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| "Thin Black Line(s)" exhibition, Tate Britain, Gallery 5 |
The Tate Britain unveiled a thought-provoking display on Monday 22 August. Put together by Tate curator Paul Goodwin and artist Lubaina Himid MBE, “Thin Black Line(s)” presents a selection of pieces drawn from three major exhibitions of Black women artists curated by Himid in the early 1980s: “Five Black Women”, Africa Centre (1983); “Black Women Time Now”, Battersea Arts Centre (1983-84); “The Thin Black Line”, Institute for Contemporary Art (1985).
These exhibitions, reads the introductory text panel, “marked the arrival on the British art scene of a radical generation of young Black and Asian women artists who challenged their collective invisibility in the art world and engaged with the social, cultural, political and aesthetic issues of the time.”
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| Press release and poster of "Five African Women" exhibition at the Africa Centre in 1983 |
The display includes works by Sutapa Biswas, Sonia Boyce, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Ingrid Pollard, Veronica Ryan and Maud Sulter. Drawings, paintings, sculptures and photographs are showcased alongside a video documentary on the Black art scene and archival documents comprising of exhibition posters, invitations, letters, etc.
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| Poster of "Thin Black Line" exhibition, ICA, 1985 |
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| Lubaina Himid in the video documentary on the Black Arts |
While most works are well known to Black Art aficionados, a new piece by Himid epitomises the historical moments and facts underlying this show. Thin Black Line(s) Moments and Connections (2011), pencil and crayon on paper, maps out the ramifications of the history of the Black Art by creating a network which architecture resembles a tube map. One transversal line, named after the abovementioned three seminal shows, intersects with Other Artists, Showing Spaces, Education, Exhibitions, Creative Groups, and Texts and Publications lines.
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| Lubaina Himid, Thin Black Line(s) Moments and Connections (2011), pencil and crayon on paper |
Drawing on the metaphor of the underground, one could associate Himid’s drawing to the marginalisation (or invisibility because under/ground) of the Black British art scene in the early 1980s. It also recalls both the roots of Black art practice in the UK and by extension, the family tree linking Black professionals in the country.
The mapping and framing enclosing these moments and facts also bring in the notion of time and beg the question of legacy of Black women beyond the frame.
Visitors connected to this story will be inclined to situate themselves on the map. As a British-based art worker I playfully tried my rootedness against the map. I managed to locate my first job at the Brixton Art Gallery, then the Africa Centre (alas well after their heydays); found names of artists and institutions I engaged with: Houria Niati, Gavin Jantjes, Rasheed Araeen… Third Text, Autograph…
Each of these encounters are valued as personal highlights because they inform my practice as an art writer and curator.
Any Black art professional educated on the other bank of the Channel knows all too well that endeavours to historicise the Black presence on the European art scenes is scarce. Rarely is the story being told by its actors. Quite often the case is that we are talked about rather than talking for ourselves.
To practise in an environment where black history, intellectual thought, written material, and archival documents are readily available and kept in public institutions is not to be taken for granted.
For what it is worth, if one were to compare the Diasporia experience on both sides of the Channel, one could argue that whereas in France the vanishing impact of Negritude in the 1970s marked the end of a Black French intellectual flagship movement, in Britain, the Caribbean Artists Movement (1966-72) and the Black Art (1980s) have enabled Black British artists and intellectuals to retain ownership of the discourse on their arts and cultures.
One striking example can be found in the difference between the emergence of the Black Arts in the early 1980s and that of “contemporary African art” in the late 1980s.
In 1981, Eddie Chambers, one of the instigators of the Black Art movement organised the first exhibition of the kind. “Black Art an’ done” (Wolverhampton Art Gallery), was unique in its political intent. First of all, as Chambers writes, as a group, the artists came together themselves, rather than being gathered by a curator (1). Second of all, the manifesto-style of this show was emphasized by its non-commercial orientation. Chambers’ introductory text clearly mentioned that “most of the pieces of work in this exhibition [were] not for sale” (2), which was quite unusual.
This approach differs completely from the one characterising “contemporary African art”. For instance, “The Magicians of the Earth” (Pompidou Centre, La Vilette, Paris, 1989), marks the beginning of a trend that partakes in what Chambers would have called “conciliatory acts of white art administration liberalism or political expediency” (3).
Tinted with a much-criticised exoticism, this show introduced a shift in our understanding of Black art practice. Whereas in the UK the term black encompassed African, Caribbean and South Asian cultural backgrounds, and bore a political connotation, in France, Africa was isolated as an ethnic group, almost as a country. In the early 1990s, African art shows were usually curated by Westerners, supported by public funds, and the (somewhat irrelevant) discourse on authenticity often validated by self-proclaimed specialists backed by art collections granting them discursive authority.
The bid to reclaim the discourse on African arts and cultures has seen the emergence of some of the most prominent African curators who can be commended for having given visibility to otherwise marginalised artists. However it does not take long to observe that most of the large-scale exhibitions remained the preserve of male curators. Prompting one to wonder whether or not this condition has any bearing on the exposure of women artists, and the mediation of their work from the studio to exhibition space. In other words, in contexts where female practitioners are blatantly under-represented is there not ground to argue for a gendered-focussed practice?
Back in the 1980s, Lubaina Himid explored similar questions and took the initiative to challenge the double marginalisation experienced by Black women both within the Black Art movement and in mainstream institutions. She put on exhibitions opening up discussions from a woman’s perspective. While she is credited by Rasheed Araeen for this role (4) and for deconstructing an essentialist definition of the term "black" by bringing together artists of African and Asian origins (5), she, in turn, credits Claudette Johnson.
“I must mention here, she writes, that Claudette Johnson was in the BLK Art Group … It was Claudette Johnson who decided to take the women at the Black Art Conference into another space, in order for us to engage with the issues most important to us.” She also adds that: “ In visual terms, she said things about black women’s bodies, experiences, and aspirations…” (6).
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| Marlene Smith and Keith Piper, two pioneers of the Black Art movement visit the Thin Black Line(s) exhibition. In the background, Sutapa Biswas' Housewives with Steak Knives (1985). |
In many respects the concerns of Johnson, Himid, and their peers live on in today’s art practices in the Diaspora and Africa. Recent examples include exhibitions like “Innovative Women – Ten Contemporary Black Women Artists” (Johannesburg, 2009) curated by Bongi Bengu; “Like a Virgin…” (CCA, Lagos, 2009) curated by Bisi Silva; and the trio of women’s exhibitions I developed in Dakar, London and Paris.
“Thin Black Line(s)” does not claim to be exhaustive in scope, rather it encourages further investigation on black women’s iconography in British art. This exhibition contributes to frame gendered art practices from a black perspective and highlights narratives quite often overshadowed by the quest for the new in current curatorial trends.
Notes:
1. Eddie Chambers, "A History of Black Artists in Britain", The Artpack, 1988, p. 9.
2. Eddie Chambers in "Black Art An' Done", 1981, np.
3. Eddie Chambers, "A History of Black Artists in Britain", op. cit.
4. Rasheed Araeen, "The Success and the Failure of Black Art", Third Text, Vol. 18, Issue 2, 2004, p. 140.
5. Ibid., p. 142.
6. Lubaina Himid, Inside the Invisible: For/Getting Strategy, in Bailey, Baucom, Boyce (eds.), Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain. Durham, London: Duke University Press, Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) and African and Asian Visual Artists' Archive (Aavaa), 2005, p. 43.
"Thin Black Line(s)" runs until 18 March 2012
Tate Britain
Gallery 5
Millbank
London SW1P 4RG
020 7887 8888
Free Entry
For further information visit the Tate website
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