Global InformationNo Colour Bar information
No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990 was a major public art and archives exhibition, the first of its kind in the UK, held at the Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London, over a six-month period (10 July 2015 – 24 January 2016),[1] with a future digital touring exhibition, and an associated programme of events.[2] No Colour Bar took its impetus from the life work and archives of Jessica Huntley (23 February 1927 – 13 October 2013)[3] and Eric Huntley (born 25 September 1929),[4] Guyanese-born campaigners, political activists and publishers, who founded the publishing company Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications and the associated Walter Rodney Bookshop.[1]
Comprising contemporary fine art combined with archive materials, the multi-media exhibition featured the work of seminal Black British artists and historically significant activists,[1] and was described by Colin Prescod (chair of the Institute of Race Relations) as an "exposition of startling and radical imaginative works, addressing grand British cultural and historical matters, and touching on themes of existential and social restlessness".[5] Participants in the Caribbean Artists Movement,[6] such as Winston Branch, Aubrey Williams, Ronald Moody and Errol Lloyd, were featured together with other prominent artists, including Eddie Chambers, Sonia Boyce, Sokari Douglas Camp, Denzil Forrester and Chila Kumari Burman, with works on display across all media: painting sculpture, painting, drawing, illustration, photography and film.[1] In conjunction with the art and archives, panels and talks led by the exhibition curators, Makeda Coaston and Katty Pearce, and featuring individual artists, writers and publishers, including Eddie Chambers, Errol Lloyd, Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede, Denzil Forrester, Fowokan, Paul Dash, Sokari Douglas Camp,[7] Donald Hinds, Kadija George, Dorothea Smartt, Arif Ali, Sarah White, as well as Eric Huntley himself, were programmed.[8][9][10][11]
Within the exhibition was a purpose-built interactive installation by Michael McMillan, in conjunction with sound and visual specialists Dubmorphology,[12] that recreates the famed Walter Rodney Bookshop,[13] which was formerly located in West Ealing, functioning as a cultural hub of the community until it closed at the beginning of the 1990s.[14]
- ^ a b c d "Activism and Art", FHALMA website.
- ^ "Past Events", Programme, No Colour Bar. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ Margaret Busby, "Jessica Huntley obituary", The Guardian, 27 October 2013.
- ^ Margaret Andrews, Doing Nothing is Not An Option: The Radical Lives of Eric & Jessica Huntley, Middlesex, England: Krik Krak, 2014. ISBN 978-1-908415-02-8.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
HLFwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Caribbean Artists Movement", NoColourBar blog, 25 November 2015.
- ^ "Artist Talks", Artist, No Colour Bar. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ "Acknowledgements", No Colour Bar. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ "Donald Hinds Talk", 19 August 2015.
- ^ "Denzil Forrester", NoColourBar blog, 17 December 2015.
- ^ "LITERARY AFTERNOON ‘No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990’ at Guildhall Art Gallery", Miss B Takes A Walk, 15 September 2015.
- ^ "About", Gary Stewart website.
- ^ William Axtell, "Guildhall celebrates black British artists with No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action", Culture24, 9 July 2015.
- ^ Andrews, Doing Nothing is Not An Option, 2014, p. 148.