A world of argument and conflict, disagreement and adoration
Illustration: Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA - Portrait of a Man, probably Francis Barber, c. 1770; oil on canvas, 78.7 x 63.8 cm;The Menil Collection, Houston. Photo © Hickey-Robertson, Houston
Daniel Nelson
A caption in the Royal Academy’s new blockbuster exhibition, Entangled Pasts, 1768 - Now: Art, Colonialism and Change, reveals what the institution is trying to escape from:
The Royal Academy’s President from 1924 to 1926 [Frank] Dicksee insisted “our ideal of beauty must be the white man’s.
So two cheers for an exhibition of 100 works, assembled in the cause of “a conversation about art and its role in shaping narratives around empire, enslavement, resistance, abolition and colonialism.” And, of course, racism, which permeates many of the historic paintings this show.
It’s not particularly radical (I liked The Guardian reviewer’s suggestion that if the RA wanted to live up to its aim of making the exhibition a barometer “of public discourse and debate”, redressing “some of the legacies of colonialism”, it should waive the entrance fee for formerly colonised people and their descendants), but it illustrates much current thinking: most of the show’s oomph comes from mixing the historic works with the voices and visions of contemporary artists.
The shift in focus over the last 250 years is indicated from the outset by the portrait of Ignatius Sanchez, “the first man of African descent to vote in a British election” (I would have added the caveat ‘known’ to the description) and the note that John Singleton Cropley, an 18th century American artist working in Britain, is the only Royal Academician known to have been a slave owner - though art patrons certainly were owners.
You clearly see how black and brown people — usually unnamed — have moved from the edges of battle scenes and “history paintings” in Western art to the forefront of pictures and to the other side of the easel. It’s important, however, not to over-simplify: the exhibition’s first room features Scipio Moorhead painting his own jet black portrait in 1776.
And just as history painting moved from ancient scenes to contemporaneous developments, so the simplicities of dead times gave way to the entwining tentacles of continental interactions, culminating in the Singh Twins’ ‘Slaves of Fashion’ series, drawing on “Indian miniatures, eighteenth century British satirists and medieval Persian and European manuscripts to explore the complex global histories of fabric”.
Today’s artists, or at least those selected for the exhibition, are keen to highlight the racism and colonialism silently embedded in centuries of ”fine art”, particularly the “... harmonious portrayals of happy colonised people”. Politics often trumps paint in their vital work, but occasionally they achieve the double, like Karen McLean’s lovely juxtaposition of seven miniature wooden Trinidadian huts on stilts in front of photos of seven magnificent homes.
Other treats include El Anatsui’s driftwood figures, standing in for drowned slaves; the story of the underwater realm inhabited by pregnant women and their children, thrown overboard by slavers; John Akomfrah’s powerful three-screen meditation; fascinating historical portraits; the life-size painted cut-out figures of Lubaina Himid’s installation Naming the Money.
Himid, a Royal Academician (so yes, really, the times they are a’changin’), has described the exhibition as “a pageant of great paintings, difficult pictures, great installations … like walking through a great city … after a while you’ll almost forget you are in an art gallery … after a while, when you’re in that show you become part of the narrative. You’ll be in a world of argument and conflict, disagreement and adoration, all at once.”
* Entangled Pasts, 1768 - Now: Art, Colonialism and Change, £22, under-16s free, 16-25-year-olds half price, is at the Royal Academy, Piccadilly until 28 April. Info: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/entangled-pasts Exhibition
Public programme
22 February: Art, Colonialism and Change: How does art reframe history?, panel discussion on the role art has played in shaping narratives of empire and resistance – and how it can help us set a course for the future, 6.30-7.45pm, £15/£9 in person, £8/£5 online
29 February, Curator introduction to the exhibition, 6.30 - 7.45pm, £15/£9 in person, £8/£5 online
12 April, An evening of poetry and spoken word, 7 - 8.30pm, £10/£8
26 April, Art, colonialism and change, symposium, 10am - 6pm, £45/£15
17 - 18 February, Re-imagining history painting weekend, with artist Adebanji Alade, 10.30am - 5.30pm, £480
6 - 7 April, Photo Collage Weekend, bring traces of the past into the present and go beyond the surface of the image in this photographic practices course, 10.30am - 5.30pm, £480
13, 20, 27 February and 5, 12, 19 March, Protest: Art and power, lecture series exploring the role of art in some of the world’s major protest movements, 6.30 - 7.45pm, £340