Tate Britain

摘要

The Art Deco/Swedish Grace revival starts here, in the Tate Gallery on London's Mill-bank, in the hands of architect Caruso St John. This would have counted as postmodernism 30 years ago, so there is a wry symmetry in the fact that this £45m re-ordering of the Tate's public spaces and galleries involved the site of a famous early piece of PoMo, Jeremy Dixon's 1982 basement cafe which itself channelled the spirit of Soane's breakfast room. Some of this project is subtle to the point of invisibility. Rightly, the refurbished galleries are not trying to be anything other than that - the new hang of the art is the thing, and that is beautifully done. Though if wandering art-lovers glance up they might wonder at the fat glowing light tubes hanging along their centre lines, and taking on a circular form in tighter spaces. These luminaires, also designed by the architects and specially made by Louis Poul-sen, fit in with the eclectically moderne feel of the whole project. Now that technology allows light sources to effectively disappear, it takes an architect to do to exactly the opposite, and turn them back into solid architecture. Although they are made in acrylic for lightness' sake, they hang on chromed straps and really want to be in opal glass. Which is a material used elsewhere, in the biggest, boldest move in this composition. The new spiral stair.