This Article Is Like A Literary Buffet. Simply Select The Links You Find Most Appealing From Those Set Out Here Below. And Enjoy At Your Leisure.
Official Royal Recognition of Racism And The Colonial Truth At Last At The Royal Academy of Arts
British Colonialism, Empire And Enslavement. That’s What The Royal Academy of Arts Was Built On. It Was Founded In 1768, Over Two Hundred And Fifty Years Ago.
The Majority of The Artists, Paintings, Patrons, Researchers And Scholars It Has Represented, Rewarded And Written About During That Time Hail From That Heritage. One Predominately of White Privilege.
Indeed, With King George III In Attendance At Its Launch In 1768, Joshua Reynold’s The Royal Art Academy’s First President Described It At As:
“An Ornament’ Befitting The Greatness of An Empire’ Like That of Britain”.
Today The Academy Acknowledges And Admits That It Was Established To Be Just One Part of Britain’s Greater Imperial Entirety.
Long Since Recognising That Fact To Be True, Argentinian Scholar Walter D Mingola, Calls Such British Imperialistic Control, Expansion, And Glorification, Part of “A Matrix of Imperial Power.” He Says European Imperialism Involved A Number of Matrices. Including Britain. As Detailed In The Exhibition’s Excellent Accompanying Hardback Catalogue Book.
As The Slave Trade Expanded, It Was Followed By A Competitive And Consequential Move Away From The ‘Grand’ Tour (The Aristocratic Gap Year of Old, Spent Visiting Art Centres In Europe). Thirty Plus Founding Artists Petitioned The King Who Granted Their Petition To Open A ‘Great’ New Art Academy In Light of The Royal Family’s Drive For Greater Colonial Expansion.
Since The Twin 2020 World-Changing Dire, Devastating, Yet Dynamic And Dramatic Events of The Covid Lockdown And The George Floyd Protests Demanding Social & Racial Justice Reform, The World Was Forced To Have A Reset. The Royal Academy of Art Was Included In That.
Four Years Later It Has Launched What We Consider To Be Its Greatest Ever Exhibition.
Robert Henry Lawrence (1935–1967) US Air Force Officer, The 1st African-American Astronaut
Britain’s Colonial Past 1768-Now: Art, Colonialism And Change’ Is Literally A World-Class. Masterclass, Masterpiece In The World of Staging Stunning Exhibitions.
It’s The Best Exhibition We’ve Ever Been Too. And We Shall No Doubt Attend Again. In All Probability There’ll Never Be One To Beat It.
We Shall Follow The Progress of Some of The Artworks And Contributors Long After Its Finished Such Is Its Moving Impact.
One of The Things The Current RAA (Royal Academy of Art) President Says She Hopes To Achieve Through This Ground-Breaking Exhibition Is:
“A Forum For Acknowledgement, Reflection And Imagination.”
This Seems As Though It May Well Be Achievable And Is Well Underway As This Extensive Presentation Finally Acknowledges That:
“British Colonialism Was Arrogant, Violent And All Encompassing, And Its Legacies Are Still Being Felt Today.”
Too Many Before Now Have Denied The Truth of That Fact Whilst Too Many African-Caribbeans Have Lived Experience of It.
The Physical, Emotional, Psychic, Epistemic And Systemic Violence Of Colonialism, Enslavement And Indenture Will Never Lessen
And No Amount Of Exhibition-Making Can Hope To Heal The Wounds It Has Caused, But It Is Hoped That As A Minimum,
‘Entangled Pasts’ Might Provide A Space For Contemplation And Debate,
As Well As Future Conversations.
RAA President
The Only Major Notable Failing of This Exquisite Exhibition Is That It Is Not Staged To Be On Long Enough. It Should Have Remained On For Much Longer So That More People Could See It Over Time, And Again And Again. Especially As More People Learn of It, Because It Is So Exceptional And Was A Long Time Coming.
Centuries In Fact!
The Good News Is There Is A Stunning Well Written, Well Presented, Well Illustrated, Well Produced And Lovely To The Touch, Hardback Book To Accompany It, Which If Well Looked After Can Last For In Perpetuity. In Stunning Detail, Crispness, Colour And Clarity It Catalogues All The Artists, Pieces, Curators, Supporters And Allies Who Have Contributed And Helped Make This Unprecedented Artistic Production Happen.
The Travares Strachan ‘First Supper’ Installation
Haile Selassie, Mary Seacole, Derek Walcott
Shirley Chisholm, Harriett Tubman, Sister Rosetta Thorpe
Sister Rosetta Thorpe
By Sculpture Tavares Strachan
Astronaut ~ Artistist ~ Sculpture ~
Shirley Chisholm, Marcus Garvey, Zumbi dos Palmares
Marcus Garvey, Shirley Chisholm, Harriet Tubman
Matthew Hanson, Marsha P. Johnson & King Tubby Sculptures By Tavares Strachan
Guest List: The ‘First’ Supper
Self-Sculpture of Artist Tavares Strachan & His Dog
Outside The Absolute Piece d’ Resistance Makes An Early Appearance As An Awesome Al Fresco Installation Featuring 12 Ground-Breaking Africans, African-Americans, And Caribbeans At The Front Entrance of The Academy. They Sit Around A Long Table Sharing A Meal And Engaging Conversation. The Meal Features Afro-Caribbean Food, Including Cassava From West Africa And Soursop Which Is Popular In Jamaica.
This Stunning Black And Gold Life-Size Work Is Mind-Blowingly Detailed, Life-Like, And Fluid. The Bahamian, New York Based Artist, Travares Strachan, Who Created It, Also Sits Around The Table Having Created A Statue In His Own Likeness. He Even Included His Dog, Who Sits At The Far End of The Table Beside Him!
“If You Erase Group Eating From A Culture, You Break Apart The Community“
Artist & Sculpture Travares Strachan
In A Spin On The Famous Biblical Last Super He Entitled His Installation ‘The First Supper’. Clockwise, His Dinner Party Guests Are:
Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915–1973) The 1930s & 40s African-American Gospel Singing Electric Guitar Star And Rock N’ Roll Pioneer
Harriet Tubman (1822–1913) Formerly Enslaved Underground Railroad Freedom Fighter And Abolitionist
Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005) The African-American Politician, Educator And Author, Who In 1972 She Became The First Black Woman Elected To The US Congress And Represented New York’s 12th Congressional District, For Seven Terms.
Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) Pan African Jamaican Political Activist
Zumbi dos Palmares (1655–1695) Afro-Brazillian Resistance Fighter Against Portuguese Enslavement And The Last king of The Quilombo Afro-Brazillian People From The Area Known Today As Alagoas, Brazil.
Haile Selassie (1892–1975) Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. And ‘Jah’ King of The Rastafari Movement.
Mary Seacole (1805–1881) British-Jamaican Nurse of The Crimean War
Matthew Henson (1866–1955) African-American explorer voyager to the Arctic Seven Times over Virtually 23 Years And Amongst The First Ever To Reach The North Pole.
Marsha P. Johnson (1945–1992) African-American Drag Queen And Gay Rights Activist. Participant In The 1969 Stonewall Uprising.
King Tubby (1941–1989) The pioneering Jamaican sound engineer (Osbourne Ruddock) who greatly influenced the development of dub in the 1960s and 1970s.
Derek Walcott (1930–2017) Saint Lucian, Antillean poet and playwright Who Won The 1992 Nobel Prize For Literature.
Robert Henry Lawrence (1935–1967) United States Air Force Officer And first African-American Astronaut.
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