Art Section III: Migration and Memory/Between the Two my Heart is Balanced

What is the human experience synonymous with?

Migration

How have many artists dealt with migration?

By thinking about the connection between individual experiences and larger historic forces driving migration

What did Christian Krohg's Leiv Eirikson Discovering America (1893) represent?

The Viking need to find new areas of arable land

What did paintings celebrating westward migration emphasize?

European American settlers' resilience and ingenuity

What did changes in Lakota beadwork practices signal?

The end of nomadic lifeways and the beginning of the reservation era?

Who is depicted in Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother (1936)?

A woman of white and Cherokee ancestry who was moving to California from Oklahoma

What does Jacob Lawrence's series The Migration of the Negro (1940-41) represent?

Push and pull factors that caused millions of Black Americans to leave the rural South

What did photojournalists after WWII chronicle?

The lives of people displaced by war as they tried to go home or establish new homes

Who is an example of a post-WWII photojournalist?

Henri Cartier-Bresson

What have twenty-first century photographers documented?

Stories of displacement and migration

Who are some twenty-first century photographers?

Richard Mosse, Nilüfer Demir, and Alessio Paduano

What are diasporas?

Communities of people who have left a homeland and settled all over the world

What is included in diasporic identities?

Languages, traditions, foods, or a sense of belonging

What do The Singh Twins collaborate on?

Works inspired by traditional Indian miniature painting

Where were The Singh Twins born?

Liverpool

What has shaped the Singh Twins' practice?

Stories of migration and memories passed down by older generations

What do the Singhs' work represent?

Experiences shared by many Britons of Indian, Bengali, and Pakistani heritage

What is migration closely tied to?

History and memory

What forms of media has Lubaina Himid worked in?

Sculpture, painting, and installation

What do Himid's artworks deal with?

Black diasporic histories and themes of migration

Where and when was Himid born?

Zanzibar in 1954

What country is Zanzibar a part of?

Tanzania

Where were Himid's parents from?

Her mother was from England and her father was from Zanzibar

What was Himid's father's ethnicity?

Comoran

What happened shortly after Himid was born?

Her father died

Where did Himid's mother relocate to?

London

What does Between the Two my Heart is Balanced reflect on?

Himid's identity as a mixed-race person who grew up in Britain with ties to East Africa

What does the painting reference?

British art historical traditions and the UK's involvement in African migrations

Where did Himid earn her degree in Theatre Design?

Wimbledon College of Art

Where did Himid earn her MA in Cultural History?

Royal College of Art

What movement has Himid been a member of since the 1980s?

Black British Art Movement

What did the Black British Art Movement advocate for?

More visibility and opportunity for contemporary artists with ancestry from Africa and the Caribbean

What gallery did Himid found?

The Elbow Room

During what period was the Elbow Room a key exhibition site for Black and Asian artists?

1986-1990

What is Himid known for?

Brightly colored paintings and large-scale installations featuring painted cutouts of figures

What prize did Himid win in 2017?

Turner Prize

What exhibitions allowed Himid to win the Turner Prize?

Navigation Charts and Invisible Strategies

What was the significance of Himid winning the Turner Prize?

She was the first woman of African descent to win it

What does Between the Two my Heart is Balanced show?

Two Black women in a boat speeding through choppy seas

What is the style of the painting?

Simplified and focused on colors, shapes, and textures

How do the two women in the painting apparently feel?

Calm or even happy

What is the woman sitting on the right doing?

Juggling two blue shapes

What does Himid describe the woman doing?

Ripping up maps and casting the fragments into the waves

What does the woman on the left wear?

An elongated head wrap

What does the woman on the left resemble?

An ancient Egyptian wall relief

What is the woman on the left doing?

Reaching into a stack of horizontal lines to pull out another map

What colors are the horizontal lines?

Ochre, dark red, black, and blue green

What is the consequence of throwing the maps away?

The women chart a perilous but exhilarating journey

What artwork inspired the composition of Between the Two my Heart is Balanced?

James Tissot's Portsmouth Dockyard (1877)

What does Portsmouth Dockyard show?

A pleasure boat moving through an English harbor

Who is in the pleasure boat?

A Highland soldier and two fashionably dressed women

In Himid's painting, what replaced the male figure?

The ambiguous pattern of horizontal lines

What could the horizontal lines represent?

A stack of maps, a length of brightly colored fabric, or the wake the boat leaves

What was Himid's mother's job?

Textile designer

How does the absence of the male figure impact the two women?

They are not prompted to rivalry or competition and are free to explore companionship or love

Who are the two women based on?

Himid and Maud Sulter, her partner at the time

What could the title of the painting refer to?

The two women, the two sides of Himid's family heritage, or the two homelands she feels allegiance to

What were Himid and other British artists remaking during the 1980s and 1990s?

Classic works of British painting

How were these classic works remade?

White characters were replaced with Black figures or the people of color who did appear were highlighted

What point does Himid often explore in her work?

The Black experience of being so visible in the white Western everyday yet so very invisible in the cultural, political or economic record or history

What does Himid's work, and the work of other Black British artists, accomplish?

They bring disregarded stories into the light by focusing on narratives of global diasporic identity

Who are some contemporary artists who have engaged in tactics similar to Himid's?

Yinka Shonibare, Sonia Boyce, and Barbara Walker

What do all these artists call attention to?

The traditional invisibility of non-white narratives in British painting

What else do these artists highlight?

The extent to which elite life depended on the operation of global capital, including the slave trade

What were some iconic English artworks?

Thomas Gainsborough's Mr. And Mrs. Andrews (1749) and William Hogarth's Marriage A-la-Mode (1743)

What is prevalent in Himid's art?

The sea

Who has commented on the presence of the sea in Himid's work?

Omar Kholeif and Hannah Black

What disturbs the feeling of calm on the faces of the two women?

The threat of capsizing

What classic British painting might a viewer of Himid's painting be reminded of?

The Slave Ship (1840) by Joseph Mallord William Turner

What does Turner's painting show?

The brutality of the slave trade

What caption did Himid write for Between the Two my Heart is Balanced?

How many died crossing the water?

What theme did Himid's installation Naming the Money (2004) deal with?

The millions living unrepresented lives within the institution of transatlantic slavery

What did Himid do in Naming the Money?

Give enslaved figures names and imagined backstories

What does the forced journey across the Atlantic during the slave trade represent for many Caribbean, African American, and Black British people?

A central aspect of shared history and diasporic identity

What other works by British artists reflect on the legacy of the slave trade?

Keith Piper's Go West Young Man (1987) and John Akomfrah's Vertigo Sea (2015)

What does Between the Two my Heart is Balanced celebrate?

A new wave of twentieth-century migration

What began the Windrush era?

The arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948

What occurred during the Windrush era?

Many West Indians as well as other groups from around the former British Empire immigrated to the UK

What series is Between the Two my Heart is Balanced a part of?

Revenge

How does Between the Two my Heart is Balanced present migration?

As an act of strength, solidarity, and persistence

What did Himid say about the the title of Revenge?

It is affirmative

What exactly is the revenge?

The fact that they are still here, still artists, and that their creativity is still committed to change for the good