Whiteread at the Tate

The Tate Britain reveals the extraordinary breadth of Rachel Whiteread’s career over three decades: from the four early sculptures to a new concrete shed outside the gallery.

“Rachel Whiteread” at the Tate Britain, installation view
Tate Britain presents the most substantial survey to date of work by Rachel Whiteread, one of the leading artists of her generation. The exhibition reveals the extraordinary breadth of her career over three decades, from the four early sculptures shown in her first solo show in 1988 to works made this year especially for Tate Britain including Chicken Shed, a new concrete shed installed outside the gallery. Known for her signature casting technique, Whiteread’s work ranges in scale from the modest to the monumental in a variety of materials such as plaster, resin, rubber, concrete, metal and paper.

 

In a vast 1,500 sqm open gallery space, some of Whiteread’s most important large scale sculptures are shown alongside her more intimate works. These will include Untitled (Book Corridors) 1997–1998 and Untitled (Room 101) 2003 – a cast of the room at the BBC’s Broadcasting House thought to be the model for Room 101 in George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty Four. A range of smaller sculptures include casts in different materials and colours from architectural features such as floors, doors and windows to domestic objects such as tables, boxes and a selection of Torsos, Whiteread’s casts of hot water bottles.

Img.6 “Rachel Whiteread” at the Tate Britain, installation view
Img.6 “Rachel Whiteread” at the Tate Britain, installation view
Another highlight of the exhibition is Untitled (One Hundred Spaces) 1995 – an installation of 100 resin casts of the underside of chairs – shown in Tate Britain’s Duveen galleries. Special sections are also devoted to archive material and to the artist’s drawings. Working with pencil, varnish, correction fluid, watercolour and collage, these works on paper constitute a distinct area of Whiteread’s practice and are an intimate part of her artistic process in producing her sculptural work.

12 September 2017 – 21 January 2018
Rachel Whiteread
Tate Britain, London
Curator
: Ann Gallagher, Linsey Young with Helen Delaney and Hattie Spires
The exhibition is co-organised with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, curated by Molly Donovan, where it will be shown in autumn 2018, and will also tour to the 21er Haus Vienna and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

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