Tacita Dean 'Foreign Policy (screenprint edition), 2019' limited edition print

Starting in 2018 and for ten years, the Government Art Collection has commissioned an outstanding British artist to create an original, limited-edition print to be displayed in diplomatic buildings across the world, with a small number available to purchase. 

Tacita Dean is the second artist to be awarded The Robson Orr TenTen Award by the Government Art Collection as part of the ten-year initiative. A self-declared 'collector of clouds', Tacita Dean’s Foreign Policy (screenprint edition) reflects an ongoing series of works and a specific moment in time. The screenprint is an interpretation of a similarly titled large-scale work from 2016, drawn in chalk on blackboard.

Foreign Policy (2016) which was drawn specifically with its destination in the Foreign Office in mind, evokes the challenge of capturing the mutability of clouds and an epoch of unprecedented global change and uncertainty. The title shifts the subject of a cloud, whose ‘identity’ is challenging to capture, to a thought-provoking reflection on global relations. The cloud, whose symbolism gives us both dark warnings and silver linings, is universal and yet defined and shaped by its environment.

• Screenprint on paper

• The Robson Orr TenTen commission for 2019

• Signed by the artist

• Unframed

• Purchasers will receive details on the artists recommended framing specifications

• When buying this print, you consent for your name to be shared with the artist for their archive

• Please note that buyers must agree not to sell at auction in the next 5 years

Dean’s cloud collection began in 2014 following her move from Berlin to Los Angeles, where she describes a seminal encounter with a ‘voluminous atomic cloud blooming’ across Sunset Boulevard ‘on pure azure without transitional haze nor other, lesser clouds for company’. 

Purchases help to contribute to the Government Art Collection's mission to support UK art and emerging UK artists.