Arts Council Collection acquires Tanoa Sasraku’s ‘Jacket Front R’ from Vardaxoglou Gallery at Frieze London
Tanoa Sasraku, Jacket Front R, 2023. Newsprint, foraged Cornish and Ghanaian earth pigments, tailor’s chalk, fixative spray, thread, St Ives seawater. 108.5 x 60.5 x 4.5 cm (42 3/4 x 23 7/8 x 1 3/4 ins)
We are thrilled to announce Arts Council Collection’s acquisition of Tanoa Sasraku’s ‘Jacket Front R’ (2023) from Vardaxoglou Gallery’s Stand H10 at Frieze London.
The Arts Council Collection is the most widely circulated national collection of modern and contemporary British art. Established in 1946 by CEMA (the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts), the Arts Council Collection began with the aim of creating a national art collection for the UK starting with a small group of paintings. With over 8,100 works by nearly 2,200 artists, the Arts Council Collection continues to bring art to every corner of the country through loans to museums, galleries, schools, hospitals, and other public institutions. Further engagement is through exhibitions, learning and public engagement, as well as research & scholarship activities. Commitment lies in building and preserving the collection for its use and enjoyment of its ultimate owners, the widest possible public.
Following a rigorous research and selection process, the final selection was made by the Arts Council Collection Acquisitions Committee 2023-2024. The committee includes artist John Walter; Harriet Cooper, Independent curator and Director of Jerwood Curatorial Accelerator; Vanessa Peterson, Frieze Associate Editor, writer, and photographer; Marie-Anne McQuay, Director of Projects at Art and Heritage; Ralph Rugoff, Director of Hayward Gallery; Peter Heslip, Director of Visual Arts at Arts Council England; Deborah Smith, Director of Arts Council Collection, and is chaired by Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England.
Announcing the acquisition in Artnet News, Jo Lawson-Tancred writes: ‘The artist Tanoa Sasraku has been turning heads for her “terratypes,” a unique hybrid medium that combines various methods like textile, painting, sculpture and print-making, as well as films like O’Pierrot (2019), through which she explored racist stereotypes and the Black British experience. Her work Jacket Front R (2023), offered as part of a solo presentation at Vardaxoglou, in Frieze’s focus section, was made with the unlikely combination of newsprint, foraged Cornish and Ghanaian earth pigments, tailor’s chalk, thread, and St Ives seawater.’