Abstract

Visual Artist Lubaina Himid [End Page 127] Lubaina Himid's identities include being a black British woman born in Zanzibar, a visual artist, an academic, a cultural activist, a curator, and since December 2017, a Turner Prize winner. As principal researcher leading the project, "Making Histories Visible," Himid underscores the "gaps in history that are not being filled" and as she pointedly states, "I only know how to paint." Certainly with Turner Prize recognition, her skilled and nuanced painting has finally been recognized and awarded within the British art scene and internationally. What is perhaps less well known is the work that Himid has consistently undertaken since the 1980s to support other black artists. Himid's "Making Histories Visible" research informs much of her art and as Elizabeth Fullerton notes, "not only was Himid a pivotal presence in the black British arts movement, she has tirelessly promoted her black female peers such as Claudette Johnson, Maud Sulter, and Ingrid Pollard, who have struggled against the double whammy of racism and sexism, their stories conspicuously absent from most art-historical narratives." Himid's on-going concern with "how to tell the story of the slave trade without depicting bleeding, dying Africans, to highlight those huge questions about belonging, those huge questions about the diasporan population" and so on amplifies the focus of this Special Issue of Callaloo. Of particular significance is her statement, "Going through my mind all the time are those journeys that Africans made in the hold of ships, that horrific int oduction to this monster called the sea." —Joan Anim-Addo [End Page 128] Click for larger view View full resolution Venetian Palace (1997–1998) by Lubaina Himid. Acrylic on canvas (57 ½" x 43"). Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. [End Page 129] Click for larger view View full resolution The Carrot Piece (1985) by Lubaina Himid. Acrylic on wood, card, string (95 ½" x 132"). Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. [End Page 130] Click for larger view View full resolution Detail of Negative Positives: The Guardian Archive (2007–2015) by Lubaina Himid. The Guardian newspaper pages, paint, pencil. Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. [End Page 131] Click for larger view View full resolution Paper Bag Buildings (1998) by Lubaina Himid. Acrylic and pastel on paper (37" x 45"). Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. [End Page 132] Click for larger view View full resolution 2020 (2015) by Lubaina Himid. Acrylic on wood (20 ½" x 11 ½" x 5"). Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. [End Page 133] Click for larger view View full resolution Between the Two My Heart Is Balanced (1991) by Lubaina Himid. Acrylic on canvas (48" x 60"). © Tate, London 2018 Courtesy of Tate, London. [End Page 134] Click for larger view View full resolution Ballot Paper (Lost Election Series) (2014) by Lubaina Himid. Acrylic on paper (27" x 20"). Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. [End Page 135] Click for larger view View full resolution Le Rodeur: The Lock (2016) by Lubaina Himid. Acrylic on canvas (72" x 96"). Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. Photograph courtesy of Andy Keate [End Page 136] Copyright © 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press

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