Very much recommended viewing for every artist, whatever your ethnicity, for an explanation of just how difficult it is to get your artwork seen when the art establishment ignores you - and even denies your nationality.
However it was interesting to hear that there is a lot more work by black artists in British Collections than had been expected - but that it tends to be in the collection and NOT on show.
I'm ashamed to say an awful lot of what I heard about was new to me. So I thought I'd create a set of links to the websites and more information about:
- some of the artists who are mentioned in the programme
- notable events / exhibitions highlighted by the programme
- some of the more famous black artists who latterly are known for their art first and their ethnicity second.
Anybody who cares to suggest
- other websites relevant to the programme or theme is welcome to do so
- other artists who deserve to be added to the list
please leave a comment with the information or name.
Black Artists in the Programme
It became very clear that black art in this context actually means art by anybody who doesn't fit in terms of a white western European origin.
Older artists tend to be born elsewhere and come to Britain and younger artists are typically born here as the second or third generation family members of the original migrants
- Rasheed Araeen (1935 - present) - a London-based conceptual artist, sculptor, painter, writer, and curator. Arrived from Pakistan in 1964.
Araeen has been among the first cultural practitioners to voice since the early 1970s the need of artists of African, Latin American and Asian origins to be represented in British cultural institutions.
- Frank Bowling OBE (1936 - present) Member of the RA. A a leading Colour Field painter in the 1970s.
- Sonia Boyce MBE RA (1962 - present) currently Professor of Fine Arts at Middlesex University, London and Professor of Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London and co-ordinator of the exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery
Sonia and her team have spent the past three years scouring public art archives to find out just how many works of art by artists of African and Asian descent the nation really owns. They have found nearly 2,000, but many of these pieces have rarely, if ever, been displayed before BBC
- Lubaina Himid MBE (1954 - present) - first British black artist to win the Turner Prize (in 2017). British contemporary artist and curator; Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire. Named named Artist of the Year 2017 by international art journal Apollo Magazine.
Himid was appointed MBE in June 2010 for "services to black women's art", and won the Turner Prize in 2017. Tate bio
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| Turner Prize 2017 - Lubaina Himid | Tate |
