The Time is Always Now
quickie about exciting Black art
There are seven pics. in this post so you may find it easier to open via the Substack app.
Thanks to a hot tip from Bailey Richardson I saw an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London that pleased me very much. “The Time is Always Now: Artists reframe the Black Figure” is curated by British journalist, Ekow Eshun and showcases the work of contemporary artists from the African diaspora.
My personal favourite was a huge self-portrait by Nigerian-born Njideka Akunyi Crosby (b. 1983) called, “Still You Bloom in this Land of No Gardens” (Acrylic, transfers, collage, 2021.) She’s L.A-based and her work depicts domestic scenes that reflect Nigerian identity and American living. The collage-elements of this charming piece feature Nollywood film stills, Nigerian lifestyle magazines, advertisements and her family photographs.
I’m inserting a detail from the painting that I hope will entertain my Nigerian subscribers. Thanks to Najwa and Salimat, I am blessed with some cool readers from that part of the world. (Check out their newsletters The perks of being Najwa and Walking with Salimat.) I wish you writers could have been standing next to me at the exhibition; I’d have loved a guided tour of Nigerian pop culture via the intriguing transfers on this wonderful picture.
There were many other works I admired too. For example, this bronze head by Kenyan-American Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972) “The Second Dreamer” (bronze and wood, 2017.) It deliberately evokes Brancusi’s ‘Sleeping Muse’ (1910). As you might know, he drew his inspiration from his collection of African masks, as well as from Native American totems and Oceanic tiki figures. I love the way all these cultures influence artists and especially how Mutu harnesses this artistic history to reclaim the mask and make a ‘Back-at-you’ work.
And what about this golden girl, by sculptor Thomas J. Price? I found it thrilling to see the figure of a black female dominating a gallery like a classical goddess. Price is the only artist to create a piece specifically for the exhibition. Called As Sounds Turn to Noise, it took a year to make, stands 2.8m (9ft) tall, is made of bronze.
Also on show were works by Chris Offili, Noah Davis, Claudette Johnson, Michael Armitage, Lubaina Himid, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Amy Sherald, among others, all illuminating the richness and complexity of Black life.
Perhaps the most politically powerfully pieces were those by Barbara Walker. She takes historical paintings from Western art that depict a black person, usually in a servitude role, and reduces the main figures to vague embossment— is there such a word? What I mean is, you can see the outline of the figures on the paper but not their faces… So sly :) She effectively erases the slave-owner, coloniser, etc and draws in only the black ‘boy’ (usually a young male), in exquisite pencil detail. A case of a picture speaking a thousand words.
This is a wonderful exhibition and is part of a recent awakening to the talent among black artists, by galleries and curators in the UK.
Wish you’d been there.
Talk soon,
cm