The Caribbean Artist Movement

Artistic Insight: Read about the Caribbean artist movement, their formation and aims.

The Caribbean Artist Movement (CAM) was a London-based creative grouping formed of writers, artists, filmmakers and musicians of Caribbean heritage that formed in 1966. Artists from the exhibition who were a part of this cultural initiative include the likes of Winston Branch, Aubrey Williams, Ronald Moody, Errol Lloyd. The movement illustrates the cultural cross-over of the time and the attempt of Black Artist’s, grouped through commonality but not defined by their heritage, to assert themselves in the visual sphere.

Errol Lloyd, The Lesson, 1972, Oil on canvas

From 1947 onwards, following WW2, there was an influx of migrants from various Caribbean islands.  Desiring to study, responding to the post-war labour shortage and the economical depression of the West Indies, the migrants came from all social spheres and backgrounds. England offered an opportunity for these individuals to interact, unrestricted by distance and geography. Despite the wildly disparate cultures, traditions and social and political structures of the different West Indian nations, migrants were often united in this foreign England. Wishing to establish their creative positions, and Caribbean- African heritage, in a new cultural environment, CAM was formed.

Writers John La Rose, Edward Kamau Braithwaite  and Andrew Salkey were two of the principle founders of the movement. Salkey was extensively published by Bogle –L’Ouverture Publications and was a close friend of the Huntley’s, who too were members of CAM. As well as grouping together artists, amalgamating skill and creativity, CAM wished to offer a reassessment of West Indian art of all forms, offering a critical framework that was more appropriate than the prevailing European tradition. The Caribbean artist movement, in its inception, often reflected backwards to its Caribbean heritage in various forms, but as time went on and a  new Black British identity emerged.

The CAM works in the No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960 – 1990 demonstrates the initiative of Black creative individuals to organise themselves and create an artistic space for themselves and their work in society arguably constrained by

racial assumptions and academic limitations. The Caribbean Artist Movement is also crucial in the overall understanding of Black cultural practices of the time as it demonstrates the dialogue between various mediums and practices, how word and image were closely related and combined in order the strengthen the themes and transmission of ideas.

Justice for Walter Rodney

(Words belong to the Walter Rodney Campaign) 

One Last Push for 1K signatures! Extended to Tues.10th Nov.

Part of Bogle L’ouverture’s genesis, Dr Walter Rodney’s name, work and image remain pivotal to FHALMA’s work and legacy. Yet successive Guyana governments try to expunge Rodney from Guyana's history. 

The new Guyana government, right now, continues to efface the work of the first Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry  into Dr Rodney's 1980 assassination. They seek to frustrate the proper completion of this - or any real inquiry, while more key witnesses die, records disappear, evidence degrades. And we forget?

That's why we started this petition. Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here's the link with further information.

One Last Push for 1K signatures! Extended to Tues.10th Nov.

We seek your urgent support for our campaign to salvage some justice for this distinguished son of Africa, educator and author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. It is crucial to raise the profile of the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry into Dr Rodney's assassination as the last chance to secure vital historic records - before its too late, and remind the Guyana government that Rodney's legacy matters, beyond Guyana.

Requesting your Prompt Action

The new Guyana government continues to efface the work of this Commission of Inquiry into Rodney's assassination by denying the two more weeks it requested to properly complete its work. They seek to frustrate the proper completion of any real inquiry, 35 years on, while more key witnesses die, records disappear, evidence degrades. And we forget.

That's why we started this petition. Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here's the link with further information. 

We'd also be grateful if you would urgently circulate to students and social justice contacts. 

Thank you,

Justice for Walter Rodney Campaign

Artistic Insight: Uzo Egonu

Artistic Insight: Layla Gatens is a recent graduate of the University of East Anglia, studying History of Art and Anthropology. Here she explores Uzo Egonu and his work, Portrait of a Guinea Girl. 

Uzo Egonu, Portrait of a Guinea Girl,  1962, Oil on Canvas 

The internationally renowned modern painter, Uzo Egonu, explored the relationship between painting and sculptural forms, fusing his western and non-western influences to evoke a different kind of modernism. Painting at a time when the anti-colonial struggle was gaining momentum, Egonu’s work came to negotiate political themes of domination, racism and oppression. No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960- 1990 feature’s a rare and exciting example of Egonu’s figurative work; Portrait of a Guinea Girl (1962).

Egonu’s Portrait of a Guinea Girl (1962) explores the artist’s nostalgic feelings towards his homeland, whilst marking a crucial moment in the development of his personal aesthetic. Egonu’s oil painting depicts a young, Guinean girl, dressed in traditional West African outfit with a matching head dress and jewellery. The girl, with a neutral expression, leans forward with her arms crossed. The rigid pose, powerful graphic style and vivid colours draw similarities with Gaugin’s female subjects in his paintings of Tahiti in 1891-1892. 

After moving from Nigeria to England at the age of 14, Egonu studied painting and printing at Camberwell School of Arts until 1951. Graduating in an era of increasing cultural awareness, the global opposition to imperialism became crucial to the young artist’s process of cultural self-definition. This period of anticipation and political excitement led Egonu to spend much of his time in the offices of the West African students union. Like the Walter Rodney Bookshop that inspired the No Colour Bar exhibition, this provided young migrant students such as Egonu with “a place to read newspapers, engage in long discussions about the times and generally feel at home”. (Oguibe, 2004: 61)

In 1952, Egonu travelled Europe to expose himself to major works from the renaissance, cubism and surrealism, as well as those from Africa. During this period, Egonu was also engaging with the philosophy of the Negritude movement, which encouraged a common racial identity for Africans worldwide, and emphasized nostalgia as the core of their philosophy. After initially struggling to give form to his new conceptual and cultural ideas, Egonu’s creative crisis was solved by the route of memory and recollection, leading him to produce Portrait of a Guinea Girl - a celebratory, heroic portrait of an African female. The image romanticizes, valorises and reclaims the notion of ‘home’, positioning the girl as the embodiment of a future ‘Mother Africa,’ a vision of the beauty and potential of the African continent. With this view, Portrait of a Guinea Girl thematically and conceptually alludes to the 1945 poem Femme Noir, by negritude writer Léopold Sédar Senghor:

Naked woman, black woman

Clothed with your colour which is life, with your form which is beauty

In your shadow I have grown up; the gentleness of your hands was laid over my       eyes.                                                                   

And now, high up on the sun-baked pass, at the heart of summer, at the heart of noon,

I come upon you, my Promised Land,

And your beauty strikes me to the heart like the flash of an eagle.

 -        Extract from Femme Noire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, 1945

Portrait of a Guinea Girl marks the beginning of Egonu’s crucial link with ‘home’, a theme that continues throughout his body of work.  Egonu continued to assert his African background with forms of European modernism, and in turn achieved an expression that was committed to his identity as an African artist in Britain, as well as his socio-political vision. Through his painting, Egonu confronted the barriers between Western and African art, and went on to overcome the processes of exclusion that made British galleries and exhibition spaces inaccessible to artists of non-European descent. By the 1960’s Egonu was a revered leader of the avant-garde scene in London.

See Uzo Egonu’s work, as well as many other seminal artists at the 'No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960 - 1990' exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery until 24th January 2016.

-        Layla Gatens

Aubrey Williams and 'ACTS OF REBELLION'

Aubrey Williams, the Guyanese-born artist of the mid-twentieth century is enjoying a place of pride posthumously in London at the moment. His work is both featured in No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960 – 1990’  and the of Aubrey Williams: Realm of the Sun. Whilst his work pre-dated the majority of the activity undertaken by Eric and Jessica Huntley he also ties into their own narrative. Both Eric and Williams came from Georgetown, Guyana and came to settle in London – fighting for prominence and security both socially and artistically in the capital. Williams was also a active member of the Caribbean Artist Movement, a London-based creative grouping formed of writers, artists, filmmakers and musicians formed in 1966. The Huntley’s were too members of this society, who wished to establish their creative positions, amalgamating skill and creativity and promoting their work. Whilst all the artist, activists and key figures in No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960 – 1990’ were notable and brilliant in their own right, it was often this drawing together that allowed them to strengthen their messages, reach their goals and gain recognition.

‘Act of Rebellion’ explores this history of Black British communities, engaging acts of rebellion through creativity and community to coincide with Aubrey Williams: Realm of the Sun (find a full event description and link to tickets below). Beverley Mason, project manager for the No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action is chairing ‘Act 2’ of the programme, a conversation between Kimathi Donkor, painter curator and lecturer and Paterson Joseph, a writer and actor.  The day and seeks to explore art, music, creativity and politics and the change in artists way of approaching racial identity

Programme: http://dmtrk.net/PKS-3QUGG-4/sv.aspx

Tickets: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/acts-of-rebellion-black-history-black-futures-month-tickets-18188887452

Acts of Rebellion 

A day of events presented by October Gallery Education, to coincide with the exhibition, Aubrey Williams: Realm of the Sun. Join us to explore the history of black British communities engaged in acts of rebellion and innovation through creative platforms. We will reflect on black history and culture through pivotal movements within art, language and sound that challenged the status quo. Taking this history and placing it in today’s context, will parallels or ruptures with the past reveal possible futures?

Historically, creative movements that challenge the establishment have grown to inform popular culture, creating hybrid identities. But what counts as an act of rebellion? Is it defined by the agent or the context? Over the course of 3 ‘acts’ (sessions), we will examine black histories through the impact of ‘rule breaking’ within artistic communities. Focussing on visual arts, music and literature, we will unpick the connections between rebellion, identity and creative power. How have artistic innovations affected the political landscape of today? And to what extent are artistsdealing with racial identity differently?

'ACT1' 
2.00pm-4.00pm 
The Power of Language, interactive workshop: Kayo Chingonyi, prize winning writer(Poetry review, Wasafiri, The Best British Poetry). 

'ACT2' 
4.30pm-5.30pm 
Artists in conversation: Kimathi Donkor (Tate, Iniva, Peckham Platform), Paterson Joseph (Peep Show, Babylon, Othello).

'ACT3' 
6.00pm- 9.00pm 
Film screenings and D.J event with Soft Wax (Deptford Dub Club, Deptford X, Dilston Grove Gallery).

£3.00 for DJ event only, entry from 7 pm

Caribbean café and refreshments available.

Acts 1 - 3 will take place on the 2nd floor of the gallery, accessible by stairs only. 

The evening DJ event will take place on the ground floor of the Gallery. 

Bringing the Black Back!

Personal Insight: read a stirring exploration of the exhibitions themes, backgrounds and aims from Colin Prescod, a sociologist and Chair of the Institute of Race Relations. A trustee of FHALMA, he's been involved with the exhibition from its inception. 

With “No Colour Bar/Black British Art in Action, 1960 to 1990”, FHALMA is delivering what promises to be a historic art and archive exhibition. The exhibition, with its rich 6 month events and education programme, sets out to be deliberately provocative, in the very best sense – conceptually mixing art and archive; polemically proclaiming Black Britishness; aesthetically blending art and politics.

The polemical provocation is a debating hot potato - bringing the Black back, and at the some time, bringing the Black forward! This particular Black being invoked here existed briefly but powerfully from the 1950s to the 1980s – and only in Britain. This is a Black that side-stepped the White invented ‘race’ notion, and which threatened to mash-up the divisive racial paradigm pressed on us all as part and parcel of a colonial-imperialist plan. This Black was a political colour – not some tricksy, coded, put-down skin colour. This Black was a militant, assertive, passionate colour of resistance – resistance to racism, to unfair discrimination, to denial of citizens’ rights, to systematic injustice and to political exclusion. This Black could and did include Africans, Indians, Caribbeans, Pakistanis, Latin Americans, and even Irish people. It generated a community of Blackness specific to Britain. This was a Black that unified and defined the spirit of a Black community that raged against crude everyday racisms – eventually fueling the urban rebellions of the 1970s and 1980s, which embarrassed and shamed the establishment.

Back in the day, somewhere in the 1960s – on the other side of what has been newly dubbed the Black Atlantic, the militantly inventive `Haitian/African- American piano jazz musician, Andrew Hill, sagely ventured “You can best extend a heritage by understanding its past thoroughly”. The “No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960 to 1990”is doing its bit!

Artistic Insight: Sonia Boyce's 'She ain't holding them up, She's holding on (Some English Rose)'

Artistic Insight: One of our volunteers takes a closer look at  Sonia Boyce's work, interpreting its themes and significance. Sonia Boyce is one of the keynote speakers at the 10th Annual Huntley Conference happening on the 10/10/2015. Buy your tickets and find out more here. 

Sonia Boyce’s work is featured in No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960 – 1990. An English painter and multi-media artist, Boyce’s work explores themes of religion, politics and sexuality. She also explores her Caribbean and British identity, notable for bringing the experience of a black woman to the forefront of British art from the 1980's onwards. 

Sonia Boyce

She ain’t holding them up, She’s holding on (Some English Rose), 1986

Pastel and Gouache on Paper, Middleborough Institute of Modern Art (currently at No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960 – 1990, Guildhall Art Gallery)

Boyce’s pastel self-portrait She ain’t holding them up, She’s holding on (Some English Rose) explores her existence within her family structure and her identity as both Black and British and how this manifests within her domestic life. 

Sonia Boyce’s pastel drawing depicts a young girl holding up her family with strong musculature arms, abstracted on a brown tiled background. A glimpse of a tropical landscape can be seen in the left top-hand corner, the deep blue sky contrasting with the earthy tones of the rest of the painting. Boyce’s depiction of her family is comprised of a mother and father, with two young girls perched upon his lap – the four of them dressed in smart clothing, as if ready to leave for church or posing for a family photo.  The young girl wears a deep red dress, patterned with thick black roses – alluding to the title and the English expression of ‘An English Rose’, a term for a classical and anglicised beauty.

Boyce’s pose almost mimics the classical pose of Atlas holding up the globe from Greek mythology, suggesting the emotional weight of the young girls support of her family. It conjures up Boyce’s own perception of her responsibility to them as the oldest daughter, whilst at odds with her youthful independence She is simultaneously connected to them, through the placement of her hands and distanced through perspective. Her frontal enlarged position places her at the centre of her family, but her connection to England, eluded to by the roses on her dress, suggest the different cultural identities at play within the family unit. The young girl is the link to the English world, presumably having grown up her as the child of migrants, whose experience of her families’ homeland is received only through her parents experience and mythic story telling. They recede into the picture frame, placed further back and closer to the tropical landscape that is almost out of sight.

The uncertain perspective, which appears to recede whilst remaining flat, is complicated by the view through this window. Through this, the works unstable perspective explores a confusion of identity and cultural displacement. It also demonstrates a surrealist influence, notably that of Rene Magritte who explored the ambivalence of appearance and reality in works such as This is Not A Pipe (1928 – 9). However, the girls assured stance, unfaltering gaze and strength demonstrates how her identity as a Black Englishwoman allows her to identify with both the African diaspora and the country she was born in. Boyce is not one or the other, nor is she limited by the mono-national conceptions of identity and Boyce goes even further to reframe the definition of an ‘English Rose’, emphasising that it is not beauty and strength mutually exclusive to a pale completion.

Sonia Boyce is one of the keynote speakers at the 10th Annual Huntley Conference happening on the 10/10/2015. Buy your ticket and find out more here.

Announcing the 10th Annual Huntley Conference: “Mountain High: Archive Deep”

ANNOUNCING 10th ANNUAL HUNTLEY CONFERENCE: “Mountain High: Archive Deep”

Saturday 10 October | 10.30 pm to 4pm | Guildhall Old Library and The Print Room | Tickets £10 | Book online

Mountain High: Archive Deep Look forward >>> Look Back <<< Move on Up 10th October 2015 marks an important milestone in Black British cultural history - it's the tenth anniversary of the annual Huntley Conference. We are the NextGen and for the first time, we have taken over the entire authorship of this important conference. ______________ Featuring keynote artists Sonia Boyce and Larry Achiampong, join us as artists, poets, musicians and storytellers unite to deliver a live celebration of Black British identity through the lens of the younger generation. We are celebrating not only because it's been an incredibly rewarding decade since the Huntley Archives were first deposited at the London Metropolitan Archives, but this year that the younger generation is taking the lead to connect critical and contemporary Black British narratives for 10th Anniversary edition of the Annual Huntley conference with our theme: 'Mountain High: Archive Deep' BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE Saturday 10th October

NextGen Take Over We are FHALMA's group of young volunteers, - the younger "next" generation, calling ourselves, the NextGen. We wanted to play with an intergenerational approach to programming the conference, signalling a significant shift in this year's dialogues. Members of NextGen:Tamar Clarke-Brown, Shani Crawford, Leah Gordon, Deborah Hughes and Rhianna Roberts Whilst taking inspiration from the stunning art and archive exhibition 'No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action', our fresh interpretation spawns from having delved deeply into the Huntley Archives and its collections, recasting and re-contextualising BlackBritish cultural production going back to the 1950s through to the 1990s. Today's younger generation still have Mountains to climb! Our perspective reconsiders the resonance that the archives hold - offering those important narratives and themes that help us navigate present day Britain.

All ages welcome. Young people under 16 go free. Book all advance tickets online Join the conversation live on the day and follow us on social media @nocolourbar #archivedeep

More about the day... From Cornrows to Afro, Clarks to Nike: representation is how we walk, how we talk, how dress. It is how we show the world who we are and what we can be. In the 1960s-1990s Black British artists took back control of their own image in new and powerful ways using their distinct aesthetic voices to showcase, protest and activate the public imaginary of Black British identities. We invite the whole family to dig into the archives with us to discover what was then, and celebrate what is now. Mountain High, Archive Deep's central theme looks at the contemporary history of creating and distributing positive and representational black imagery. The keynote session features artists Sonia Boyce and Larry Achiampong, followed by a newly curated Film and debate about images and issues from the Archives. Taking cues from seminal works of black activist visual and literary fiction, such as Andrew Salkey's 'Anancy's Score', in The Children's Hour we ask how today’s artists and makers are redefining activism and expressing agency. The Award-winning David Idowu Choir conclude the conference with a rousing performance of 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' that is sure to inspire all the generations into taking action for a long time yet.

Books on sale: Join artists, writers and activists, browse among the books and products in our stalls.   There are a limited number of tables available for Ticket Buyersto sell books and merchandising. Contact us via email: helena.boehm@cityoflondon.gov.uk for details about how to book or Click here for more information about how to apply.

Annual Huntley Conference and MOBO The 10th Annual Huntley Conference is one the key events to be featured in MOBO’s Rise With Us Season which showcases a range of cultural events and initiatives across music and other creative industries. Visit www.mobo.com