Empire is a dirty word. Walking around the exhibition Artist and Empire at Tate Britain one can’t help but think: what would the Palestinian literary critic Edward Said have said? Although I don’t think he would have approved (but when did he?), the museum’s non-celebratory approach to surveying Britain’s imperial legacy is an important step towards opening future discussions on a sensitive subject.
It’s always difficult when a museum takes on a polemic subject like colonialism and tries to contextualise and reflect upon it in a way that is neither self-deprecating nor self-serving. It is hard to escape the fact that a show like Artist and Empire, whilst acknowledging the subjugating tyranny of the British in colonial times, is made possible only by such a legacy. It will always be somewhat complicit in the rhetoric it is trying to criticise.
It is for this reason that there have been few art exhibitions in recent decades tackling the subject of Britain’s empire and its role in our understanding of Western art history and aesthetics. In this, Tate Britain has been brave—it tackles the subject head on, acknowledging the “provocative”, “difficult” and “painful” history that Britain bears, according to its press release.
Despite the fact that most of the more than 200 works in the show are oil paintings, the curators have taken great effort in the displays. There are flags by artists from Africa’s Gold Coast hanging from the ceiling of the first room, while in the second is a particularly striking installation of 19th-century cavalry costume by the contemporary artist Andrew Gilbert. The standout sections of the show are undoubtedly the final rooms looking at art made during decolonisation and post-empire. These are the works that are most critical of British imperialism and, most importantly, turn the colonial tables by showing the ways in which artists from ex-colonies have influenced modern and contemporary British art.
As is often the case with such broad thematic exhibitions, much was left unsaid in this show. More details about the ways objects were acquired would have benefitted the room on trophies of the empire. And there was a notable, and unsurprising, bias towards material from India. But Artist and Empire has broken the pregnant silence on a sensitive but critical national—and artistic—history.
Artist and Empire: Facing Britain’s Imperial Past, Tate Britain, London, until 10 April