Coming in From the Cold: Some Black Artists Are Embraced

Abstract

Making an exhibition on the basis of racial origin is not something that comes easy to the art world.1WITH THE EXCEPTION OF A HANDFUL OF WORKS by Black 3Ttists purchased primarily for the Arts Council Collection, there was little during the 19805 to signify a noteworthy 'institutional' embrace of Black artists. There were important exhibitions in mainstream galleries, of which From Two Worlds (1986) was one of the most notable examples, but such shows - relatively few in actual number - were largely counterbalanced by the highly significant and in many ways far greater amount of visual-arts activity generated by Black artists and arts groups themselves, away from established and mainstream galleries. Straddling these two types of venue, Black artists' work was something different from the usual gallery fare, and signified the ongoing development of a cultural identity that existed as a counter to the dominant culture. Away from the visual arts, there was much within the political arena - or what some might call the real world - to maintain a somewhat fractious and mutually antipathetic relationship between Black people and the state's agencies. 'riots' of Bristol in 1980 and those that occurred in other parts of the country, most notably Brixton, in 1981 had dominated the terms of reference for Black people's presence in Britain.2 And by the mid-igSos things were, in some ways, going from bad to worse.On Saturday, 28 September 1985, Mrs Cherry Croce, a Black woman, was shot and paralysed during a police raid on her home in London. Groce was allegedly shot in her bed, by a member of a team of armed police officers who were looking for her son. Another, divergent account has it thata team of armed officers went to the home of Mrs Cherry Groce in Brixton, south London, to arrest her son, Michael, who was wanted for [allegations of] armed robbery. In fact, Michael Groce, no longer lived there. officers smashed down the door with a sledge-hammer and then an inspector rushed in shouting 'armed police'. He put his finger to the trigger. Mrs Groce says the officer suddenly rushed at her, pointing a gun at her. She tried to run back but he shot her. She is now paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.3On Sunday, 6 October 1985, just over a week after Mrs Groce sustained her horrific injuries, another Black woman, Mrs Cynthia Jarrett, died of a heart attack during a police search of her Tottenham home. (Again, it was allegations against her son that lay at the centre of this police action.) During these mid-decade years, there were many other such occurrences that ultimately projected the Black-British presence as somewhat fractious or ill at ease. It was during the 'rioting' on the Broadwater Farm estate, sparked by news of Mrs Jarrett's death, that PC Blakelock was isolated from his fellow police officers and set upon and killed by what was commonly referred to by the media as a 'mob'.4 Elsewhere in the world, the persistence of apartheid in South Africa maintained a strong sense of righteous indignation on the part of Black people and others. In keeping with the times, there was much about Black artists' practice during the 19805 that inculcated and declared multiple senses of opposition, alienation, and protest.It was during this pivotal decade that much highly effective and penetrating work, commenting on a wide range of ongoing social concerns, was produced by a number of Black artists. Broadwater Farm was an area of north London that was not much more than a mile or so away from the home of the artist Tarn Joseph. It was perhaps his geographical proximity to the scene of these bloody events of October 1985 that prompted Joseph to respond to the bloody events by painting, in the same year, The Sky at Night,5 a work of astonishing clarity, gravity, and sophistication. painting was a depiction of the riot underway on Broadwater Farm, after dusk. It featured as its central component a daunting block of flats, at the base of, and in front of which, scattered groups of rioters hurled occasional petrol bombs at assembled ranks of riot police. …