It’s just dawned on me that we begin installing Gauguin: Maker of Myth in precisely four weeks time. I know, I know, it should be obvious, right? The exhibition opens on 30 September, after all. But even though I’ve worked on many exhibitions at Tate, there’s always a moment when the penny finally drops, and you realise that the project – many years in the making – is actually going to happen.
In the next month or so, shipments of art from around the world, from Chicago to Hong Kong (and many places in between), will start arriving at the gallery. We’ve got about 150 works of art in the exhibition, 63 paintings, 18 sculptures, carvings and ceramics, 69 letters, watercolours, drawings and prints, one paint box, one walking cane and, of course, a pair of clogs.
And then there’s all the documentary material in the ‘life and times’ gallery, including photographs of many of the places that Gauguin visited and important events during his lifetime, my favourite being the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris for which the world-famous Eiffel Tower was built.
Have you ever wondered how an exhibition comes together? To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure I ever gave it much thought before I started working in museums and art galleries. And even now the whole thing seems to me to be nothing short of a miracle. Over the next few weeks I’ll introduce some of the key characters in exhibition making, a ‘who’s who’ of who does what and why…beginning with that most elusive and mysterious of creatures…’the curator’…
Gauguin: Maker of Myth opens at Tate Modern on 30 September. Book tickets online or become a Tate Member or Tate Patron and visit for free.
Read the original post on The Great Tate Mod Blog
