Two international curators had an early sweep of Frieze London with the Tate’s curatorial team to acquire work for the gallery’s collection, courtesy of the Outset/Frieze Art Fair Fund, which finances the purchase of works at the fair each year. The guest selectors this year were Tobias Ostrander, the chief curator of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and Beatrix Ruf, the director of the Kunsthalle Zürich, who had £150,000 to spend. “We were interested in understanding the organism that is the Tate Collection, and how our choices would add to it,” Ruf says. Ostrander adds: “The list changed as we walked around, but we knew we wanted to support younger artists and those who have been less well recognised.” To this end, they have bought a sculpture by Terry Adkins—Muffled Drums (from Darkwater), 2003—from New York’s Salon 94 (D2), and The Dies, 2008, a mixed-media work by Christina Mackie, from Berlin’s Supportico Lopez (F23). The Tate also acquired a video installation—Not Blacking Out, Just Turning the Lights Off, 2011, by James Richards—from Istanbul’s Rodeo Gallery (F10), and another video work, Trilogy of Transgression, 2004 (right), by the veteran feminist Sturtevant, from Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London (B8).
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Works head to Tate fresh from Frieze'