adds.

Acquiring major works is, however,

always a headache for cash-strapped

public institutions. Baker admits that the

market is challenging in certain areas.

“Updating our Cindy Sherman holdings

would, for instance, pose a significant

challenge,” he says.

According to the Tate annual report

for 2015/16, the photography acquisitions

committee, comprising key patrons and

philanthropists, helped acquire a group

of images by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen of

Finland and five works by the UK artist

John Hilliard. The film producer Michael

Wilson and the London-based collector

Jack Kirkland are among the members of

the photography acquisitions committee.

“We cannot specify the budget for

photography acquisitions but can say

that, in the past five years, we have made

major acquisitions way beyond what

we expected through not only the pho-

tography [acquisition] committee, but

also through the other Tate acquisition

committees, such as the Latin American

committee,” Baker says.

“We’ve had to really think about

how we collect, which is why we have

built strong relationships with collec-

tors,” he adds; in 2012, Eric and Louise

Franck donated 1,400, mainly 20th-cen-

tury works by photographers such as Bill

Brandt. “These kinds of gifts are playing

a huge role.”

Gareth Harris

4 THE ART NEWSPAPER SECTION 2 Number 284, November 2016

SPECIAL REPORT

PHOTOGRAPHY

Tate makes up for lost time

ACQUISITIONS

London. Since Simon Baker joined

the Tate in 2009 as the first curator

of photography, the gallery has over-

hauled how it collects and presents

photographic works, addressing what

he describes as “one giant gap” in the

national collection of Modern and con-

temporary art. The Tate established a

photography acquisition committee

the following year to help build strong

relationships with leading collectors,

which is paying of with important gifts

and loans. In November more than 150

loans from Elton John’s collection go on

show in The Radical Eye (10 November-7

May 2017) at Tate Modern: a coup for its

curators of photography. Discussions

are ongoing with the musician and his

husband David Furnish about making

some, as yet unspecified, key pieces from

their collection available to the British

public on a more permanent basis.

“The strategy has been to collect

broadly and in-depth,” Baker says. “The

plan involves fitting the photography

collection into the broader collection

of art, rather than establishing a sepa-

rate photography department. This has

proved very successful: walk around

Tate Modern and you can see photos

everywhere. They’re now embedded in

the collection.” Photography is now on

a par with other media at the Tate, he

adds, which should please purists. “More

than ten years ago, you’d see a work by

Andreas Gursky going up the escalators

at Tate Modern. That has all changed;

photography is no longer outside the gal-

leries.” There were photographic prints

in the recent Georgia O’Keeffe show

(closed 30 October), for instance.

“Photographic works also feature in

the Living Cities display in the Switch

House extension [including Boris

Over the past 20 years, the London dealer

James Hyman and his wife Claire have assem-

bled a private collection of more than 3,000

images by European and US photographers

spanning the entire history of the medium.

They are also the most active buyers of

British photography in the world and are in

the process of putting their British collection

online at britishphotography.org. Hyman

is considering the future of their British

photography collection and is in talks with

museums to donate the extraordinary cache.

The Art Newspaper: Why did you launch

the website?

James Hyman: Some of the best photogra-

phy today is being done in this country but

it is not being supported as much as it could

be by British institutions or private collectors.

When I take part in fairs such as Paris

Photo or AIPAD in New York, I sell a lot of

British photography to American museums;

curators there recognise the quality and

appreciate that the work is, from a global

perspective, underpriced. So I sell far more

British photography to museums around the

world than to any institution in this country

because curators here aren’t so engaged with

the work. The website is part of our attempt

to spread the word internationally and to

make a private collection more public.

The UK has always lagged behind the rest

of the world in the appreciation of pho-

tography. Is the situation improving?

What we lack here is someone promoting

our own photographers at an institutional

level. Simon Baker is the curator of interna-

tional photography at Tate Modern and he’s

very interested in developments in Japan.

That’s ine but what I’ve been campaigning

for is a senior curator of British photography

at Tate Britain.

Tate has two hurdles in trying to build its

photography collection. The irst is: do they

have the funding for a senior curator of Brit-

ish photography? It’s not enough to simply

give the job to an existing Tate curator with

little knowledge of photography. Secondly,

the institutional view of photography has

been iltered through the lens of conceptual

art. So it’s ine if you’re Richard Long or

Gilbert & George, who are seen as artists

using photography. But when it comes to

great British photographers such as Bill

Brandt, Bert Hardy, Roger Mayne, Tony

Ray-Jones or a host of wonderful contem-

porary photographers, Tate has never really

understood the work. This aects their col-

lecting, especially of historic photographs.

They have bought too many works that

were printed later and not enough original

vintage prints. They have focused too much

on the image, not the historical object.

If Tate Britain were to hire a photography

curator, would you consider giving your

collection to them?

It’s complicated. I’ve had a number of

conversations with [departing Tate director]

Nicholas Serota. He is personally engaged

but he explained that his senior colleagues

are not interested. With a new head of Tate

Britain, Alex Farquharson, and Serota’s own

imminent departure, it will be interesting

to see if things change. Also, I think that if

you donate to them, they do not respect

the work as much as if they’ve had to buy

it. My gallery represents a fantastic painter,

Michael Andrews of the School of London.

When he died, his archive was donated to

Tate. They’ve had it for 16 years but they’ve

still not catalogued it. Their funding priorities

are such that they don’t seem to be able to

catalogue what they already have.

Tragically, the institutions in this country

are in demise. The Library of Birmingham has

ired key curators looking after its acclaimed

photography department and severely

curtailed access to it. The National Media Mu-

seum in Bradford is transferring over 300,000

photographs to the V&A and the space it

opened at the Science Museum in London in

2013 is rumoured to be closing after it com-

pletes its planned exhibition schedule. [The

Science Museum says: “there is no question of

the Media Space gallery closing, however we

haven’t yet made irm decisions on what will

be programmed there in 2018 and beyond.”]

They have good curators at the V&A but the

photography department there is small and

badly funded, and they don’t even have the

money to catalogue what they’ve already got.

[The V&A says it has catalogued 90% of its

photography collection and that these records

are available on its online database.]

Also, I believe in a global culture, so I

would rather my collection stayed intact and

went somewhere abroad. It’s going to be

a commitment for a museum; we’re more

active collectors of British photography than

any public institution in the world. We buy

100 or 150 works at a time—entire exhibitions

such as recent touring shows of the work

of Anna Fox and Daniel Meadows. I would

love for this work to be seen abroad and for

our collection to become a way to promote

British photography internationally.

Interview by Cristina Ruiz KERTÉSZ: THE SIR ELTON JOHN PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION; © ESTATE OF ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ; COURTESY OF BRUCE SILVERSTEIN GALLERY, NEW YORK. HYMANS: © ADRIAN POPE

ELTON JOHN’S EYE FOR

MODERNIST PHOTOGRAPHY

“The Tate has never organised an exhibition

focusing exclusively on early 20th-century

photography,” says Shoair Mavlian, an assis-

tant curator at Tate Modern and co-curator

of The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography

from the Sir Elton John Collection (10 No-

vember-7 May 2017).

“The show features more than 70 artists,

ranging from well-known names such as Man

Ray to lesser known igures such as the US

photographer Margaret de Patta,” Mavlian

says. The timeframe of the exhibition runs

from around 1920 to 1950, with thematic

sections focusing on areas such as portraiture,

still-life and experiments. The exhibition also

highlights innovations such as photomontage

and double exposure.

The show includes mainly vintage prints.

“But in some cases, these are the irst known

print made by the photographer, such as André

Kertész’s Underwater Swimmer (1917), which is

the original contact print,” Mavlian says.

John told Tate Etc. magazine that

Kertész’s photograph “blew me away”. When

he saw the image and photographs by Man

Ray and Edward Quigley, John learned that

“these artists were able to do things that I

thought only a painter could do.” G.H.

Why a collection of British photography is probably going abroad

“The plan involves

itting the photography

collection into the broader

collection of art”

Lack of support from UK institutions could mean that James and Claire Hyman donate vast collection elsewhere

With help from Elton

John and other collectors,

photography is coming in

from the cold

André Kertész’s Underwater Swimmer

(1917) is in Elton John’s collection

James and Claire Hyman have a private

collection of 3,000 images