Tate Britain
Tate Britain exterior
Jim Manton had a long affiliation with the Tate Gallery in London (known today as Tate Britain), which was not surprising, given his fondness for British Art. His love of work by John Constable eventually led Manton to Tate curator and Constable scholar Leslie Parris. For many years, Parris and Manton worked to assign proper attribution to works Manton had collected as Constables. Along the way, they formed a lasting friendship. Parris connected Manton to other knowledgeable art scholars to learn more about artists and paintings. On one occasion, Leslie Parris even helped Sir Edwin avoid buying a fake Constable.
The American Patrons of Tate was founded by the Mantons in 1987 (renamed Tate Americas Foundation in 2013) to add North and Latin American works to the Tate collection, and to support American artists studying and painting in Britain. Gretchen served on the board along with Tate Director Nick Serota, attorney and family friend Terry Christensen and art historian Allen Staley. Jim enjoyed attending the meetings, and the AIG shares he donated were the funds used to purchase art in the early days. Later, other notable art patrons such as the Annenbergs contributed to the fund. Board meetings would find the group discussing which works of art to buy and donate to the Tate.
Richard Hamilton and Jim Manton
“The Mantons are and were a part of our family.”
The Mantons began making large financial contributions to the Tate Gallery in the 1980s. Gifts from the Mantons in the 1990s made them the most generous donors in the institution’s history (aside from founder Sir Henry Tate). Between endowment and capital gifts, endowment-generated acquisition funds and his legacy overall, Jim Manton contributed just under $100 million to the Tate during his lifetime. According to Richard Hamilton, director of Tate Americas Foundation who worked directly with the Mantons for many years, their munificence catalyzed giving to the Tate from the Americas in a period when the museum’s luster as an international player had faded. This energizing support led to Manton’s knighthood in 1994—a mixed blessing, since it meant that decades of philanthropic anonymity abruptly halted. Richard recounts a story from a Tate colleague who was contacted by a staff member from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art shortly after the knighting ceremony took place. “Who is this Sir Edwin Manton?” she asked. “I know nothing about him!” That was just how Jim Manton liked it.
In recognition of the long relationship of mutual admiration and respect between Sir Edwin and the Tate, particularly director Nicholas Serota and curator Leslie Parris, the Foundation made a legacy gift of $20 million in 2008. The gift helped Tate renovate the River Room, which looks out on the Thames and had not been used in recent years. Two gifts followed: $467,233 for the Millbank Project in 2012 and a $10 million challenge grant the following year, which successfully leveraged needed funding for the Tate to acquire Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, a work that had been in private ownership. The gift ensured that this painting would now be viewed widely alongside other Constable pieces. Manton Foundation grants to Tate have enabled the trustees to recognize the impressive longtime leadership of Nick Serota, a creative fundraiser in a climate that, at the time, had far less philanthropic tradition than did the United States.
Given Sir Edwin’s close ties to Tate, why did his daughter, Diana, decide to donate the collection elsewhere? Perhaps it was in recognition of the pleasure Sir Edwin had gained during more than fifty years as a student and collector of art. He appreciated the challenge, the learning and even the mistakes made as he sharpened his critical eye. His family believed, and principals of the Tate were inclined to agree, that he would have delighted in creating opportunities for other students young and old to derive similar learning from the fruits of his labor. Rather than add to an already robust Tate collection, Diana selected what was, at the time, a more modest U.S. institution where an audience with less familiarity with British artists could learn—thus enabling the collection to have a different and deeper permanent impact. Since a great deal of the Manton collection is made up of works on paper, which are of particular interest to scholars and need expert care, the fit with the Clark is especially suitable. And its location, not far from the Boston area, enabled his descendants to “see what he spent his money on,” a wish Jim Manton had expressed during his lifetime.
Carrie Mae Weems, From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried 1995−96; from a grouping of 33 photographs, digital C-prints and etched text on glass) Lent by the Tate Americas Foundation, purchased using funds provided by the North Americans Acquisitions Committee and endowment income
© Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, NY
