Tate given Hockney and Freud works

Tate given Hockney and Freud works NEWS

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Nine works of modern art from artists including David Hockney, Lucian Freud and Rachel Whiteread have been donated to the Tate to fill gaps in its collection.

Mercedes and Ian Stoutzker, generous supporters of art in recent years, have given the Tate nine works of art to fill gaps in the institution's collection.

'The gift was an initiative from the Stoutzkers,' said Tate director, Nicholas Serota, 'they don't receive any tax benefit from this gift but in the current climate they were very keen to make it public because they wanted to encourage others to give works to the national collection.'

Serota went on to say the gift 'greatly enriched the national collection of art'.

Freud's Girl In A Striped Nightdress painted in the early 1980s has been donated along with Savings And A Loan Building by Hockney have been. Also included in the gift is a scale model of Whiteread's 1999 work for the empty Trafalgar Square plinth.

Mr Stoutzker, who provided £500,000 last year for a new concert hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, said Americans have a stronger tradition of giving to the Arts than the Brits. 'If this could encourage other people to do so, we would be delighted,' he said.

Serota said the couple have been patrons and benefactors of the Tate for more than two decades. They have also lent works from their Austrian home in Salzburg for exhibitions.

Other artists' work gifted by the couple include pieces by Jacob Epstein and Conrad Shawcross. Tate Britain will put the works on show this year.