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Black Artists in British Art

BlackArtistCover

 

Published July 30.

Paperback Edition $22,40.

ABOUT

Black artists have been making major contributions to the British art scene for decades, since at least the middle of the 20th century. Sometimes, these artists – with backgrounds in the countries of Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia – were regarded and embraced as British practitioners of note and merit. At other times, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, they were not. In response, on occasion, Britain’s black artists came together and made their own exhibitions or created their own gallery spaces. In this book, Eddie Chambers tells the story of Britain’s black artists, from the 1950s onwards, including the contemporary art of Steve McQueen, Chris Ofili and Yinka Shonibare. Black Artists in British Art represents a timely and important contribution to British art history.

chris_ofili_confession_2007Chris Ofili, Confession, 2007.

 

CONTENT

Foreword: Celebrating Nelson’s Ships

Introduction: Some Problems with History and its Treatment of Black-British Artists.

Chapter One: The Pioneering Generation of Caribbean Artists

Chapter Two: Early Contributions by South Asian Artists

Chapter Three: The Significance of the 1970s

Chapter Four: Uzo Egonu and Contemporary African Art in Britain

Chapter Five: The Earliest Black-British Practitioners

Chapter Six: South Asian Stories

Chapter Seven: The ‘Black Art’ Generation and the 1980s

Chapter Eight: The Rise and Fall of The Black-Art Gallery

Chapter Nine: The Emergence of Black Women Artists: Arguments and Opinions

Chapter Ten: Sonia Boyce and Other Black Women Artists

Chapter Eleven: Substantial Sculpture: The work of Sokari Douglas Camp, Veronica Ryan, and Permindar Kaur.

Chapter Twelve: Black Artists of the 1990s Generation

Chapter Thirteen: The Triumphant Triumvirate: Yinka Shonibare, Chris Ofili, and Steve McQueen.

Epilogue: The New Generation

YinkaHowtoblowuptwoheadsatonce2006Yinka Shonibare, How to blow up two heads at once, 2006.

 

AUTHOR

 

Eddie Chambers is Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas at Austin, USA, where he teaches the art history of the African Diaspora. He gained his Ph.D. from Goldsmith’s College, University of London and between 2003 and 2009 he was a Visiting Professor, Art History, at Emory University, Atlanta. Since the early 1980s Eddie Chambers has been organizing and curating artists’ exhibitions in Britain and a range of other countries, including the US, Australia and Jamaica.