In an Australian exclusive, over 70 works of art from Tate are coming to ACMI in a major exhibition. Journey through 200 years of art history, involving painting, photography, sculpture, drawing, kinetic art, installation and the moving image. Curated by Tate, this exhibition, Light: Works from Tate’s Collection, will premiere on June 16, and last until November 13.
Light: Works from Tate’s Collection
This exhibition at ACMI explores the theme of light. It will celebrate ground-breaking moments and explore the ways that artists captured or harnessed light in their work over the past 200 years.
Featured artists include the radical “painter of light” J.M.W Turner, whose 1805 painting The Deluge will be seen in Australia for the first time. There will also be paintings by John Constable, Wassily Kandinsky, Bridget Riley and Joseph Albers. The Impressionist painters will also make an appearance, so that you can see works by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley.
Then, see the work of contemporary artists, like Olafur Eliasson and his rotating crystalline sculpture Stardust Particle. Yayoi Kusama’s The Passing Winter will reflect the viewer in its kaleidoscopic vision, and James Turrell’s Raemar, Blue will envelope the viewer in infinite and immersive light. Finally, Tacita Dean’s 16mm film Lost at Sea will transfix the viewer with the materiality of light projected through a celluloid.
“This is a rare opportunity to experience the expansive collection of one of Britain’s most famous cultural institutions right here in Melbourne,” said ACMI Director and CEO Katrina Sedgwick. “Through its exploration of light as both a subject and a medium, this extraordinary exhibition enables our visitors to explore surprising and enlightening interconnections across time and artform.”
Originally curated for the Museum of Art, Pudong in Shanghai, this exhibition is coming straight to ACMI from Buk-Seoul Museum of Art in Korea. Light: Works from Tate’s Collection will take place in ACMI’s Gallery 4 as a ticketed event.
Other exhibits at ACMI
Light will be flanked by two free exhibits that will complement the theme. A major new commission by Australian artist Mikala Dwyer will be displayed in ACMI’s lightwell. This will feature a cluster of transparent, plastic forms, that will be suspended high above the ground. This work will explore materiality, open-ended narratives and the play of light.
Meanwhile, Gallery 3 will feature another work from the Tate Collection. Light Music, an innovative 1975 film by Lis Rhodes. In this cinematic piece, audience members become both participants and spectators, in a work that reveals the experimental interrelationship of light and the moving image.
During the season, there will also be a program of talks, film screenings, performances, workshops and late-night events at ACMI. This will explore the ideas put forward by the Light exhibition, and include masterclasses with leading cinematographers, artist talks and more.
“Tate and ACMI hold a shared purpose to make art both accessible and relevant to diverse and growing audiences,” said Neil McConnon, Director of International Partnerships at Tate. “It is with great anticipation that we see the exhibition Light, which includes many of Tate’s most prized artworks from the breadth of the collection, travel to Melbourne to be explored by a new generation of visitors in another part of the world.”
Key info:
When: June 16 to November 13
Where: ACMI in Federation Square.
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday, 12pm to 5pm.
Weekends and school holidays: 10am to 6pm.