Mark Glazebrook

‘Culture’s still a low priority’

Mark Glazebrook talks to the director of Tate about its collection, its future and its funding

For a hundred years or so, the director of the Tate Gallery has normally been a major figure in the art world. Sir Norman Reid, director in a dynamic period between 1964 and 1979, increased the Tate’s exhibition space and acquired, for example, an important group of paintings by Mark Rothko. Sir Alan Bowness (1980–8) made many significant additions to the collection. He helped father both Tate Liverpool (a precursor of Tate St Ives) and the Clore Gallery at Millbank. He also initiated the Turner Prize.

A comparatively minor figure was the bibulous bohemian J.B. Manson, theoretically responsible between 1930 and 1938. According to his immediate successor, Sir John Rothenstein (1938–64), Manson felt the need to augment his meagre salary by dealing from the Tate’s basement in pictures known to the staff as ‘Director’s stock’. Autres temps, autres moeurs.

The career of Sir Nicholas Serota, director since 1988, provides a striking contrast to the career of this particular predecessor. Nobody could imagine Sir Nicholas having the remotest inclination, let alone the time, to deal from the basement or anywhere else. The Serota aura, though by no means lacking in kindliness and charm, is that of a man free of self-indulgence to the point of austerity. The Serota era continues to be remarkable.

He is no stranger to controversy, however. Ancient and modern Tate scandals, including the recent Chris Ofili affair in which the trustees bought paintings by one of their own number, are open for inspection on the Tate website. The director has honourably admitted being at fault. The incident has not permanently dented his reputation, however. He remains a hero to his colleagues and to many insiders of the art world, not just for having built Tate Modern at Bankside, but for having built it in the teeth of opposition.

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