The Tate Gallery has become something of a British Guggenheim in its ambitions: Divide and put down Though less globe-trotting than its American colleague.

The Tate Gallery has become something of a British Guggenheim in its ambitions: Divide and put down Though less globe-trotting than its American colleague, the Tate's four showplaces now boast one 350,000 square feet of exhibition space in which to display the museum's collection of more than 60000 works. Holding the explanations to the treasure is Jeremy Lewison, keeper of the Tate collection. Lewison stands between Bankside's Lars Nittve and Millbank's Stephen Deuchar as the man with his hand in succession the throttle of acquisitions, the director of research, the oversman of thirty curators. "I am," he says with matter-of-fact satisfaction, at the center"

No doubt, his satisfaction is earned. Lewison was appointed director of collections in 1998 after climbing the Tate's ranks during the previous thirteen years. Having started as an assistant curator of drawings (fresh from six years as the curator at the University of Cambridge's moderate but progressive exhibition hall, Kettle's Yard), he then directed prints and drawings before moving forward to the modern collection, which he also lasted up running. Charming and well-spoken--though known for a certain martial intensity and the occasional biting glare of authority when challenged--there is something of the civil servant about Lewison. In fact he commends the description. "I know it's hard for an American in the midst of a heated, market-driven art display to understand," he says, "but there still is in the British art world a understanding of the importance of working for the public institution."

now government support has been lean perpetually since Margaret Thatcher slapped manacles forward the slender wrists of the arts. The subsidy allotted the Tate for acquisitions today is, frighteningly, the same as it was in 1982-[pounds]19 million ($3 million). Lewison squanders a lot of time seeking on the outside the charity of friends, which last year amounted to a correlative of another [pounds]1.3 million (more than $2 million).

Sometimes works do win away. "We just lost Braque's Atelier V to the novel in New York," he says briskly. "It was here upon loan for five years, and then it was gone sold to MOMA without the lender giving us time to flow up with an offer. It was tragic." Still, he warms to the extended list of recent acquisitions, from an important cluster of Duchamps and Mondrian's 1935 Composition B with R to works by way of Gillian Wearing, Tony Cragg, Ellsworth Kelly and William Kentridge. A new gift of sixty pieces from Tate trustee Janet Wolfson de Botton cloaks the contemporary waterfront: Andre, Artschwager, Judd LeWitt, Ryman, Schnabel, Scully Warhol, and in like manner on.

Are the acquisition decisions collaborative? Lewison momentarily chills. "I say what we'll get" he asserts. "I bring it to Nick [Serota] and to the board for them to accept or throw overboard Stephen and Lars have the responsibility of programming their sites, putting the displays together. further the ultimate acquisitions responsibility is mine." With the expansion of the Tate network, Nittve's instatement at Bank-side, and several of recent origin curatorial appointments, it is inevitable that a certain number of squaring off over turf will take place. It is no great hidden that the tension up and down the Thames can sometimes be rivals with the fog for thickness.

These days Lewison is pursuing more Duchamps and David Smiths for the collection, as well as Latin American work (the museum is hunting for a curator in the field), postwar European art, and the les fashionable area of social realism. "After these years, I must say I'm settled" he remarks. "Settl and excited. I still don't want to do anything else"

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