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Tate Britain rehangs entire collection

Mike Kemp/Getty Tate BritainMike Kemp/Getty
Tate Britain is rehanging its entire collection for the first time in a decade

Tate Britain has started rehanging all of its collection displays for the first time in a decade.

The Pimlico art museum, which is free to visit, will be showing 800 different British artworks from 23 May.

Women will be better represented than ever before, and make up half of the contemporary artists on show.

"[The] new displays will embody our commitment to diversifying British art history," said Polly Staple, Tate's director of collection, British art.

Mark Heathcote and Oliver Cowling David Hockney's A Bigger SplashMark Heathcote and Oliver Cowling
David Hockney's A Bigger Splash will be on display

Staff at the central London gallery will spend the next three months working on the changeover, which will feature much-loved favourites as well as new commissions.

Director of Tate Britain Alex Farquharson said the new displays would "celebrate the very best of British art".

"Visitors will be able to explore 500 years of revolutionary changes in art, culture and society, culminating in new work by some of Britain's most exciting contemporary artists," he said.

Mark Heathcote and Abbie Soanes Portrait of an unknown woman from 1650-5 by Joan CarlileMark Heathcote and Abbie Soanes
A full-length portrait of an unknown woman from 1650-5 by Joan Carlile is part of the new offering

As part of the change, women artists will be better represented, with artists from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries being shown — including many who have never been displayed at Tate sites before.

These include a full-length portrait from 1650-5 by Joan Carlile, thought to be the first woman in Britain to work as a professional oil painter, a selection of watercolours by Emily Sargent made on her travels in North Africa, and A Fisher Girl's Light 1899 by Marianne Stokes.

And half the contemporary artists on display will be women, with Bridget Riley, Tracy Emin, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami and Lydia Ourahmane some of the artists to feature.

The rehang will also feature a new generation of young artists' work, including Rachel Jones's kaleidoscopic canvas and a series of photographs capturing 21st Century British life by non-binary artist Rene Matić.

Rene Matic/Tate/Sonal Bakrania Rene Matić's (b.1997) series of photographs capturing 21st century British lifeRene Matic/Tate/Sonal Bakrania
Rene Matić, who was born in 1997, will have a series of photographs on show capturing 21st Century British life

Classic artworks including Sir John Everett Millais' Ophelia and William Hogarth's The Painter And His Pug, David Hockney's A Bigger Splash, Barbara Hepworth's Pelagos and Chris Ofili's No Woman, No Cry will also feature.

Work on the new displays is under way and will continue over the coming months.

Seraphina Neville John Everett Millais' OpheliaSeraphina Neville
John Everett Millais' Ophelia is one of the 800 different works that will be displayed
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