It’s a decade since Tate Britain rehung all its galleries. In a 126-year-old museum that houses a collection of 500 years of British art that is, of course, a relative drop in the ocean. But in terms of attitudes to art and its history, and how museums display it, I can’t imagine there has ever been a 10-year period that has witnessed a more seismic shift.
The historic canon is being exploded, meaning more women and artists of colour are gaining due prominence. And the sitters, landscapes and patrons behind the art are also being newly explored. It’s not enough anymore to look at paintings of the rich and powerful of the past without examining the context that supported them, or to see a country house and its estate and not ponder why and how they were built. Art always emerges from particular social and cultural conditions, to ignore that seems more absurd than ever.
