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Lubaina Himid: The artist who skewers white privilege [bbc.com]

 

By Precious Adesina, Image: Lubaina Himid/Private collection, BBC, November 22, 2021

Painter Lubaina Himid says her work is not about making something pretty. "I don't expect you to attend a show of mine and go: 'It's very beautiful'. That's not what it is," she tells BBC Culture over a video call. Instead, her paintings are designed to make people think about their relationship to history, and what gets left out of textbooks.

Himid is among the most influential black British artists alive today, and has been creating art for more than four decades. "Himid's work has encouraged many to take risks – to re-think the places we inhabit, and incite the changes we want to see," says Amrita Dhallu, co-curator of Himid's retrospective at the Tate Modern, which opens this week. "She invites us to consider the kinds of spaces that inspire our creativity, and the materials we need to imagine and make freely. Works in the exhibition, which include paintings on canvas, furniture and textiles, are brought to life with sound and poetry."

Himid was born in Zanzibar in 1954, and moved to England before her first birthday. As an adult, she studied theatre design at Wimbledon College of Art, and obtained a masters degree in cultural history at the Royal College of Art. But despite her studies, her art has predominantly taken a different turn. "I became more interested in drumming up real life [than making sets for plays]," she says.

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