BEFORE visiting Tate Liverpool’s new exhibition, This is Sculpture, it might be worth undergoing a complete fast of all things aesthetically pleasing.

Because, with two floors of more than 100 works from the gallery’s national collection, the show is gluttony for the eyes.

Standing in a dramatically transformed space on the first floor is the internationally renowned artist and curator Michael Craig-Martin, who is also known for his output of famous students, including Damien Hirst and Julian Opie.

The usually plain white walls are a vivid magenta and there are some of the world’s most famous works of art dotted around the floor.

“There’s an idea that white is a neutral background. It’s fine as a background, but it’s not neutral. When you use yellow or magenta, nobody can say it’s neutral,” explains Craig-Martin, who is guest curating his own section of the exhibition. Outspoken designer Wayne Hemmingway and his 22-year-old son, Jack, and theatre director Tim Etchells, will also oversee areas of the gallery.

There is certainly nothing impartial about Craig-Martin’s choices, but, by presenting the works in such a bold way, he encourages a response from those looking at them.

This environment is as meticulously controlled as a government science lab, yet it doesn’t feel so. Instead, the interlinked galleries roll freely out in front of the viewer like a continuous landscape.

With the plinths matching the walls – magenta, yellow or turquoise, depending on the room – the art works appear almost suspended in mid-air.

And, for every piece, there is a way of viewing it that ensures no other piece of art can be seen in the background – a complicated puzzle to solve, given the number of works he has managed to pack in without the gallery feeling overcrowded.

“It didn’t take so long to work out,” says Craig-Martin simply. “I’m used to doing it.

“I want there to be different perspectives. You can look at a piece of sculpture on its own or in relation to the others around it.