‘Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s - Now’ at Tate Britain from December 1st

[EdmontinaDancesWithOphelia]

These two beautiful things (in a Vogue feature), and an academic symposium I ‘attended’ remotely yesterday, alerted me to this exhibition, happening soon, until April 2022.

Galleries are one of the things I’ve missed most, lately. It’s left me feeling unstimulated, uninformed and untethered. This will be a good place to start. Absolutely longing to see more of Aubrey Williams’ work in particular, as I was only introduced to it quite recently.

I love that first picture, I really do!

It’s wonderfully immersive, isn’t it?

@EdmontinaDancesWithOphelia - thanks for introducing me to Aubrey Williams.

EdmontinaDancesWithOphelia, yes, it is 😊

As Maggiethecat said, thank you for the introduction 😊

I'm just looking at some more of his art work, online.

Maggiethecat, I know … I’m feeling all sorts of shame and sorrow and cheated-ness at not having been properly aware of him before - though I must have come across his work in various places over the past several decades.

For anyone interested, here’s the UK gallery he was associated with:

octobergallery.co.uk/artists/williams

• and an essay from 2018, which sets out to move beyond the issue of ‘neglect’.

www.britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-8/aubrey-williams

(Both easily accessible via Google, along with lots more.)

I rarely feel acquisitive about art - to me it belongs in galleries as a spiritual meeting point for countless disparate humans across time and geography - but this week I’ve seen pieces by him that have turned me into an emergent Silas Marner …

@EdmontinaDancesWithOphelia - there's something about his work that reminded me of the Jamaican artist Cecil Cooper and it's interesting to read that Aubrey spent time in Jamaica in the 70s when Cecil would have been a developing young artist. Made me wonder if Aubrey was influential for Cecil...

In fact I remember years ago seeing an abstract piece by Cecil that had a music connection (Cecil was also a musician/singer I believe) and yearning to own such a thing of beauty.

I think that this is what Aubrey's Shostakovich piece probably reminds me of.

Interesting connection / comparison, Maggiethecat. I don’t get the same feeling of disruption from Cecil Cooper’s work - it seems more harmonious and accepting of the world. But I may need to look at it for longer.

There’s such challenge even in the title of that particular Aubrey Williams piece …

Ingrid Pollard's work is also on at The Foundling Museum in London at the moment. I think she's doing an in conversation event too.

foundlingmuseum.org.uk

But - no livestream for that?

(I recently registered for a conference and eagerly awaited the zoom link; only to find, on the day, that it was only happening face to face. )

Thanks, FreddieStandensBFF, that’s definitely something I might go to if I could.

@EdmontinaDancesWithOphelia- that's a fair point, Cecil's piece as I recall did seem very harmonious.

Don't know much classical music but I recall a youth orchestra playing Shostakovich's 11th about revolution and conflict and which was powerful and rousing. You do get a sense of conflict in Aubreys's piece on the 12th.

I’m just beginning to dig into Ingrid Pollard’s work, and realising I am actually familiar with some of her images, without being properly aware of her.

www.ingridpollard.com/

(Name change.)

Exhibition review here:
Life Between Islands review — an evocative meeting of cultures at Tate Britain

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/159b5366-512e-11ec-8d72-b8ab431649b1?shareToken=88bb0b18dcdde824c2df99053e7370ca

Joyce's front room! Someone's put my grandmother's front room in an exhibition. Love it so much, I keep looking at it. Even the crotcheted anti macassers. Marvellous, I used to feel safe there. The colours are so right. ( Off to look at the rest)

I'm sure she had the same carpet.... and the little cabinet with the treasures on display.

For anyone who hasn’t seen Life Between Islands - I urge you to go.

Outstanding exhibition generally - and there’s one film ‘Paradise Omeros’ that I could have sat and watched on repeat for an entire day.

On until April 3rd. Give yourself at least the two hours recommended. I rushed through in about an hour and a half and really need to return for a slower visit.

For anyone considering heading to this can I also put in a plug for the Lubaina Himid exhibition at Tate Modern? Absolutely breathtaking work. (She is the first black woman to win the Turner Prize.) it's on until the end of September so a bit more time to go.

@EdmontinaDancesWithOphelia and @Xiaoxiong - thanks for these. Due another visit to london soon and will try to make time.

Was there recently and saw tube posters for Andrea Levy's Small Island at the NT but couldn't fit it in. It gets good reviews and I remember the book being brilliant. Runs until end of April I think.

Are either good for infant school age kids, under 7?

At the Tate show you’d probably want to sidestep some of the film material. I don’t remember anything else being specifically child-unfriendly - but I did rush through. Probably best to check with the venue.

But you said good for … The fact that such an exhibition exists at a major UK gallery is quite astonishing to someone of my generation. Throughout my 20th c Home Counties childhood there was never any suggestion that Art was practised by non-white people. Luckily I knew better because of our links to other countries, but still - 7 year olds today are growing up with an entirely different set of parameters. So I’d take them anyway - just so they know Caribbean art belongs in big buildings.

I enjoyed ‘Between Islands’, as did my 6 year old (we didn’t watch all the videos though, as I could tell some might not be suitable for her).

The books they are selling just outside are fantastically curated.

(we are not black, but we are ethnic minorities)

Thank you All!