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.
Welcome comments and feedback by email or on Twitter #IBLG
Michael Ohajuru
Senior Fellow Institute of Commonwealth Studies
about.me/michaelohajuru
Jan 2020
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.
Welcome comments and feedback by email or on Twitter #IBLG
Michael Ohajuru
Senior Fellow Institute of Commonwealth Studies
about.me/michaelohajuru
Jan 2020