A century of Tate Publishing

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An interview with Roger Thorp

Tate Publishing is 100 years old this year. Sue Ward talked to Roger Thorp, publishing director of this successful business since 2002.

Sue Ward: 100 years is a long time for an art book publishing house to keep going. How did Tate Publishing get started in 1911? How has its role in relation to the galleries and the public changed since then?

Roger Thorp: Tate Publishing today is a thriving independent publisher, publishing over 40 titles a year across the full range of art and visual culture, with its own warehousing, representation and international distribution. It began in a more modest way when, a hundred years ago, the Tate Gallery (or the National Gallery of British Art at Millbank, to give its formal title at the time) opened its first-ever exhibition of works on loan and published a small accompanying catalogue. It went on to develop a tradition of publishing that blossomed after the Second World War into a rich programme of publications around exhibitions and the growing collection of British and modern art, building an enviable reputation for the scholarly quality of its output and its high production standards. The start of the modern publishing operation, though, was made in 1996 when it became part of a newly formed company, owned by the gallery but no longer directly managed by it, and therefore free to take the commercial risks necessary to make a significant impact in the world of publishing and to contribute profits to Tate.

SW: In view of the worldwide economic difficulties, which are affecting all industries and their markets, what do you see as the current main problems facing art book publishing?

RT: High street bookselling is going through a difficult time, particularly in the UK and in North America, and this poses a major challenge to the publisher of art books. The demise of so many independent shops is a great loss, and reduces the visibility of many high-quality illustrated books. For an online sale customers tend to know at the outset what it is they want; the opportunity a good bookshop gives is to surprise them when they encounter the beauty of something they wouldn’t otherwise have seen. Tate Publishing is lucky to have a close connection with the Tate shops, so visitors to the four Tate sites have chance to see much of our range for themselves, in addition to visiting Tate’s online shop, but in the high street, as with all publishers, the numbers selling through traditional channels are reducing, and, while this opens up possibilities for digital publishing it nevertheless affects what might be published in future.

SW: Looking around the Tate bookshops your titles appear to be aimed at a very diverse audience – what are your criteria when commissioning new titles? Whom do you see as a typical customer for your books, if there is one?

RT: There are two criteria for every publishing decision – is it good? And will it make any money? We set great store by the first of these in the belief that every book needs to be of the highest quality in terms of content, design and production if it is to meet the demands of our customers and so make the necessary money that we can pass on to Tate to enable its free access to the collection, educational activities and more.

Tate’s mission is to increase public knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of art. We publish for everybody, whatever level of knowledge, whatever age and whatever background, who might get something out of a book that enhances their appreciation of things seen. This can be a challenge – met with noteworthy success – for our sales force, but is fundamental to an enterprising and dynamic list that seeks to address each individual (no one is ‘typical’). So it’s great to have a list that ranges from Dick Bruna’s Miffy the Artist to Michel Foucault’s Manet and the Object of Painting, a range not so common at most publishing houses these days.

SW: The 1960 Picasso catalogue was designed by typography designer Gordon House, who persuaded Picasso himself to design the jacket. Have artists now become very ‘hands on’ with the catalogues for their exhibitions?

RT: Every artist we work with takes the catalogue for their exhibition very seriously and will be actively engaged with pretty much every aspect of it. It’s an exciting, even if sometimes challenging, part of the job, particularly for the editorial and production staff, who work so hard with the artist, the curator and the designer to ensure that the books are as good as they can possibly be.

SW: Since you have been publishing director which titles in particular have excited you?

RT: I do feel very lucky because of the opportunity the role involves to engage with some of the great artistic talents in the world in creating exhibition catalogues that often become the landmark publications on that artist. Beyond the catalogues (which comprise roughly half our list), though, it’s always exciting to set up new strands of publishing and I’ve been very fortunate to be in a position to develop new areas at Tate Publishing. It’s been a particular joy, for instance, to enable Tate to participate in areas of both tradition and innovation where it has not previously been active – so, for instance, in illustration, it’s been wonderful to bring to Tate the enormous talent of someone like Sara Fanelli, who with Sometimes I Think, Sometimes I Am, emphasizes not only what illustration can do, but also what the form of the book can do, and this – the materiality of the book – has been a key element in much of our recent publishing.

Similarly, I’ve seen it as extremely important for Tate Publishing to develop books that present in new ways the range and depth of visual culture and its historical significance, in books such as David King’s Red Star Over Russia. On another side, it’s wonderful to be working right now with the Open University to publish with them a new reader and set of course books that will offer students and others new and insightful ways into the entire history of art and visual culture over the last thousand years, often through the artists’ own voices. And perhaps a final couple of books to highlight would be Peter Blake’s ABC and Peter Kennard’s @earth, where we have initiated books with artists that are both artist’s books in the traditional sense but at the same time also serve a much wider purpose – whether it be to teach the alphabet or to remonstrate against a world gone wrong.

SW: You now have a very successful range of children’s books on art, what made you go into this area of publishing? What are the most important features for an art book aimed at children?

It’s been my experience that some of the most exciting publishing in terms of exploiting the possibilities of the book form have come about, particularly on the Continent, in children’s publishing, so it’s a natural area for an innovative book publisher to explore. It also enables us to create books that offer more to the child than has previously been available through most children’s publishers in the UK and US.

This ambition resulted in the joy of developing wonderful books with the likes of Hervé Tullet, whose most recent title The Book with a Hole challenges the form of the book in order to create a unique experience for each reader. In a similar way Marc Boutavant’s Mouk, Kveta Pacovska’s The Sun is Yellow (being published next spring) and David Carter’s series of incredible pop-up books allow readers to interact with visually stunning creations.

What’s good to recognize, too, is what a fantastic tradition of artistic creation there is in children’s illustration, and we’ve been able to bring back for today’s children beautiful examples from years ago by Tove Jansson, Dick Bruna, David McKee and Franciszka Themerson, that testify to that.

SW: Do you think that one of the reasons for Tate’s success has been that you have always had an advantage over other publishers in that Tate ‘owns’ so many works of art you therefore do not have to pay copyright fees, and you also have a captive market for your catalogues – exhibition visitors?

RT: Perhaps it’s worth putting right a misconception here – ownership of a work does not affect copyright and, as with every other publisher on modern and contemporary art, we often find that the greatest difficulty in making a publication (whether print or digital) commercially viable is the cost of copyright fees. We don’t receive any funding to offset this, and on many occasions it regrettably means publication of a project we would otherwise be keen to do is simply not possible.

I’m pleased to say that the exhibitions that Tate organizes create new markets for all publishers’ books on the relevant subject, and all art publishers benefit from the substantial sales of their books through Tate’s shops throughout the year. Tate attracts large numbers to certain shows, and it’s always good to see the catalogues selling well after the enormous amount of work undertaken in creating them, but do bear in mind that not all shows are as popular, while the catalogues are always a substantial undertaking, whether or not there is a mass audience to appreciate them.

SW: Besides winning many awards, Tate Publishing, wholly owned by the trustees of the Tate, is now so successful that it is able to provide significant financial support to the work of Tate. How an important an aspect to running the company is this? Is it a large part of your rationale or only incidental?

RT: Tate maintains and cares for the national collections of British art and of modern and contemporary art, and enables free access to these collections to all members of the public. It also organizes, across its four sites, more temporary exhibitions than any other institution in the UK and maintains extensive educational and outreach programmes. All this costs a great deal of money, and the contribution of Tate Publishing to Tate’s work is therefore important not only in terms of what we publish but also in terms of the financial benefit our publishing operation delivers – every publication we make has to contribute to this.

As with any commercial publisher, we are entirely self-sustaining and receive no financial support. Such strict commercial criteria enable us to focus on the needs of our customers (including not only the quality of design, text and reproductions but also format and price), and in this way to achieve the commercial success through which we can benefit the public through the wider activities of Tate.

SW: Thank you for taking time out of your extremely busy schedule to talk to Cassone.