Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting lecture at the National Gallery looking at how historic and legendary black figures have been depicted in Western Art. Olivette Otele, from the University of Bristol and author of “African Europeans: An Untold Story” took us through from the 3rd to the 19th   century. A long period to cover in an hour. The talk was more about the history and the personalities however she used good illustrations and left me with a lot to think about. She started with St Maurice, a black Christian soldier from Thebes, who was martyred when he refused to harass a group of fellow Christians in a war. She talked his veneration in Northern Europe and how he has been depicted. I was fascinated to learn that the first Duke of Florence, Alessandro de Medici, was mixed race. There were no portraits of him from his lifetime but again she talked about how later artists had depicted him from Vasari showed him as European but Bronzino gave him curly hair and African features. From the 18th c...

Thought provoking online discussion as part of the Cheltenham Literature Festival looking at how we view history from a Western European viewpoint. The talked brought together the author of a recent book on African European though history, Olivette Otele and art critic and historian, Aindrea Emelife to discuss how to ensure accounts of history and culture reflect the whole of society and how to move from away from a singular narrative to one that belongs to everyone. All aspects of this talk were interesting but I include it in my art blog as Emelife had a fascinating presentation in the light of the removal of the Coulston statue in Bristol showing examples of new public art reflecting a more diverse society. Examples included a wonderful statue in New York, mimicking the controversial Confederate statues, of a African-American in urban clothes on horseback by Fehinde Wiley from 2019 and a Nazi era building in Italy which, rather than demolishing it, has a line from a Jewish ...