Tacita Dean facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tacita Dean CBE, RA
Tacita Dean photographed by Oliver Mark, Berlin 2012
Born	Tacita Charlotte Dean 1965 (age 59–60) Canterbury, Kent, England
Nationality	British
Education	Falmouth University Slade School of Fine Art
Known for	Conceptual art, installation art

Tacita Charlotte Dean (born in 1965) is a British artist. She is best known for her work with film. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1998. Later, she won the Hugo Boss Prize in 2006. In 2008, she became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts. Today, she lives and works in Berlin, Germany, and Los Angeles, California.

Early Life and School

Dean was born in Canterbury, Kent, England. Her mother is Jenefer. Her father, Joseph Dean, was a lawyer. He studied classic subjects at Merton College, Oxford. Tacita has a sister named Antigone and a brother, Ptolemy Dean, who is an architect. Her grandfather, Basil Dean, started Ealing Studios, a famous film studio.

Tacita went to Kent College in Canterbury. After a special foundation year, she studied at Falmouth University. She graduated in 1988. From 1990 to 1992, Dean earned her master's degree. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art.

Her Art Career

In 1995, Dean's art was shown in an exhibition. It was called General Release: Young British Artists. This show was part of the Venice Biennale, a big art event. She is seen as one of the "key names" of the Young British Artists (YBAs). Other artists in this group include Jake and Dinos Chapman and Sam Taylor-Wood. However, her art style was quite different from other famous YBAs like Damien Hirst.

In 1997, Dean moved to London. Around this time, she started showing pieces of magnetic tape. These tapes were cut to show the length of a sound. For example, one tape was the length of a raven's cry. In 2001, she had her own show. It was called Tacita Dean: Recent films and Other Works at Tate Britain. For the 2004/2005 season, she designed a huge picture. It was for the Vienna State Opera. This picture was part of an art series called Safety Curtain.

In 2000, Dean moved to Berlin, Germany. She has lived there ever since. She has a studio in the Westend area of the city. She was also an artist in residence at the Getty Research Institute in 2014. She also worked at the Menil Collection in 2024.

Dean is a founder of savefilm.org. She strongly supports keeping film as an art form.

Her Artworks

Film Art

Dean is most famous for her 16 mm film works. But she also uses other art forms. These include drawing, photography, and sound. Her films often have long shots. The camera stays still to create a calm feeling. Special cameras are used for her wide-screen films. Her sound recorder is Steve Felton. She also writes her own texts. She calls these 'asides'. They go along with her visual art. Since the mid-1990s, her films do not have spoken words. Instead, they use quiet sound tracks.

The sea has been a common theme in Dean's art. This was especially true in the 1990s. During that time, she explored the sad story of Donald Crowhurst. He was an amateur English sailor. He tried to sail around the world alone. But his journey ended in lies and sadness. Dean has made many films and drawings about Crowhurst. She uses ideas like the ocean, lighthouses, and shipwrecks. In 2008, she made Amadeus (swell consopio). This film was for the Folkestone Triennial, an art show held every three years.

In 1997, Dean made a sound artwork. It was about her search for a hidden artwork. This artwork was called Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson. It was supposed to be in the Great Salt Lake in Utah. But she could not find it.

Sound Mirrors (1999) is named after old tracking devices. These devices were built in the 1920s and 1930s. They were placed in the Kent countryside. Their job was to detect German aircraft coming in.

In 2000, Dean received a scholarship to Berlin. She moved there with her partner, artist Mathew Hale. She became interested in Germany's history and buildings. She made films of famous places. One film, Fernsehturm, is 44 minutes long. It is set in the spinning cafe of the East Berlin television tower. Other projects looked at important German figures. These include W. G. Sebald and Joseph Beuys.

Her recent films show important artists and thinkers. These include Mario Merz and Merce Cunningham. For example, Craneway Event (2008) is a film about Cunningham. It shows him working with his dancers.

In 2006, Dean filmed Kodak. This movie was made in a Kodak factory in France. It was the last factory in Europe to make 16-mm film. The factory closed a few weeks after she visited.

In 2013, Dean showed her film JG. It was a 26-minute film in color and black and white. The film again showed Dean's interest in Spiral Jetty. It also showed her friendship with science-fiction writer J. G. Ballard. In the film, you hear parts of writings by Ballard and Smithson. Actor Jim Broadbent reads them.

Photos and Paintings

In 2001, Dean released a book called Floh. This German word means "flea." The book had two parts. It used old photos found in flea markets. Dean said she did not want to explain these photos. She wanted them to keep the quiet feeling of the flea market.

In 2002, Dean made Czech Photos. This was a series of over 326 photos. They were put in a box. The black and white photos showed a city before big changes. They looked old the moment they were taken. Washington Cathedral (2002) is a series of over 130 old postcards. They show different ideas of the Washington, DC cathedral before it was finished.

Palindrome was a newspaper project. It celebrated the special date 20.02.2002. This date reads the same forwards and backwards. In 2005, Dean started painting on old postcards of trees. She painted out the backgrounds with white paint.

Work on Cy Twombly

In 2007, Dean met artist Cy Twombly in Rome. She later gave talks about him. She also wrote about his art. Her art piece GAETA (fifty photographs plus one) was made in 2008. It was made in Twombly’s house and studio in Italy. She also made a short film about him in 2011. It was called “Edwin Parker,” which was Twombly’s real name.

Art Projects and Awards

Dean has done special art projects. These include works for London's Millennium Dome. She also worked for the Sadler's Wells Theatre. She completed projects in Cork, Ireland. This was part of the city's European City of Culture celebrations. She has also spent time as an artist at the Sundance Institute and other places.

In 2011, Dean was chosen for the Unilever Series. She created a unique artwork for the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern museum. Her work, FILM, was an 11-minute silent film. It was shown on a huge 13-meter screen. The film aimed to show the importance of film as an art form.

Awards and Recognition

After her 1996 film Disappearance at Sea, Dean was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1998. She has won many awards since then. These include the Aachen Art Prize (2002) and the Hugo Boss Prize (2006). She also won the Kurt Schwitters Prize (2009). In 2011, art critic Blake Gopnik named Dean as one of "The 10 Most Important Artists of Today."

She was given the title Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2013. This was for her contributions to British art around the world. In 2019, she received the TenTen artist commission. She also won the Cherry Kearton Medal and Award.

Personal Life

Tacita Dean is married to artist Matthew Hale. They have a son named Rufus.

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Tacita Dean para niños

• Ptolemy Dean