Permindar Kaur: Locating a ‘Black’ Artist in Narratives of British Art in the 1990s

Abstract

Speaking at a conference in October 2016, Permindar Kaur asked, ‘Am I a Black artist?’ To be regarded as a ‘Black artist’ or not to be: what are the consequences for the trajectory of an artist's career; our understanding of the aesthetic affects of that artist's work; and their historicization within narratives of British art? This essay argues that the question of Kaur's ‘Blackness’, whether self‐defined or perceived by others, has had significant implications for the ways in which her artworks have been interpreted and historicized. Following Stuart Hall's essay ‘Black Diaspora Artists in Britain: Three “Moments” in Post‐War History’, this essay examines specific moments – artworks and their display – in Permindar Kaur's career, and their ‘periodization’ – interpretation and positioning – within a wider curatorial and art‐historical narration of the Black anti‐racist art agenda of the 1980s, and the Cool Britannia multiculturalism and nationalist Scottish Miracle narratives of the 1990s. Presenting Kaur as a case study, this essay provides insight into the challenges of narration faced by artists of colour.