London Other Westminster Museums

TATE BRITAIN. The Tate Britain houses the foremost collection of British art, and also includes pieces from foreign artists working in Britain and Brits working abroad from 1500 to the present. Of the four Tate Galleries in England, this is the original Tate, opened in 1897 to house Sir Henry Tate’s collection of “modern” British art and later expanded to include a gift from famed British painter J.M.W. Turner. Turner’s donation of 282 oils and 19,000 watercolors can make the museum feel like one big tribute to the man. Skip the prolific collection of hazy British landscapes in the Clore Galleries if you don’t like his style. Much of the second floor houses the permanent collection, loosely tracing the chronology of art in Britain from 1500 to 2004. Three subdivisions—Historic, Modern, and Contemporary—house themed rooms such as “Modern Landscapes” and “Art and Victorian Society,” and allow visitors to grasp the breadth of the British artistic tradition in a single afternoon. These subdivisions also feature the fervent work of William Blake, as well as paintings by Pre-Raphaelites John Everett Millais, John Singer Sargent, and Frederic Lord Leighton on a rotating basis. Other artists on display include John Constable, William Hogarth, Richard Long, Ben Nicholson, and David Hockney. Beloved works include Henry Moore’s incredible Recumbent Figure sculpture and John Singer Sargent’s colorful Victorian portraits. The bulk of modern British art is absent, having been transferred to the Tate Modern at Bankside in 1999, but that doesn’t mean that what remains here is static or stodgy; one of the most recent exhibitions was an exact recreation of an anti-war protester’s demonstration that was removed from Parliament Sq. The annual and often controversial Turner Prize competition for contemporary visual art is still held here, the displays of which are worth a visit. Four contemporary British artists are nominated for the £40,000 prize; their short-listed works go on show from late October through late January. Late at Tate Britain, the first Friday night of every month, offers visitors an extended look at the museum’s holdings in addition to live music and other performances. (Millbank, near Vauxhall Bridge, in Westminster. Pimlico. Information ☎7887 8008, M-F exhibition booking 7887 8888; www.tate.org.uk. Open daily 10am-5:50pm, last entry 5pm. Wheelchair-accessible via Clore Wing. Free; special exhibitions £7-11. Audio tours free. See website for free tours and lectures.)