Connecting Thin Black Lines

Connecting Thin Black Lines

at the ICA, London.

We saw this exhibition in London in August. The exhibition is curated by Lubaina Himid, (one of my favourite artists) who wanted to remember and celebrate a landmark moment in art history, 40 years ago, when a group of black women exhibited together in The Thin Black Line in 1985, at the ICA. The exhibition was challenging the marginalisation of Black and Asian, British women artists within the British art world.

Eleven artists presented their work at the exhibition highlighting the intersections between race and gender and which took on a political definition  of 'blackness' to include British Asians too, due to a shared postcolonial experience. Their practices were as varied then, as they are now, through figuration, abstraction, iconography, minimalism, realism and fantasy.

Himid wrote at the time: 'All eleven artists in this exhibition are concerned with the politics and realities of being Black Women... We are claiming what is ours and making ourselves visible. We are eleven of the hundreds of creative Black Women in Britain. We are here to stay'.

Jennifer Comrie, Coming to Terms through Conflict, 1987, (pastel, photocopy collage and paper on board)

Ingrid Pollard, Seventeen of Sixty-Eight (detail), 2018, (digital print, glass-mounted)

This work forms part of Seventeen of Sixty-Eight, a larger mixed-media installation that examines the recurring figure of the Black boy in British pub names and signage. The title regfers to the 68 pubs in the UK that include 'Black Boy' in their name.

Maud Sulter, Zabat:Polyhumnia (Portrait of Dr Ysaye Barnwell, 1989, (cibachrome print on paper)

Part of a series of nine photographic portraits of creative Black women, staging each as a muse of the arts from Greek mythology, seeking to challenge the lack of representation Black women artists have in art institutions and art history.

Sonia Boyce, Rice n Peas, 1982, (pastel on paper)

Lubaina Himid, Venetian Maps: Shoemakers, 1997, (acrylic on canvas)

Part of a series of works on Venice. Himid observes that 'Venice is a symbol for me, to how people of the black diaspora have for centuries been the backbone of the cultural development of many European cities but that this presence is invisible... Venice looks like it does because Venetians were impressed by North African/Arabic culture, its richness and sophisti ation, its intricacy and its colour and spectacular shifting moving symbolism'.

To see more of Lubaina Himid's work go here

Claudette Johnson. Trilogy: Woman in Blue, Woman in Black, Woman in Red, 1982-86, (watercolour, gouache and pastel on paper)

Johnson instructed the sitters to pose in a way to take up as much space as possible. She also asked them to adopt poses that were reflective of who they are, ensuring that they could 'be seen to exist beyond the trope of the 'strong Black woman''.

You can see more of Johnson's work here

Veronica Ryan, Threads, 2024, (crushed plastic bottles, Himalayan salt, crocheted cotton)

looking closer

Chila Kumari Burman, 2+2 Equals Whatever They Say, 2025:

Burman's vibrant neons frequently draw upon everyday objects, popular culture and high art. Her playful style belies a serious belief in challenging stereotypes and positioning alternative perspectives of Britishness in the centre of debate. 

To see more of Burman's work go here  and here

Tiger, 2021

Ice Cream Van, 2020

Protester - Without Us There is No Britain, 2022