About
The Image of the Black in London Galleries (IBLG) highlights the black presence to be found in the national art collections in London.
There is a black presence in many of the works in the nation’s collections in London. That presence takes many different forms; blacks are depicted as musicians, as kings, as slaves, as servants, as saints and sometime just as people and even as artist in their own right. The Black Presence is most cases is explicit though not immediately and sometimes the presence has to teased out, IBLG seeks to make that Black presence better known.
The image of the Black in London Galleries was inspired by three things:
1 The Image of the Black in Western Art
The Image of the Black in Western Art is the seminal multi volume work of images of people of African descent from early Greek to the current day, it was an attempt by an American philanthropist to address the absence of the black figure in Western canonical art at time of racial unrest and injustice. It continues to be updated; the latest volume (2017) addresses Asian and African art.
2 Temi Odumosu’s work at the National Gallery
Temi produced a list of all the works in the National Gallery’s collection she could find which had a black presence. That list was available at the information desk and on line, both are now (2017) sadly no longer available. That deleted web presence now can be reached via the WayBack machine here.
3 Art Historical London
I was asked by Art Historical London following a recommendation by the folks at Black History Walks in April 2017, to give a tour of the black presence in a London national collection. Up to that time (thanks to Janet Browne at the V&A) I had worked on the black presences in the Victoria and Albert museum, in order to deliver the National Gallery talk as required I had to expand my data base of images which is presented here as IBLG.
There is a black presence in many of the works in the nation’s collections in London. That presence takes many different forms; blacks are depicted as musicians, as kings, as slaves, as servants, as saints and sometime just as people and even as artist in their own right. The Black Presence is most cases is explicit though not immediately and sometimes the presence has to teased out, IBLG seeks to make that Black presence better known.
The image of the Black in London Galleries was inspired by three things:
1 The Image of the Black in Western Art
The Image of the Black in Western Art is the seminal multi volume work of images of people of African descent from early Greek to the current day, it was an attempt by an American philanthropist to address the absence of the black figure in Western canonical art at time of racial unrest and injustice. It continues to be updated; the latest volume (2017) addresses Asian and African art.
2 Temi Odumosu’s work at the National Gallery
Temi produced a list of all the works in the National Gallery’s collection she could find which had a black presence. That list was available at the information desk and on line, both are now (2017) sadly no longer available. That deleted web presence now can be reached via the WayBack machine here.
3 Art Historical London
I was asked by Art Historical London following a recommendation by the folks at Black History Walks in April 2017, to give a tour of the black presence in a London national collection. Up to that time (thanks to Janet Browne at the V&A) I had worked on the black presences in the Victoria and Albert museum, in order to deliver the National Gallery talk as required I had to expand my data base of images which is presented here as IBLG.
Michael I. Ohajuru DUniv* , FRSA
Image of the Black in London Galleries Chief Docent
April 2025
*Honoured and Privileged to have been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University, the John Blanke Project was mention in the citation which included Few historians working today have done more to advance knowledge and understanding of Black British history and art history for the complete citation go to my OU Blog.
Michael I. Ohajuru Bio
Michael I. Ohajuru Has an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University (2024), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2022) Senior Fellow of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (2014) with honours degrees in Physics (Leeds, 1974) and Art History (Open University, 2008). He retired in 2014 after a twenty-five-year career holding senior positions in international sales and marketing in the data and mobile communications industry, he lives in South London with partner the artist Ebun Culwin. He blogs, writes and speaks regularly on the black presence in Renaissance Europe, he has spoken at the Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the National Gallery, London Tate Britain, British Library, National Archives and the Victoria Albert Museum on the subject. Founded Image of the Black in London Galleries in 2010 a series of gallery tours highlighting the overt and covert black presences to be found in the national art collections in London. He is the Project Director and Chief Evangelist of The John Blanke Project: a contemporary Art and Archive project celebrating John Blanke the Black trumpeter to courts of Henry VII and Henry VII now in the permanent collections of National Portrait Gallery and National Archive. Michael was co-convener of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies What’s Happening in Black British History series of workshops fostering a creative dialogue between researchers, educationalists (mainstream and supplementary), archivists and curators, and policy makers, a series of 10 workshops over five years and is a founder member of the Black Presence in British Portraiture network, managing their podcast – The BP2 Podcast
Image of the Black in London Galleries Chief Docent
April 2025
*Honoured and Privileged to have been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University, the John Blanke Project was mention in the citation which included Few historians working today have done more to advance knowledge and understanding of Black British history and art history for the complete citation go to my OU Blog.
Michael I. Ohajuru Bio
Michael I. Ohajuru Has an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University (2024), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2022) Senior Fellow of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (2014) with honours degrees in Physics (Leeds, 1974) and Art History (Open University, 2008). He retired in 2014 after a twenty-five-year career holding senior positions in international sales and marketing in the data and mobile communications industry, he lives in South London with partner the artist Ebun Culwin. He blogs, writes and speaks regularly on the black presence in Renaissance Europe, he has spoken at the Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the National Gallery, London Tate Britain, British Library, National Archives and the Victoria Albert Museum on the subject. Founded Image of the Black in London Galleries in 2010 a series of gallery tours highlighting the overt and covert black presences to be found in the national art collections in London. He is the Project Director and Chief Evangelist of The John Blanke Project: a contemporary Art and Archive project celebrating John Blanke the Black trumpeter to courts of Henry VII and Henry VII now in the permanent collections of National Portrait Gallery and National Archive. Michael was co-convener of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies What’s Happening in Black British History series of workshops fostering a creative dialogue between researchers, educationalists (mainstream and supplementary), archivists and curators, and policy makers, a series of 10 workshops over five years and is a founder member of the Black Presence in British Portraiture network, managing their podcast – The BP2 Podcast
