Fighting History

Rather dry but still interesting exhibition at Tate Britain looking at history painting in Britain both in its heyday of the 18th and 19th centuries when it was considered the highest form of art and in contemporary art.

The show was display by type of history as well as having a room on how it has been used in a radical way and an overview of the history of the form. That room was fascinating as it took you from  Benjamin West’s, though Millais’ hideously kitsch “Boyhood of Raleigh”, an  Alma Tadema, a Sickert based on a photograph produced within days of the event and ended with a Steve McQueen photograph of a lynching tree.

The British history room included the amazing “Amy Robsart”, a huge picture which was very popular when it was first exhibited in 1877 but is now forgotten. It did make me think about what is popular now and how they’ll be considered in the future.

I loved the section on the documentary on the re-enactment of the Battle of Orgreave from the miners’ strike. Many of the men involved at the time took part in the re-enactment and it was used as an opportunity to record their recollections of the event. It was shown as an installation with memorabilia from the event. It really brought back the early 80s and made you think about how we record history now.

The exhibition's problem was that it was trying to cover too much! It might have worked better as two shows one looking at the genre at it's height and one looking at how we think of history in contemporary art.

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