Guide to Image of the Black in the National Gallery
Text by Michael Ohajuru Drawings by Ebun Culwin
A ground breaking guide to the explicit and implicit black presence in the art on display in the National Galley
Guide to Image of the Black in the National Gallery is the first in a series of guides to the overt and covert black presences to be found in the art in London’s national art collections written by Michael Ohajuru with pencil images by co-author and artist Ebun Culwin.
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 artists in their own right. That black presence is in many cases explicit though often not immediate.
Michael has been regularly running tours in the three London galleries for the past two years: The National Gallery, Tate Britain and the Wallace Collection. Image of the Black in London Galleries (IBLG) guides will now make the expertise from the tours available in a written form and will also be available as a smartphone app. This will enable IBLG guide users to have access to the same scholarship, and many of the anecdotes of the guided tours, while taking the tour in their own time, at their own pace.
The guides are based on Michael Ohajuru‘s IBLG tours https://imageoftheblackinlondongalleries.weebly.com
His Airbnb IBLG experience tours have been exceptionally well received National Gallery Tour 5.0 rating – 100% 28 five-star reviews (June 2019)
National Gallery https://www.airbnb.co.uk/experiences/101822 Comments
Michael has such a depth of knowledge about art history, the cultural contexts that the art was produced in, and the hidden histories embedded in the paintings on display. [Neil, Mar 19]
Michael …..really brought the works to life and helped to deconstruct and explain the varied representations of black people throughout a really broad sweep of Art History [Mohammed , Jan 19]
It was very well researched and informative, and you could tell how passionate Michael is about the subject matter. [Su Anne, Oct18]
He is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about art and we came away with a new understanding of black figures and how they are presented and represented. [Gina, Jun 18]
Guide to Image of the Black in the National Gallery will be the written version of the National Gallery tour with images by Ebun Culwin guides to Tate Britain and The Wallace Collection are to follow.
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 artists in their own right. That black presence is in many cases explicit though often not immediate.
Michael has been regularly running tours in the three London galleries for the past two years: The National Gallery, Tate Britain and the Wallace Collection. Image of the Black in London Galleries (IBLG) guides will now make the expertise from the tours available in a written form and will also be available as a smartphone app. This will enable IBLG guide users to have access to the same scholarship, and many of the anecdotes of the guided tours, while taking the tour in their own time, at their own pace.
The guides are based on Michael Ohajuru‘s IBLG tours https://imageoftheblackinlondongalleries.weebly.com
His Airbnb IBLG experience tours have been exceptionally well received National Gallery Tour 5.0 rating – 100% 28 five-star reviews (June 2019)
National Gallery https://www.airbnb.co.uk/experiences/101822 Comments
Michael has such a depth of knowledge about art history, the cultural contexts that the art was produced in, and the hidden histories embedded in the paintings on display. [Neil, Mar 19]
Michael …..really brought the works to life and helped to deconstruct and explain the varied representations of black people throughout a really broad sweep of Art History [Mohammed , Jan 19]
It was very well researched and informative, and you could tell how passionate Michael is about the subject matter. [Su Anne, Oct18]
He is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about art and we came away with a new understanding of black figures and how they are presented and represented. [Gina, Jun 18]
Guide to Image of the Black in the National Gallery will be the written version of the National Gallery tour with images by Ebun Culwin guides to Tate Britain and The Wallace Collection are to follow.