http://www.tate.org.uk

The Tate Gallery is one of the best known and well-respected galleries in the world. The Tate Gallery is really four galleries in one, The Tate, The Tate Modern, The Tate St. Ives, and The Tate Liverpool. Along with Tate Online they comprise a group known simply as Tate. This collection is comprised of mainly British Art from the 1500s and International Modern Art. Highlights of the collection include: Andy Warhol, Henry Moore, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, and Roy Lichtenstein. These esteemed artists represent a fabulous representation of such periods as Cubism, Futurism, Pop Art and expressionism to name a few. That Tate Modern will be undergoing an extension in 2012 while The Tate will be refurbished during this time.

The Tate website has some very useable functionality. One of my favorite features is the instructional podcasts. One of my favorites is a multimedia tour of Gustav Klimt. The podcasts are in MP3 format and can be downloaded directly to your iPod. Another one of my favorite features is Online Events such as “Surrealism and Film” and “Museums and Art History”.

Each museum has its own tab at the top which leads to its own distinctive color-coded page. If you click on Explore Tate Modern for instance you will get a diagram of the building. From there you can access a list of artists and when you click on a particular artist the room that artist is located in within the building is colored in so you know exactly where to find it among the collection. This will further lead you to samples of the artists work. For armchair travelers, the Tate website really is the next best thing to being there.

Reviewed by Library Staff Member - Monika Earle

Textiles Now contains a wide selection of mostly three-dimensional contemporary textile designs. With the steady rise of arts and crafts in the last decade, artists with a variety of novelty items and ideas have infiltrated our culture. Numerous links on the web are dedicated to a network of artists who practice creating through different media. Some of us are aware of sites that host specific genres and highlight the most innovative submissions. Textiles Now is as such where artists and designers from around the world entered their pieces to the author slash BA Surface Design senior lecturer, Drusilla Cole, from the University of the Arts in London.

The featured textiles had been produced using a wide range of traditional and experimental techniques. The factors for consideration to be printed on the pages of this kaleidoscopic book: use of color, pattern or texture, or in their emphasis on exploring technical boundaries. Many pieces are concerned with issues of sustainability and use of natural dyes, recycled fibers, or eco-friendly methods in their production. The contents are divided by three main categories: 1) constructed textiles; 2) dyed, painted, and printed; 3) mixed media and stitched.

Images from works selected are followed by snippets of hindsight information on the individual artists. Read about their inspirations, methods or working, and choice of materials. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but for those of us with more curiosity can read the fine detail.

Reviewed by Library Staff Member - Glenda Ronduen