The Tate Gallery by tube

This is the original artwork for one of London Underground's most popular publicity posters. It was commissioned in 1987 as part of 'Art on The Underground', a campaign set up the previous year to re-establish the London Transport poster tradition. The artist, David Booth of the agency Fine White line, has created a witty adaptation of Harry Beck's diagrammatic Underground map, first published in 1933. Each of the underground lines is represented by paint squeezed directly from a tube. At Pimlico, on the Victoria line, a paint tube stands in place of the Tate. This reinforces the sculptural quality of map and plays on the idea of travelling by 'Tube'.