Untitled

- Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)

46.7 x 31.5 cm

Lubaina Himid

location: Zanzibar, Tanzania
year born: 1954
gender: female
nationality: Tanzanian

In 2007 Lubaina Himid began a series of works she later called Negative Positives: The Guardian Archive (2007-2017). What started out as a one-year project, in the year celebrating the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in the UK, continued for a decade. Taking a page or a spread of The Guardian (the most liberal newspaper in the UK and her newspaper of choice), Himid sought to expose the unconscious bias manifested in a paper that prides itself on its non-discriminatory policies. In these excerpts, Himid paints over certain elements of the page and on occasion adds words in order to draw attention to racialized content. What Himid’s project highlights is that through unconscious, or sometimes conscious, juxtapositions the newspaper contributes not only to racial stereotyping by association, but shows a stark lack of awareness to the possibilities of such issues. In fact, one of the reasons why Himid has continued the series for a decade is that in the first year she only found one image of a black person in The Guardian. Himid’s work critically engages with the newspaper’s seemingly ‘harmless’ editorializations, exposing their blindness to the potential layers of visual meaning. In the work depicting Venus Williams, Himid paints over the bottom third of the page with a pattern redolent of African designs. The headline, implying the tennis player as difficult or perverse, is coupled with a photograph portraying her as a wild woman. Around the outside of the sheet Himid paints tennis balls on a green ground, suggesting perhaps the green sward of Wimbledon, the last surviving lawn tennis grand slam tournament. The golden sheen of these painted globes perhaps restores the “luster” to the internationally renowned athlete that the Guardian states she lacks.


Lubaina Himid came to prominence in the early 1980s shortly after leaving art school. She was one of the first artists to be involved in the Black Arts movement in the UK and continues to create activist art that engages with issues of Black identity in a multicultural society whose institutions continue to display conscious and unconscious forms of discrimination. Trained in theater design and cultural history she brings her knowledge of theater and theatricality to her paintings, which narrate stories about marginalized and silenced histories. Humid asserts that her work is intended to valorize the historical and current contributions Black people have made in European society and culture.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

dawn_chorusiii: the fruit they don’t have here / coro_del_albaiii: la fruta que no tienen aquí
© » KADIST

Sofía Córdova

2021

Sofía Córdova’s film dawn_chorusiii: the fruit they don’t have here / coro_del_albaiii: la fruta que no tienen aquí weaves together six California migration stories that resist dominant social narratives that flatten the experience of migrants...

5901 NW 2nd Ave., Miami, FL 33127 (Botanica)
© » KADIST

Eddie Arroyo

2016

5901 NW 2nd Ave., Miami, FL 33127 (Botanica) is a series of paintings that artist Eddie Arroyo created over an extended period of time, depicting the same site as it appeared from 2016 to 2018...

Untitled #1 #2 #3
© » KADIST

Piero Golia

2007

Golia’s Untitled 3 is an installation in which a mechanical device is programmed to shoot clay pigeons that are thrown up in front of a white wall...

For the First Time, Basquiat’s Family Will Organize a Show of Rarely Seen Works by the Artist From Their Personal Collection - via artnet news
© » LARRY'S LIST

Jean-Michel Basquiat's sisters, Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, will stage the first family-organized show of his work, in New York....

CHINA The Next Generation
© » ARTNEWS CN

CHINA The Next Generation – ARTnews.com Skip to main content By Barbara Pollack Plus Icon Barbara Pollack View All October 6, 2011 10:00am Animal Regulation No...

Kim Tschang-Yeul — Disparitions
© » SLASH PARIS

Kim Tschang-Yeul — Disparitions — Almine Rech Gallery, Matignon — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Kim Tschang-Yeul — Disparitions — Almine Rech Gallery, Matignon — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Kim Tschang-Yeul — Disparitions Exhibition Painting Vue de l’exposition Kim Tschang-Yeul, Disparitions à la galerie Almine Rech, Paris Courtesy of the artist & Galerie Almine Rech, Paris Kim Tschang-Yeul Disparitions Ends in 11 days: November 18 → December 22, 2023 It was twilight when Kim Tschang-Yeul, then aged 42, discovered the droplet while sprinkling water over one of his canvases...

Collectors Buy the Aura: Syd Krochmalny’s works at The Opening Gallery by Agustina Battezzati - New York
© » WHITEHOT

Collectors Buy the Aura: Syd Krochmalny’s works at The Opening Gallery advertise donate post your art opening recent articles cities contact about article index podcast main December 2023 "The Best Art In The World" "The Best Art In The World" December 2023 Collectors Buy the Aura: Syd Krochmalny’s works at The Opening Gallery Syd Krochmalny, I Speak the Languages of the Stones, 2017...

The Working Processes of Artists: Alan Choo
© » ARTS EQUATOR

The Working Processes of Artists: Alan Choo | ArtsEquator Skip to content Alan Choo is a Singaporean violinist and the artistic director of Red Dot Baroque, a group of Singaporean musicians promoting baroque music here...

The Reverse Sessions. Litophone
© » KADIST

Tarek Atoui

2017

For The Reverse Sessions , the artist reversed the order in which instruments are usually created, taking the sounds of a collection of ethnic musical instruments from The Dahlem Museum as the starting point...

Performance : Chris Cyrille — Récitatif
© » SLASH PARIS

Chris Cyrille — Récitatif — L’ahah Griset — Performance — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Chris Cyrille — Récitatif — L’ahah Griset — Performance — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Précédent Suivant Chris Cyrille — Récitatif Performance Performance, poésie À venir Portrait de Chris Cyrille Chris Cyrille Récitatif Dans environ un mois : Vendredi 22 mars 2024 à 19:00 Chris Cyrille Lecture performée de “Récitatif” Le 22.03.24 à 19h L’ahah #Griset 4 cité Griset, 75011 Paris Les tableaux de Bernard Gaube sont hantés par la question de l’oralité...

Scenes Around SCOPE Miami Beach 2019
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Miami Art Week and all of its accompanying fairs come to a close on Sunday, including SCOPE Miami Beach , of which we're a media partner...

A Long-Lost Pompeii Treasure Was Found in the Basement of a Family Home in Belgium
© » ARTNET

The precious marble was brought home 50 years ago as a souvenir after a family vacation in Italy...

Zona Maco Prepares for Its 20th Anniversary with a Tribute to the Fair’s History and a New $100,000 Prize
© » ARTNEWS MARKET

Zona Maco Prepares for Its 20th Anniversary Edition Skip to main content By Maximilíano Durón Plus Icon Maximilíano Durón Senior Editor, ARTnews View All February 6, 2024 11:51am Zona Maco in Mexico City...

‘I want to have amazing sex before the nuclear strike’: Ukrainians’ fears and desires go on show
© » THE GUARDIAN

‘I want to have amazing sex before the nuclear strike’: Ukrainians’ fears and desires go on show | Art | The Guardian Skip to main content Skip to navigation Skip to navigation Dark times revisited … Defence of Sevastopol by Oleksandr Hnylytskyi and Oleg Holosiy (1991-92)...

Kim Tschang-Yeul — Disparitions
© » SLASH PARIS

Kim Tschang-Yeul — Disparitions — Galerie Almine Rech, Matignon — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Kim Tschang-Yeul — Disparitions — Galerie Almine Rech, Matignon — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Kim Tschang-Yeul — Disparitions Exposition Peinture Vue de l’exposition Kim Tschang-Yeul, Disparitions à la galerie Almine Rech, Paris Courtesy of the artist & Galerie Almine Rech, Paris Kim Tschang-Yeul Disparitions Encore 11 jours : 18 novembre → 22 décembre 2023 C’est à la lumière du crépuscule, en aspergeant d’eau l’une de ses toiles, que la goutte s’est révélée à Kim Tschang-Yeul, alors âgé de 42 ans...

In memoriam: Michael Hopkins RA
© » ROYAL ACADEMY

In memoriam: Michael Hopkins RA | Blog | Royal Academy of Arts James Hunkin, Sir Michael Hopkins R...

Curran Hatleberg – Lost Coast & River’s Dream
© » ASX

Curran Hatleberg – Lost Coast & River’s Dream – AMERICAN SUBURB X Skip to content There is a strange and perplexing photograph in Curran Hatleberg’s photobook, River’s Dream (TBW, 2022), which shows a man with a large swarm of bees attached to his face and body...

Press Release: Art21 to Release New Episode of “Art in the Twenty-First Century”
© » ART21

Press Release: Art21 to Release New Episode of “Art in the Twenty-First Century” | Art21 Our Series Art in the Twenty-First Century Extended Play New York Close Up Artist to Artist William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible Specials Art21.live An always-on video channel featuring programming hand selected by Art21 Playlists Curated by Art21 staff, with guest contributions from artists, educators, and more Art21 Library Explore over 700 videos from Art21's television and digital series Latest Video 16:41 Add to watchlist Guerrilla Girls in "Bodies of Knowledge" Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 11 June 23, 2023 Search Searching Art21… Welcome to your watchlist Look for the plus icon next to videos throughout the site to add them here...

Museum of Proletarian Culture, Salute
© » KADIST

Arseny Zhilyaev

His large installation entitled The Museum of Proletarian Culture (2012) looked at the changes in artistic practice that have occurred in Russia throughout the last thirty years – from the amateur art of the late Soviet era to the commercialized post-Soviet cultural practices and the more recent self-expression via contemporary social networks...