Talk: Making Waves: Black Artists & Black Art in Britain From 1963 – 1982 with Dr Elizabeth Robles

Monday 8 October 6.30-8 pm

Dr Elizabeth Robles uncovers and interprets a crucial period in the fractured and unfinished history of black artists in Britain and British art by tracing the history of African and Asian artists in Britain between the 1st Commonwealth Biennale (1963) and the 1st National Black Art Convention (1982). In doing so, she will discuss the development of discourses around the implications of and possibilities for ‘Black Art’ in Britain.

Dr Robles is a researcher and teacher in the history of art at the University of Bristol. Her research encompasses an art historical reassessment of artists and artworks that have, with few exceptions, been consumed by discourses of cultural theory and identity politics. It aims to contribute to a new art history that maps the dialogues and developments produced by black British artists onto the broader stories of British and 20th-century art as a whole.

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