Studio International

Published 05/06/2007

Tate Modern's extension project has received a donation from John Studzinski of £5 million, which makes it more likely that this multi-million pound project will reach its financial targets. Studzinski is to be congratulated for his courage in embracing the eccentric Herzog-de Meuron tower, which has been likened to a stack of rejected boxes, which Rachel Whiteread might well have excelled at more effectively, at least at the stage of conception. Tate Modern and Whiteread have a successful relationship (her 2006 exhibition in the Turbine Hall proved that). It just goes to show that even now artists and architects have a line drawn between them that is seemingly impenetrable, even in the minds of clients. Perhaps it is not too late to infuse this project with further ingenuity. Or else, maybe its worth looking just along the river, at the Hayward Gallery's exhibition of work by Antony Gormley. Prominent there is Gormley's massive pile, entitled 'Space Station'. Everyone's stacking now. But Whiteread is best.