The Evergreen, Influential Work Of Britain´s Black Artists
by Lisa Anderson
Image: Lisa Anderson. Courtesy of the curator
At the start of the last decade, the art establishment’s, reductionist and tone deaf ideas about contemporary British art, still positioned the concept of Black British Art as a quaint, niche interest.
Despite the achievements of generation-defining artists like Ronald Moody, Frank Bowling, Sonia Boyce, Steve McQueen and Chris Ofili, the majority of educational institutions and art historical writing and discourse have failed to adequately reflect the breadth of practice that these artists, and the creative communities they stemmed from, have contributed.
Ten years on, and despite the devastating impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic on artists and the art-market ecosystem, the tide is slowly turning. Stirrings of a ‘renaissance’ in Black British art in the late 2010s, edged closer to a healthy boil at the start of the 2020s. It’s no coincidence that this shift in recognition tallied with two important trends. Firstly, the evolving digital landscape, the height of ‘Black Tumblr’ and the dawn of Instagram have dissolved barriers between art lovers and deep, wide-ranging histories of Black art practice through accounts like @blackbritishart (run by curator Lisa Anderson).
Lubaina Himid, A Fashionable Marriage( 1986). Exhibition view, Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens. Photo: Andy Keate.
Secondly, an undercurrent of fresh academic research on Black British art from various intellectual camps has resulted in works like Eddie Chambers’ landmark publication Black Artists in British Art: A History Since the 1950s (2014) and a couple of years later, the launch of the Black Artists and Modernism research project, led by Professor Sonia Boyce, which set out to ask how artists of African and Asian descent in Britain feature in the story of twentieth-century art.
“One of the most poignant factors affecting the prospects of Black British artists during the pandemic is society’s reckoning with the persistence of racial inequality in all spheres of life.”
At the same time, breakthrough exhibitions were in the making. In the summer of 2014, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye opened her first UK solo show at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and the following year the exhibition No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990 opened at the Guildhall Art Gallery to critical acclaim. In 2017 a landmark exhibition entitled The Place is Here featuring hitherto under-appreciated artists from Britain’s 1980s Black Arts movement, including Claudette Johnson and Marlene Smith, opened at Nottingham Contemporary, while a refreshingly eclectic group show of brilliant works from eleven emerging Black British artists called Untitled ran at Nottingham’s New Art Exchange.
That same year, some of those artists featured alongside more established names like Isaac Julien and Hew Locke in the 2017 Venice Biennale’s first ever Diaspora Pavilion. Finally, 2017 ended with celebrated artists Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid attending the Turner Prize award ceremony as nominees, with Himid succeeding as the Prize’s oldest and first Black female winner.
Lubaina Himid, The Place Is Here, Nottingham Contemporary, 2017.
This turning point ushered in more solo and group exhibitions that gave space to more nuanced conversations about the varied contributions of Black British artists to the world. Highlights include BBZ BLK BK: Alternative Graduate Show 2018, featuring emerging talent of Black ancestry; Lina Iris Viktor’s solo show Some Are Born To Endless Night – Dark Matter (2019–20) at Autograph ABP; Claudette Johnson’s solo show I Came to Dance (2019) at Modern Art Oxford; and Get Up Stand Up (2019) at Somerset House, a group show of 110 artists from across the Diaspora. The decade closed out with a number of emerging painting talents such as Joy Labinjo selling out booths at Frieze Art Fair, and Larry Achiampong’s redesign of London Underground signage as part of Transport for London’s Art on the Underground programme.
2020 was set up be a blockbuster year, starting with a major retrospective at Tate Modern for Steve McQueen and the much-anticipated survey show of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s work at Tate Britain later in the autumn. While Steve McQueen’s show opened, it was cut short by the pandemic, which ultimately played havoc with many other Black British artists’ planned exhibitions. While some, such as Jadé Fadojutimi with her solo show Jesture at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, were still able to hold critically and commercially successful shows during the summer’s windows of loosened Covid-19 restrictions, they were the exception to the rule. Others, such as Phoebe Boswell’s solo show Here at New Art Exchange, have been postponed until further notice.
No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990, Exhibition at Guildhall Art Gallery. Installation view. Photo: Unknown In
One of the most poignant factors affecting the prospects of Black British artists during the pandemic is society’s reckoning with the persistence of racial inequality in all spheres of life. Following George Floyd’s murder in the United States and the resurgence of the global Black Lives Matter movement, arts institutions, commercial and public alike, came under greater scrutiny for their treatment of Black staff, artists and audiences. At the same time, audiences became more curious about the reality of Black life in Britain. This led to a huge upsurge in interest in Black artists in the digital realm, with a number of Black British artists experiencing significant growth in their online following.
BBZ BLK BK: Alternative Graduate Show (2019). Installation Shot
Furthermore, a number of grants and commissioning opportunities targeting Black British artists came to the fore, and the media began to feature a range of stories featuring Black British artists like never before. The new paid commissioning opportunities and increased public representation was a welcome advantage in the midst of widespread anxiety over health and the ability to maintain a healthy livelihood. However, there is no doubt that the majority of Black British artists did not fare well and have found themselves struggling.
On top of this, many artists have found themselves at the forefront of conversations about the pernicious legacies of colonialism in the art world. Larry Achiampong and Thomas J. Price were both leading voices amid public criticism for Marc Quinn’s seemingly opportunistic sculpture of the activist Jen Reid and, similarly, artists such as Evan Ifekoya have worked to hold arts institutions to account for persistent failures to address racial inequality, for example in their treatment of staff and students.
Lisa Anderson is an independent curator, consultant and champion for Black British Art. She is founder of @blackbritishart; a curatorial platform dedicated to celebrating the range and depth of this evergreen arts territory.