Tate is under fire from an artists’ collective, Industria, which says the gallery is failing the public and argues in an open letter that it “censored” Jade Montserrat.
The artist was due to take part in the A Year of Love show which had been scheduled for Tate Exchange over 2020-21.
Curatorial group A Rumour of Waves pulled out of the show last month, claiming Montserrat had been “blocked” from taking part after raising “a series of ethical concerns about Tate’s corporate donorship”.
Industria’s open letter, which has over 1,800 signatories, demands a public apology from Tate to Montserrat and a review of how Tate Exchange works. Tate has been caught up in another row this week following the suspension of its curator Mark Godfrey, who called the gallery’s decision to postpone a show of Philip Guston’s work “extremely patronising” to viewers.
Now Industria tells The Londoner: “We hope when these two events are looked at side by side, constituents of the ‘art world’ will realise this is part of an ongoing pattern of ethical failings within Tate.”
A Tate spokesman said: “Tate has always championed art and artists and we are committed to presenting a truly diverse programme at all our galleries”.
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Nigella LAWSON has a lot of cookbooks. “More than I have access to,” she told a Fane event last night for the launch of her new book, Cook, Eat, Repeat. “I can’t fit them all into my house, but yet I can’t bear to get rid of them. That is a useless collection, books you don’t have access to.” Not surprising if, like Lawson, you own a cool 6,000.
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BEN WHISHAW says though he’s a twin, musician PJ Harvey is “like my other twin somehow. My troll twin”. Theatre director Ian Rickson tells Whishaw on his podcast he sees the similarity between them: “very sensitive but strong with a very similar love of tenderness, but darkness”. Rickson says the two are a pair of “wood trolls”. Phew, better than the online kind.
Stars keep far, far away at Star Wars spin-off party
Neelam Gill and fellow model Leomie Anderson were in high spirits last night at the launch of the second series of Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian at a Covent Garden pop-up gallery. Hand sanitiser, checking in with the NHS QR code, a socially distanced red carpet and a 30-minute time slot meant it was not quite business as usual, however. Still, Anderson, with a mullet-style hairdo, enjoyed herself with Nick Grimshaw and Meshach Henry among art curated in collaboration with The National Portrait Gallery.
SW1A
Derbyshire MPs were being told yesterday about their constituencies going into Tier 2 when the virtual meeting cut out. The Department of Health was on a free Zoom account, and the session ended after 40 minutes. “There seemed a bitter irony that a department that squandered £12 billion on a tarted-up spreadsheet wasn’t willing to invest £15 for a Zoom upgrade,” MP Toby Perkins told The Londoner, adding “but it’s typical of the amateurish way they seem to run things”. Ouch.
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Earlier this week a left wing attack ad on Rishi Sunak caused a stir online. Now Adam McNicholas, the man behind One Rule For Them, who produced it, tells the Londoner “the reaction of the Tory establishment shows we have touched a nerve with this video. They can certainly expect to see plenty more from us."
