Contemporary art

de Monique Beudert, Sean Rainbird

In October 1996 the Tate Gallery announced the gift by Janet Wolfson de Botton of sixty works of contemporary art. The Gallery has not received a gift of this size and importance for over twenty-five years. Janet de Botton began collecting contemporary art in the 1970s and she pursued a policy of acquiring the best art available. Included in her gift are paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs by thirty artists, mostly American and British, whose works span several decades from the 1960s to the early 1990s. This catalogue is published to accompany an exhibition of the gift at the Tate Gallery, the first time a substantial amount of Janet de Botton's collection will be seen together by the public. With an introduction by Monique Beudert, this catalogue also includes interviews with nine of the artists represented in the de Botton gift.