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

Women artists in the Reina Sofia Museum

Women artists at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia,  Madrid.  

I have no idea why there was this section in the museum's exhibits, as there are lots of women artists' work displayed around the museum. This small room had some works I really liked however, so I thought I would do a separate post on them, just as there was in the museum. 

Olga Sacharoff, Merry-go-round at the Fair, 1934

Eva Aggerholm, Head of a Young Woman, 1929

Angeles Santos, Self-Portrait, 1928

Rosario de Velasco, Untitled (The Children's Room), 1932-33

Angeles Santos, The Gathering, 1929

Maruja Mallo, The Fair, 1927

Delhy Tejero, Witches with Oil Lamps, 1932

A Different View

A Different View - Women Artists at Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum

Women have been creating and collecting artworks for centuries, but few have reached the status and renown of their male counterparts. Historicallly, they have been under-represented in national collections and excluded from art historical narratives. Since the 1970s curators and art historians have worked to challenge the accepted view and show how these artists have always been part of the story of art.

There is still a long way to go through - the National Gallery in London for instance, contains less than 2% of work by women. 

This exhibition showcases some of the work in Leamington Art Gallery's collection and includes the work of four contemporary artists as a way of looking to the future. The contemporary artists are Laura Adkins, Julie de Bastion, Lou Blakeway and Mary Riley.

Vera Morosoff, Portrait, 1938, (oil on canvas)

Celia Frances Bedford, Lady with Powder Puff, 1936, (oil on canvas)

Vanessa Bell, A Venetian Window, 1928, (oil on canvas)

Julie de Bastion, Figure with Mirrors, 1982, (oil on canvas)

Gertrude Lindsay, Sally at her Window, 1935, (oil on canvas)

Dod Procter, The Innocent, A New Day, 1935, (oil on canvas)

Procter is perhaps most acclaimed for her evocative portraits of young women and her subtle use of light. Procter was among the first generation of female artists that had unimpeded access to nude life drawing classes, adding further significance to this work. Her focus on figures on the cusp of womanhood perhaps tells us something of how she saw herself as a woman and an artist at a time of increasing female liberation.

Nan Youngman, Portrait of Alma Ramsey-Hosking, 1930, (oil on canvas)

Laura Sylvia Gosse, Trumpet Vendor of Enverneu, (oil on canvas)

Lou Blakeway, Rape In Culture, 2023, (oil on canvas)

Beatrice Mary Seccombe Leech, Bastia, The Old Fort, (watercolour on paper)

Elizabeth Whitehead, Amsterdam, (watercolour on paper)

Anne St John Partridge, Bruges Under Snow, (watercolour on paper)

Partridge was influlenced by the work of the Impressionists. From 1900 she became involved with the Women's Suffrage movement.

Alma Ramsey, Mother and Child, 1980, (marble)

Cathleen Mann, Jane Posing, 1931, (oil on canvas)

Anne Finlay, Ronnie At Bedtime, 1935, (oil on board)

Christine Borland, English Family China, 1998, (bone china)

A porcelain baby's head sits within a female pubis bone moulded from obstetric models. The porcelain is painted with traditional designs associated with 19th century English tableware. The work reflects on the original meaning of bone china, when porcelain was made of ground bone. It also associated the genetic links between mother and child and the repeated patterns on the china and considers the risks historically involved in childbirth.

Amy Sharrocks, Thistledown, 2018, (ink on paper)

Therese Lessore, Pulteney Bridge, Bath, 1942, (oil on canvas)

Tessa Beaver, Snow: Near Urbino II, 1970, (oil on board)

Alice Maud Fanner, Burnham Restricted Class Beating to Windward, in Pegwell Bay, 1927, (oil on canvas)

Mary Duncan, Whitesand Bay, (oil on canvas)

Lucy Kemp-Welch, Winter's White Silence, 1923-24, (oil on canvas)

Dorothea Sharp, Where Children Play and Seagulls Fly, 1928, (oil on canvas)

Winifred Nicholson, Summer, 1928, (oil on board)

In this painting, the frame of the window is omitted, creating an unusual, almost surreal, dual image of still life and landscape.

Nicholson was credited with pioneering this new and distinctive type of 'flowerpiece' in the 1920s and continued to experiment with the style throughout her life.

Here, she contrasts the naturalistic shades of the fields and trees with the vibrancy of the shimmering river and bright boats. The bold tones and forms of the flowers in the foreground provide the initial focus, however the artist keeps the eye moving around the image by repeating touches of the same iridiscent turquoise used to represent the river. These small vivid patches radiate outwards toward the edges of the work and in this way the foreground and background are unified and balanced.