Light from Tate: 1700s to Now

Curated from the collections of Tate, UK, Light from Tate: 1700s to Now features nearly 100 artworks by celebrated artists across the globe from the 18th century to the present day. Light from Tate: 1700s to Now tells the story of how light has captivated artists over time and across different media including painting, photography, sculpture, installation, drawing and moving image. The exhibition features the historical paintings of visionary artists JMW Turner and John Constable, the impressionistic brushstrokes of Claude Monet, the bursts of sensorial colour painted by Wassily Kandinsky, Bridget Riley and Josef Albers, and the pioneering experimental photographs of the 1920s. These incredible works are presented alongside mesmerising installations that include Olafur Eliasson’s crystalline sphere Stardust Particle, 2014, James Turrell’s space-melting Raemar, Blue, 1969 and Lis Rhodes’ immersive Light Music, 1975. Other well-known artists in the exhibition are Vilhelm Hammershøi, Dan Flavin, Liliane Lijn, Tacita Dean, Pae White and many more. Please note, this exhibition creates immersive and multi-sensory experiences that include darkened rooms, neon light works, simulated smoke and more. If you would like more information, please email [email protected]. Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue edited by Kerryn Greenberg, former Head of International Collection Exhibitions at Tate with a foreword by Gallery Director Kirsten Lacy. Showcasing artworks from the past 200 years, the book Light from Tate: 1700s to Now reveals how the intangibility of light continues to fascinate. Replete with full-colour illustrations and illuminating texts, the book explores how artists in Tate’s collection have perceived, pictured and utilised light and captured its transcendent effects in painting, photography and sculpture over the last 300 years. Light from Tate: 1700s to Now is presented in collaboration with Tate and is proudly supported by HSBC, AUT, British Council New Zealand and the Pacific, and Auckland Art Gallery Foundation. The exhibition is indemnified by the New Zealand Government. Light from Tate: 1700s to Now is presented in association with Auckland Arts Festival 2023.