Five Hundred Years of British Art

Newly reissued in a luxury paperback format, this guide to the highlights of Tate Britain's collection provides an essential introduction to the extraordinary development of British Art over the centuries.

The British art in Tate's collection is rich with imaginative invention and reinvention. This panoramic book celebrates this aesthetic ingenuity as an ongoing story, revealing how 500 years of art can function as a fascinating lens through which to deepen our understanding of ourselves and society, past and present, both in in Britain and throughout the rest of the world.

British art is notable for genres unique to itself: group portraits, known as 'conversation pieces', focusing on social relations between friends, family and allies; themes from British literature, particularly Shakespeare, Milton and Tennyson (rather than classical mythology); and topical subjects in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries reflecting the wars with France and the scientific innovations of the Industrial Revolution. Hogarth ushered in an art of social engagement, as did the artists associated with the Young British Art movement more recently.

Lavishly illustrated, this generous companion to the Tate collection provides a sumptuous compendium of the rich history of British art, designed to offer readers an overview of the collection and its remarkable range of art.
Kirsteen McSwein is Senior Curator, Interpretation at Tate. She is the author of Tate Britain: Highlights, Autumn, and Winter, also published by Tate Publishing.