Tacita Dean
Encyclopedia
Tacita Dean is an English visual artist who works primarily in film. She is one of the Young British Artists
, and was a nominee for the Turner Prize
in 1998.
. She studied at Falmouth School of Art, graduating in 1988. From 1990–2, Dean studied for a Masters degree at the Slade School of Fine Art. Dean held her first solo exhibition The Martyrdom of St Agatha and Other Stories, at Galerija Skuc, Maribor
, Slovenia
.
In 1995, she was included in General Release: Young British Artists held at the XLVI Venice Biennale
. She is one of the "key names", along with Jake and Dinos Chapman
, Gary Hume
, Sam Taylor-Wood
, Fiona Banner
and Douglas Gordon
, of the Young British Artists
(YBAs). Her work actually had little in common with the prominent YBAs, Damien Hirst
and Tracey Emin
.
In 1997, Dean moved to London. That same year she began to exhibit splices of magnetic tape cut the length required to document the duration of the sound indicated, such as a raven's cry. In 2001 she was given a solo show at Tate Britain. In 2000 Dean was awarded a one-year German Academic Exchange Service
(DAAD) scholarship to Berlin, where she moved that year. She devoted attention to the architecture and cultural history of Germany. She has made films of such iconic structure as the Berliner Fernsehturm and the Palast der Republik
. Other projects have concerned important figures in post-war German cultural history, such as W.G. Sebald and Joseph Beuys
.
2006 saw the most comprehensive retrospective of her work to date, ‘Analogue', held at Schaulager Basel.
In 2009, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation
has presented Still Life, Tacita Dean’s first major solo exhibition in Italy, on the first floor (piano nobile) of Palazzo Dugnani, a historic building in the centre of Milan. The exhibition has presented a selection of fourteen works, including the world premiere of two films commissioned and produced by the Nicola Trussardi Foundation
: Still Life and Day for Night, filmed in the Bolognese studio of painter Giorgio Morandi.
Dean has undertaken commissions for London's defunct Millennium Dome
, the Sadler's Wells Theatre
, and for Cork
, Ireland
, as part of that city's European City of Culture celebrations. She has also completed residencies at the Sundance Institute
, the Wexner Center for the Arts
, Columbus
, U.S.
, and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Berlin
She lives and works in Berlin.
Especially during the 1990s, the sea was a persistent theme in Dean's work. Perhaps most famously, she explored the tragic maritime misadventures of Donald Crowhurst
, an amateur English sailor whose ambition to enter a race to solo circumnavigate the globe ended in deception, existential crisis and, eventually, tragedy. Dean has made a number of films and blackboard drawings relating to the Crowhurst story, exploiting the metaphorical richness of such motifs as the ocean, lighthouses and shipwrecks.
Re-turning to her, attraction with the sea, Amadeus (swell consopio) was made for the Folkestone
Triennial (three year art show) in 2008 .
in 1998. She has since been awarded the Aachen Art Prize (2002), Hugo Boss Prize
(2006), and Kurt Schwitters Prize (2009), among others.
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
, and was a nominee for the Turner Prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
in 1998.
Life and work
Tacita Dean was born in Canterbury, in Kent. She was educated at Kent College, Canterbury. Her brother is architect Ptolemy DeanPtolemy Dean
Ptolemy Dean, a British architect and television presenter. He specialises in historic preservation, as well as designing new buildings that are in keeping with their historic or natural settings...
. She studied at Falmouth School of Art, graduating in 1988. From 1990–2, Dean studied for a Masters degree at the Slade School of Fine Art. Dean held her first solo exhibition The Martyrdom of St Agatha and Other Stories, at Galerija Skuc, Maribor
Maribor
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....
, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
.
In 1995, she was included in General Release: Young British Artists held at the XLVI Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
. She is one of the "key names", along with Jake and Dinos Chapman
Jake and Dinos Chapman
Iakovos "Jake" Chapman and Konstantinos "Dinos" Chapman are English visual artists, often known as the Chapman Brothers, who work together as a collaborative sibling duo...
, Gary Hume
Gary Hume
Gary Stewart Hume is an English artist. His work is strongly identified with the YBA artists who came to prominence in the early-1990s. In 1996, Hume was nominated for the Turner Prize, but lost out to Douglas Gordon. Hume was elected a Royal Academician in 2001.-Life and work:Hume was born in...
, Sam Taylor-Wood
Sam Taylor-Wood
Samantha "Sam" Taylor-Wood OBE , born Samantha Taylor, is an English filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. Her directorial feature film debut came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon...
, Fiona Banner
Fiona Banner
Fiona Banner is an English artist, who was short-listed for the Turner Prize in 2002. In 2010, she produced new work for a Duveen Hall commission at Tate Britain. She is one of the Young British Artists.-Life and work:...
and Douglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon is a Scottish artist; he won the Turner Prize in 1996 and the following year he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale...
, of the Young British Artists
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
(YBAs). Her work actually had little in common with the prominent YBAs, Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
and Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
.
In 1997, Dean moved to London. That same year she began to exhibit splices of magnetic tape cut the length required to document the duration of the sound indicated, such as a raven's cry. In 2001 she was given a solo show at Tate Britain. In 2000 Dean was awarded a one-year German Academic Exchange Service
German Academic Exchange Service
The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation....
(DAAD) scholarship to Berlin, where she moved that year. She devoted attention to the architecture and cultural history of Germany. She has made films of such iconic structure as the Berliner Fernsehturm and the Palast der Republik
Palast der Republik
The Palace of the Republic in Berlin was the seat of the parliament of the German Democratic Republic, the People's Chamber, and also served various cultural purposes...
. Other projects have concerned important figures in post-war German cultural history, such as W.G. Sebald and Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...
.
2006 saw the most comprehensive retrospective of her work to date, ‘Analogue', held at Schaulager Basel.
In 2009, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation
Nicola Trussardi Foundation
The Nicola Trussardi Foundation is a non-profit institution for the promotion of contemporary art and culture. Created in 1996, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation is neither a museum nor a collection...
has presented Still Life, Tacita Dean’s first major solo exhibition in Italy, on the first floor (piano nobile) of Palazzo Dugnani, a historic building in the centre of Milan. The exhibition has presented a selection of fourteen works, including the world premiere of two films commissioned and produced by the Nicola Trussardi Foundation
Nicola Trussardi Foundation
The Nicola Trussardi Foundation is a non-profit institution for the promotion of contemporary art and culture. Created in 1996, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation is neither a museum nor a collection...
: Still Life and Day for Night, filmed in the Bolognese studio of painter Giorgio Morandi.
Dean has undertaken commissions for London's defunct Millennium Dome
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...
, the Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
, and for Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, as part of that city's European City of Culture celebrations. She has also completed residencies at the Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981 that actively advances the work of filmmakers and storytellers worldwide...
, the Wexner Center for the Arts
Wexner Center for the Arts
The Wexner Center for the Arts is The Ohio State University’s multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art...
, Columbus
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
She lives and works in Berlin.
Themes
Tacita Dean is best known for her work in 16mm film, although she utilises a variety of media including drawing, photography and sound. Her films often employ long takes and steady camera angles to create a contemplative atmosphere. Her anamorphic films are shot by cinematographers John Adderley and Jamie Cairney. Her sound recordist is Steve Felton. She has also published several pieces of her own writing, which she refers to as 'asides,' which complement her visual work. Since the mid-1990s her films have not included commentary, but are instead accompanied by often understated optical sound tracks.Especially during the 1990s, the sea was a persistent theme in Dean's work. Perhaps most famously, she explored the tragic maritime misadventures of Donald Crowhurst
Donald Crowhurst
Donald Crowhurst was a British businessman and amateur sailor who died while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. Crowhurst had entered the race in hopes of winning a cash prize from The Sunday Times to aid his failing business...
, an amateur English sailor whose ambition to enter a race to solo circumnavigate the globe ended in deception, existential crisis and, eventually, tragedy. Dean has made a number of films and blackboard drawings relating to the Crowhurst story, exploiting the metaphorical richness of such motifs as the ocean, lighthouses and shipwrecks.
Re-turning to her, attraction with the sea, Amadeus (swell consopio) was made for the Folkestone
Folkestone
Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port. The coming of the railways, the building of a ferry port, and its...
Triennial (three year art show) in 2008 .
Recognition
Following her 1996 film Disappearance at Sea, Dean was nominated for the Turner PrizeTurner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
in 1998. She has since been awarded the Aachen Art Prize (2002), Hugo Boss Prize
Hugo Boss Prize
The Hugo Boss Prize is awarded every other year to an artist working in any medium, anywhere in the world. Since its establishment in 1996, it has distinguished itself from other art awards because it has no restrictions on nationality or age...
(2006), and Kurt Schwitters Prize (2009), among others.
Solo shows
These include:- Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, RotterdamRotterdamRotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
(1997); - Institute of Contemporary Art, PhiladelphiaInstitute of Contemporary Art, PhiladelphiaThe Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to exhibiting the innovative...
, with US tour (1998); - Museum für Gegenwartskunst, BaselBaselBasel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
(2000), - MACBABarcelona Museum of Contemporary ArtThe Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art is situated in the Plaça dels Àngels, in El Raval, Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, Spain. The museum opened to the public on November 28, 1995. Its current director is Bartomeu Marí . Previous directors were Daniel Giralt-Miracle , Miguel Molins , Manuel J...
, BarcelonaBarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
(2001); - Tate St IvesTate St IvesTate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, England, exhibiting work by modern British artists, including work of the St Ives School. The three storey building, designed by architects Evans and Shalev, lies on the site of an old gas works, overlooking Porthmeor Beach. It was opened in...
(2005). - Schaulager, Basel Tacita Dean. Analogue: Films, Photographs, Drawings 1991–2006 (2006)
- http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/hugo_boss_2006/index.htmlSolomon R. Guggenheim MuseumThe Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
[The Hugo Boss prize 2006] Tacita Dean 23 February – 6 June (2007) - Still Life, Palazzo Dugnani, Nicola Trussardi FoundationNicola Trussardi FoundationThe Nicola Trussardi Foundation is a non-profit institution for the promotion of contemporary art and culture. Created in 1996, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation is neither a museum nor a collection...
, Milan (2009)
Filmography
Further reading
- Barcelona 2001: Tacita Dean. Barcelona: Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona and Actar.
- Godfrey, M.: ‘Photography Found and Lost: On Tacita Dean’s Floh,’ October vol. 114, Fall 2005, 90–119.
- Royoux, J-C. et al.: Tacita Dean. London: Phaidon, 2006.
- Trodd, T.: ‘Film at the End of the Twentieth Century: Obsolescence and Medium in the Work of Tacita Dean,’ Object 6, 2003/4.
- Vischer, T. and Friedli, I.: Tacita Dean. Analogue: Drawings 1991–2006. Basel: Schaulager, 2006.
- De Cecco, E.: Tacita Dean. Milano: postmedia books, 2004.
External links
- Tacita Dean exhibition at Tate St Ives, UK, 2005
- Tacita Dean in the Tate Collection — artist biography and works viewable online
- Tacita Dean: Recent films and other works — Past exhibition at Tate BritainTate BritainTate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
- Tacita Dean — Aerial View of Teignmouth Electron, Cayman Brac. 16 September 1998
- Waterlog exhibition featuring recent work Michael Hamburger 2007
- Frith Street Gallery, London
- Tacita Dean at Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
- Works by Tacita Dean in Cal Cego. Contemporary Art Collection
- Artinfo.com.au review of 2009 ACCA exhibition by Tony LloydTony Lloyd (Artist)Tony Lloyd is an Australian contemporary artist. Tony was born in Melbourne Victoria. Lloyd's paintings are influenced by cinema, in particular Film Noir and Science Fiction, and the Romantic Sublime . His largely monochromatic paintings are realist in style...