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Tate Modern : The Handbook
Celebrating the opening of the new Tate at Bankside, London, this book introduces readers to the building, the collection and the new approach to modern and contemporary art. The gallery presents 20th-century art through four classic the nude, landscape, still life and history painting.
- GenresArtArchitectureReference
256 pages, Paperback
First published April 17, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 1, 2026
I have bought (and fully read) many museum guides. Tate Modern: The Handbook is BY FAR the best. It can be valuable even if you don’t plan to visit the museum.
The best modern art book I have read is The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes, which will take you from 0 to 100 km/h if modern art makes zero sense to you. After reading it, read Tate Modern to understand the brave philosophical exploration 20th century artists decided to embark on.
The book has it all, starting with beautiful pictures of course, as well as impeccable graphic layout. But what sets it apart is the quality of its texts. While based in deep (and mandatory) academic knowledge, but never obtuse or pompous, they all show the passion the authors have for their specialty and soar almost into literature.
The museum’s founding committee made a bold decision in how to arrange the artworks info four themes and the guide reflects that in its sections:
- Lands | Matter | Environment
- Still | Life | Object | Real Life
- History | Memory | Society
- Nude | Action | Body
A must-have for art enthusiasts, especially if you don’t really get modern art.
In between chapters the guide has a section of quotes from artists and art critics. The following two encapsulate the founding principles of modern art:
A work of art is and individual and distinct thing. Something self-contained and possessing its own purpose within itself; yet there is at the same time represented in it a new “whole”, a total image of reality.
— Immanuel Kant, “The Critique of Judgement”, 1790.
l believe that men will long continue to feel the need of following to its source the magical river flowing from their eyes, bathing with the same hallucinatory light and shade both the things that are and the things that are not. Not always quite knowing to what the disturbing discovery is due, they will place one of these springs high above the summit of any mountain. The region where the charming vapours of the as yet unknown, with which they are to fall in love, condense, will appear to them in a lightning flash.
—André Breton, “Surrealism and Painting”, 1928.
The best modern art book I have read is The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes, which will take you from 0 to 100 km/h if modern art makes zero sense to you. After reading it, read Tate Modern to understand the brave philosophical exploration 20th century artists decided to embark on.
The book has it all, starting with beautiful pictures of course, as well as impeccable graphic layout. But what sets it apart is the quality of its texts. While based in deep (and mandatory) academic knowledge, but never obtuse or pompous, they all show the passion the authors have for their specialty and soar almost into literature.
The museum’s founding committee made a bold decision in how to arrange the artworks info four themes and the guide reflects that in its sections:
- Lands | Matter | Environment
- Still | Life | Object | Real Life
- History | Memory | Society
- Nude | Action | Body
A must-have for art enthusiasts, especially if you don’t really get modern art.
In between chapters the guide has a section of quotes from artists and art critics. The following two encapsulate the founding principles of modern art:
A work of art is and individual and distinct thing. Something self-contained and possessing its own purpose within itself; yet there is at the same time represented in it a new “whole”, a total image of reality.
— Immanuel Kant, “The Critique of Judgement”, 1790.
l believe that men will long continue to feel the need of following to its source the magical river flowing from their eyes, bathing with the same hallucinatory light and shade both the things that are and the things that are not. Not always quite knowing to what the disturbing discovery is due, they will place one of these springs high above the summit of any mountain. The region where the charming vapours of the as yet unknown, with which they are to fall in love, condense, will appear to them in a lightning flash.
—André Breton, “Surrealism and Painting”, 1928.
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February 12, 2026review text for 4402
September 2, 2007
What else needs to be said about the Tate Modern that already hasn't been said. I love their Rothko room - I could have spent hours sitting in there staring at all of his paintings.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews