Image of the Black

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the presence of black people in collections pictures.

Michael Oharjuru looked at how the presence of black people could be implicit as well as explicit in the collection. Explicit in the images themselves and he talked us though the role of the black king in various magi pictures arguing they were used as a symbol of Christianity being for all people but also as a sign of the exotic. He pointed out they are often on the edge of the picture. He also looked at  “Miss La La” by Degas, the picture of a black acrobat performing at a Paris circus, arguing that it was a picture about composition not about her, but I’d argue the same could be said of his ballerina pictures which say little about the women themselves.

He argued that the implicit presence was in the source of the money which had purchased the pictures which formed the foundation of the gallery. In particular he looked at “The Raising of Lazarus” by Piombo, the first picture in the galleries catalogue (NG1) which was purchased by John Julius Angerstein who founded Lloyds and made his money from the slave trade.

However when asked in the Q&A if the gallery should consciously try to fill some of these gaps he said no because the definition of the collection in covering Western art from 1250 to 1900 and means that it will reflect life at those dates . He did suggest that the purchase of a painting of the black St Maurice images of whom were popular in Germany.

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