The impact of Black Scottish artists in Scotland’s vast art history has been something long overlooked.
This is something the curatorial duo, Mother Tongue seek to finally give rightful recognition to in ‘AfroScots: Revisiting the Work of Black Artists in Scotland through New Collecting’, an exhibition recently opened at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA).
A collaboration between Mother Tongue and Glasgow Life Museums, the exhibition features both new and existing works from Glasgow Museums’ collection, ‘reflecting complex dialogues around race, Empire, independence and post-colonial legacies’.
The wealth of mixed-media art on display spans from 1963 to 2019, from paintings to moving image.
Highlights of the exhibition include ‘Timespan’ by Dominican-British painter Tam Joseph and work from Barbadian-Scottish filmmaker Alberta Whittle, who works between Glasgow and Barbados and will represent Scotland at the prestigious Biennale Arte 2022.
On the exhibits, Kate Bruce, Producer Curator at GoMA said:
“I am delighted that the recent collecting and commissioning of new work supported by the Art Fund is able to be shown in the main gallery at GoMA.
“It has been a wonderful experience working with Mother Tongue and the artist estates to realise conversations that we started in 2016.
“The work that has been acquired has amplified the work of Black artists in Glasgow Life Museums’ collection.”
Besides the beautiful and often haunting pieces on display, I was particularly impacted by the presence of chains alongside the seating area in front of a film screening. The grand neoclassical building which houses the Gallery of Modern Art itself was built in 1778 by William Cunninghame, someone who made his fortune through the slave trade. Placed at the centre of Merchant City where similar horrific histories can be found.
Mother Tongue has been working on AfroScots since 2015 after being awarded a research support grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Their goal is to bring together into a single narrative for the first time the work of Black artists in Scotland, from the 1860s to the present day.
AfroScots is funded by Art Fund and National Fund for Acquisitions and will run at the GoMA to 3 July 2022 and is free to all.
